Chapter 12: "History of Mechanism and Machine Science"

Series "History of Mechanism and Machine Science":
Cesare Rossi & Flavio Russo: Ancient engineers' inventions [...] (Cham : Springer, 2. Auflage, 2017).
Emilio Bautista Paz Et al.: A brief illustrated history of machines and mechanisms. (Berlin : Dordrecht, 2010).

published November 2017

The favorite book of Anna Piotrowska

Anna Piotrowska was our Scholar in Residence in August 2017. While working in the Iron Library she consulted several books on a daily basis that all belonged to the same series – "History of Mechanism and Machine Science". She realized that the most convincing thing about these books was how smoothly they were narrated, and how easily they familiarized the readers with impressively wide perspectives, yet without losing important details.

The reader

Anna Piotrowska

... is mainly interested in researching sociological and cultural aspects of musical life. She is the prolific author of several books (e.g. in English "Gypsy Music in European Culture", 2013 and four books in Polish) as well as numerous articles (in Polish, English, German, Slovak and Georgian). She held many internationally renowned fellowships and awards: e.g. she was Fulbright Fellow in Boston University, was awarded the Moritz Csaky Preis at Austrian Academy of Sciences, and was also the recipient of the Mellon Fellowship at Edinburgh University. Currently she is associated with the Institute of Musicology, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland.

The book I fell in love with while working in the Iron Library:
Salomon de Caus: Les raisons des forces mouvantes (1615)

The book that inspired me while working in the Iron Library:
Christian von Mechel: Die eiserne Hand des tapfern deutschen Ritters Götz von Berlichingen (1815)

The book that I rediscovered while working in the Iron Library:
Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers (1751 ff.)

The books

Series "History of Mechanism and Machine Science"

Cesare Rossi & Flavio Russo: Ancient engineers' inventions : precursors of the present. (Cham : Springer, 2. Auflage, 2017).

While working in the Iron Library I consulted several books on a daily basis, but I also – quite soon – realized that some of them looked hauntingly similar – in terms of their format, colours, even the layout. On closer inspection I discovered that it was no mere coincidence, as all the books belonged to the same series – "History of Mechanism and Machine Science" published by Springer.

Cover "Ancient engineers' inventions : precursors of the present"

Emilio Bautista Paz Et al.: A brief illustrated history of machines and mechanisms. (Berlin : Dordrecht, 2010).

Cover "A brief illustrated history of machines and mechanisms"

The titles offered in the series, available also in the Iron Library, encompass the history of machines from the earliest, ancient times up to modernity. The books are addressed to the general audience, yet given their detailed approach, they might be also of interest to more technically oriented professionals. Above all, they offer a historical perspective on technical advancements, and quite simply are a good read, as well as the source of interesting information.

I also realized that probably the most convincing thing about these books was how smoothly they were narrated, and how easily they familiarized the readers with impressively wide perspectives, yet without losing important details. With plenty of colourful pictures, these books seemed far from being over-loaded with information, and served as an excellent introduction to several topics. The abundant pictures are both reproductions from older treatises, as well as original ones prepared by the authors trying to clarify several complicated cases.

"Chain pump: finds and authors' virtual reconstruction"

As the publisher says on its website, the books are "written in general by engineers but not only for engineers." That is, among others things, why historians, and even musicologists like myself, may find there something interesting for their research, and learn so many exciting facts about past inventions.

The books in IRONCAT

The series in the catalog of the Iron Library

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