2024-03-28T17:56:40Zhttp://digital.csic.es/dspace-oai/requestoai:digital.csic.es:10261/304602019-06-11T06:26:15Zcom_10261_106com_10261_4col_10261_359
A short account of Leonardo Torres' endless spindle
Thomas, Federico
Algebraic machines
History of mechanisms
Endless spindle
Transmissions
Automation
At the end of the nineteenth century, several analog machines had been proposed for solving algebraic equations. These machines —based not only on kinematics principles but also on dynamic or hydrostatic balances, electric or electromagnetic devices, etc.— had one important drawback: lack of accuracy. Leonardo Torres was the first to beat the challenge of designing and implementing a machine able to compute the roots of algebraic equations that, in the case of polynomials of degree eight, attained a precision down to 1/1000. The key element of Torres’ machine was the endless spindle, an analog mechanical device designed to compute log(a + b) from log(a) and log(b). This short account gives a detailed description of this mechanism.
2010-12-17T12:17:28Z
2010-12-17T12:17:28Z
2008
artículo
Mechanism and Machine Theory 43(8): 1055-1063 (2008)
0094-114X
http://hdl.handle.net/10261/30460
10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2007.07.003
eng
Postprint
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2007.07.003
openAccess
Elsevier