Page:The Kinematics of Machinery.djvu/14

viii chosen as to be as suitable as possible for the principal European languages) should not be altered.

I may mention here only one other feature in Reuleaux's work, namely, his treatment of fluids when they occur in mechanisms or machines ( &c.). It has long been customary, of course, to treat cords, chains, belts &c., as organs which could legitimately form part of machines, but fluids have been universally (so far as I know) excluded from consideration in this way. Reuleaux points out that fluids—"pressure-organs"—are simply contrapositives of the "tension-organs" just mentioned, and that if one be included in the study of "pure mechanism" there can be no reason for excluding the other. He gives also many instances of the way in which engineers use the one or the other as the column of fluid or the cord best suits their purpose. In examining mechanisms we consider the motions of each body as a whole, ignoring altogether its molecular condition, or more strictly assuming that it is so arranged that its molecular stability is not disturbed during the motion. This pre-supposition is made tacitly in the case of "rigid" bodies, where molecular stability is independent of the application of external force. It is made also in the case of ropes, belts, &c., for when these occur in machines it is always assumed that they are kept in tension by some force external to themselves, in any other case their motions would be quite indeterminate. With fluids it is not necessary to make any other assumption than this, but the external force must be a pressure instead of a pull, and must be supplied in directions other than that in which motion takes place. § 126 shows some of the interesting results to which this treatment of fluid organs may lead.

My own work in connection with Prof. Reuleaux's book has been chiefly, of course, that of translation; but a comparison of this edition with the German one will show several not unimportant improvements. Some of these have been suggested by the author; in all cases where they involved more than the changing of a few words they have been submitted to him. I may take this opportunity of acknowledging the assistance I have received from him and the interest he has taken in the progress of this English edition of his work, (which has been already published in Italian, and is now being translated into