Mechanization

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Main article: Productivity improving technologies (historical)

A water-powered mine hoist used for raising ore. This woodblock is from De re metallica by George Bauer
(pen name Georgius Agricola, ca. 1555) an early mining textbook that contains numerous drawings and
descriptions of mining equipment.

Mechanisation is the process of changing from working largely or exclusively by hand or with
animals to doing that work with machinery. In an early engineering text a machine is defined as
follows:
Every machine is constructed for the purpose of performing certain mechanical operations, each
of which supposes the existence of two other things besides the machine in question, namely, a
moving power, and an object subject to the operation, which may be termed the work to be done.
Machines, in fact, are interposed between the power and the work, for the purpose of adapting
the one to the other.[1]

In some fields, mechanization includes the use of hand tools. In modern usage, such as in
engineering or economics, mechanization implies machinery more complex than hand tools and
would not include simple devices such as an ungeared horse or donkey mill. Devices that cause
speed changes or changes to or from reciprocating to rotary motion, using means such
as gears, pulleys or sheaves and belts, shafts, cams and cranks, usually are considered
machines. After electrification, when most small machinery was no longer hand powered,
mechanization was synonymous with motorized machines. [2]

Contents

 1History
o 1.1Ancient times
o 1.2Industrial revolution
 o 1.3Twentieth century
o 1.4Categories
o 1.5Powered machinery
o 1.6Military usage
 2Mechanical vs human labour
 3Levels of mechanization
 4See also
 5References
 6Bibliography
 7Further reading

History[edit]

The Salisbury cathedral clockca. 1386. A clock is a mechanical instrument rather than a true machine.
Although this clock had iron gears, many machines of the early Industrial Revolution used wooden parts
until around 1800.

Ancient times[edit]
Water wheels date to the Roman period and were used to grind grain and lift irrigation water.
Water powered bellows were in use on blast furnaces in China in 31 AD.[3] By the 13th century,
water wheels powered sawmills[4] and trip hammers, to full cloth and pound flax and later cotton
rags into pulp for making paper. Trip hammers are shown crushing ore in De re Metallica (1555).
Clocks were some of the most complex early mechanical devices. Clock makers were important
developers of machine tools including gear and screw cutting machines, and were also involved
in the mathematical development of gear designs. Clocks were some of the earliest mass-
produced items, beginning around 1830. [5][6]
Water powered bellows for blast furnaces, used in China in ancient times, were in use in Europe
by the 15th century. De re Metallica contains drawings related to bellows for blast furnaces
including a fabrication drawing.
Improved gear designs decreased wear and increased efficiency. Mathematical gear designs
were developed in the mid 17th century. French mathematician and
engineer Desargues designed and constructed the first mill with epicycloidal teeth ca. 1650. In
the 18th century involute gears, another mathematical derived design, came into use. Involute
gears are better for meshing gears of different sizes than epicycloidal. [6]Gear cutting machines
came into use in the 18th century.[5]
Industrial revolution[edit]
Main article: Industrial revolution
The Newcomen steam engine was first used, to pump water from a mine, in 1712. John
Smeaton introduced metal gears and axles to water wheels in the mid to last half of the 18th
century. Smeaton also conducted a scientific investigation into the design of water wheels which
led to significant efficiency increases. The Industrial Revolution started mainly with textile
machinery, such as the spinning jenny (1764) and water frame (1768).
Demand for metal parts used in textile machinery led to the invention of many machine tools in
the late 1700s until the mid-1800s. After the early decades of the 19th century, iron increasingly
replaced wood in gearing and shafts in textile machinery. [5][6] In the 1840s self acting machine
tools were developed. Self-acting tools displaced hand dexterity and allowed one unskilled
operator to tend several machines.[7] Machinery was developed to make nails ca. 1810.[8] The
Fourdrinier paper machine paper machine for continuous production of paper was patented in
1801, displacing the centuries-old hand method of making individual sheets of paper.
One of the first mechanical devices used in agriculture was the seed drill invented by Jethro
Tull around 1700. The seed drill allowed more uniform spacing of seed and planting depth than
hand methods, increasing yields and saving valuable seed. Mechanized agriculture greatly
increased in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries with horse drawn reapers and
horse powered threshing machines.[9] By the late nineteenth century steam power was applied to
threshing and steam tractors appeared. Internal combustion began being used for tractors in the
early twentieth century. Threshing and harvesting was originally done with attachments for
tractors, but in the 1930s independently powered combine harvesters were in use.
In the mid to late 19th century, hydraulic and pneumatic devices were able to power various
mechanical actions, such as positioning tools or work pieces.[10] Pile drivers and steam hammers
are examples for heavy work. In food processing, pneumatic or hydraulic devices could start and
stop filling of cans or bottles on a conveyor. Power steering for automobiles uses hydraulic
mechanisms, as does practically all earth moving equipment and other construction equipment
and many attachments to tractors. Pneumatic (usually compressed air) power is widely used to
operate industrial valves.
Twentieth century[edit]
By the early 20th century machines developed the ability to perform more complex operations
that had previously been done by skilled craftsmen. [11] An example is the glass bottle making
machine developed 1905. It replaced highly paid glass blowers and child labor helpers and led to
the mass production of glass bottles.[12]
After 1900 factories were electrified, and electric motors and controls were used to perform more
complicated mechanical operations. This resulted in mechanized processes to manufacture
almost all goods.
Categories[edit]
Two involute gears, the left driving the right: Blue arrows show the contact forces between them. The force
line (or Line of Action) runs along a tangent common to both base circles. (In this situation, there is no
force, and no contact needed, along the opposite common tangent not shown.) The involutes here are
traced out in converse fashion: points (of contact) move along the stationary force-vector "string" as if it
was being unwound from the left rotating base circle, and wound onto the right rotating base circle.

In manufacturing, mechanization replaced hand methods of making goods. Prime movers are
devices that convert thermal, potential or kinetic energy into mechanical work. Prime movers
include internal combustion engines, combustion turbines (jet engines), water wheels and
turbines, windmills and wind turbines and steam engines and turbines. Powered transportation
equipment such as locomotives, automobiles and trucks and airplanes, is a classification of
machinery which includes sub classes by engine type, such as internal combustion, combustion
turbine and steam. Inside factories, warehouses, lumber yards and other manufacturing and
distribution operations, material handling equipment replaced manual carrying or hand trucks
and carts.[11]
Mechanized agriculture

 See:Mechanized agriculture
 See also: Productivity improving technologies (historical) Section 4
 See also: list of agricultural machinery
In mining and excavation, power shovels replaced picks and shovels.[11] Rock and ore crushing
had been done for centuries by water powered trip hammers, but trip hammers have been
replaced by modern ore crushers and ball mills.
Bulk material handling systems and equipment are used for a variety of materials including coal,
ores, grains, sand, gravel and wood products.[11]
Construction equipment includes cranes, concrete mixers, concrete pumps, cherry pickers and
an assortment of power tools.
Powered machinery[edit]
Powered machinery today usually means either by electric motor or internal combustion engine.
Before the first decade of the 20th century powered usually meant by steam engine, water or
wind.
Many of the early machines and machine tools were hand powered, but most changed over to
water or steam power by the early 19th century.
Before electrification, mill and factory power was usually transmitted using a line shaft.
Electrification allowed individual machines to each be powered by a separate motor in what is
called unit drive. Unit drive allowed factories to be better arranged and allowed different
machines to run at different speeds. Unit drive also allowed much higher speeds, which was
especially important for machine tools.
A step beyond mechanization is automation. Early production machinery, such as the glass
bottle blowing machine (ca. 1890s), required a lot of operator involvement. By the 1920s fully
automatic machines, which required much less operator attention, were being used. [11]
See: Mass production
Military usage[edit]
Main article: Armoured warfare
The term is also used in the military to refer to the use of tracked armoured vehicles,
particularly armoured personnel carriers, to move troops that would otherwise have marched or
ridden trucks into combat. In military terminology, mechanized refers to ground units that can
fight from vehicles, while motorized refers to units that go to battle in vehicles but then dismount
and fight without them. Thus, a towed artillery unit is considered motorized while a self-propelled
one is mechanized.

Mechanical vs human labour[edit]

When we compare the efficiency of a labourer, we see that he has an efficiency of about 1%-
5.5% (depending on whether he uses arms, or a combination of arms and legs). [13]Internal
combustion engines mostly have an efficiency of about 20%, [14] although large diesel engines,
such as those used to power ships, may have efficiencies of nearly 50%. Industrial electric
motors have efficiencies up to the low 90% range, before correcting for the conversion efficiency
of fuel to electricity of about 35%.[15]
When we compare the costs of using an internal combustion engine to a worker to perform work,
we notice that an engine can perform more work at a comparative cost. 1 liter of fossil fuel burnt
with an IC engine equals about 50 hands of workers operating for 24 hours or 275 arms and legs
for 24 hours.[16][17]
In addition, the combined work capability of a human is also much lower than that of a machine.
An average human worker can provide work good for around 0,9 hp (2.3 MJ per hour) [18] while a
machine (depending on the type and size) can provide for far greater amounts of work. For
example, it takes more than one and a half hour of hard labour to deliver only one kWh - which a
small engine could deliver in less than one hour while burning less than one litre of petroleum
fuel. This implies that a gang of 20 to 40 men will require a financial compensation for their work
at least equal to the required expended food calories (which is at least 4 to 20 times higher). In
most situations, the worker will also want compensation for the lost time, which is easily 96 times
greater per day. Even if we assume the real wage cost for the human labour to be at US
$1.00/day, an energy cost is generated of about $4.00/kWh. Despite this being a low wage for
hard labour, even in some of the countries with the lowest wages, it represents an energy cost
that is significantly more expensive than even exotic power sources such as solar photovoltaic
panels (and thus even more expensive when compared to wind energy harvesters or
luminescent solar concentrators).[19]
See also: Energy and energy efficiency theories

Levels of mechanization[edit]
For simplification, one can study mechanization as a series of steps. [20] Many[quantify] students refer
to this series as indicating basic-to-advanced forms of mechanical society.

1. hand/muscle power
2. hand-tools
3. powered hand-tools, e.g. electric-controlled
4. powered tools, single functioned, fixed cycle
 5. powered tools, multi-functioned, program controlled
6. powered tools, remote-controlled
7. powered tools, activated by work-piece (e.g.: coin phone)
8. measurement
9. selected signaling control, e.g. hydro power control
10. performance recording
11. machine action altered through measurement
12. segregation/rejection according to measurement
13. selection of appropriate action cycle
14. correcting performance after operation
15. correcting performance during operation

See also[edit]
 Automation
 Productivity improving technologies (historical)#4. Mechanization (general) and in
agriculture
 Mass production
 Assembly line
 Mechanized agriculture
 Bulk materials handling
 Watch video mechanized railroad track laying

References[edit]
1. ^ Willis, Robert (1861).  Principles of Mechanism: Designed For The Use Of Students In
The Universities And For Engineering Students Generally. London: John W. Parker.
2. ^ Jerome (1934) gives the industry classification of machine tools as being "other than
hand power". Beginning with the 1900 U.S. census, power use was part of the definition of a
factory, distinguishing it from a workshop.
3. ^ Temple, Robert; Joseph Needham (1986).  The Genius of China: 3000 years of science,
discovery and invention. New York: Simon and Schuster. p.  55<Based on the works of Joseph
Needham>
4. ^ McNeil, Ian (1990). An Encyclopedia of the History of Technology. London:
Routledge. ISBN 0-415-14792-1.
5. ^ Jump up to:a b c Roe, Joseph Wickham (1916), English and American Tool Builders, New
Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press,  LCCN  16011753. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New
York and London, 1926 (LCCN 27-24075); and by Lindsay Publications, Inc., Bradley, Illinois,
(ISBN 978-0-917914-73-7).
6. ^ Jump up to:a b c Musson; Robinson (1969).  Science and Technology in the Industrial
Revolution. University of Toronto Press. p. 69.
7. ^ Musson; Robinson (1969). Science and Technology in the Industrial Revolution.
University of Toronto Press. p.  506.
8. ^ Thomson, Ross (2009).  Structures of Change in the Mechanical Age: Technological
Invention in the United States 1790-1865. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University
Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-9141-0.
9. ^ Rumely 1910.
10. ^ Hunter, Louis C.; Bryant, Lynwood (1991). A History of Industrial Power in the United
States, 1730-1930, Vol. 3: The Transmission of Power. Cambridge, Massachusetts, London: MIT
Press. ISBN 0-262-08198-9.
11. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e Jerome, Harry (1934). Mechanization in Industry, National Bureau of
Economic Research  (PDF).
 12. ^ "The American Society of Mechanical Engineers Designates the Owens "AR" Bottle
Machine as an International Historic Engineering Landmark"  (PDF). 1983. Archived from  the
original  (PDF)  on 2013-04-05.
13. ^ Ayres, R. U.; Ayres, L. W.; Warr, B. (2002).  "Exergy, Power and Work in the U. S.
Economy 1900-1998, Insead's Center For the Management of Environmental Resources,
2002/52/EPS/CMER"  (PDF).
14. ^ IC Engine 20% efficient
15. ^ Electrical engines with combined power converter / motor at 86% efficiency
16. ^ 1 liter of fuel yielding 100 arms for 24 hours, when efficiency is 40% which is never
17. ^ Home documentary by Yann Arthus Bertrand too stating that 1 liter of fuel yields 100
arms for 24 hours; probably from same calculation
18. ^ Ozkan, Burhan (2004). "Energy input–output analysis in Turkish
agriculture"  (PDF). Renewable Energy.  29  (1): 39. doi:10.1016/s0960-1481(03)00135-6.
19. ^ Combined work capability of human vs machines
20. ^ Mechanization and its level

Bibliography[edit]
 Rumeley, Edward A. (August 1910). "The Passing Of The Man With The Hoe". The
World's Work: A History of Our Time. XX: 13246–13258. Retrieved 2009-07-10.

Further reading[edit]
Wikiquote has quotations
related to: Mechanization

 Jerome, Harry (1934). Mechanization in Industry, National Bureau of Economic

Research.
 Hunter, Louis C.; Bryant, Lynwood (1991). A History of Industrial Power in the United
States, 1730-1930, Vol. 3: The Transmission of Power. Cambridge, Massachusetts, London:
MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-08198-9.