Historical Mechanisms for Drawing Curves

Abstract

Mechanical devices such as linkages for drawing curves are known already from Ancient Greece. Later linkages found use in different mechanical devices and machines like we can see it in 13th century drawings by Honnecourt or in 16th century machine drawings by Agricola. In 17th century Descartes accepted only those curves that had a mechanical device to draw them. Mechanical curve drawing devices later became incorporated into different machine design. In this paper examples from Reuleaux kinematic model collection in Cornell University are given and some history of linkages discussed.