A detailed history of ancient machinery in the history of ancient machinery

Land transport is constantly evolving. The bronze chariot and horse of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang unearthed in 1980 represent the level of casting technology, metalworking and assembly technology at that time. After the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were Jili drum cars and guide cars.

The drum car has a set of reduction gear trains, and the mileage is reported through the sound segmentation of the drum bracelet. In addition to the gear transmission, the guide car built by Ma Jun of the Three Kingdoms also has an automatic clutch device, which is technically better than the drum car. The invention of the automatic clutch device shows that the gear train of the transmission mechanism has developed to a considerable extent.

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, gears and gear trains of different shapes and uses existed. There are plenty of ratchets, and there are also herringbone gears. In particular, there are relatively precise gear trains for astronomical instruments.

Zhang Heng used the isochronism of the leaky pot to make a water transport armillary image, and used the leakage as the power to make the armillary elephant rotate at constant speed every day through the gear train. In 132 A.D., Zhang Heng created the world's first ** instrument, that is, the wind and ground motion instrument.

Textile technology and textile machinery also developed during the Han Dynasty, and the silk machine has become a rather complex textile machine. By the time of the Three Kingdoms, Ma Jun changed the 50 heald (heald piece of group lifting warp), 50 heald (pedal) and 60 heald and 60 heald 60 taper to 50 heald 12 and 60 heald 12 heald, which improved production efficiency. Ma Jun also created a new type of water lifting machine overturn, which can continuously lift water, with high efficiency and very labor-saving.

During the Tang and Song dynasties, machinery manufacturing had a high level. For example, the silver box of the Tang Dynasty unearthed in Xi'an, the misalignment of the inner hole and the outer circle is very small, the mother-child mouth is tightly matched, and the knife marks are fine, indicating that the machining accuracy has reached a new level at that time.

In terms of means of transport, both manpower and water power are used, and there are further technological developments. The so-called thousand-mile boat built by Qi Zu Chongzhi of the Southern Dynasty and the 160-oared speedboat in the Liang Marquis Jingjun of the Southern Dynasty were both fast ships propelled by manpower. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, there were vehicles and ships.

Li Gao of the Tang Dynasty played a role in the improvement of vehicles and ships.

There was also new progress in ancient hydraulic machinery, and there were cylinder cars in the Tang Dynasty, which developed from manpower to hydraulic water lifting. At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, it created an advanced water-to-large spinning wheel. 3. 5 (spindle) hand-cranked (Fig. 2 [3rd spinning wheel restoration model] spinning wheel restoration model class=image>) spinning wheel was once the most advanced human spinning machine in the world at that time.

Xue Jingshi of the Yuan Dynasty wrote "The Legacy of the Ziren" is a work of the famous carpenter to summarize his personal experience, and describes in detail the textile machinery and vehicles that were in use at that time, and left the world with the famous wooden machinery technology monograph in ancient times.

The earliest mechanical power of human beings is the steam engine, the emergence of the steam engine freed human beings from relying on manpower, animal power and other primitive power, realized the large-scale production of machines, and led mankind into the steam age.

The use of steam to achieve mechanical work can be traced back to the 1st century A.D. ancient Greek mechanic Hee Zen Luo invented the steam ball, which consists of a hollow ball (with two outlets) and a closed pot (heated water into steam), between the hollow ball and the closed pot connected by two pipes, which is also the support of the hollow ball.

When the water boils and becomes water vapor into the hollow ball through the connecting pipe, the steam will be ejected from the two steam outlets, and the hollow ball will rotate under the reaction force of the water and dust and the steam, and it will become the steam ball. But the spinning ball is just a toy and has no practical value.

Most of the machining technology requires a certain design to realize, therefore, the study of ancient machining equipment and its development scale is of great significance to understand the development level of ancient technology. In the process of the development of ancient machining technology, the above aspects are interrelated and mutually reinforcing. Only by fully grasping the information about the ancient mechanical processing technology, and making comprehensive comparison and analysis, can we understand the development of the ancient mechanical manufacturing process more accurately.

In ancient times, some machinery was very simple, such as water mills, windmills, and the most famous is the hydraulic clock in the Old Summer Palace, and the 12 animal heads are its parts.

China is one of the earliest countries in the world to develop machinery. Ancient China had many inventions and creations in machinery, and they had their own characteristics in the utilization of power and the design of mechanical structures. The design and application of many special machinery, such as guide cars, ground motion instruments and incense burners (see color map [Tang Dynasty silver incense burner, unearthed in Shapo Village, Xi'an, 1963.

Hemispherical incense burner due to gravity [use, no matter how the spherical shell rolls, the furnace mouth always remains horizontal]), all have unique features, the ancient metal smelting and casting technology was invented earlier, and the technology is exquisite. For example, the bronzes of the Shang and Zhou dynasties are simple and majestic, and the bronzes of the Spring and Autumn period are slender and exquisite, forming a unique style of ancient Chinese bronzes. The earliest bronzes found in China, such as the copper knife unearthed from Majiayao in Dongxiang, Gansu Province, are about 4,800 years old.

Before the Spring and Autumn Period (before 770 B.C.), primitive tools such as crudely machined scrapers, choppers, and triangular pointed tools appeared in China about 40,500,000 years ago. 450,000 years ago, when grinding techniques appeared, many stone tools were smoother, sharper, and had single-edged, double-edged, convex, concave and rounded edges. The bow and arrow appeared 28,000 years ago, which was one of the earliest mechanical inventions.

During 8000 BC and 2800 BC, potter's wheels (pottery turntables) appeared. Farm implements appeared around 6000 BC 5000 BC, and in addition to stone axes and knives, there were stone hoes, stone shovels, stone sickles, mussel sickles, bone sickles, and bone scythes. Stone axes and knives already have holes sharpened with hard sand.

Before the Xia Dynasty and in the Xia Dynasty, there were spokeless wheels and various wheels with spokes. During the Yin Shang and Western Zhou dynasties, there were already quite elaborate two-wheeled vehicles (see Ancient Chinese Vehicles). Water transport such as canoes and rafts have long been available.

In the late Neolithic period, people were able to cast rudimentary tools and ** from stone and clay models. During the Shang and Yin periods, with the development of handicraft production and the improvement of technical level, a splendid bronze culture was formed. Bronze smelting and casting technology has been highly developed (see ancient Chinese bronze smelting and casting technology), bronze castings Simu Wu Fangding weighed 875 kilograms, and the bronze castings of the Spring and Autumn Period Zeng Hou Yizun plate has been very fine.

From the Spring and Autumn Period to the Han and Wei dynasties (770 B.C. and 265 A.D.), this period was the period when ancient Chinese machinery began to develop rapidly.

During the Spring and Autumn period, iron and pig iron smelting and casting techniques (see Ancient Chinese Iron Casting Technology) began to appear. The advent of black-hearted malleable cast iron, white-hearted malleable cast iron, and wrought steel accelerated the transition from bronze to iron. After the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, the lost-wax casting method and the low melting point alloy casting and welding technology were invented.

During the Warring States period, there were also processes such as stacked casting and anchor chain casting. In the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, gray cast iron had been smelted, and thin-walled iron castings with a wall thickness of 3 5 mm appeared. Cast iron heat treatment technology has also been developed.

In the Spring and Autumn Period, crossbows appeared, and the crossbow machines used to control shooting were already relatively dexterous mechanical devices. By the Han Dynasty, the machining accuracy and surface finish of the crossbow machine had reached a fairly high level. There are eight specifications of Han crossbows, ranging from 1 stone to 10 stones, and the formation of these specifications indicates that the standard of machinery manufacturing has been initially established in the Han Dynasty.

The names of the workmen, blacksmiths, grinders, etc., were left on the crossbow machine (see Bows and Crossbows).