Major Engineering Events in History: First Use of the Crank 834 A.D.

About the major engineering events in history, the use of the crank lever in building in 834 A.D.

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834 A.D. (The Crank Is Recognized). The crank as we know it today is a twice-bent lever or "crankshaft" used as a means of converting reciprocating motion into continuous rotary action. It was, however, unknown to the Romans, and remained unknown until around 834 A.D. when a picture of it appeared in the Utrecht Psalter, a graphic codex assembled near Reims in the Frankish kingdom under the Carolingian kings (Charlemagne was the greatest of these kings). The picture in the Psalter shows a grindstone wheel being turned by a hand crank, a familiar-enough sight today, but almost a "1st" in 834 A.D. It appears that while the Chinese of the Han Dynasty, contemporaries of the Romans, knew of the cranking device, it was reinvented in the Western world by a Frank. The 2nd known use of the crank in the West was with the hurdy-gurdy (originally a stringed musical instrument that was handcranked). In the history of machine design, the simple crank is 2nd in importance only to the wheel.

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