Directory

Machine site directory

Every kind of machine on mechanics.im will get its own site. Here’s the plan for the first ten. None is open yet; steam engines and simple machines come first.

Open now

This hub, mechanics.im. The machine sites below will be listed as open, with a link, on the day each one goes live.

Coming soon

• Steam enginesFirst wavesteam-engines.mechanics.im

  Planned: from Hero’s spinning toy to Newcomen’s mine pumps and Watt’s condenser, with cutaway diagrams of how steam pushes a piston.

  Coming soon
• Simple machinesFirst wavesimple-machines.mechanics.im

  Planned: the six simple machines (lever, pulley, wedge, screw, wheel and axle, inclined plane) with experiments using things from the kitchen drawer.

  Coming soon
• Gearsgears.mechanics.im

  Planned: how gears trade speed for turning force, counting teeth to work out ratios, and the gears hiding in mills, clocks and bikes.

  Coming soon
• Petrol and diesel enginespiston-engines.mechanics.im

  Planned: the four-stroke cycle step by step, Otto and Diesel, and the little engine that flew the first aeroplane.

  Coming soon
• Jet enginesjet-engines.mechanics.im

  Planned: suck, squeeze, bang, blow. How jet engines push aircraft along, and the race between Whittle and von Ohain.

  Coming soon
• Electric motorselectric-motors.mechanics.im

  Planned: magnets, coils and spin. Faraday’s first motor and how to build a simple one of your own.

  Coming soon
• Bicyclesbicycles.mechanics.im

  Planned: from the wooden running machine of 1817 to chains, gears and brakes, with a labelled bike diagram.

  Coming soon
• Clocks and clockworkclockwork.mechanics.im

  Planned: escapements, pendulums and springs. How a clock turns stored energy into a steady tick.

  Coming soon
• Windmillswindmills.mechanics.im

  Planned: sails, gears and millstones. How windmills caught the wind for centuries, with a paper windmill to make.

  Coming soon
• Hydraulicshydraulics.mechanics.im

  Planned: Pascal’s principle, presses and jacks, and the syringe experiment that shows a small push making a big one.

  Coming soon

How we chose the ten

We grouped engines and machines into families, then ranked the families by how many people read about them online over a year. Steam engines and simple machines come first because they explain the ideas that every other machine builds on.

Our own diagrams

We draw our own diagrams and don’t use other people’s pictures. We don’t feature brand-name products, just the general ideas behind them.

Independent, not official

Our facts come from Encyclopaedia Britannica and NASA Glenn Research Center. mechanics.im is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, either of them.

How the network works

The list of sites lives in network.json. This page and sitemap-index.xml are built from it, and only open sites go into the sitemap index. Each machine site will have a link back here at the top of every page.

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