Machine site directory
Every kind of machine on mechanics.im will get its own site. Steam engines is open now, and simple machines comes next. Here’s the plan for the first ten.
Open now
This hub, mechanics.im, and the machine site below. More will be listed here, with a link, on the day each one goes live.
- Steam engines
steam.mechanics.imHow steam engines work, with an animated engine you can run, the story from Hero and Newcomen to Watt, Trevithick, Rocket and Parsons, no-heat experiments and games, sourced from Britannica, NASA and the Science Museum Group.
Open nowThe Complete Steam Engines Printables Bundle, $12.99
Coming soon
- Simple machinesFirst wave
simple-machines.mechanics.imPlanned: the six simple machines (lever, pulley, wedge, screw, wheel and axle, inclined plane) with experiments using things from the kitchen drawer.
Coming soon - Gears
gears.mechanics.imPlanned: 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 engines
piston-engines.mechanics.imPlanned: the four-stroke cycle step by step, Otto and Diesel, and the little engine that flew the first aeroplane.
Coming soon - Jet engines
jet-engines.mechanics.imPlanned: suck, squeeze, bang, blow. How jet engines push aircraft along, and the race between Whittle and von Ohain.
Coming soon - Electric motors
electric-motors.mechanics.imPlanned: magnets, coils and spin. Faraday’s first motor and how to build a simple one of your own.
Coming soon - Bicycles
bicycles.mechanics.imPlanned: from the wooden running machine of 1817 to chains, gears and brakes, with a labelled bike diagram.
Coming soon - Clocks and clockwork
clockwork.mechanics.imPlanned: escapements, pendulums and springs. How a clock turns stored energy into a steady tick.
Coming soon - Windmills
windmills.mechanics.imPlanned: sails, gears and millstones. How windmills caught the wind for centuries, with a paper windmill to make.
Coming soon - Hydraulics
hydraulics.mechanics.imPlanned: 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 has a link back here at the top of every page.