Preface.

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Since no machine, even the most humble, can be invented, manufactured, or evaluated without these first principles Anfangs-Gründe: the fundamental axioms or basic elements of a science, this book has been deemed a highly necessary and useful work for the public. It is intended to be sent ahead of the promised General Theater of Machines original: "Theatro machinarum universale", so that everyone may learn these principles and, in the future, be able to more easily understand and calculate not only the machines in the other parts of the Theater, but also everything of this kind that he may encounter elsewhere.

In past times, many distinguished men have written about this, yet most have treated only individual pieces. Some have merely explained the laws of motion, others have only investigated the powers of simple machines simple machines: basic mechanical devices such as the lever, pulley, or screw from which all complex machinery is constructed from which others are assembled, while still others have described machines without any foundation or proportion. Of these latter types, there is a much greater number in the German language than in all other languages; conversely, of the first two types mentioned, there is a great abundance in Latin, French, and English, but a noticeable lack among us Germans. The causes are:

1.) because such books are few, and
2.) they do not provide sufficient instruction, being either too brief or too long-winded and rambling,
3.) furthermore, they are known to very few, and rarely appear or are available to obtain.

The oldest writing in German known to me on this subject is Dr. Gualterus Herminius Rivius’s Walter Hermann Ryff (c. 1500–1548) was a German physician and mathematician who published extensively on architecture and mathematics. treatise on the True Foundation and Understanding of Scales and Weights. This is an appendix to the commentary on the architecture of Vitruvius Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, a Roman architect whose ten-volume work was the standard reference for engineers in the Renaissance and Baroque periods., printed in folio in Basel in the year 1606. Zeising Heinrich Zeising (died 1613) was the author of a famous early "Theater of Machines" published in several parts starting in 1607. placed this at the beginning of his first part of the Theater of Machines; it contains many rules and principles, mostly explaining the proportions of the lever and the movement of bodies; however, it is of little use to those who wish to learn theory and practice simultaneously.

The second writing is that of Dr. Daniel Mögling Daniel Mögling (1596–1635) was a physician and mathematician who wrote under the pseudonym Theophilus Schweighardt., former Court Physician of Hesse-Kassel, titled the first part of the Mechanical Art-Chamber original: "Mechanischer Kunst-Kammer". In it, the balance, lever, windlass original: "Haspel", wedge, and screw are treated according to their foundations. It was printed in Frankfurt am Main in the year 1629 in folio and consists of 62 sheets of text and 41 copperplates. He has treated everything very extensively and at great length, especially—