PREFACE.
The greater part of the Theoretische Kinematik of Prof. Reuleaux, which I have now the pleasure of presenting to English and American readers, was originally published in chapters in the Berliner Verhandlungen, under the title of Kinematische Mittheilungen. These papers, revised and enlarged, and with the addition of a chapter on Kinematic Synthesis, were published collectively in 1874−5 in the work of which the present is a translation. They have attracted considerable attention in Germany, and the principles laid down in them have already made their way into Polytechnic School instruction, not only in that country but also in Russia and Italy.
The book addresses itself to somewhat different classes of readers, or rather to readers who have had very different training, on the Continent and here. Its readers there are to a great extent the past or present students of the Polytechnic Schools, or at least those who are acquainted with polytechnic teaching. They are familiar with a regularly systematised system of machine instruction and its somewhat extended literature. Here, on the other hand, neither systematised instruction nor extended literature exists. The book addresses itself greatly to practical engineers and mechanicians, men who have often enough worked out their knowledge of the subject for themselves to a far greater extent than they have acquired it from books or lectures. To these readers some sections of the book may appear unnecessary, as referring to opinions or combating conclusions of which they have scarcely heard, and the erroneousness of which they are
