Resumen

SANDRONE, Darío. Babbage, Willis, Reuleaux and the Advent of the Modular Analytical Approach for Machines in the 19^th Century. Hist. Soc. [online]. 2021, n.40, pp.16-42.  Epub 08-Mar-2021. ISSN 0121-8417.  https://doi.org/10.15446/hys.n40.86929.

The study of machines is a field whose origin can be traced back to the Renaissance. However, it is in Modernity when it attains a certain theoretical outline. There was a transformation from the treatises on installation and use - which conceive of machines as a synthesis between material structures and human work - towards analytical studies that consider them as modular entities, as the assembly of parts and mechanisms that can be analyzed mathematically. In turn, the former are characterized by an anthropometric approach that sees no major inconvenience in using colloquial language and illustrations to transmit knowledge about machines; the latter, on the other hand, pose cognitive problems and propose specific symbolic languages for representing the design and operation of machines. We will start in the 18th century, illustrating some concepts from L'Encyclopédie and Adam Smith. Later, we will focus on the 19th century mathematicians who promoted the aforementioned transformations. First, Charles Babbage and his mechanical notation. Later Robert Willis and Franz Reuleaux and their "pure mechanisms"; We will then return to Babbage to discuss the complementarity of political economy to his mathematical studies of machines. Finally, we will show some current debates on the link between machines, reality, mathematics and language that, explicitly or implicitly, take up those problems and can find an antecedent in the thought of 19th century mathematicians.

Palabras clave : machines; knowledge; mathematics; language; Babbage; Reuleaux.

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