Franz Reuleaux

Born Sept. 30, 1829, in Eschweiler, Germany; died Aug. 20, 1905, in Berlin. German scientist in the theory of mechanisms and machines.

Reuleaux graduated from a secondary specialized polytechnic in Karlsruhe in 1852. He became a professor at the Institute of Technology in Zürich in 1856. From 1864 to 1896 he was a professor at the Academy of Technology (later the Technische Hochschule) in Berlin.

In 1875, Reuleaux was the first to clearly formulate and present the major aspects of the structure and kinematics of mechanisms, which had earlier been touched upon by P. L. Chebyshev and others. He defined kinematic pairs, kinematic chains, and mechanisms as kinematic chains of induced motion. He proposed that mechanisms can be transformed either by changing the support or the design of a kinematic pair.

Reuleaux linked the theory of mechanisms and machines with problems of design; for example, he was the first to raise and attempt to solve the problem of the aestheticism of technical objects. On the basis of this direction in his work, Reu-leaux’s contemporaries considered him to be a poet in technology. Reuleaux’s work had a significant effect on subsequent studies on the theory of mechanisms.