Skills That You Can Learn FromEtymology and History Of Gears

A gear is a rotating circular machine part having cut teeth or, in the case of a cogwheel or gearwheel, inserted teeth (called cogs), which mesh with another (compatible) toothed part to transmit (convert) torque and speed.

The basic principle behind the operation of gears is analogous to the basic principle of levers. Gear may also be known informally as a cog. Geared devices can change the speed, torque, and direction of a power source. Gears of different sizes produce a change in torque, creating a mechanical advantage, through their gear ratio, and thus may be considered a simple machine.

The rotational speeds, and the torques, of two meshing gears, differ in proportion to their diameters. The teeth on the two meshing gears all have the same shape. Two or more meshing gears, working in a sequence, are called a gear train or a transmission.

The gears in a transmission are analogous to the wheels in a crossed, belt pulley system. An advantage of gears is that the teeth of a gear prevent slippage. In transmissions with multiple gear ratios—such as bicycles, motorcycles, and cars—the term "gear" (e.g., "first gear") refers to a gear ratio rather than an actual physical gear.

The term describes similar devices, even when the gear ratio is continuous rather than discrete, or when the device does not actually contain gears, as in a continuously variable transmission. Furthermore, a gear can mesh with a linear toothed part, called a rack, producing translation instead of rotation.

Early examples of gears date from the 4th century BC in China (Zhan Guo times – Late East Zhou dynasty), which have been preserved at the Luoyang Museum of Henan Province, China. The earliest preserved gears in Europe were found in the Antikythera mechanism, an example of a very early and intricate geared device, designed to calculate astronomical positions. Its time of construction is now estimated between 150 and 100 BC.

Gears appear in works connected to Hero of Alexandria, in Roman Egypt circa AD 50, but can be traced back to the mechanics of the Alexandrian school in 3rd-century BC Ptolemaic Egypt, and were greatly developed by the Greek polymath Archimedes (287–212 BC).

Single-stage gear reducer The segmental gear, which receives/communicates reciprocating motion from/to a cogwheel, consisting of a sector of a circular gear/ring having cogs on the periphery, was invented by Arab engineer Al-Jazari in 1206. The worm gear was invented in the Indian subcontinent, for use in roller cotton gins, sometime during the 13th–14th centuries.

Differential gears may have been used in some of the Chinese south-pointing chariots, but the first verifiable use of differential gears was by the British clockmaker Joseph Williamson in 1720.

Examples of early gear applications include:

1386 CE: The Salisbury Cathedral clock: it is the world's oldest still working geared mechanical clock.

c. 13th–14th centuries: The worm gear was invented as part of a roller cotton gin in the Indian subcontinent.

c. 1221 CE The geared astrolabe was built in Isfahan showing the position of the moon in the zodiac and its phase, and the number of days since the new moon.

c. 1206 CE: Al-Jazari invented the segmental gear as part of a water-lifting device.

725 CE: The first geared mechanical clocks were built in China.

c. 200–265 CE: Ma Jun used gears as part of a south-pointing chariot.

2nd century BC: The Antikythera mechanism

In nature: in the hind legs of the nymphs of the planthopper insect Issus coleopterans.

Etymology of GEAR

The word gear is probably from Old Norse gørvi (plural gørvar) 'apparel, gear,' related to gøra, gørva 'to make, construct, build; set in order, prepare,' a common verb in Old Norse, "used in a wide range of situations from writing a book to dressing meat". In this context, the meaning of 'toothed wheel in machinery' first attested 1520s; the specific mechanical sense of 'parts by which a motor communicates motion' is from 1814; specifically of a vehicle (bicycle, automobile, etc.) by 1888.

A cog is a tooth on a wheel. From Middle English cogge, from Old Norse (compare Norwegian kugg ('cog'), Swedish kugg, kugge ('cog, tooth')), from Proto-Germanic *kuggō (compare Dutch kogge ('cogboat'), German Kock), from Proto-Indo-European *gugā ('hump, ball') (compare Lithuanian gugà ('pommel, hump, hill'), from PIE *gēw- ('to bend, arch'). First used c. 1300 in the sense of 'a wheel having teeth or cogs; late 14c., 'tooth on a wheel'; cog-wheel, early 15c.

Historically, cogs were teeth made of wood rather than metal, and a cogwheel technically consisted of a series of wooden gear teeth located around a mortise wheel, each tooth forming a type of specialised 'through' mortise and tenon joint. The wheel can be made of wood, cast iron, or other material. Wooden cogs were formerly used when large metal gears could not be cut, when the cast tooth was not even approximately of the proper shape, or the size of the wheel made manufacture impractical.

The cogs were often made of maple wood. In 1967 the Thompson Manufacturing Company of Lancaster, New Hampshire still had a very active business in supplying tens of thousands of maple gear teeth per year, mostly for use in paper mills and grist mills, some dating back over 100 years. Since a wooden cog performs exactly the same function as a cast or machined metal tooth, the word was applied by extension to both, and the distinction has been generally lost.