Walking beams


In a mining town in Norway, I learned about this mechanism to transfer a rotary motion up the mountain, over great distances.

At lower left, there is a waterwheel providing free power; at top right a mine shaft hoisting wheel. By parallel motion of walking beams, the movement is transferred. This is much better than belts, since it can all be built from local materials (trees), much more easily maintained, and less interfering with roads and wildlife. Ingenious 18th century engineering!



You can turn the wheel at lower left by dragging the red point. All parameters of the mechanism are changeable by dragging the index bars drawn inside the mountain, and the black dots on the struts themselves.




Created with Cinderella by Leo Dorst 200105