Franz Reuleaux, Kinematics as the Essence of Mechanical Engineering

In the history of kinematics the German engineer Franz ReuleauxReuleauxFranz played a special role. Before Reuleaux the science of machines could still be seen as an area of applied mathematics or natural science. Reuleaux attempted to define mechanical engineering as a science in its own right. He reserved the word kinematics for the science of kinematical chains, which is the core discipline of mechanical engineering. In this chapter we will concentrate of this aspect of his work.