To the Reader:-The present book contains six treatises, the first on the balance and steelyard, the second on the lever, the third on pulleys, the fourth on the windlass, the fifth on the wedge, and the last on the screw, all which are mechanical instruments.It is entitled Mechanics.But this word "mechanics" is perhaps not understood by everyone in its true sense, and some are even found who consider it an insulting word, for in many parts of Italy a man is called a mechanic in scorn and degradation, and in some places people are offended to be called even "engineer".Hence it will perhaps not be out of place to mention that "mechanic" is a most honorable term according to Plutarch, meaning business pertinent to military affairs, and is appropriate to a man of high position who knows how with his hands and his heart to carry out marvelous works of singular utility and delight to mankind.
To name some among the many philosophers and princes of past centuries, Archytas of Tarentum and Eudoxus the companion of Plato, whom Plutarch mentions in his life of Marcellus, were excellent engineers and mechanics; King Demetrius was a clever inventor of war machines and worked with his hands also; and among the Sicilian Greeks the most famous mechanic and engineer was Archimedes of Syracuse, who was of noble lineage and a relative of King Hieron of Sicily.
Although in the same work Plutarch affirms that Archimedes disparaged mechanics as base and vile and material and did not deign to write of it, and that he employed himself on machines not as a principal work but merely for amusement and as a geometrical game, requested by the king, yet we read in other authors that he wrote a book on the measurement and proportions of every kind of vessel, devising the shape of the great ship of Hieron, in which nothing was lacking.Pappus of Alexandria quotes from Archimedes' book on the balance, which is entirely mechanical; also in the eighth book of his Mathematical Collections he shows an instrument for the moving of weights, the fortieth invention of Archimedes, of which he said: "Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the earth." The mechanic Carpus wrote that Archimedes composed a book on the making of spheres, which is a mechanical task.Moreover, this same Archimedes himself more than once cites [mechanics] in his book on the Quadrature of the Parabola, with these words: "Since it is demonstrated in the Mechanics" referring to some propositions of his book on equiponderance, which is entirely mechanical.Also a part of his book on the Quadrature of the Parabola and the second book of his work on Bodies in Water are mechanical.From this it is seen that Archimedes not only performed mechanical works, but also wrote many treatises of it.Plutarch admits that Archimedes rose in reputation more from his mechanical undertakings than from any other teaching and, indeed, by means of these gained the fame not of human science but of divine wisdom.Hence one may ask why Plutarch allowed himself to say that Archimedes disparaged mechanics?Surely he would have been wrong to show little esteem for that which gained him much greater fame than any other science he possessed.
Among the Romans, Vitruvius was a good mechanic and served as captain of catapults and other war machines under Octavius Caesar; he wrote a book on architecture and made a fortune from it.
Hence to be a mechanic and an engineer after the example of these great men is not unworthy of a gentleman.Mechanics is a Greek word, meaning a thing made artificially to move, as by a miracle and beyond human power, when great weights are moved with small force; and in general it includes every structure, machine, instrument, windlass, mangle, or masterfully discovered device constructed for such effects, and many others in any science, art, and practice.I mention these concretely to put the matter in a form suited to the taste of most men, leaving accurate definition to a more appropriate time.
It should be added that under this general title the author has contented himself at present to teach (and he is the first Latin writer to do so)' by means of easy and plain demonstrations merely the method of understanding and operating the six mechanical instruments, to which all others may be reduced.For these are basic and fundamental, and there may be compounded in various ways combinations of two, three, or more; thus the windlass may be combined with the pulley, the screw with the windlass or the lever, and so on.This may be done at will by anyone who can proceed with good judgment in various works, as the author notes at the end of this volume.