o new mechanisms."[89]

[Footnote 89: Reuleaux, _op. cit._ (footnote 68), p. 8.]

It is reasonable, therefore, to ask what was responsible for the
appearance of new mechanisms, and then to see what sort of mechanisms
had their origins in this period.

It is immediately evident to a designer that the progress in mechanisms
came about through the spread of knowledge of what had already been
done; but designers of the last century had neither the leisure nor
means to be constantly visiting other workshops, near and far, to
observe and study the latest developments. In the 1800's, as now, word
must in the main be spread by the printed page.

Hachette's chart (fig. 28) had set the pattern for display of mechanical
contrivances in practical journals and in the large number of mechanical
dictionaries that were compiled to meet an apparent demand for such
information. It is a little surprising, however, to find how persistent
were some of Hachette's ideas that could only have come from the
uppermost superficial layer of his cranium. See, for example, his
"anchored ferryboat" (fig. 34). This device, employed by Hachette to
show conversion of continuous rectilinear motion into alternating
circular motion, appeared in one publication after another throughout
the 19th century. As late as 1903 the ferryboat was still anchored in
Hiscox's _Mechanical Movements_, although the tide had changed (fig.
35).[90]

[Footnote 90: Gardner D. Hiscox, ed., _Mechanical Movements_, ed. 10,
New York, 1903, p. 151. The ferryboat did not appear in the 1917
edition.]

[Illustration: Figure 34.--Hachette's ferryboat of 1808, a "machine" for
converting continuous rectilinear motion into alternating circular
motion. From Phillipe Louis Lanz and Augustin de Betancourt, _Essai sur
la composition des machines_ (Paris, 1808, pl. 2).]

[Illustration: Figure 35.--Ferryboat from Gardner D. Hiscox, ed.,
_Mechanical Movements_ (ed. 10, New York, 1903, p. 151).]

During the upsurge of the Lyceum--or working-man's institute--movement
in the 1820's, Jacob Bigelow, Rumford professor of applied science at
Harvard University, gave his popular lectures on the "Elements of
Technology" before capacity audiences in Boston. In preparing his
lecture on the elements of machinery, Bigelow used as his authorities
Hachette, Lanz and Betancourt, and Olinthus Gregory's mechanical
dictionary, an English work in which Hachette's classification scheme
was copied and his cha