For many of us, the ebook reader was the next best thing to happen since Gutenbergs printing press.
Agostino Ramelli was an Italian military engineer.
All his solutions involved some kind of a mechanical rig.
The book contained 195 full-page engravings accompanied by detailed descriptions of each mechanism in both Italian and French.
One of the most famous designs from this book was the bookwheel.
The bookwheel was Ramellis attempt to solve the problem of reading or referencing several books at once.
In the preface of his book, Ramelli made no attempt to hide this fact.
Below are two examples of his overtly complicated machines.
Both are devices for the simple task of drawing water from a well.
Ramelli never actually built any of the machine, but his illustrations had agreat influenceon future mechanical engineering.
One machine that actually got built was the bookwheel, but generations later in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Dozens of bookwheels based on Ramellis design were built across Europe.
At least fourteen of these survive till today.
A bookwheel manufactured in 1625 in the Herzog August Library, in Lower Saxony, Germany.
Photo credit:Kerstin Namuth/Wikimedia
