Watt's linkage
Mecanismo de Watt
- Date
- 1784 · confidence high
- Place
- Birmingham, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- James Watt
- Field
- Tools
What it is
A linkage of articulated bars devised by James Watt that constrains its central point to travel a nearly straight path; described in his 1784 patent specification for the steam engine and used today in automobile suspensions.
What it led to
- A practical solution to straight-line motion without rigid guides
- Application in the kinematics of modern vehicle suspensions
- Influence on later development of linkage mechanisms