A machine (or mechanical device) is a mechanical structure that uses power to apply forces and

control movement to perform an intended action. Machines can be driven by animals and people,
by natural forces such as wind and water, and by chemical, thermal, or electrical power, and
include a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of
output forces and movement. They can also include computers and sensors that monitor
performance and plan movement, often called mechanical systems.

Renaissance natural philosophers identified six simple machines which were the elementary
devices that put a load into motion, and calculated the ratio of output force to input force, known
today as mechanical advantage.[1]

Modern machines are complex systems that consist of structural elements, mechanisms and
control components and include interfaces for convenient use. Examples include a wide range of
vehicles, such as automobiles, boats and airplanes, appliances in the home and office, including
computers, building air handling and water handling systems, as well as farm machinery,
machine tools and factory automation systems and robots.

The English word machine comes through Middle French from Latin machina,[2] which in turn
derives from the Greek (Doric μαχανά makhana, Ionic μηχανή mekhane "contrivance, machine,
engine",[3] a derivation from μῆχος mekhos "means, expedient, remedy"[4]).[5] The word
mechanical (Greek: μηχανικός) comes from the same Greek roots. A wider meaning of "fabric,
structure" is found in classical Latin, but not in Greek usage. This meaning is found in late
medieval French, and is adopted from the French into English in the mid-16th century.

In the 17th century, the word could also mean a scheme or plot, a meaning now expressed by the
derived machination. The modern meaning develops out of specialized application of the term to
stage engines used in theater and to military siege engines, both in the late 16th and early 17th
centuries. The OED traces the formal, modern meaning to John Harris' Lexicon Technicum
(1704), which has:

Machine, or Engine, in Mechanicks, is whatsoever hath Force sufficient either to raise or

stop the Motion of a Body... Simple Machines are commonly reckoned to be Six in
Number, viz. the Ballance, Leaver, Pulley, Wheel, Wedge, and Screw... Compound
Machines, or Engines, are innumerable.

The word engine used as a (near-)synonym both by Harris and in later language derives
ultimately (via Old French) from Latin ingenium "ingenuity, an invention".

The hand axe, made by chipping flint to form a wedge, in the hands of a human transforms force
and movement of the tool into a transverse splitting forces and movement of the workpiece.

The idea of a simple machine originated with the Greek philosopher Archimedes around the 3rd
century BC, who studied the Archimedean simple machines: lever, pulley, and screw.[6][7]
Archimedes discovered the principle of mechanical advantage in the lever.[8] Later Greek
philosophers defined the classic five simple machines (excluding the inclined plane) and were
able to roughly calculate their mechanical advantage.[1] Heron of Alexandria (ca. 10–75 AD) in
his work Mechanics lists five mechanisms that can "set a load in motion"; lever, windlass,
pulley, wedge, and screw,[7] and describes their fabrication and uses.[9] However, the Greeks'
understanding was limited to statics (the balance of forces) and did not include dynamics (the
tradeoff between force and distance) or the concept of work.

During the Renaissance the dynamics of the Mechanical Powers, as the simple machines were
called, began to be studied from the standpoint of how much useful work they could perform,
leading eventually to the new concept of mechanical work. In 1586 Flemish engineer Simon
Stevin derived the mechanical advantage of the inclined plane, and it was included with the other
simple machines. The complete dynamic theory of simple machines was worked out by Italian
scientist Galileo Galilei in 1600 in Le Meccaniche ("On Mechanics").[10][11] He was the first to
understand that simple machines do not create energy, they merely transform it.[10]

The classic rules of sliding friction in machines were discovered by Leonardo da Vinci (1452–
1519), but remained unpublished in his notebooks. They were rediscovered by Guillaume
Amontons (1699) and were further developed by Charles-Augustin de Coulomb (1785).[12]

James Watt patented his parallel motion linkage in 1782, which made the double acting steam
engine practical.[13] The Boulton and Watt steam engine and later designs powered steam
locomotives, steam ships, and factories.

The Industrial Revolution was a period from 1750 to 1850 where changes in agriculture,
manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social,
economic and cultural conditions of the times. It began in the United Kingdom, then
subsequently spread throughout Western Europe, North America, Japan, and eventually the rest
of the world.

Starting in the later part of the 18th century, there began a transition in parts of Great Britain's
previously manual labour and draft-animal-based economy towards machine-based
manufacturing. It started with the mechanisation of the textile industries, the development of
iron-making techniques and the increased use of refined coal.[14]