Theater of Machines: Lifting Devices

Preface.

Of new inventions, especially those that are supposed to perform something special with regard to capacity, which many imagine they will find there, little or nothing is to be heard here, unless one wishes to count Perrault's machines and a few others that have not been known in the German language until now. Alone, when one considers everything properly, it nevertheless boils down to the old and long-known, only that the application is somewhat changed. And I have, for my part, as much as I have let it be a concern to me, found little that would provide any advantage over the old and already known. Without a doubt, our improvement of the nature of machines will not be able to go much further than that we endeavor to avoid friction and to apply the force correctly. Therefore, it is and remains an established fact that, to move a pound of load in practice, there must be more than a pound of force, until something else is shown, which has indeed been promised by many but has not been publicly demonstrated by anyone to date.

Hereby I announce in conclusion that at the coming Leipzig Jubilate Fair of 1726 (God willing!), the Theatrum Staticum universale Universal Theater of Statics will appear, the contents of which can be seen in a separate notice. For the rest, the author recommends himself to the kind reader for a favorable memory.

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