Museo Galileo
italiano
previous
Virtual Museum
Model winch
    • Setting:
      Room XII
    • Maker:
      unknown
    • Date:
      second half 18th cent.
    • Materials:
      wood, brass
    • Dimensions:
      500x525x1274 mm
    • Inventory:
      1504
    • Model winch (Inv. 1504)

This model of a winch, a machine with a horizontal axle for lifting heavy weights, is of the type illustrated by Willem Jacob 's Gravesande in Physices elementa mathematica, experimentis confirmata (3rd ed., Leiden, 1742). A wooden table carries two columns on which is mounted a horizontal axle with a wheel equipped with twelve radial handles. A cord holding a weight is wound around the axle and passes through the slot cut in the table for that purpose. The wheel has four grooves of different diameters for lodging cords bearing different weights. The winch is in equilibrium when the product of the load (weight) times the axle radius equals the product of the force applied (effort) times the wheel radius. The winch can be regarded as a first-order lever. Provenance: Lorraine collections.