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Bookwheel
The bookwheel (also written book wheel and sometimes called a reading wheel) is a type of rotating bookcase designed to allow one person to read a variety of heavy books in one location with ease. The books are rotated vertically similar to the motion of a water wheel, as opposed to rotating on a flat table surface. The design for the bookwheel originally appeared in a 16th-century illustration by Agostino Ramelli, at a time when large books posed practical problems for readers. Ramelli's design influenced other engineers and, though now obsolete, inspires modern artists and historians.
==History and design==
The bookwheel, in its most commonly seen form, was invented by Italian military engineer Agostino Ramelli in 1588, presented as one of the 195 designs in ''Le diverse et artificiose machine del Capitano Agostino Ramelli'' (''The various and ingenious machines of Captain Agostino Ramelli'').〔Brashear, Ronald. ("Ramelli's Machines: Original drawings of the 16th century machines" ). Smithsonian Libraries.〕 To ensure that the books remained at a constant angle, Ramelli incorporated an epicyclic gearing arrangement, a complex device that had only previously been used in astronomical clocks. Ramelli's design is unnecessarily elaborate, as he likely understood that gravity could have worked just as effectively (as it does with a Ferris wheel, invented centuries later), but the gearing system allowed him to display his mathematical prowess.〔Rybczynski, Witold. ''One Good Turn: A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw''. Scribner, 2000.〕 While other people would go on to build bookwheels based on Ramelli's design, Ramelli did not in fact ever construct his own.〔Garber, Megan. ("Behold, the Kindle of the 16th Century" ). ''The Atlantic''. Published 27 February 2013.〕
To what extent bookwheels were appreciated for their convenience versus their aesthetic qualities remains a matter of speculation according to modern American engineer Henry Petroski.〔Petroski, Henry. ''The Book on the Book Shelf''. Knopf, 1999.〕 Ramelli himself described the bookwheel as a "beautiful and ingenious machine, very useful and convenient for anybody who takes pleasure in study, especially for those who are indisposed and tormented by gout."〔Ramelli, Agostino. ''Le diverse et artificiose machine.'' 1588. Quoted in Rybczynski, Witold. ''One Good Turn: A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw''. Scribner, 2000.〕 Ramelli's reference to gout, a condition that impairs mobility, demonstrates the appeal of a device that allows access to several books while seated. However, Petroski notes that Ramelli's illustration lacks space for writing and other scholarly work, and that the "fanciful wheel" may not have been appropriate for any activity beyond reading.〔
While the design of the bookwheel is commonly credited to Ramelli, some historians dispute that he was the first to invent such a device. Joseph Needham, a historian of Chinese technology, stated that revolving bookcases, though not vertically oriented, had their origins in China "perhaps a thousand years before Ramelli's design was taken there."〔
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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