Manual drive

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Manually driven shoemaker sewing machine (hand wheel with crank, foot rocker)

A manual drive or muscle power drive is understood to be the drive of a tool , machine , vehicle or other technical device using muscle power . Sometimes one speaks of muscle power operation , for example in the case of muscle power vehicles .

The word manual means from its original word origin (lat. Manus = "hand") "by hand", "by hand" or also "by hand". In the course of the history of technology , this original meaning of the word manual was gradually expanded. Today, virtually any type of drive, which takes place under use of hands, feet or any other driving force generated by man or animals, under the in Antriebstechnik conventional preamble manual drive summarized.

Differentiation from muscle power drives

hand-operated coffee grinders
Torch with hand dynamo

Muscle power drives can be divided as follows:

  1. Propulsion by people
    1. by hand (and arm (s))
      1. direct shifting , pulling or turning (e.g. wheelbarrow, screwdriver, belt / oar, paddle stroke, sports bow)
      2. by means of a rotating or sliding control element such as
        1. Doorknob , window handle or other handle
        2. Handwheel
        3. Hand crank
          1. for direct drive without translation
            (example: reel (spool) for kite line )
          2. for direct drive with translation (example: fishing reel )
    2. by foot (and leg)
      1. direct shifting or turning (e.g. potter's wheel)
      2. To step
        1. of pedals without translation (example: children's tricycle )
        2. a crank with pedals ( pedal drive )
          1. with rotating pedal axis with mostly rotatable pedals
          2. with pedals moving on other (closed) curves, arcs, straight lines
        3. in a treadmill (also called a treadmill ) to drive a technical device
        4. Push off (e.g. mini scooter)
    3. with the help of other parts of the body (hip on hula hoop , blowing on a windmill, blowing musical instruments, sucking on a pipette ); Pulling / carrying harness on the head, shoulder or hip
  2. Drive by draft animals
    1. with the help of a yoke harness
      1. for moving a carriage , a wagon , a loop
      2. using a Göpelwerk

Optimization of manual drives

The optimization of manual drives took place over many millennia with the discovery and gradual improvement of wheel , roller, lever etc. and the associated physical properties (rolling, rolling, ...) and laws ( lever laws , inclined plane , Newton's axioms , ...).

Due to the enormous effort required for manual drive, techniques such as the pulley block, special hand pumps or various machine elements have been developed that reduce friction and thus the energy to be used in manual drive. Not only does the wheel have its origin in the fact that people wanted to optimize the effort required to move themselves and their belongings, but also machine elements such as gears , bearings and guides with their various sliding properties or rolling elements were developed to cope with the manual To facilitate drive.

Manual drive of devices and machines

In agriculture in particular, devices driven by draft animals such as harrows or plows were what we call state-of-the-art technology even before the Middle Ages and into modern times , and many a threshing machine or seed drill with manual drive was an innovation in its time .

While the relatively heavy work began to be automated in agriculture at an early stage and manual drives are mostly only found in so-called developing countries today, mechanical hand mixers such as the wheel snow racket, salad spinners and other kitchen appliances with manual drives have been used in the home. To this day, no iron works without the manual hand drive, historical coffee grinders with hand cranks adorn many kitchen shelves and pedal-operated sewing machines are not only common in museums, but also in private households.

Vacuum pump with double hand lever, recipient ( Lueger Lexikon )
Breast veil

While historic machines such as pumps , mills , spinning wheels , lever presses or looms were often driven manually, today motors often take on this task. Modern engines usually have an automatic starter , but some internal combustion engines still require manual starting assistance by means of a muscle-powered drive in the form of a hand crank, a kick starter or a pull-wire starter . The latter is, for example, in chain saws , brush cutters or smaller current generators (so-called generator sets), as well as for lawn mowers usual, also partially by hand before powered be.

Simpler, manual drive units, which we still operate unconsciously on a daily basis, are, for example, door latches with bolts , the pedals of the bicycle or the associated hand or foot pump . Also hand drills as the breast-gurdy and other hand tools are driven manually in a similar manner.

Hand-operated rail vehicle. Pakistan early 20th century

Manually driven vehicles

Modern transport as it is today would be inconceivable without the invention of the wheel in conjunction with manual drive, had it not first been for the manually driven means of transport or vehicles such as carts , carts or carriages that were driven by humans or animals . one thinks, for example, of the development from the first stagecoach to the modern postal system .

To the manual, with driven human powered vehicles are not only the bike in its many variants such as pedicab , the recumbent bike or trike , but also various vessels , including that of rowboat and paddleboat . With the help of alternative drive technology , a combination of manual drive with other drive technologies is now common, for example in the velomobile . Such alternative drive concepts rely on the mutual support of mechanical and manual drives.

Another, typically hand-propelled vehicle is the wheelchair , which is simply driven with the hands directly on the large wheels. Modern sports wheelchairs for racing use have a special, double hand crank drive, which is very similar to a pedal drive. The so-called handbikes are a further development of these racing wheelchairs . While the normal wheelchair can usually be pushed to the right and left with the help of two handles on its back, today's strollers have a bow-shaped handle for manual pushing.

Manual work was once in demand on the rails, because moving around on a hand lever trolley would be simply unimaginable without the manual, sweaty drive. It was not until much later that modern leisure tourism developed on the track , where pedal trolleys are mostly used today .

Manual propulsion of model aircraft

Something dexterity is required to manually start a paper plane , an Planophore or another model glider , wherein the manual propeller drive (if present) is often by means of a manually before starting to be twisted , is performed rubber band, which is connected to the body of the model and its propeller. By manually twisting the band, energy is stored in the rubber band , which is transferred to the propeller after the start .

The rotor of a helicopter toy can be accelerated via a type of rack and pinion drive made of plastic so that it separates from the drive unit due to its rotational speed and flies through the air on its own.

Other manually driven objects

The furniture industry also equips many of its products for manual drive with small wheels or rollers. B. armchairs , office chairs , smaller tool cabinets , chests of drawers for audio and television sets or garden furniture , the transport of which is made easier in this way. Similarly, so many grills are mobile, and the manual drive of their cleaning trolley saves many building cleaners one way or the other.

Hand-operated garage doors and roller shutters are two further examples of human ingenuity that serve the good implementation of muscle power.