A machine is a powered tool consisting of one or more parts that is constructed to achieve a particular goal. Machines are usually powered by mechanical, chemical, thermal or electrical means, and are frequently motorized. Historically, a powered tool also required moving parts to classify as a machine; however, the advent of electronics technology has led to the development of powered tools without moving parts that are considered machines.
The word "machine" is derived from the Latin word machina, which in turn derives from the Doric Greek μαχανά (machana), Ionic Greek μηχανή (mechane) "contrivance, machine, engine" and that from μῆχος (mechos), "means, expedient, remedy". The meaning of machine is traced by the Oxford English Dictionary to an independently functioning structure and by Merriam-Webster Dictionary to something that has been constructed. This includes human design into the meaning of machine.
A simple machine is a device that simply transforms the direction or magnitude of a force, but a large number of more complex machines exist. Examples include vehicles, electronic systems, molecular machines, computers, television and radio.
Read more about Machine: History, Types, Machine Elements, Design
Other articles related to "machine":
... developing and building the first automatic teller machine (which didn't dispense cash) ... The rollout of this machine, called Bankograph, was delayed by a couple of years, due in part to Simjian's Reflectone Electronics Inc ... The Bankograph was an automated envelope deposit machine (accepting coins, cash and cheques) and did not have cash dispensing features ...
... back to the first use of automobiles, and even earlier, to the horse-drawn tachankas mounting machine guns in eastern Europe and Russia ... using unarmored motor vehicles, often fitted with machine guns and cannon of various types ... use of the Willys Jeep, this time fitted with a single.50 caliber Browning machine gun ...
... that had been pioneered on the IAS machine ... After two "rescues" from the scrap heap, the machine currently resides at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California ... Like the IAS machine, JOHNNIAC used 40-bit words, and included 1024 words of Selectron tube main memory, each holding 256 bits of data ...
... An automaton (plural automata or automatons) is a self-operating machine ... The word is sometimes used to describe a robot, more specifically an autonomous robot ...
... In 1839, Singer obtained his first patent, for a machine to drill rock, selling it for $2,000 to the I M Canal Building Company ... He developed and patented a "machine for carving wood and metal" on April 10, 1849 ... York City, hoping to market his wood-block cutting machine there ...
Famous quotes containing the word machine:
“One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.”
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915)
“The chrysanthemums’ astringent fragrance comes
Each year to disguise the clanking mechanism
Of machine within machine within machine.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“The machine invades me all day.”
—Sharon Atkins, U.S. receptionist. As quoted in Working, book 2, by Studs Terkel (1973)