Watt's Linkage - Shape Traced By The Linkage

Shape Traced By The Linkage

This linkage does not generate a true straight line motion, and indeed Watt did not claim it did so. Rather, it traces out Watt's curve, a lemniscate or figure eight shaped curve; when the lengths of its bars and its base are chosen to form a crossed square, it traces the lemniscate of Bernoulli. In a letter to Boulton on 11 September 1784 Watt describes the linkage as follows.

The convexities of the arches, lying in contrary directions, there is a certain point in the connecting-lever, which has very little sensible variation from a straight line.

Although the Peaucellier–Lipkin linkage and Hart's inversor generate true straight-line motion, Watt's linkage has the advantage of much greater simplicity than these other linkages. It is similar in this respect to the Chebyshev linkage, a different linkage that produces approximate straight-line motion; however, in the case of Watt's linkage, the motion is perpendicular to the line between its two endpoints, whereas in the Chebyshev linkage the motion is parallel to this line.