The Peaucellier - Lipkin linkage (or Peaucellier - Lipkin cell, or Peaucellier - Lipkin inversor), invented in 1864, was the first true planar straight line mechanism – the first planar linkage capable of transforming rotary motion into perfect straight-line motion, and vice versa. It is named after Charles-Nicolas Peaucellier (1832 - 1913), a French army officer, and Yom Tov Lipman Lipkin (1846 - 1876), a Lithuanian Jew and son of the famed Rabbi Israel Salanter.[1] [2]
Until this invention, no planar method existed of converting exact straight-line motion to circular motion, without reference guideways. In 1864, all power came from steam engines, which had a piston moving in a straight-line up and down a cylinder. This piston needed to keep a good seal with the cylinder in order to retain the driving medium, and not lose energy efficiency due to leaks. The piston does this by remaining perpendicular to the axis of the cylinder, retaining its straight-line motion. Converting the straight-line motion of the piston into circular motion was of critical importance. Most, if not all, applications of these steam engines, were rotary.
The mathematics of the Peaucellier - Lipkin linkage is directly related to the inversion of a circle.
There is an earlier straight-line mechanism, whose history is not well known, called the Sarrus linkage. This linkage predates the Peaucellier - Lipkin linkage by 11 years and consists of a series of hinged rectangular plates, two of which remain parallel but can be moved normally to each other. Sarrus' linkage is of a three-dimensional class sometimes known as a space crank, unlike the Peaucellier - Lipkin linkage which is a planar mechanism.
In the geometric diagram of the apparatus, six bars of fixed length can be seen:,,,,, . The length of is equal to the length of, and the lengths of,,, and are all equal forming a rhombus. Also, point is fixed. Then, if point is constrained to move along a circle (for example, by attaching it to a bar with a length halfway between and ; path shown in red) which passes through, then point will necessarily have to move along a straight line (shown in blue). In contrast, if point were constrained to move along a line (not passing through), then point would necessarily have to move along a circle (passing through).
First, it must be proven that points,, are collinear. This may be easily seen by observing that the linkage is mirror-symmetric about line, so point must fall on that line.
More formally, triangles and are congruent because side is congruent to itself, side is congruent to side, and side is congruent to side . Therefore, angles and are equal.
Next, triangles and are congruent, since sides and are congruent, side is congruent to itself, and sides and are congruent. Therefore, angles and are equal.
Finally, because they form a complete circle, we have
\angleOBA+\angleABD+\angleDBC+\angleCBO=360\circ
but, due to the congruences, and, thus
\begin{align} &2 x \angleOBA+2 x \angleDBA=360\circ\\ &\angleOBA+\angleDBA=180\circ \end{align}
therefore points,, and are collinear.
Let point be the intersection of lines and . Then, since is a rhombus, is the midpoint of both line segments and . Therefore, length = length .
Triangle is congruent to triangle, because side is congruent to side, side is congruent to itself, and side is congruent to side . Therefore, angle = angle . But since, then,, and .
Let:
\begin{align} &x=\ellBP=\ellPD\\ &y=\ellOB\\ &h=\ellAP\end{align}
Then:
\ellOB ⋅ \ellOD=y(y+2x)=y2+2xy
{\ellOA
{\ellOA
{\ellAD
{\ellOA
Since and are both fixed lengths, then the product of and is a constant:
\ellOB ⋅ \ellOD=k2
and since points,, are collinear, then is the inverse of with respect to the circle with center and radius .
Thus, by the properties of inversive geometry, since the figure traced by point is the inverse of the figure traced by point, if traces a circle passing through the center of inversion, then is constrained to trace a straight line. But if traces a straight line not passing through, then must trace an arc of a circle passing through . Q.E.D.
Peaucellier–Lipkin linkages (PLLs) may have several inversions. A typical example is shown in the opposite figure, in which a rocker-slider four-bar serves as the input driver. To be precise, the slider acts as the input, which in turn drives the right grounded link of the PLL, thus driving the entire PLL.
Sylvester (Collected Works, Vol. 3, Paper 2) writes that when he showed a model to Kelvin, he “nursed it as if it had been his own child, and when a motion was made to relieve him of it, replied ‘No! I have not had nearly enough of it—it is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life.’”
A monumental-scale sculpture implementing the linkage in illuminated struts is on permanent exhibition in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The artwork measures 22x, weighs, and can be operated from a control panel accessible to the general public.[3]