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Comment by pranjalv123 | Hacker News Reader

Another interesting method for power transmission in the early days of industrialization was the line shaft (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_shaft). These were used only for a single factory, not for a whole city, though. You can see these if you go visit old textile plants in New England, for example.

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There's also "Stangenkunst" for long-distance mechanical power transmission:

https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2013/01/mechanical-transmiss...

Also hydraulic accumulators:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Hydraulic_Power_Company

https://99percentinvisible.org/article/running-on-water-the-...

Amusingly, modern hydraulic accumulators of a different sort may still have a role in power generation. I'm working on a couple of wave generator projects where the waves pump hydraulic rams, storing pulses of pressure in hydraulic accumulators, where it's then used to drive a generator at a more constant speed.

Intresting, though wave power is a minusculy small overall altrnative energy source with massive capital feqirements. There are better options to pursue.

Pumped hydro is ... after a fashion ... a vastly more appropriate hydraulic accumulator, as is CAES.

Back when I did a mechanical engineering BTECH (higher vocational UK quali) in the 80's - we still learnt how to design a belt drive.

Would belt drive systems still be covered in mechanical engineering?

The 4kW laser cutter I operate for work has (toothed) belts in it, so presumably the drive systems are covered under mechanical engineering?

Belt drive systems are still an essential mechanical design component, both for power transmission and motion control, and certainly still covered in university classes these days.

Yes. You'll study the shit out of old school flat belts because V-belts, serpentine and cogged belts require more math that nobody wants to grade. Maybe you'll do one problem calculating how tensioner placement affects the force needed to make a cogged belt skip teeth.

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