Jacob Leupold

“Biography of Jacob Leupold (1674–1727) on history-computer.com”

“Leupold is also credited as an early inventor of air pumps. He designed his first pump in 1705, and in 1707 he published a book Antlia pneumatica illustrata. In 1711 following an advice of its president Wilhelm Leibniz, Prussian Academy of Sciences acquired Leupold's pump.In 1720 Leupold started to work on the manuscript of his prominent encyclopedie Theatrium machinarum, a nine-volume series on machine design and technology, published between 1724 and 1739 . It was the first systematic analysis of mechanical engineering in the world.”

“Jacob Leupold (1674-1727) German engineer who collected, for the first time in print, the basic principles of mechanical engineering.”

“In the Histoire de l'Academie for the year 1725, p. 78, it is stated that when M. du Fay was at Strasbourg, M. Jacob Leupold had a pump which threw water in a continuous stream, using only one piston, and that he made a great mystery of it; but that M. du Fay immediately stated the reason of it.”

“[His work is addressed]... not to the learned and experienced mathematicians who are already, or should be, better acquainted with them... [and most of whom] have studied mechanics more as a subject of curiosity and a hobby, than with any view of service to the public. The people we had in mind were rather the mechanic, handicraftsman and the like, who, without education or knowledge of foreign languages have no access to many sources of information...”

“I had not only opportunity of seeing how different things have been made, but also manual work made me strong.”

“Most often it is the case that people know that something big can be manipulated with it [i.e., the screw], but not how and in what way it is connected to time, and that untold time, and finally such force of machines, wheels, and shafts is necessary as cannot be produced nor be had.”