Topic summary
Belt drive
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Belt (mechanical).
History
The mechanical belt drive, using a pulley machine, was first mentioned in the text of the Dictionary of Local Expressions by the Han Dynasty philosopher, poet, and politician Yang Xiong (53–18 BC) in 15 BC, used for a quilling machine that wound silk fibres onto bobbins for weavers' shuttles. The belt drive is an essential component of the invention of the spinning wheel. The belt drive was not only used in textile technologies, it was also applied to hydraulic-powered bellows dated from the 1st century AD.