Swash Plate Beam Engine

Found this online recently - thought it might be of interest to those of a Mechanical bent like ourselves. When James Watt was working on his rotative steam engine in the late 18th Century, a patent had been filed for the application of the crank on steam engines. To get around this, Watt came up with various other methods for converting the reciprocating motion of the beam into rotary motion of the wheel. In the end, as you probably know, he went for his famous sun and planet mechanism, however, his sketchpads still survive showing other methods tried, I find this swash plate method particularly interesting. I had always thought the use of a swash plate in engines was a relatively modern feature - it just shows the brilliance of these 18th Century engineers.

Photo from Kinematics of Mechanisms from the time of James Watt

The Engineer.