A crank is a bent portion of an axle, or shaft, or an arm keyed at right angles to the end of a shaft, by which motion is imparted to or received from it; also used to change circular into reciprocating motion, or reciprocating into circular motion.

One application is human-powered turning of the axle. Often there is a bar perpendicular to the other end of the arm, often with a freely rotatable handle on it to hold in the hand, or in the case of operation by a foot (usually with a second arm for the other foot), with a freely rotatable pedal. Familiar examples include:

• using a hand:
  • manual pencil sharpener
  • fishing reel and other reels for cables, wires, ropes, etc.
  • train window
  • manually operated car window
• using feet:
  • the crankset that drives a bicycle via the pedals.
  • human-powered sewing machine

The earliest hand-operated cranks appeared in China during the Han Dynasty (202 BC-220 AD), as Han era glazed-earthenware tomb models portray.^[1] It was however through Al-Jazari that the use of crank became widely established. The connecting rod was also invented by Al-Jazari, and was used in a crank and connecting rod system in a rotating machine he developed in 1206, in two of his water-raising machines.^[2] Cranks were formerly common on some machines in the early 20th century; for example almost all phonographs before the 1930s were powered by clockwork motors wound with cranks, and internal combustion engines of automobiles were usually started with cranks before electric starters came into general use.

References

See also

• Winch
• Crankshaft
• Piston motion equations
• Nothing grinder

External links and books

• Crank highlight: Hypervideo of construction and operation of a four cylinder internal combustion engine courtesy of Ford Motor Company
• Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 2, Mechanical Engineering. Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd.

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