1870’s / Brass, iron, wooden base / Formerly a collection of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the University of Tokyo / UMUT

These models show the mechanism of the transmission of force and movement through various elements, and were used in teaching mechanical engineering since the early Meiji era. They illustrate fundamental mechanisms such as the screw mechanism, the linkage mechanism, the composition of a lever, the crank and slider, and the gear mechanism. Some of them bear a metallic plate dating from 1874 and 1875: they are some of the oldest heritage in Western industrial mechanical engineering remaining in Japan. All of them coming from England, it is thought that they were ordered from his home country along with books related to engineering by Henry Dyer, who was appointed Principal of the Imperial College of Engineering in 1873.