I’m thinking of things like waterwheels, windmills, millstones, etc- these systems would presumably have a lot of force running through them, such that stopping them for maintenance or replacement would seem difficult to do and maybe even damage the system. So what kind of mechanisms back in the day did people put in place to stop energy from moving through the machine at a given point? How do you successfully get two gears that are actively engaged to be safely uncoupled, for lack of a better word?
In: Engineering
> So what kind of mechanisms back in the day did people put in place to stop energy from moving through the machine at a given point?
You would… stop them.
A water wheel stops turning if you cut off the flow of water into the wheel. Simply diverting the water and then engaging a brake could allow the rest of the mechanism to be worked on safely and without any load.
For a windmill the panels of the sails can be removed, and again a brake applied to the main input. A millstone could be decoupled from whatever was driving it.
Brakes are a pretty simple mechanism of something pressed against the turning shaft to produce friction sufficient to bring it to a halt or keep it from moving.
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