Preface; Section I History of Institutions: A Social Network Model for Innovation in Early Aviation History, by Francis Moon --  Franz Reuleaux and the Rhenish Roots of Mechanism Theory, by Reinhard Braune and Burkhard Corves -- The Birth of the Moscow School of Applied Mechanics in the 2nd Half of the 19th and the Early 20th Centuries, by Vera Chinenova, Alexander Golovin and Irina Tyulina -- Royal Manufactures Promoted by the Spanish Crown during the 18th and 19th Centuries: an Approach to European Industrialization, by Javier Echávarri Otero, E. De La Guerra Ochoa, E. Chacón Tanarro, J. L. Muñoz Sanz, E. Bautista Paz, A. Díaz Lantada and J. R. Álvarez -- The Influence of the Society of Jesus on the Spread of European Mechanical Knowledge in China in the XVIth and XVIIth centuries, by Michela Cigola -- Section II Biographical Contributions: Jang Yeong-sil: Inventor of the Striking Clepsydra During the Reign of King Sejong in Joseon, by Nam Moon-Hyon --  Kurt Rauh: Saxon Mechanism Theory Brought to Aachen, by Burhard Corves -- About Karl Hoecken and Some of his Works on Mechanisms, by Hanfried Kerle -- Gioacchino Russo – a Versatile Scientist, by Francesco Petrone and Viviana Russo -- Applied Mechanics: the Information Sheets of Professor Leonid Smirnov, by Alexander Golovin and Anastacia Golovina -- Konstantin Frolov Continuing the Soviet School Traditions on MMS, by Olga Egorova and Gennady A Timofeev -- Francisc Viliam Kovács - Leader in the Development of Mechanisms and Robotics in Romania, by Erwin Christian Lovasz, Dan Perju, Inocentiu Maniu, Corneliu Radulescu and Valentin Ciupe -- Section III History of Technical Systems: An Examination of the Mechanisms of Movement in Heron of Alexandria's “On Automaton Making" , by Finlay Mccourt -- The Mystery of the Defense Chain Mechanism of Constantinople, by Junichi Takeno and Yoshihiko Takeno -- Structural Synthesis of The Ancient Chinese Zhuge Repeating Cross Bow, by Kuo-Hung Hsiao and Hong-Sen Yan -- Clocks and Dials with Automata: The Mosaic of Qasr El-Lebya, by Helen Fragaki -- The Drawings of Machines by the Great Architects of the Renaissance and Baroque Eras, by Emanuela Chiavoni -- Historical Watermills for Cereal Grinding: Cultural Heritages in Aterno Valley, by Romolo Continenza and Stefano Brusaporci -- Section IV History of Technical Systems: The Front Dial of the Antikythera Mechanism, by Michael Wright -- Historical-Technological Study of Monumental Tower Clocks: the Town Hall Clock of Alcalá la Real, Jaén (Spain), by Rafael López-García, Iván Dávila-Rufián and Rubén Dorado-Vicente -- Improbable Mechanics: a Short History of Fake Automata, by Nadia Ambrosetti -- Centrifugal Governors, the Story of a Mistake, by Max Sakharov and Valentin Tarabarin -- The Anahuac Propeller: a Century After, by J. Romero-N, C. Lopez-C, A. Colin-R and M. Arroyo-C -- The Rotary Aero Engine from1908-1918 , by Giuseppe Genchi and Francesco Sorge -- Section V History of Technical systems: The Historical Development of Catrasys, a Cable System , by Marco Ceccarelli -- A Contribution on the History of Ropeways, by K. Hoffmann and N Zrnic -- The First Hydroelectric Power Plant in the Balkans Built on the Basis of Tesla’s Principles, by Svetislav Marković, Tatjana Lazović, Ljubica Milović and Bratislav Stojiljković -- Tesla’s Research in the Field of Mechanical Engineering Focused on Fountains Design, by Aleksandar Marinković, Nenad Zrnić, Bratislav Stojiljković and Milan Vulicević -- Mechanical Models for Anti-Rhomb Linkage, by Simona Mariana Cretu, Gigi Dragos Ciocioi-Troaca, Emil Soarece and Eugen Marian Paun -- History of Human Powered Threshing Machines, by K. S. Zakiuddin, H. V. Sondawale, J. P. Modak and M. Ceccarelli -- Section VI Concepts and Theories: At the Origins of the Concepts of Máthema and Mekhané: Aristotle’s Mekhanikà and Archimedes' Tropos Mekhanikòs, by Giuseppe Boscarino -- Historical Reflections on the Scale Ratio in the Galilean Trattato di Fortificazione, by Raffaele Pisano and Danilo Capecchi -- Poncelet and the Development of Applied Mechanics, by Agamenon Oliveira -- The Case of Kinematics, the Genesis of a Discipline, by Teun Koetsier -- Cognate Linkages: the Roberts-Chebyshev Theorem , by Egbert Verstraten -- The Work of Otto Fischer and the Historical Development of his Method of Principle Vectors for Mechanism and Machine Science, by Volkert Van Der Wijk and Just L. Herder -- 3D Overconstrained Linkages - The Lost Jade , by Yan Chen and You Zhong -- Designing, Analysis and Computer Modelling of Straight Line Mechanisms, by Valentin Tarabarin, Z. Tarabarina and D. Chirkina.

This book contains the proceedings of HMM2012, the 4th International Symposium on Historical Developments in the field of Mechanism and Machine Science (MMS). These proceedings cover recent research concerning all aspects of the development of MMS from antiquity until the present and its historiography: machines, mechanisms, kinematics, dynamics, concepts and theories, design methods, collections of methods, collections of models, institutions and biographies.