Positive Quiddity: Machines

A machine is a tool that consists of one or more parts, and uses energy to meet a particular goal. Machines are usually powered by mechanical, chemical, thermal, or electrical means, and are often motorized. Historically, a power tool also required moving parts to classify as a machine. However, the advent of electronics technology has led to the development of power tools without moving parts that are considered machines.

A simple machine is a device that simply transforms the direction or magnitude of a force, but a large number of more complex machines exist. Examples include vehicles, electronic systems, molecular machines, computers, television and radio.

Etymology
The word machine derives from the Latin word machina, which in turn derives from the Greek (Doric μαχανά makhana, Ionic μηχανή mekhane "contrivance, machine, engine", a derivation from μnχος mekhos "means, expedient, remedy."

Types
Classification        Machines

Simple machines Inclined plane, wheel and axle, lever, pulley, wedge, screw
Mechanical components Axle, bearings, belts, bucket, fastener, gear, key, link chains, rack
     and pinion, roller chains, rope, seals, spring, wheel
Clock Atomic clock, watch, pendulum clock, quartz clock
Compresssors and pumps Archimedes’ screw, eductor-jet pump, hydraulic ram, pump, trompe,
     vacuum pump
Heat engines
     External combustion Steam engine, Stirling engine
     Internal combustion Reciprocating engine, Gas turbine
Heat pumps Absorption refrigerator, thermoelectric refrigerator, regenerative cooling
Linkages Pantogtraph, cam, Peaucellier-Lipkin
Turbine Gas turbine, jet engine, steam turbine, water turbine, wind generator, Windmill
Aerofoil Sail, wing, rudder, flap, propeller
Electronic devices Vacuum tube, transistor, diode, resistor, capacitor, inductor, memristor, 
     semiconductor, Computer
Robots Actuator, servo, servomechanism, stepper motor, computer
Miscellanerous Vending machine, wind tunnel, check weighing machines, riveting machines

Impact
Industrial Revolution
The 'Industrial Revolution' was a period from 1750 to 1850 where changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times. It began in the United Kingdom, then subsequently spread throughout Western Europe, North America, Japan, and eventually the rest of the world.

Starting in the later part of the 18th century, there began a transition in parts of Great Britain's previously manual labor and draft-animal–based economy towards machine-based manufacturing. It started with the mechanization of the textile industries, the development of iron-making techniques and the increased use of refined coal.

Mechanization and Automation
Mechanization or mechanisation (BE) is providing human operators with machinery that assists them with the muscular requirements of work or displaces muscular work. In some fields, mechanization includes the use of hand tools. In modern usage, such as in engineering or economics, mechanization implies machinery more complex than hand tools and would not include simple devices such as an un-geared horse or donkey mill. Devices that cause speed changes or changes to or from reciprocating to rotary motion, using means such as gears, pulleys or sheaves and belts, shafts, cams and cranks, usually are considered machines. After electrification, when most small machinery was no longer hand powered, mechanization was synonymous with motorized machines.
Automation is the use of control systems and information technologies to reduce the need for human work in the production of goods and services. In the scope of industrialization, automation is a step beyond mechanization. Whereas mechanization provides human operators with machinery to assist them with the muscular requirements of work, automation greatly decreases the need for human sensory and mental requirements as well. Automation plays an increasingly important role in the world economy and in daily experience.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine