A cogwheel is a mechanical part used in machine assemblies. It is also known as a gear and is an essential part of many common devices, including automotive transmissions. The body of the gear rotates just as a wheel does, and its outer edge is lined with protuberances called teeth or cogs; hence the name cogwheel. These cogs allow the gear to transmit energy and direction to the other gears in the machine assembly. It is a basic part that allows much more elaborate machines to operate, and as such is often applied metaphorically to objects or people with similar functions.
The teeth on a cogwheel are designed to interact with adjacent machine parts that bear similar teeth. When power is applied to make the gear turn, the cogs cause these other gears to turn as well in a similar or opposite direction, depending on the design of the teeth. This mechanical concept has been understood for millennia. Such gears are present in the Antikythera mechanism, a Greek astronomy device discovered in an ancient Roman shipwreck. Scientists believe the device was created in roughly 100 BC.
During the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century, the cogwheel became an important part of developing technology. Large machines used gears to power assembly lines and other factory machinery. Transportation devices such as steamboats, trains, and eventually airplanes and automobiles used cogwheels to transfer power from engines to wheels and rotors. Small finely tuned cogwheels and gears were used in clocks, pocket watches, and even early computer-like devices.
The automobile transmission is a good example of how a cogwheel works. Such a transmission is actually composed of many interlocking cogwheels. The primary gear uses energy from the vehicle’s engine to power its rotation. It transfers this rotation to other gears, which spin faster or slower depending on their size and number of teeth. The slower-spinning gears are used when the vehicle needs little acceleration, and the transmission can be shifted into a faster or higher gear for more rapid travel.
This principle is applied, with varying degrees of complexity, in thousands of different kinds of machines. Thus, some of the most advanced technological devices depend on a simple cogwheel, a machine understood by the ancient Greeks. This has led to expressions such as “I’m just a cog in a machine,” meaning that the speaker has an unrecognized and potentially replaceable function in a large organization or company. The expression downplays the importance of the individual, but of course, without such cogs, most machines could not function at all.