# 507 Mechanical Movements by Henry T. Brown

12 Hacker News commenters recommended 507 Mechanical Movements by Henry T. Brown and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Illustrated catalog of 507 mechanisms that people use for design inspiration and learning, free to browse online. Critics note minor variations among examples and animation aliasing.

## Why people recommend it

- Valued as a wonderful resource (2 comments): "this is a wonderful resource" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49466438)) "One of my favourite sites!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49466143))
- Enjoyable to browse the mechanisms (2 comments): "I really love this book, I found a first edition copy in a used bookstore in Maine on vacation." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49469376)) "I really enjoyed looking at all the different mechanisms." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49466400))
- Useful for learning motion design (2 comments): "This site is a treasure for anyone who has ever tried to get useful motion out of a small motor." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49467018)) "For me it's a great dataset to train my own brain." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49467746))

## What people warn about

- Animations alias on fast motion (1 comments): "weird aliasing effects in the animation that makes it difficult to identify the direction of fast moving rope" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49468669))
- Titles and names sometimes miss (1 comments): "it misses on titles / names of the given linkage or movement" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49466796))
- Many mechanisms are minor variants (1 comments): "A lot of them are minor variances on a previous example." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49467920))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Encyclopaedia Britannica](https://hackerapproved.com/p/encyclopedia-britannica.md): 29 recommend
- [The Ashley Book of Knots by Clifford Ashley](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ashley-book-of-knots.md): 8 recommend
- [World Book Encyclopedia by World Book](https://hackerapproved.com/p/world-book-encyclopedia.md): 5 recommend
- [The Atlas of Middle-earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad](https://hackerapproved.com/p/atlas-of-middle-earth.md): 5 recommend
- [Trucker's atlas](https://hackerapproved.com/p/trucker-s-atlas.md): 5 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1897030010?tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/130825/9781897030011) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "507 Mechanical Movements by Henry T. Brown", https://hackerapproved.com/p/507-mechanical-movements/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).