Early Butter Churner Design Brief

This is a prototype design brief, as formatted in the style of my Principles of Engineering class.

Design Brief:

Client: Mr. Jolly.

Consumer: The hypothetical, early-colonial American settlement that needs to churn butter, but does not have the time nor manpower, so decides to harness water as the power source.

Problem Statement: The colonial era had a severe lack of current-day power sources. They were mainly limited to wind, water or animal-produced power. They also had a plethora of tasks to complete every day - made harder by the lack of power sources to make work easier. These colonists want to develop different ways to connect the powers they do have to the tasks they need doing.

Solution Statement: We are going to create a system that harnesses water to churn butter. The system will use a water wheel to harness the water's energy (in this case the motion of the water). This will turn the wheel, thus turning the axle, which leads to another wheel with a loosely attached rod (like a train's wheels). This rod will be attached to the turning wheel in such a way that it will move freely and can be guided to agitate the cream to form butter.

Validity: This design should fulfill all the requirements and solve the problem of connecting a colonial power source to a colonial task.

Solution Criteria:

• Needs to use an early American power source.
• Must complete a colonial task.
• Needs to be built by the students and designed to look presentable.
• Must be recorded and put online through our blogs.

Solution Constraints:

• Due Thursday, October 15th.
• Cannot be turned in conventionally in class.
• There is not necessarily a budget, but we do not want to spend a whole lot.