Compound lever sudden movement of the key. The earliest remaining writings regarding levers date from the 3rd century BC and were provided by Archimedes. ""Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the earth with a lever"" is a remark attributed to Archimedes, who formally stated the correct mathematical principle of levers (quoted by Pappus of Alexandria). The idea of the compound lever is attributed to the Birmingham inventor John Wyatt in 1743, when he designed a weighing machine that used four compound levers to transfer a load from a weighing platform to a central lever from which the weight
Lever frame required to move them. Mechanical lever frames and interlocking have now largely been replaced by modern, much larger electrical or electronic route interlockings located in Power Signal Boxes and more recently Integrated Electronic Control Centres which are able to control much larger areas of the rail network. A mechanical lever frame is designed to harness mechanical advantage to operate switch points, signals or both under the protection of the interlocking logic. The levers are connected to field appliances via solid pipes or taut wires such that the full travel of the lever will reliably cause full travel in the appliance.