The scholarly interest in a subject is fairly represented by the papers that are published in the transactions of professional societies and, more recently, by original papers that appear in specialized magazines. From 1900 to 1930 there were few papers on mechanisms, and most of those that did appear were concerned with descriptions of new "mechanical motions." In the 1930's the number of papers reported in _Engineering Index_ increased sharply, but only because the editors had begun to include foreign-language listings. There has been in Germany a thread of continuity in the kinematics of mechanisms since the time of Reuleaux. While most of the work has had to do with analysis, the teasing question of synthesis that Reuleaux raised in his work has never been ignored. The developments in Germany and elsewhere have been ably reviewed by others,[119] and it is only to be noted here that two of the German papers, published in 1939 in _Maschinenbau_, appear to have been the sparks for the conflagration that still is increasing in extent and intensity. According to summaries in _Engineering Index_, R. Kraus, writing on the synthesis of the double-crank mechanism, drew fire from the Russian Z. S. Bloch, who, in 1940, discussed critically Kraus's articles and proceeded to give the outline of the "correct analysis of the problem" and a general numerical solution for the synthesis of "any four-bar linkage."[120] Russian work in mechanisms, dating back to Chebyshev and following the "Chebyshev theory of synthesis" in which algebraic methods are used to determine paths of minimum deviation from a given curve, has also been reviewed elsewhere,[121] and I can add nothing of value. [Footnote 119: Grodzinski, Bottema, De Jonge, and Hartenberg and Denavit. For complete titles see list of selected references.] [Footnote 120: My source, as noted, is _Engineering Index_. Kraus's articles are reported in 1939 and Bloch's in 1940, both under the section heading "Mechanisms."] [Footnote 121: A. E. Richard de Jonge, "Are the Russians Ahead in Mechanism Analysis?" _Machine Design_, September 1951, vol. 23, pp. 127, 200-208; O. Bottema, "Recent Work on Kinematics," _Applied Mechanics Reviews_, April 1953, vol. 6, pp. 169-170.] When, after World War II, some of the possibilities of kinematic synthesis were recognized in the United States, a few perceptive teachers fanned the tinder into an open flame.