Mechanical energy is the simplest energy, which can be used from the beginning of the game.
It can be obtained in several ways, from mechanical generators.

Cogs are objects that can be placed on backwalls, and are used to transport mechanical energy.

You can craft cogs with the Engineering Workbench:


First of all, place backwalls (down arrow to switch) where you want to install your gears. You can then place gears of several sizes on it.


The cogs must touch each other to transport mechanical energy.
You can add a handcrank crank to turn them manually.
Simply press R with the mouse over the handcrank to power the circuit.



The gears have a certain friction, depending on their material.
The more gears are connected, the more energy is lost in friction.
To limit the number of gears to be used to transport energy over long distances, it is possible to connect the gears with belts.
To do this, nothing simpler, just press R above the first gear you want to connect, then R above the second.



Note that a belt can pass through walls / objects.

It is possible to change the speed of the gears by using different sized gears.


The first line shows how to accelerate the speed of the gears.
The second, on the contrary, is how to slow them down.


Increasing speed allows some machines to be more efficient.
Be careful though: the gears can break if they turn too fast!

If you use a chicken wheel, you will certainly want to recover the energy in a specific direction of rotation, so that you can combine this energy with your overall circuit.

There are two special gears for this purpose: one-way transmission gears.

Conveyor tubes allow you to transport objects from one box or machine to another.

To define the exit of a chest or machine, place a pipe vertically and then place your trunk on top:


If the pipe is properly connected, you will see its shape change slightly.
The above device allows the contents of the top box to be emptied into the bottom box.

Normal conveyors will allow you to drop objects by gravity, but will not allow you to move an object up.
For this purpose, a mechanical conveyor connected to the gear network must be used.

Example:

This is a complete factory that uses all the concepts mentioned above: