Old books for old tools

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contrahead
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Old books for old tools

Post by contrahead »

For the last week I've been studying carpenter's speed squares, framing squares, European lumber standards, construction calculator videos, slide rules and logarithms. Some days during my research however, I get sidetracked onto another tangent (tan ϴ = opp / adj) and that loss of focus really ticks me off.

For example I'm reading through a 2nd, one century old book on the use of framing squares (The Steel Square and Its Uses / Volume 1 // 1907), and then I run across some text that humors me. I've copied, colored and pasted the paragraph here – (it's out of copyright and was scanned by Google).
changeshot002.jpg
The guy that wrote this was an editor and one of three people to create the book. I'm guessing that he was about the same age in 1907, that I am now. I suspect that people read more back then than people generally do now too. (No TV, no cell phones, no radio (except Morse code /from the 1890s), no YouTube, no Internet, no electric lights (yet probably). But what they did read was probably also much different than what we read in today's so-called “Age of Information”. Many educated people of that period concentrated on reading what they called “the Classics” (which was likely a much older vintage of literature than what is considered classical today).

One thing that is humorous is his quick observation of the ancient Greeks. In the same paragraph he mentions Pliny (Roman) and (the Greek), Theodorus of Samos. Then he calls the Pyramids “hoary”. I had to sort through 5 or 6 “Theodorous”es to find the right one. I then encountered what some modern writer posted about Theodorus in a glowing Kool Aid flavored review about that Greek's accomplishments.

“Theodorus of Samos was an ancient Greek architect and sculptor. He is known to have invented ore smelting as well as casting. His other inventions include a lock and key, a carpenter’s square as well as the turning lathe. He also improved the process involved with mixing tin and copper to produce bronze. The discovery fusing iron and using it for the casting of statues is credited to him. He is also credited with inventing the square, level as well as ruler”.

Never mind that the Hittites were forging iron (not just bronze) in the 18th century BC. Some 1,200 years before Thedorous (from the 6th century BC) “invented ore smelting”.

Pliny the Elder lived many centuries after Theodorous, and was a very noteworthy person from history. Unfortunately Pliny expired when Mt Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD and buried Pompey (but he was in another nearby town).

Horary” is a perfectly acceptable and very old adjective, yet most word processors won't even recognize it.

These next images that follow come from the 1st century old book that I just finished reading: (A FRAMING GUIDE AND STEEL SQUARE, A PRACTICAL TREATISE – by Dallas Sigmon / 1908). And it was chuck full of practical information.

cistern_vol.jpg
metals_wt.jpg
And here I thought copper was a heavy metal. I've read elsewhere that bronze cannons were much heavier than their cheaper iron counterparts. Concrete is mixed by units of volume, and in the US a bag of Portland cement weighs exactly 94lbs. That's because the weight of one cubic foot of dry cement powder weighs 94 lbs. If you can lift a new bag of cement straight up off the floor then good for you. Now compare that weight to these identical volumes of metal.
wood_weight1.jpg
I am completely unfamiliar with Boxwood and Lignum Vitae so I was compelled to look them up and learn about them. Any reference I can find about Boxwood so far suggest that it is only a shrub and not a tree. How did they get a cubic foot of it and why is it heavier than oak?

Lignum Vitae now is a wood of some significance. It is extremely dense, heavy, hard and naturally oily. It does not float, but will sink in water. It grows in the Caribbean and has been a valued import to Europe for several centuries now. Its been used in cricket balls, croquet mallets, wood carvers mallets, mortars and pestles and “billie clubs” that British police crack heads with. It found several uses on sailing ships for things like belaying pins and sheave wheels (pulley blocks). More recently it was used in water-lubricated shaft bearings for navy ships and hydroelectric generators. Wikipedia says that the 1st nuclear submarine - the Nautilus; used this wood for its aft main shaft strut bearings.
(lbf = Janka hardness test / for wood) Hickory is supposed to be a hard wood - used in ax, sledge and shovel handles for that reason'. Hickory has a hardness rating of 1,820 lbf, (red oak at 1,290 lbf, yellow pine at 690 lbf, and Balsa at 100 lbf). Lignum Vitae has a hardness of 4,500 lbf.
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river_text.jpg
One of the very few illustrations in Sigmon's book, this one is compelling but is explained very tersely. His text does not tell how he uses his framing square to estimate where to put his stakes, or if one should use batterboards in order to pull a string line parallel to the river - to get more accurate right angles with a framing square, and therefore more accurate estimations of distance. On the next pages he explains how to accurately judge the height of a tree, using similar techniques with a square. In following pages Sigmon does multiplication and division with the framing square. He ask questions like: “If cloth were 5½ cents per yard, how much would 4½ yards be worth”? And then explains how to find the answer on the square.

He ask “If lumber were $24.00 feet per thousand, what would be the cost of 750 feet”? Then he explains what edges of the square to use, what numbers to hold, hypotenuse to draw or scale to use before coming up with the answer “$18.00”.

(Did you catch that price? Those units are in “board feet. A thousand board feet for $24.00. I just looked up some lumber prices. Last month lumber was floating around $1,750.00 per 1,000 board feet).

Another thing that comes to notice sometimes with old literature is the vocabulary. There was hoary with age” and swaddling clothes” from the first picture above. In Sigmon's book is a section titled “mensuration” and elsewhere an “aliquot table”. What the hell is an aliquot ?
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Tummydoc
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Re: Old books for old tools

Post by Tummydoc »

In chemistry an aliquot is a small sample of a larger solution used for analysis. I often take a 100 ml aliquot and place in a graduated cylinder to measure specific gravity.
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Re: Old books for old tools

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In (French) carpentry we do a lot of geometrical drawing and I loved the discovery that you can calculate using nothing but a straight edge and a compass. Creating polygons with an inner or outer diameter matching a circle for example. Once you get your head around the techniques there aren't many problems that can't be solved without reaching for a ruler.

In a similar vein of language, I have the Audels Carpentry books (four volumes) dating from 1937 and I love the criticism that the author levels at certain branches of carpentry. Apparently in later editions the rhetoric was toned down considerably.
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Re: Old books for old tools

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I am intrigued by using older navigational tools and have built several items. Books written years ago can give some great insight but for me I have to read the information several times to understand some of the information.
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Re: Old books for old tools

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I further look at Hickory and the ancient use of tool handles. Hickory has several properties that make it good for tools, especially when their will be a shock transmitted through the tool handle to the body, as in an axe or sledge hammer or framing hammer. The reason is that there is just enough “spring” in the fiber structure that it dampens the energy transmitted. The other two reasons essentially tied to the same fiber structure is that the fibers are not straight grained like oak, and will withstand quite a bit of leveraging or bending without snapping as in a shovel handle and because of the intertwined fibers, handles do not split easily.

I have tested this over time by using red oak and hard maple to make handles on occasion just to see what the differences were like. A red oak axe handle will rattle your teeth and maple shovel handles will snap with any serious digging. Them old timers were no fools and had an understanding of each species properties and best uses.
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Re: Old books for old tools

Post by contrahead »

Bushman wrote: Mon Aug 09, 2021 6:09 am I am intrigued by using older navigational tools and have built several items. Books written years ago can give some great insight but for me I have to read the information several times to understand some of the information.
Speaking of older navigational tools; I was reading about the differences between a cross-staff and a back-staff the other day. I understood that the user of the backstaff – must stand with his back to the sun to read the instrument; but for a long while, I wasn't getting a clear picture of how the instrument was to be held or pointed. That stuf isn't always self explanatory. Lots of pictures of these old backstaffs (or Davis quadrants) on the web, but few images showing these instruments being held or aimed by humans that know how one is to be used.
https://exploration.marinersmuseum.org/ ... ack-staff/

And then there are astrolabes and quadrants to consider. A multitude of varriation with each. Some are extremly ornate. Astrolabes can sometimes get real pricey at antique auctions. Quadrants came along after astrolabes.
Front_of_Quadrant.JPG
The text accompanying this image suggest that this is an example of a "sinecal quadrant". But looking at that Arabic scribbling around the edges, I'm inclined to think it's a "horary quadrant" (of the sinecal pattern - designed more for use by Islamic astrologers rather than astronomers. Versions of the sinecal quadrant were used for solving trigonometric problems (like today's electronic calculators - but without batteries). These praticular ones used the sexagesimal (base 60) number system.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sine_quadrant

Take a look of a sinecal quadrant patern that only uses Arabic numerals along its edges.
sineshot006.jpg
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Re: Old books for old tools

Post by contrahead »

Roustabouts or roughnecks are the lowest dogs on the totem pole when your talking about work crews on an oil rig. On a large drill rig you'll see a motor man and maybe a dedicated derrickhand too. The driller is the foreman or crew leader of the rig's work crew but the top dog on a rig is the Toolpusher.

When a new hand hires on as a roughneck and has survived a day or two, it's common practice to play a prank on the novice. During a hiatus in work on the rig floor, a driller might look up with an urgent but straight face and order the newbie to run quick and get the“drill key” (from someone else). As the kid almost breaks his neck rushing down the staircase and across the catwalk – the other hands on the drill floor are giggling and laughing it up. It's big fun. Unbeknownst to the new roughneck, he'd been working under the drill key all day.

That's whats up with these next photos. The next time someone ask you to hand them the “theodelitus” or to go bring the “theodolite” back in; you'll not be the embarrassed rookie...

This is a theodelitus.
theodelitus.jpg
This is a theodolite.
theodolite02.jpg
This is a Roman groma.
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