Mechanical Drawing Self-Taught / Comprising instructions in the selection and preparation of drawing instruments, elementary instruction in practical mechanical drawing; together with examples in simple geometry and elementary mechanism, including screw threads, gear wheels, mechanical motions, engines and boilers

by Joshua Rose

For any other number of sides the process is just the same. Thus: A body is 3-1/2 inches in diameter, and is to have 5 sides: what will be the length of each side? Now half of 3-1/2 is 1-3/4; hence from 1-3/4 on the line O B to the point C, where the diagonal line crosses the 1-3/4 line, is the length of each of the sides.

2. It will be found that the length of a side of a square being given, the size of the square, measured across corners, will be the length of the diagonal line marked 45 degrees, from the point O to the figures indicating, on the line O B or on the line O P, the length of one side.

Example.—A square body measures 1 inch on each side: what does it measure across the corners? Answer: From the point O, along diagonal line marked 45 degrees, to the point where it crosses the lines 1 (as denoted in the figure by a dot).

Again: A cylindrical piece of wood requires to be squared, and each side of the square must measure an inch: what diameter must the piece be turned to?

Now the diagonal line marked 45 degrees passes through the 1-inch line on O B, and the inch line on O P, at the point where these lines meet; hence all we have to do is to run the eye along either of the lines marked inch, and from its point of meeting the 45 degrees line, to the point O, is the diameter to turn the piece to.

There is another way, however, of getting this same measurement, which is to set a pair of compasses from the line 1 on O B, to line 1 on O P, as shown by the line D, which is the full diameter across corners. This is apparent, because from point O, along line O B, to 1, thence to the dot, thence down to line 1 on O P, and along that to O, encloses a square, of which either from O to the dot, or the length of the line D, is the measurement across corners, while the length of each side, or diameter across the flats, is from point O to either of the points 1, or from either of the points 1 to the dot.

Fig. 182.

After graphically demonstrating the correctness of the scale we may simplify it considerably. In Figure 182, therefore, we have applications shown. A is a hexagon, and if one of its sides be measured, it will be found that it measures the same as along line 1 from O B to the diagonal line 45 degrees, which distance is shown by a thickened line.