Page:De re metallica (1912).djvu/184

142 measurement become a greater length than it should be, he sets upon the instrument a standing plummet level, the tongue of which, if the instrument is level, indicates no numbers, but the point from which the numbers start.

When the surveyor has carefully observed each separate angle of the tunnel and has measured such parts as he ought to measure, then he lays them out in the same way on the surveyor's field in the open air, and again no less carefully observes each separate angle and measures them. First of all, to each angle, according as the calculation of his triangle and his art require it, he lays out a straight cord as a line. Then he stretches a cord at