Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/170

152 152 DIAGRAMS Cremona (Le figure reciproche nella statica grafica, Milan, 1872) has deduced the construction of reciprocal figures from the theory of the two components of a wrench as developed by Mobius. Culmann, in his Graphische Statik, makes great use of diagrams of forces, some of which, however, are not reciprocal. M. Maurice Levy in his Statique Graphique (Paris, 1874) lias treated the whole subject in an elementary but copious manner. Mr R. H. Bow, C.E., F.R.S.E., in his work on The Economics of Construction in relation to Framed Structures, 1873, has materially simplified the process of drawing a diagram of stress reciprocal to a given frame acted on by a system of equilibrating external forces. Instead of lettering the joints of the frame, as is usually done, or the links of the frame, as was the writer s custom, he places a letter in each of the polygonal areas inclosed by the links of the frame, and also in each of the divisions of surrounding space as separated by the lines of action of the external forces. When one link of the frame crosses another, the point of apparent intersection of the links is treated as if it were a real joint, and the stresses of each of the intersecting links are represented twice in the diagram of stress, as the opposite sides of the parallelogram which corresponds to the point of intersection. Fid. 1. Diagram of Configuration. FIG. 2. Diagram of Stress. This method is followed in the lettering of the diagram of configuration (fig. 1), and the diagram of stress (fig. 2) of the linkwork which Professor Sylvester has called a quadruplane. In fig. 1 the real joints are distinguished from the places where one link appears to cross another by the little circles O, P, Q, R, S, T, V. The four links RSTV form a &quot; contraparallelogram &quot; in which RS = TV and RV = ST. The triangles ROS, RPV, TQS are similar to each other. A fourth triangle (TNV), not drawn in the figure, would complete the quadruplane. The four points 0, P, N, Q form a parallelogram whose angle POQ is constant and equal to 7T-SOR. The product of the distances OP and OQ is constant. The linkwork may be fixed at O. If any figure is traced by P, Q will trace the inverse figure, but turned round O through the constant angle POQ. In the diagram forces Pp, Qq are balanced by the force Oo at the fixed point. The forces Pp and Qq are necessarily inversely as OP and OQ, and make equal angles with those lines. Every closed area formed by the links or the external forces in the diagram of configuration is marked by a letter which corresponds to a point of concourse of lines in the diagram of stress. The stress in the link which is the common boundary of two areas is represented in the diagram of stress by the line joining the points corresponding to those areas. When a link is divided into two or more parts by lines crossing it, the stress in each part is represented by a different line for each part, but as the stress is the sams throughout the link these lines are all equal and parallel. Thus in the figure the stress in RV is represented by the four equal and parallel lines HI, FG, DE, and AB. If two areas have no part of their boundary in common the letters corresponding to them in the diagram of stress are not joined by a straight line. If, however, a straight line were drawn between them, it would represent in direc tion and magnitude the resultant of all the stresses in the links which are cut by any line, straight or curved, joining the two areas. For instance the areas F and C in fig. 1 have no common boundary, and the points F and C in fig. 2 are not joined by a straight line. But every path from the area F to the area C in fig. 1 passes through a series of other areas, and each passage from one area into a contiguous area cor responds to a line drawn in the diagram of stress. Hence the whole pr.th from F to C in fig. 1 corresponds to a path formed of lines in fig. 2 and extending from F to C, and the resultant of all the stresses in the links cut by the path is represented by FC in fig. 2. Automatic Description of Diagrams. There are many other kinds of diagrams in which the two co-ordinates of a point in a plane are employed to indicate the simultaneous values of two related quantities. If a sheet of paper is made to move, say horizontally, with a constant known velocity, while a tracing point is made to move in a vertical straight line, the height varying as the value of any given physical quantity, the point will trace out a curve on the paper from which the value of that quantity at any given time may be determined. This principle is applied to the automatic registration of phenomena of all kinds, from those of meteorology and terrestrial magnetism to the velocity of cannon-shot, the vibrations of sounding bodies, the motions of animals, voluntary and involuntary, and the currents in electric telegraphs. Indicator Diagram. In Watt s indicator for steam engines the paper does not move with a constant velocity, but its displacement is proportional to that of the piston of the engine, while that of the tracing point is proportional to the pressure of the steam. Hence the co-ordinates of a point of the curve traced on the diagram represent the volume and the pressure of the steam in the cylinder. The indicator- diagram not only supplies a record of the pressure of the steam at each stage of the stroke of the engine, but indi cates the work done by the steam in each stroke by the area inclosed by the curve traced on the diagram. The indicator-diagram was invented by James Watt as a method of estimating the work done by an engine. It was afterwards used by Clapeyron to illustrate the theory of