Page:International Library of Technology, Volume 53.djvu/10

Rh indexes are so full and complete, that it can at once be made available to the reader. The numerous examples and explanatory remarks, together with the absence of long demonstrations and abstruse mathematical calculations, are of great assistance in helping one to select the proper formula, method, or process and in teaching him how and when it should be used.

Four of the volumes composing this library are devoted to the subject of architectural and decorative design. Special attention has been given to the arrangement of the subjects in a naturally consecutive order, so that the fundamental principles underlying the advanced subjects may be thoroughly understood before the broader and freer subjects depending on the taste of each individual are considered. This volume, the first of the series, is devoted to the subjects of Geometrical, Freehand, Perspective, and Architectural Drawing, which are treated purely from the mechanical standpoint of making accurate scale sketches and working drawings according to accepted practice. The mathematical precision required to make an accurate drawing for any purpose, is herein treated on the principle that the freest and most broadly artistic rendering is at all times built on a skeleton, or framework, of accurate proportions, and the student must understand the mathematical principles by which these proportions can be determined before he can take up the subject of rendering in any medium the light and shade values that go to make the drawing pictorial.

The method of numbering the pages, cuts, articles, etc, is such that each subject or part is complete in itself; hence, to make the index intelligible, it was necessary to give each subject or part a number. This number is placed at the top of each page, on the headline, opposite the page number; and to distinguish it from the page number it is preceded by the printer's section mark (§). Consequently, a reference such as § 16, page 26, will be readily found by looking along the inside edges of the headlines until § 16 is found, and then through § 16 until page 26 is found.