596

THEORY or AKCHITECTUUE. Book II.

FiR. 611.
I 954. Where the piers supporting groins
(fff-
64'i. ) are made octangular, tlie angles of the
groins slioiilcl be cut oft' or arched as ribs, by
which they are rendered much stronger than
when they are square. In stone groins, where
the arch is cut oft", there is no advantage in point
of strength, and rather a defect in point of ap-
pearance, to the groined angles.
19.55. Arches intersecting a coved ceiling are
similar to groins. Such arches are called lunettes,
and are generally ))ractised for semicircul ir-
headed windows piercing the coves in the ceilintj
/iff.
643. exhil)its a plan and section of such arches.
1956. A dome is a solid, which may be con-
ceived to be generated by the figure of the b ise
diminishing as it rises, till it becomes a point at
the summit
;
and when a dome has a polygonal
base, the arches are plain arches, and the con-
struction is similar to that of a groin. A dome.l
ceiling of this kind upon a rectangular plan is
shown in plan 13 (/iij.
644.); the sections .\ A
being elliptical in the top, and with lunette win-
dows. C shows the geometrical constvuctioii.
V
rrv~"'^
'
^
^
w
Ur"
\
^