358

THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE. Book II

that necessary to makt' it slide, and, reciprocally, it will be overtv Jcd when less force i>
necessary to ])rodiice tliat eflect than to make it slide.
1366. II. When tlie parallelopiped is placed on an inclined plane, it will slide so long
as the vertical QS drawn from its centre of gravity does not fall without the base Ali.
Hence, to ascertain whether a parallelopiped A13CD with a
rectangular base
(^fig.
564.)
will slide down or overturn
;
from
the ])oiiit B we must raise the perpendicular BE : if it pass out
of tlie centre of gravity, it will slide ; if, on the contrary, the
line BE passes within, it will overturn.
1367. If the surfaces of stones were infinitely smooth, as
they are supposed to be in the application of the principles of
'Fir.
sci.
mechanics, they would begin to slide the moment the plane
upon which they are placed ceases to be perfectly horizontal
;
but as their surfaces are full
of little inequalities which catch one another in their positions, llondelet found, by re-
peated experiments, that even those whose surfaces are wrought in the best manner do not
begin to slide u])on the best worked planes of similar stone to the solids until such planes
are inclined at angles varying from 28 to .36 degrees. This difficulty of moving one stone
upon another increases as the roughness of their surfaces, and, till a certain point, as their
weight: for it is manifest, 1st, That the rougher their surfaces, the greater are the in-
equalities which catch one another. 2d. That the greater their weight, the greater is the
ertbrt necessary to disengage them
;
but as these inequalities are susceptible of being
broken up or bruised, the maximimi of force wanting to overcome the friction must be
equal to that which produces this effect, whatever the weight of the stone. 3d. That this
proportion is rather as the hardness than the weight of the stone.
1 :568. In experiments on the sliding of hard stones of ditVerent sizes which weighed from
2 to 60 lbs., our author found that the friction which was more than half the weight
for the smaller was reduced to a third for the larger. He remarked that after each experi-
ment made with the larger stones a sort of dust was disengaged bj tlie friction. In soft
stones this dust facilitated the sliding.
1.369. These circumstances, which would have considerable influence on stones of a great
weight, were of little importance in the experiments whifli will be cited, the object being
to verify upon hard stones, whose mass was small, the result of operations which the tlieory
was expected to confirm. By many exi)erinients very carefully made upon hard freestone
well wrouglit and squared, it was found, 1st, That they did not begin to slide upon a ])lane
of the same material equally well wrought until it was incliiiea a little more than 30 degrees.
2d. Tliat to drag upon such stone a parallelopiped of the same material, a little more than
half its weight was required. Thus, to drag upon a level plane a paruUelopiped 6 in. long,
4 in. wide, and 2 in. thick, weighing 4 lbs. lloz., (the measures and weights are French,
ES throughout*), it was necessary to employ a weight etjual to 2 lbs. 7 oz. .and 4 drs.
3d. That the size of the rubbing surface is of no couseciuence, since exactly the same force
is necessary to move this parallelojiiped upon a face of two in. wide as ujiou one of 4.
1370. Taking then into consideration that by the principles of mechanics it is proved,
that to raise a perfectly smooth body, or one which is round u])on an homogeneous j)lane
inclined at an angle of 30 degrees, a jiower must be employed parallel to the plane which
acts with a force rather greater than half its weight, we may conclude that it reipiires as
much force to drag a parallelopiped of freestone ujion an horizontal plane of the same
material as to cause the motion up an inclined plane of 30 degrees of a round or infinitely
polished body.
1 .371. From these considerations in applying the jirinciples of mechanics to arches composed
of freestone well wrought, a plane inclined at 30 degrees might be considered as one upon
which the voussoirs would be sustained, or, in other words, e(juivalent to an iiorizontal plane.
1372. We shall here submit another experiment, which tends to establish such an hy])o.
thesis. If a parallelopiped C
{fig.
565.) of this stone be placed
between two others, BD, IIS, whose masses are each double,
upon a plane of the same stone, the parallelopiped C is sus-
tained by the frictiju alone of the vertical surfaces that touch
it. This effect is a consetjuence of our hypothesis
;
for, the
inequalities of the surfaces of bodies being stopped by one ano-
ther, the parallelopiped C, before it can fall, must push aside the
two others, BD, US, by making them slide along the horizontal
plane of the same material, and for that purpose a force must be employed ecjual to cIouIki
the weight sustained.
*
The Paris pound = T^fil Troy grains.
Ounce = 47'2"')'i25.
Dram or gros = .')9l)703.
CtMW ~ 0-8-2Ot.
And as thii KiiRlish avoirdupois pound = 70(10 Troy grains, it contiiins H538 I'aris grain*
The I'iiris foot of 12 iiiclies = 12-7977 KMslish inc-hrs.
1 he Pdi is line
i^ one-l*i''th of the loot.