Scientific American Supplement, No. 794, March 21, 1891 by Various
page 13 of 146 (08%)
page 13 of 146 (08%)
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graphically, and we may take, as characteristic examples of them,
Amsler's planimeter and some of the sphere integrating machines. An integrator which draws an absolute picture of the sum or integral is better termed an "integraph." The distinction is an important and valuable one, for while the integraph theoretically can do all the work of the integrator, the latter gives us in niggardly fashion one narrow answer, _et præterea nil_. The superiority of the integraph over the integrator cannot be better pointed out than by a concrete example. The integrator could determine by one process, the bending moment, from the shear curve, at any one chosen point of a beam; the integraph would, by an equally simple single process, gives us the bending moment at all points of the beam. In the language of the mathematician, the integrator gives only that miserly result, a definite integral, but the integraph yields an indefinite integral, a picture of the result at all times or all points--a much greater boon in most mechanical and physical investigations. Members of our Society as students of University College have probably become acquainted with a process termed "drawing the sum curve from the primitive curve." Many have probably found this process somewhat wearisome; but this is not an unmixed evil, as the irksomeness of any manual process has more than once led to the invention of a valuable machine by the would-be idler. Thus our innate desire to take things easy is a real incentive to progress. It was some such desire as this on my part which led me, three years ago, to inquire whether a practical instrument had not been, or could not be, constructed to draw sum curves. Such an instrument is an integraph, and the one I have to describe to you to-night is the outcome of that inquiry. It is something better than my title, for it is an integraph, |
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