Scientific American Supplement, No. 794, March 21, 1891 by Various
page 24 of 146 (16%)
page 24 of 146 (16%)
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the other pair by a single wheel, the portion q' f' f' q' of the
machine virtually disappearing. Three wheels, of course, would be a real improvement. Further, we should have the sum curve and primitive drawn to the same base line, and the simplification in the number of parts ought largely to reduce the cost of the instrument. To be able to perform "inverse summation" (which in the language of differential calculus is to find y as a function of x, when we are given y=f(dy/dx), and not dy/dx=f(x) as usual), we only want a means of making the plane of the wheel, w, parallel instead of perpendicular to m' m', and it is easy to design a modification in the construction which will allow of this change. I hope the above description of the integraph may have made its construction and method of working sufficiently clear. Those of you who have a taste for mechanical work, and the necessary tools, might, I think, with some patience, construct a workable integraph. I expect the pivots would be the hardest part of the work. I hope, some day, myself to have another instrument made with a more readily changeable polar distance, with trace and guide points working in the same vertical, and a wheel permitting of inverse summation. If this project is ever carried out, I hope I may be permitted to communicate further particulars to our society. * * * * * After some forty years of immersion in the waters of the pool of Echoschacht, not far from Hermannstadt, several human bodies have been brought to the surface in a state of perfect preservation. |
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