DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62828#0198
charged upon Vitruvius, becaufe he fpeaks of “ an augmenta-
tion that fhould be made in the middle of columnsbut Mr.
Newton, in a note in his book of Vitruvius, has cleared him
of this charge. See page 53. And Sir William Chambers takes
notice of an author who fuppofes the “ addition mentioned
by Vitruvius to lignify nothing but the increafe towards the
middle of the column, occafioned by changing the ftraight line
which at firft* was in ufe, for a curve.’*
“ This fuppofition,” fays Sir William, “ is extremely juft,
and founded on what is obferved in the works of antiquity;
where there is no inftance of columns thicker in the middle
than at the bottom, though all have the fwelling hinted at by
Vitruvius, all of them being terminated by curves.”
The method that this gentleman recommends as moft pro-
per for diminiihing columns, is by an inftrument which Nico-
medes invented to defcribe the firft conchoid; for this, being
applied at the bottom of the fhaft, performs at one fweep both
the fwelling and the diminution; giving fuch a graceful form
to the column, that it is univerfally allowed to be the moft per-
fect practice hitherto difcovered.
' This means, before the orders of architecture had received much improvement.
tion that fhould be made in the middle of columnsbut Mr.
Newton, in a note in his book of Vitruvius, has cleared him
of this charge. See page 53. And Sir William Chambers takes
notice of an author who fuppofes the “ addition mentioned
by Vitruvius to lignify nothing but the increafe towards the
middle of the column, occafioned by changing the ftraight line
which at firft* was in ufe, for a curve.’*
“ This fuppofition,” fays Sir William, “ is extremely juft,
and founded on what is obferved in the works of antiquity;
where there is no inftance of columns thicker in the middle
than at the bottom, though all have the fwelling hinted at by
Vitruvius, all of them being terminated by curves.”
The method that this gentleman recommends as moft pro-
per for diminiihing columns, is by an inftrument which Nico-
medes invented to defcribe the firft conchoid; for this, being
applied at the bottom of the fhaft, performs at one fweep both
the fwelling and the diminution; giving fuch a graceful form
to the column, that it is univerfally allowed to be the moft per-
fect practice hitherto difcovered.
' This means, before the orders of architecture had received much improvement.