Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Presentation and Workshop at Hale Village and Farm, 2 PM, June 22.


Yes!
Here's the link: 
https://www.wrhs.org/hfv_adult_workshops_2018/



Here's the announcement:
 


Wondering what these diagrams have to do with historic structures? They are 'Practical Geometry'.
Consider that those buildings we love were often built before we had tape measures. This is what we used. Curious? Find your compass and show up at Hale Village and Farm outside Cleveland on June 22.

I'm giving a lecture with lots of illustrations and a hands-on workshop. No math ability required. I will have compasses to share






I will use the Streetsboro Baptist Church as an example. We can look at it inside and out as it is now in the Hale Village. I'd like to see the framing, of course. Maybe there's a hatch into the  attic.



I will also show the geometry of the brick Jonathan Hale House, begun in 1810.
The house plan and elevations are squares with a straight forward application of the Rule of Thirds determining window and door placement.




The window geometry is a little more subtle; it uses the intersection of the arcs of the sides of 2 squares for the sash size.
A framer - or in this case a mason - would build the house and then turn the finish work over to a joiner whose knowledge of practical geometry would be more sophisticated.
The pane sizes were determined by dividing the width into quarter and the height into thirds,

I will take my daisy wheel. It is incised into a 9' length of sheathing from a 1780 barn built for/by a Quaker farmer in Vermont.
It will help explain how geometry was a practical way to layout and measure parts.  







                If you come to the talk, please introduce yourself.