A NEW MEASURING INSTRUMENT
A machine was described at a recent meeting of the Social* d’Enoouragement pour Nationale, at Paris, called profilograph, because, when in use, it traces mechani* oally on paper the outlines of the ground over which it travels. It is described in one of our foreign contemporaries as a small carriage mounted on two wheels, drawn by one man, and attended by another, who marts the levels at the proper places ; and underneath hangs an iron rod with a large ball at its lower end, serving as a pendulum. This pendulum maintains a constant vertical position, while the machine inclines in one direction or the other, according as it ascends or descends a slope. To the upper end of the rod is fitted a pencil, which marks on a sheet of paper the ups and downs of the country traversed, whether on an ordinary road or across trackIsss fields. The exact profile is thus recorded to a given scale. At the same time, one of the wheels, acting the part of chain-bearer, measures and indicates the distances travelled throughout the survey. For surveyors and others engaged in levelling operations, this machine would appear to be eminently serviceable, and there is talk of its being made use of in a new general survey of France contemplated by the Q-ovemn.ent.
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Bibliographic details
Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2024, 19 August 1880, Page 2
Word Count
221A NEW MEASURING INSTRUMENT Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2024, 19 August 1880, Page 2
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