CnAi

TV.
PRINCIPLES OF
PROPORTION. 1043
west, and the clcir width between the plinths about two-thirds of that dimension, and this
is t!ie case with many examples.
The Section through the Nave
of
Winchester Cathedrd is highly deserving of our attention :
the clear width of the side aisles is 13 feet 1 inch, and that of the nave 32 feet 5
inches
;
the
clear width of the building between the outer walls is 80 feet, the thickness of the walls
16 feet 10 inches, the projection of the buttress 6 feet, and the thickness of the piers 10
feet 8 inches, making for the entire width from north to south 102 feet 8
inches.
The width between the walls forms the base of an equilateral triangle, the apex of which
determines the height of the vaulting of the nave
;
a semicircle struck upon this base, with
a radius of 52 feet, determines the intrados of the arches of the flying buttresses on each side,
wliich are admirably placed to resist the thrust opposed to them.
On this section we have endeavoured to apply the principles of Cesare Cesariano, before
referred to, to the measurement of mass and void by a method far more simple than that
usually adopted.
I3y covering the design with equilateral triangles we see the number occupied by the
solids, and can draw a comparison with those that cover the voids : to prevent confusion in
the diagram a portion only of three of the triangles has bt^en subdivided, to sliow with what
facility the quantities of the entire figure might be measured, if the several large equi-
laterals were subdivided throughout in a similar manner. The band wlijch extends
SECTION OP WINCHESTER CATHEDllAL
from the face of the outer buttress to the centre of the section contains 36 small equilateral
triangles, six of which cover the pier
;
consequently it occupies on the section one-sixth of
that quantity
;
no further calculation is requisite to find the proportion it bears to the
whole : in like manner the other parts of the section may be compared. Such was the use
of equilateral triangles in the middle ages for ascertaining quantity.
The two
equilateral triangles which occupy the nave and a portion of the piers are
comprised
within the ngiire called a Vesica Piscis
;
if the horizontal line drawn at half the
height, uniting the base of the upper and lower triangles, be taken as a radius, and its
extremities as centres, it will l>e evident that parts of circles may be struck, comprising the
two triangles within them. Euclid has shown that a perpendicular may be raised or let fall
from a given line by a similar method, the space between the segments being called afterwards
a nimbus; and there can be no doubt that from time immemorial all builders have used
it: the bee adopts for its honied cell a figure coinposed of six equilateral triangles, and
this is proved to be the most economical method of construction
; the sides of each hexagon
are all common to two cells, and no space is lost by their junction. The nearer the
boundary line of a figure approaches the circle, the more it will contain in proportion to it,
3x2