Book excerpt: Excerpt from Graphic and Analytic Statics: In Their Practical Application to the Treatment of Stresses in Roofs, Solid Girders, Lattice, Bowstring and Suspension Bridges, Braced Iron Arches and Piers, and Other Frameworks The branch of science known as Graphic Statics is gradually forcing itself on the attention of mathematicians and civil engineers as a rapid and elegant means of calculation, admirably adapted for finding the stresses induced in the members of roofs, bridges, and other frame-work types of structure. The aim of this work is, first of all, to place in a clear light the theory and relations of Graphic and Analytic Statics; and, then, to illustrate their practical application to the treatment of stress in the familiar forms of iron and wooden frameworks. Part I. deals with the fundamental principles of Graphic Statics, in which each proposition is proved, step by step, by the sole aid of pure geometry, without consciously leaving any serious gaps in the demonstrations to distress and discourage beginners. Part II. comprises the dual treatment of roof and bridge-structures by graphic and analytic methods; where results, formerly obtained by analytical calculation, are deduced in their analytical shape from the forms and relations existing in the graphic diagram. These new graphic demonstrations of familiar formulae will be found to agree with those analytically determined by Rankine and Bresse in various parts of their works on Applied Mechanics. Another special feature of the Second Part is the treatment of a given roof or bridge by two methods which mutually check and corroborate each other. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."