Stereotomy: Problems in Stone Cutting by S. Edward Warren is a geometrical study of the shapes used in masonry construction. John Wiley and Son published this New York edition in 1875. The title page identifies students of engineering and architecture as its intended readers.
Four classes of stonecutting problems
Warren organizes the book by the kind of surface involved: plane-sided structures, structures containing developable surfaces, structures containing warped surfaces, and structures containing double-curved surfaces. This classification gives the reader a way to connect an individual problem with a broader geometrical method.
The opening principles explain stonecutting as the shaping of prescribed forms from rough blocks so that the pieces combine in an arch, dome or other structure. Plans, elevations, sections and developments serve as working representations of those forms.
The value of the book lies in this connection between drawing and making. A finished arch can conceal the complexity of its joints. Warren instead asks how the required surfaces and edges can be determined before a stone is cut.
From plane surfaces to arches
The first class includes problems in forming plane surfaces, a sloping wall and a plane-faced wing wall. These introduce comparatively simple forms before the discussion moves to curved work. The contents show the progression clearly, making it possible to choose an example suited to the reader’s level.
The second class begins with arches and the definitions, classification and preliminary construction required to describe them. Circle sections and curves receive attention before the worked examples introduce such forms as a descending arch in a circular wall and a semicylindrical arch.
Other examples include an oblique groined arch, a trompet arch and a conical trompet arch. The terminology belongs to the technical literature of the period. The accompanying explanations and drawings help clarify the particular form intended by each name.
The oblique arch and warped surfaces
The third class includes the oblique arch, a subject that receives extended treatment. Warren discusses projection, directing helices and their application, along with the relationship between spiral and meridian courses. These are geometrical questions about how joints and courses follow a skewed form.
The contents also identify a corne Marseillaise groin, a warped-faced wing wall and a conoidal wing wall. These examples broaden the discussion beyond a single arch opening and show how surfaces change when a wall or vault departs from a simple regular arrangement.
For a reader accustomed to ordinary rectangular building units, these problems reveal a different part of the craft. Each piece has to participate in the geometry of the whole. The drawings provide the intermediate information needed to describe that relationship.
Double-curved forms
The final class turns to structures with double-curved surfaces. It includes trompet work, a cloister arch groin, an oblique lunette in a spherical dome and annular and radiant groined work. These problems extend the earlier methods to more complicated intersections.
The book is best read with its plates beside the relevant explanation. Lettered points, projected curves and construction lines are part of the argument. Reading the prose alone loses much of the information that makes a worked example useful.
Using this historical textbook
In the preface, Warren emphasizes representative examples rather than a catalogue of every possible structure. His note to teachers outlines ways to select problems for shorter or more advanced courses. That makes the volume useful evidence for the teaching of practical geometry as well as for the history of stonecraft.
This free ebook suits architectural researchers, stonecraft historians and readers with an interest in descriptive geometry. It is a historical textbook, and its geometrical exercises should be distinguished from current requirements for structural design and construction.
The PDF contains 156 digital pages, including preliminary matter, text and drawings. It is an image-based scan. Enlarge the fine labels and follow the printed figure references carefully; the PDF page position and the printed page number are different systems of navigation.
Book details
- Author: S. Edward Warren
- Publisher: John Wiley and Son, New York
- Year: 1875
- Edition: No numbered edition stated
- Digital length: 156 PDF pages
- Language: English
- File size: 3.84 MB
