Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)
Context: The Greeks designed by a modulus of fixed measure, and that modulus, for the Doric order, was the distance between centers of the triglyphs.... The triglyphs stand in the frieze, at the corners of the building and at regular intervals at all sides of it; between then are panels, called metopæ, which are always square. The distance between the triglyphs, therefore, determines the height of the frieze. The height of the frieze determines that of the architrave, which is the same. The distance between the triglyphs also determines the spacing of the columns, for except at the corners of the building the center of each column coincides with that of every second triglyph. Upon the spacing of the triglyphs, therefore, depend absolutely the proportions of plan and order. That spacing constitutes a fixed modulus for the entire design which never varies in its application and is, in fact, the harmonic scale of the monument.<!--Ch. II
Source: Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922), Ch. II
Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)
Preface p. v
A History of Greek Mathematics (1921) Vol. 1. From Thales to Euclid
Source: The Doctrine of the Mean
“Any schoolboy could see that man as a force must be measured by motion, from a fixed point.”
On the genesis of two of his historical and autobiographical works.
The Education of Henry Adams (1907)
Context: Any schoolboy could see that man as a force must be measured by motion, from a fixed point. Psychology helped here by suggesting a unit — the point of history when man held the highest idea of himself as a unit in a unified universe. Eight or ten years of study had led Adams to think he might use the century 1150-1250, expressed in Amiens Cathedral and the Works of Thomas Aquinas, as the unit from which he might measure motion down to his own time, without assuming anything as true or untrue, except relation. The movement might be studied at once in philosophy and mechanics. Setting himself to the task, he began a volume which he mentally knew as "Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres: a Study of Thirteenth-Century Unity." From that point he proposed to fix a position for himself, which he could label: "The Education of Henry Adams: a Study of Twentieth-Century Multiplicity." With the help of these two points of relation, he hoped to project his lines forward and backward indefinitely, subject to correction from any one who should know better. Thereupon, he sailed for home.
Source: A spiral model of software development and enhancement. (1988), p. 61-62
“Seek not the measure of matter; fix your gaze
Upon the power of reason, not of bulk;
For reason 'tis that all things overcomes.”
Materiae ne quaere modum; sed perspice vires
Quas ratio, non pondus habet; ratio omnia vincit.
Materiae ne quaere modum; sed perspice vires
Quas ratio, non pondus habet; ratio omnia vincit.
Book IV, line 924, as reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of Quotations (classical) (1897), p. 130.
Astronomica
“He’d seen too often how little of the universe is designed for man to neglect any safety measure.”
Section 2 “Arsenal Port”, Chapter III (p. 93)
The Star Fox (1965)
Source: Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922), Ch. II
Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)
