Practical Geometry: Construction Before the Industrial Revolution Part 1

25 East Main Street,Cambridge NY 12816

03 March, 2023

Description

Can you draw a square with a compass and a straight edge (a ruler with no numbers on it)? Your ancestors could. They used Geometry to work out the designs of quilts, furniture, machine parts, and buildings. This 'Practical Geometry' was taught in school as an art and a technical skill until at least 1930. Even as machines made many things, people who worked with their hands, who designed and built, used geometry. They who built the pyramids and they who built the houses and barns in Cambridge used compasses, twine, lines, straight edges and pegs for layout and design. In our first meeting, I will share this history with a power point presentation. We will practice drawing a square beginning with a circle. In the second meeting we will draw more complex patterns for craft work or a house design using a compass, straight edge, and a pencil. Taught by architect and historian Jane Griswold Radocchia. Both sessions will meet in the Board room of the Beacon Feed Studio, Hubbard Hall campus.