¶ Curvature: Simple (1)
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Index Entry
Curvature: Simple:
"We can demonstrate the great structural gain inherent in the principle of simple curvature over rectilinear structures when we take a limp sheet of paper and curve it into a tube. Previously an amorphous diagram of little structural advantage, it afford dramatic structural ability in the form of a tube. When the paper is curved, the concave side forms an arch of infinitely minute parallel compression staves, fulcrums of pinched rows of atoms. The convex surface of the curved paper is stretched around the compression arch of parallel fulcrum lines-- tensed atoms.
“The paper may be reversed so that what has been the inside of the cylinder’s surface becomes the outside surface. Thus it is seen that the simple curvature structure is a principle and not a unique characteristic of the atoms constituting one surface or the other. The stability of simple curvature is enhanced by the length of the parallel lines. As the lines shorten to approach ‘points,’ the compression of the arch approaches the ball point which then tends to curve in any direction. The curved compression in the barrel or cylinder was confined to”
