Geometria e pratica del costruire nell'opera di Peter Nicholson

Within the European treatises of the nineteenth-century related to the engineering, particularly interesting are the works of Peter Nicholson, a Scottish architect, mathematician and engineer. His versatile personality of scientist , brought it to deal, with rigor and practical mind, some subjects that had never before been dealt systematically in Britain. His extensive literary production, which ranges from teaching to aspects of professional practice, has a significant essay in A popular and Practical treatise on masonry and stone-cutting.Published in 1828, when he was in its full scientific maturity, the Treatise deals with the complex issue of stereotomy that Nicholson directs both to engineers – responsibles for the design of masonry structures – and the workers – to whom is demanded the executive task.Though referring to the already known French treatises, Nicholson exposes, in an essential and original way, unpublished methodological approaches supported by relevant examples. He puts before some basic problems of plane and solid geometry, the principles of descriptive geometry and projections necessary to the understanding of this difficult branch of the art of building.The practical and not merely speculative interest of his work makes of it a significant milestone in the history of engineering.