Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.14043

    Hexagonal surface plate

    Date
    1877
    Creator
    Unknown, Engraver
    Object type
    Library reference
    RCN41234
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 246mm
    width (print): 175mm
    Subject
    Content object
    Description
    Plan and elevations of a Whitworth-manufactured flat plane surface for use in engineering workshops.

    Figures 1-3 from the book The Whitworth measuring machine…, by T.M. Goodeve and C.P.B. Shelley (Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1877).

    In the accompanying text, the authors state that: ‘The surface plate [exhibited at the Glasgow meeting of the British Association in 1840] …was made of cast iron, and consisted of a rectangular plane table, ribbed at the back, and resting on three bearing faces…Sir Joseph Whitworth has lately patented an hexagonal surface plate (see figs, 1, 2,and 3) with the view of preventing irregular straining, the points of attachment being identical with the points of support’.

    Inscribed below: ‘Plan and elevations of Hexagonal Surface-plate.’

    Sir Joseph Whitworth (1803–1887), British mechanical engineer and machine tool manufacturer, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1857.

    Associated place
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