Books › An Encyclopedia of the Violin, 1925 › scan 111
Scan 111
An Encyclopedia of the Violin, 1925
14 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 85. See the scan on archive.org.
1Care having been taken, then, to establish with exactitude the point lying in the exact center of the two F-holes, on the inner side of the sound board, take the compasses and opening them at exactly 21 millimeters (4/5"), set one of the points exactly on the place selected, and the other on the line which moves directly toward one of the F-holes. This spot is marked on the line, and turning around the point of the compasses, another spot is marked on the opposite side of the same line. Consequently these two spots which have been marked have an interval of exactly 42 millimeters (1 2/3") between them. Then take a rule, and from each of these spots draw a line which extends parallel to the joint along the length of the sound board, 83 millimeters (3 1/4") from the line moving toward the top of the violin, and 56 millimeters (2 1/5") from the line moving toward the bottom of the instrument. We will then have a square 139 millimeters (5 1/2") long by 42 millimeters (1 2/3") broad. All the wood of the sound board comprised within this square should have a mean thickness of 3 millimeters (1/8").
3Radiating out from all the exterior lines of this square, the proportion just given of 3 millimeters (1/8") diminishes insensibly, to fade away toward the edges of the sound board, where the latter rests on the ribs, the blocks and the corners, until it ends in a thickness of 1 1/2 millimeters (1/16").
5Thus, in order to make this perfectly plain, one might say that the thickness of the violin sound board, along the entire extension of its outlines, starting from the point where it no longer rests on the ribs, the blocks and the corners, is 1 1/2 millimeters (1/16"). In moving up from the edges of the sound board toward its center, which is the length of the square already mentioned, this thickness insensibly augments until the square is reached, where it is 3 millimeters (1/8") thick, which proportion should obtain with the most perfect exactitude throughout the interior of the square.
7The degrees of thickness of the back are in every way comparable to those of the sound board, with the only difference that in all of its proportions the thickness of the former is greater by 1 millimeter (1/25") than that of the latter.
9In order to give the sound board the degrees of thickness which have just been described, the following process should be observed. A block of hard wood 56 to 83 millimeters long (2" to 3"), should be set up in the form of a corner, as shown in Figure 15, Plate 32.
11Three lines should be drawn at right angles on one of the sides of this block; the first at that part of the block which is no more than 3 millimeters (1/8") thick; the second at the place where the block is exactly 2 millimeters (1/12") thick; the third, finally, at the place where it is exactly 1 1/2 millimeters (1/16") thick.
13It will be noticed that the first line indicates the thickness of the lengthwise; the second the thickness of the various parts of the sound board
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