Wedge formation

“ He has the rare peculiarity of standing by himself; he is peculiarly steep, too, and is also most oddly shaped. He towers into the sky like a colossal wedge, with the upper third of its blade bent a little to the left. The broad base of this monster wedge is planted upon a grand glacier-paved Alpine platform whose elevation is ten thousand feet above sea level; as the wedge itself is some five thousand feet high, it follows that its apex is about fifteen thousand feet above sea level. ”

“ Wedge, turning as it moved, always faced it. It quickened its pace into a trot, and as it ran it looked only occasionally at the man in the centre. It seemed more interested in the wall. At times it stretched its head and peered upwards.
In its lean white jaw and yellow eyes there was no message of hatred for the moment. Suddenly it stopped and listened. The clicking of the cinematograph had attracted it. It stood up against the wall, clawing at the paint. Then it squatted on its haunches, with its back to Wedge, and blinked up at the platform overhead. ”

“ Among other things we may easily imagine the apex of the wedge to suffer considerably in some places, and to be ground off till it may have a blunt base, not only of 8 feet, but of many yards in width. ”

“ It was difficult to see clearly, for the light of the arc-lamps was intense. He stared up, shielding his eyes, and then suddenly he saw what they were. A couple of cinematograph machines were trained on the floor below!
It was not until then that Wedge fully realised his position. The picture of the man fighting the rattlesnakes was suddenly explained. He remembered the pit. He walked to the centre and stood with clenched fists. Here was the pit. Extremely life-like!
He stooped and picked up the cudgel. At any rate, whatever he had to face, he would make a fight for it. ”

“ The advantages of the plug-and-feather method are that it reduces the width of the slot at the top, leaving it wider below and hence to a large extent preventing the sharp edge of the wedge from touching the bottom of the wedge-slot, and that, since the faces of the feathers are smooth, it tends to {5} obtain the maximum advantage of the lateral force exerted by the wedge in the most evenly distributed way and with a minimum of friction. ”

“ When the wood cleaves at any distance before the wedge, (as it generally does) the power impelling the wedge will be to the resistance of the wood, as half the length of the back is to the length of either of the sides of the cleft, estimated from the top, or acting part of the wedge. ”

“ The Wedge.—Wedges are used to separate objects, as in splitting wood (see Fig. 102) , cutting wood, and where great force is to be exerted for short distances. An axe is a wedge, so is a knife. A fork consists of several round wedges set in a handle. The edge of any cutting tool is either an inclined plane or a wedge. Our front teeth are wedges. Numerous examples of inclined planes may be seen about us.
No definite statement as to the mechanical advantage of the wedge can be given as the work done depends largely on friction. The force used is generally applied by blows on the thick end. ”

“ A wedge should never be driven at the center of the cross-beam, except it may be in special cases, and then only after the timbers have taken the weight. The position of the wedges above the collar should be slightly inside of or toward the center of the entry from the top of the leg, so that the line of pressure will act to arch the weight over the airway. ”

“ It is a common belief, that if a shepherd drives a wedge into their holes, they apply a certain kind of herb,2944 immediately upon which it falls out. Trebius informs us that if a nail or wedge is driven with ever so much force into a tree in which these birds have made their nest, it will instantly fly out, the tree making a loud cracking noise the moment that the bird has lighted upon the nail or wedge. ”

“ Some judgment is required in tempering wedges, as they must be hard enough at the point to prevent bending, and yet not hard enough to break. The file test is as good as any. The edge of the wedge point should never be hammered thin before tempering, but left rather thick to be reduced to the proper degree of sharpness on the grinding stone. The wooden gluts are usually considerably larger than the iron wedges; these are to be made from hard, tough, well-seasoned timber—round stout poles are convenient for making them. ”

“ Bodding could never have so simply and beautifully explained the occurrence of stone wedges in tree trunks. But to a realist, the story would be something like this:
A man who needed a tree, in a land of jungles, where, for some unknown reason, every one's very selfish with his trees, conceives that hammering stone wedges makes less noise than does the chopping of wood: he and his descendants, in a course of many years, cut down trees with wedges, and escape penalty, because it never occurs to a prosecutor that the head of an ax is a wedge. ”

“ If the branch is large a wedge is driven in the center to hold the split cavity apart and to relieve the pressure upon the scions which are to be inserted. Wood of the last season's growth is procured from the variety which it is desired to propagate and the lower end of the scion, which is made about 4 inches long, is whittled to a wedge shape, after which it is inserted in the slit made upon the stock. ”

“ Museum negative no. 44531, 8-9 from the west of south.
Tools Used by Men.
A number of objects which seem to be tools intended to be used by men are found in this region. Among these may be mentioned a wedge, hammerstones, a celt, a hand-adze, drills, scrapers, and an arrow-shaft smoother.
Wedges. Wedges made of antler were not frequently found by us as in the Thompson River region, [146] although according to Lewis, elk horn wedges or chisels were used for splitting wood in the general plateau region of which this is a part. ”

“ Then a [46] wedge is placed at the base of one of the scarves and driven home with the sledge. Another, parallel to it, is driven in further down, and a third parallel at the lower scarf. As the wedges are driven home, the bole will split and a great section may be lifted off like a lid, exposing the honey and the bees. ”

“ Lighten any check, mitigate the destruction ever so little, and the number of the species will almost instantaneously increase to any amount. The face of Nature may be compared to a yielding surface, with ten thousand sharp wedges packed close together and driven inwards by incessant blows, sometimes one wedge being struck, and then another with greater force. ”

“ A wedge is considered to be the most simple of "mechanical powers," and is often used in cases where no other apparatus can be made to apply; as in splitting logs and other adhesive articles. If a massive rock is to be elevated from the ground, a wedge must first be driven between that and its foundation, preparatory to the application of levers. Yet the wedge is in most cases objectionable on account of the friction with which its use is attended. The next, and most common power applied for elevating buildings on large rocks, is the simple lever, commonly called a pry. ”

“ The equally-inclined sides of the wedge-form of edge hitherto alone described as belonging to axes, and the equal pressure this form necessarily exerts upon each side if a blow is given in the plane of the axe, suggest what will be the action of an axe if the angle of the wedge is not bisected by the middle line of the metal. ”

“ The writer agrees with the author that the theory of a sliding wedge is the best practical one for retaining walls, and if the face of the wedge be keyed tight, as stated by the author, or through the compacting of the material into a more solid mass, it will be seen that, with no break, the resultant pressures against the wall or face are virtually those, not only of a sliding, but of a solid wedge tending to slide on the plane of repose, the mass being compactly held together by cohesion [452] induced by lateral pressure. ”

“ Now the power yielded by sallying may be considered as corresponding with that obtained by a wedge acted on by a heavy weight; the wedge, in this case, being the portion of the ship’s side that becomes depressed, operating by virtue of the expansion of the ship’s width when heeling, and the force acting on the wedge being the weight transferred from an even distribution with an upright position of the ship, to an accumulation of weight on one side, inducing a heeling position. ”

“ Spindle-like in shape, but thicker in front than behind, a Fish resembles {350}a double wedge, the thick part of which is represented by the head and one of the thin edges by the free hinder margin of the caudal fin. The body is bounded by smooth flowing contour lines, unbroken by any sharp separation of the body regions from one another, and with no points of resistance to its forward motion through the water. ”

“ WEDGE. At the University of Cambridge, Eng., the man whose name is the last on the list of honors in the voluntary classical examination, which follows the last examination required by statute, is called the wedge. "The last man is called the wedge" says Bristed, "corresponding to the Spoon in Mathematics. This name originated in that of the man who was last on the first Tripos list (in 1824) , Wedgewood. Some one suggested that the wooden wedge was a good counterpart to the wooden spoon, and the appellation stuck."—Five Years in an Eng. ”

“ The reason why horses are eased by taking a zig-zag direction, in ascending or descending a steep hill, will appear from the preceding account of the action of the inclined plane, because in this way the effective length of the inclining surface is increased while its height remains the same.
The Wedge is rather a compound, than a distinct mechanical power; since it is composed of two inclined planes, and in action frequently performs the functions of a lever. It is sometimes employed in raising bodies; thus the largest ship may be raised to a small height by driving a wedge below it ”

“ On the other hand, the wedge must be strong enough to sustain the bending resistance and also to support the cutting edge. In other words, the more acute the cutting edge, the easier the work, and hence the wedge is made as thin as is consistent with strength. This varies all the way from hollow ground razors to cold-chisels. For soft wood, the cutting angle (or bevel, or bezel) of chisels, gouges and plane-irons, is small, even as low as 20°; for hard wood, it must be greater. For metals, it varies from 54° for wrought iron to 66° for gun metal.
Fig. 61. Edge and Wedge Action With the Grain. ”

“ The northern section of Natal before the war16 roughly assumed the shape of a wedge driven in between the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. The Drakensberg Range on the one side and the Buffalo River on the other formed the cleaving surfaces, Majuba and Laing's Nek were the cutting edge, and the base was the Tugela River.
In mechanics a wedge is an instrument which can be usefully employed only under favourable circumstances. It has many disadvantages. It is easily jammed. The driving power at the base must be considerable; much of the force is absorbed by the friction on the surfaces ”

“ Head of the same Wedge.
4'. c. Obtuse apex of the same, articulating with the triangular frontal facet of the Atlas (4. b.) In young animals this frontal facet is nearly smooth and flat; in older animals (3. b'.) it is rugged and furrowed. This articulation must have given to the first sub-vertebral wedge great power as a stay or prop, to resist the downward pressure of the head, at the same time facilitating the rotatory movements of the Occipital bone.
Fig. 4. c. Second sub-vertebral wedge articulating with the triangular cavity formed by the marginal facets of the Atlas and Axis. ”

“ Evidently the saw teeth on its sides were to hold its progress up the face of the sand bank in much the same way as its spines held its progress through the bushes.
The wedge insect, upon topping the bank, made a beeline for the edge of the clearing, thrust its nose between two saplings, furled its eyes, braced it feet against the ground, and started forcing its way through. Quick as a flash, Myles Cabot darted from his hiding place and followed. ”

“ When one or both arms are thrown into a horizontal position they show themselves as a sidewise growth of the body, like the limb of a tree, and consequently have their base in the center of the back, or in the center of the front. For the purpose of permitting the arms to drop down to the side, a wedge, or gusset, or a lap, is made between the top of the armhole and sleeve, which is taken up when the arm drops down into its natural position at the side. ”

“ Laid on the surface of a piece of split oak, a rough, uneven surface, due to the gash made by the wedge, it twists and writhes, moves the front part of its body very slowly from left to right and right to left, lifts it a little, lowers it and begins again. These are the most extensive movements made. The vestigial legs remain inert and absolutely useless. ”

“ As soon as the split has begun, the edge of the wedge serves no further purpose, but the sides bear against the split surfaces of the wood. The split runs ahead of the wedge as it is driven along until the piece is divided. ”

“ It was by means of the wedge that primitive people obtained slabs of wood, and the great change from primitive to civilized methods in manipulating wood consists in the substitution of cutting for splitting, of edge tools for the wedge. The wedge follows the grain of the wood, but the edge tool can follow a line determined by the worker. The edge is a refinement and improvement upon the wedge and enables the worker to be somewhat independent of the natural grain of the wood. ”