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The Wedge

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  • 28-12-2011 12:51am
    #1
    slowburner
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,219 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    Could there possibly be a simpler tool than the humble wooden wedge?
    There are probably very few inventions to equal its versatility or power.

    It's been around for the past 9,000 years.

    (......and for the mechanically minded amongst you, the screw is defined as 'a wedge on an inclined plane')


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    #2
    Carlow52
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,389 ✭✭✭Carlow52


    and for the mechanically minded amongst you, the screw is defined as 'a wedge on an inclined plane')
    :D

    This is another definition
    Definition of Screw
    Screw
    A cylinder, or a cylindrical perforation, having a continuous rib, called the thread, winding round it spirally at a constant inclination, so as to leave a continuous spiral groove between one turn and the next, -- used chiefly for producing, when revolved, motion or pressure in the direction of its axis, by the sliding of the threads of the cylinder in the grooves between the threads of the perforation adapted to it, the former being distinguished as the external, or male screw, or, more usually the screw; the latter as the internal, or female screw, or, more usually, the nut.
    :D


    Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/words/sc/screw216607.html#ixzz1hqPxs3la


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    #3
    slowburner
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,219 Mod ✭✭✭✭slowburner


    But it doesn't mention the action of the wedge. The passage of the thread through the timber, or whatever, is a wedging action by virtue of their inclination.


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    #4
    fergal.b
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 6,323 Mod ✭✭✭✭fergal.b


    It's just another version of the wedge and has also been around since the dawn of time.
    The peg

    Copy%20of%20Timber-Frame-hammer-Beam.jpg


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    #5
    slowburner
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,219 Mod ✭✭✭✭slowburner


    fergal.b wrote: »
    It's just another version of the wedge and has also been around since the dawn of time.
    The peg
    And much under used it is too.


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    #6
    1chippy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,716 ✭✭✭1chippy


    combine a sledge with the wedge and alls sorted.:D


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    #7
    slowburner
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,219 Mod ✭✭✭✭slowburner


    When you see a wedge being used to fall a massive tree in another direction to the way it naturally wants to go, you realise how powerful they are.

    No well built staircase will ever creak if wedges have been used in the stringer housings.

    And one of my favourite of all joints - the tusk tenon - brilliant if your timber isn't 100% dry.

    Not to mention their versatility in operations like lifting doors or for bringing one surface up to another as you do with folding wedges


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    #8
    1chippy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,716 ✭✭✭1chippy


    we were told in college that years ago, prior to blasting i think. they used to use tapered beech wedges driven into cracks on the top of rock faces. these were driven in and then water was poured around them so that the beech would swell and split off grains of rock.


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    #9
    slowburner
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,219 Mod ✭✭✭✭slowburner


    1chippy wrote: »
    we were told in college that years ago, prior to blasting i think. they used to use tapered beech wedges driven into cracks on the top of rock faces. these were driven in and then water was poured around them so that the beech would swell and split off grains of rock.
    Funny you should mention this. I have been researching an old quarry near me where granite was split this way.
    Here is a photo of a stone showing the second stage of the process - the stone has been roughly split along the line of bore holes.
    The technique dates back to the Neolithic period.
    A6139889142545B7A937E800D3670815-0000345227-0002689301-00640L-955998E9CB5949E0A7E729D11A08E028.jpg


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    #10
    Double Barrel
    Registered Users Posts: 1,464 ✭✭✭Double Barrel


    The practice has being around for a few years for sure. The Greeks and Romans used it to quarry marble. A few years after Neolithic period. :D

    Best Wishes for the New Year.


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    #11
    slowburner
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,219 Mod ✭✭✭✭slowburner


    And the same to you :)


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    #12
    slowburner
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,219 Mod ✭✭✭✭slowburner


    Ironically, this wedge tomb in county Wicklow shows a fine big granite boulder which has been split very neatly in two to form the supports (orthostats) for the massive cap stone or megalith. In all probability, wedges were used to split the stone using the technique mentioned above. This is not where the term 'wedge' tomb comes from, by the way; it refers to the common shape of this style of construction.

    C1A9E632F00941A19F93482A692B7B99-0000345227-0002667650-00800L-46C265F865734C6A90D6677221AEFB6D.jpg


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