Note 13 — Chapter II

Nothing can be more unsatisfactory than the system of scales used in Mr. Newton’s work. They are in feet and decimals of a foot; a mode of notation very rarely used for any purpose, and never, so far as I know, adopted by any architect in his professional practice. The consequence is that such scales are not to be purchased; and if ordered there is the greatest possible difficulty in getting them made. The inconvenience is aggravated in this case by the slovenly practice of not putting scales to the plates: all the information the engraver condescends to is “Scale 1 ÷ 30,” or “1 ÷ 10,” &c., as the case may be. The consequence is that not one person in a hundred understands to what scale the drawings are made, and not one in a thousand will take the trouble to construct the scales which are indispensably necessary to enable him to study the plates.