From graphics for calculations to drawings for works. Exercises of students engineers of the Regia Scuola di Applicazione di Torino at the end of the nineteenth century Dalla grafica per calcolare ai disegni per costruire. Esercizi di allievi ingegneri della Regia Scuola di Applicazione di Torino di fine Ottocento

Abstract

Graphic representation can be a tool for analysis and synthesis that closely relates different areas of scientific knowledge. Among these, the Graphic Statics is a discipline that uses graphic techniques to solve the problems of the equilibrium of a rigid body, allowing to reach the definition through the composition or the decomposition of the forces represented in a conventional way. Specific geometrical methods are used to determine the tensions and pressures in structures, including complex ones, which are subjected to internal and external force systems. The contribution intends to present some didactic materials, also describing the historical and cultural context in which they matured, coming from the heritage preserved at the Politecnico di Torino relating to the graphic elaborations drawn by the students of the Reale Scuola di Applicazione at the end of the nineteenth century. These graphic illustrations show the ability of graphic calculation aimed to the study of the relationships between the geometry of the structure and the forces acting, associated with the art of the “buon disegno”