no PROPOSED SYSTEM. 



SYNOPSIS. 

 Proposed Symbolic Nomenclature of Staple Products. 



Obiects f Numer - f Digits, indicating.. Pieces. ~\ These parts unite with 



J d als, end- < I others of the same kind to 



icnated 1 ing in l Ci P ners indicating Components. > form the next kind below in 



8 u ] order. Members unite to 



' t Letters, indicating Members. J form the staple product. 



Every minor object requires at least the member letter and a 

 number to define it. To the member letter are prefixed as many 

 descriptive letters, not exceeding three, as the lack of other 

 means of definition, such as the Shop-Order number, may require. 



Members omit piece numbers. 



Staples omit the member letter and affix numbers indicating 

 degrees of incompleteness. 



[From the American Machinist of Sept. 10, 1881.] 



NOMENCLATURE OF MACHINE DETAILS. 

 BY OBERLIN SMITH. 



A Paper read before the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 



That the nomenclature of machinery, and of the tools and 

 apparatus with which it is constructed, is, in this country, in a 

 state of considerable confusion, scarcely needs demonstrating. 

 If we look from an international point of view, and include the 

 other English-speaking countries Great Britain and her colo- 

 nies, the confusion becomes worse confounded. A reform is 

 destined, in due time, to come, doubtless to be promoted in 

 great degree by such societies as ours. This reform movement 

 cannot be begun too soon, and should aim at giving brief and 

 suggestive names to all objects dealt with, each* object to have 

 but one name, and each name to belong to but one object. 

 A simple method of beginning such a reform would be a com- 

 mon agreement among all our engineering schools to use each 

 technical word in but one sense, and with no synonyms. 



A lesser field of reform, and one which lies more particularly 

 within the jurisdiction of individual manufacturers, is the com- 

 parative designation of a number of sizes or kinds of the same 

 machine. There is now no common understanding whether a 

 series of sizes shall be numbered or lettered from the largest 



