94 THE IDYL OF THE SPLIT-BAMBOO 



In planning a rod to have a straight or uniformly- 

 graduated taper from butt to tip, the caliber of that 

 rod at any cross-section throughout its length is read- 

 ily determined by means of a diagram plotted as we 

 will now explain; and even if it be not intended to 

 have your rod of an absolutely uniform taper, such 

 a diagram nevertheless furnishes a convenient basis 

 for whatever modifications may be determined upon, 

 and lets the reader into the secret of how he may 

 design a rod of any taper or combination of tapers 

 desired. 



Taper diagram for plotting rod 



Say that we have in mind a fly-rod of ten feet in 

 length, of Vie inch diameter where the butt joins the 

 handgrasp, and Me inch at the tip. We will reduce 

 it to a drawing in this way, each quarter-inch of 

 length in our illustration representing one foot of 

 actual rod-length. In practise we prefer to have the 

 drawing on a larger scale, so that each iVa inches 

 represents a foot, when % inch then represents an 

 inch of the real rod and %e inch stands for a half- 

 inch. The diameters of your rod are the actual 

 lengths of these cross-lines of your diagram, at the 



