Earthwork Reckoning for Digging a Ditch
Paces of ditch, shovelfuls and barrow-loads of excavated earth
Columns of arithmetic run down the left margin of this sheet, working out the excavation of a ditch. A note reckons a 'progression' of 2730 paces over 30 braccia of ditch, then adds 6 paces of width so the digger can throw the earth straight onto the embankment without carrying it, giving 2736 paces, and it counts 216 shovelfuls as 36 barrow-loads, about one and four-fifths boxes per unit of time. Faint mechanical outlines show through from the earth-moving machine drawn on the reverse, and further untranscribed jottings run along the lower edge.
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Throwing earth onto the embankment without carrying it
The note measures a ditch as a 'progression' of 2730 paces over 30 braccia, then adds 6 paces of width. From the edge of that added width the digger can cast the earth directly onto the embankment without hauling it, bringing the total to 2736 paces.
Columns of multiplication and division
Long stacks of figures reckon quantities such as 216 shovelfuls, 36 barrow-loads and running totals like 2736 and 18724, with fractions noted as 8/10 and 4/5. One line remarks that a result 'gives 9/16 of a point.'
