The supports that are set perpendicular to the gravity of loads will be so much the weaker as they are more distant from their upper extremity.

This is to be understood in timber, columns, pillars and similar things, and it can be proved as with the rope; for one could imagine a pillar so tall that its own weight would reduce its base to fine dust, and an excessive superimposed load would do the same to it.

The greater line made by the sides of the doubled rope, overloaded, is the beginning of its breaking.

In pulley blocks the rope is drawn far more on the outside than on the inside — that is, on the side that is above the part which touches the sheave (rotella).

This one will have all its lines equal, and through excessive weight they will all break at one and the same time.

a c d b

That rope which, doubled, supports a weight feels more weight on the outside than on the inside. And the one that is of greater thickness will make greater variation. See here, to one side, how much longer the line a b on the outside is than the line c d on the inside.