Glossary entry (derived from question below)
French term or phrase:
on a tendu la ou les planchettes
English translation:
the panel or panels were tensioned using
French term
on a tendu la ou les planchettes
DOC: 1907 Museum catalog of ancient Egyptian mirrors. Catalog entry.
CONTEXT: 44101. Boîte à miroir. - Bois et ivoire. - (pl. XXIII). [....] TECHNIQUE. Le corps de la boîte, en bois de sycomore, est formé d'une planchette de fond découpée à la forme voulue, et de planchettes latérales de 4 à 5 millimètres d'épaisseur assemblées avec de la colle de boyau.
Pour la partie ronde de la paroi, ***on a tendu la ou les planchettes*** par un moyen qui ne devait pas différer de ceux de nos jours. La partie ligneuse du couvercle est, comme le fond de la boîte, une planchette unique de 5 millimètres d'épaisseur, découpée suivant le contour voulu. End of paragraph.
Color pic: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vsTHNyj6BK8/VaYHwjyjTuI/AAAAAAAAsj...
ATTEMPT: For the round portion [-of the wall?], the small boards were stretched? using a method which is no different from the methods of our day.
ISSUE: la ou? That's what it says but it must be wrong!
Thank you in advance for any guesses as to what's missing as my author is long dead -- asking is out of the question.
| 4 | the panel or panels were tensioned using |
Tony M
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Non-PRO (2): writeaway, Tony M
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Proposed translations
the panel or panels were tensioned using
'planchette' = small, flat piece of wood; given the way the curved walls of this round box have been made, i.e. not from one strip of wood bent, but from several smaller pieces arranged around a curve, I think 'panel' is appropriate; or 'segment' if you prefer, though that's not strictly geometrically correct!
And 'tendu' only means 'stretched' in mainly everyday senses; clearly, they must be referring to the way the panels were held together for glueing, so 'tension', while not strictly speaking technically accurate (they would in fact have been held in compression!), will give the right general idea.
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Note added at 6 heures (2017-07-12 06:59:53 GMT)
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Mmrafe has raised an interesting point: maybe these are after all single strips of wood bent around the circular shape? That would be consistent with the use of 'planchette' (like a tiny plank!) — BUT I am curious as to why the author should then have used the verb 'tendu'? I'd have thought there were many other verbs available in FR for 'bending' in this way before getting to 'tendre'; unless there is some suggestion that they are actually 'sprung' into place; all depends, I guess, on the exact constructional method used.
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Note added at 5 jours (2017-07-17 16:41:46 GMT) Post-grading
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tendre / tendu is common everyday language, by no means confined to specific technical fields — a bungee cord is a 'tendeur'; 'tensioning' is just a more specific usage, perhaps less common in everyday language.
| neutral |
mrrafe
: I think "bent" describes the panels; there are several methods, in which the tension/compression/stretching is only temporary. http://www.wikihow.com/Bend-Wood
1 hr
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I'm aware of these techniques, but at the same time, 'tendu' is a curious word to use for bending something like this.
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Discussion
First of all, sycamore --or at least American sycamore-- is a really *terrible* wood to work with: coarse and irregular grained, unstable (subject to cycles of shrinking and warping), not really suitable for the kind of (rather extreme) bending we see here, etc.
Those considerations aside, I agree with Tony and cannot see any way that the walls of the thing could possibly be made out of a single piece of wood --among other things, you cannot bend wood (of any thickness) at a right angle, and even bending it into a (rather small) circle is a tricky business.
The best (only?) way to achieve such extreme bending is through steaming the piece in a "bending box": http://tinyurl.com/yc3nalk6
The strip is then taken out of the box and bent to the desired shape, using some sort of "jig" http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/i-0689/1_coolingrack.jpg (that one is for the sides of a guitar).
When removed, it can be glued to the bottom, held with some sort of clamps: http://tinyurl.com/yczajha9
Takes a hellofa glue.