<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.3059" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Breaking news item: Lowell Component Downbearing Gauges are now available from Pianotek.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I have a question regarding the instructions for measuring downbearing: </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>"Multiply the number of divisions the bubble crossed by three and one has the front or rear bearing, in thousandths."</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>My high school chemistry teacher would string the author of this gibberish up by his/her thumbs. I can hear him now: "Where are your units? Without units this means nothing!"</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Thousandths of what? Inches I suppose. But what does that mean? So I have a couple thousandths of an inch of downbearing - what does that tell me? I don't have a backscale length. The only thing that means anything is an angle. Angles are not measured in thousandths of an inch - it is not a linear measurement. Are they trying to suggest a slope maybe - as in so-many thousandths of an inch of vertical length per inch of horizontal length?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The author should get a job at NASA and send another rocket crashing into Mars.....  ;-)</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Terry Farrell<BR>Farrell Piano</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>PS: Units - a little pet peeve of mine!</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A href="http://www.farrellpiano.com">www.farrellpiano.com</A><BR><A href="mailto:terry@farrellpiano.com">terry@farrellpiano.com</A></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>