Some natural phenomena have long inspired inventors to discover not even by the principle of their action, but only by their appearance. The snail prompted the development of a pump in the same shape as its shell. It is quite possible that the round heavenly bodies became the prototype of the wheel. Even the dovetail has found application. Its characteristic bifurcation with an angular notch is recognizable; it became the prototype of many technical and theoretical solutions. Some of them are discussed below.
How to make a non-pullable bracket?
For wall mounts, there is often a need for a bracket that is subject to multidirectional forces. If the support is simply hammered into the wall like a nail, it is possible that under the influence of loads it will come out of its place and fall out. To prevent this from happening, a simple but original solution is often used. A longitudinal incision is made in a bracket (for example, a piece of a plate or a metal corner), and the resulting ends are unbent in opposite directions. It remains only to cut in the walla hole and immure a structure into it by means of a mortar, which received the name “dovetail” for its bifurcation. The fastening is very reliable, it is difficult to pull out such a bracket. This method is especially successful for walls made of soft limestone, for which other methods (dowels, nails or chopsticks) are ineffective.
Construction and wooden architecture
In Russia, and not only, ecological housing construction has recently become widespread. Log cabins, huts, traditional wooden houses meet safety requirements, they are environmentally friendly, perfectly retain heat and, finally, can be just very beautiful. The logs that make up the walls can be articulated at the corners in several ways, but most often the builders use the so-called "dovetail". The fastening is based on a beveled groove, which prevents the constituent parts of the structure from leaving their places under the influence of external forces. The advantage of the method is that it does not require fastening metal products (brackets or nails - “crutches”), and therefore, the cost is reduced, and if necessary, you can move the building by disassembling it in the reverse order of the assembly, removing each bar in turn. Dovetail - a method of erecting towers "without a single nail." It was perfectly mastered by ancient Russian architects who created true architectural masterpieces. Some of them are presented in the open-air museum in Kizhi, where they were transported from all over the country.disassembled due to the fact that the connections are detachable and withstand almost an unlimited number of disassembly-assembly cycles.
Furniture and accessories
Trends in furniture design change cyclically, like any other fashion. One thing remains unchanged: quality is always highly valued. The “aerobatics” of a carpenter of the highest qualification (also called a cabinetmaker) is considered to be such a manner of work in which the joints of the constituent parts of a table, chair or cabinet are not hidden, but, as it were, put on display. Here, they say, how the bureau drawer is made, no fiberboard and plastic, wood is everywhere, and the accuracy of the fit can be visibly assessed. In order to prevent the walls from spreading during transportation and simple operation, the good old “dovetail” is often used. The mount looks quite organic in expensive furniture, especially when the shades of the rocks contrast. The general principle is the same as in the construction of wooden log cabins, however, grooves are made using special equipment in a structurally integral element, a board.
Carpentry equipment
The dovetail loom is nothing like bird plumage. It looks like a combination of a metal comb and a wooden base. But with its help, a qualified furniture joiner will make the incoming teeth and reciprocal slots with high accuracy in such a way that they connect at a right angle and with minimal gaps. It is difficult to achieve this effect manually ifgenerally possible. At its core, this machine is a milling machine; special cutting nozzles (milling cutters) are used to work with it, which form spikes and their corresponding grooves in the wood with uniform frequency and high quality.
How did the shipbuilders do it?
Requirements for rigidity, strength and reliability have always been imposed on watercraft. The blows of the ocean and sea waves can shake the strongest hull of the ship, especially if it, as in ancient times, is made of wood. The type of connection of parts "dovetail" was very often used, for obvious reasons, by shipbuilders. It is worth mentioning that this industry has always been characterized by the most advanced technologies. For cutting large protrusions and recesses in solid wood, there is even a special dovetail saw, which in itself is completely unlike a forked bird silhouette. On the contrary, the cutting part of this tool is straight and even. The hacksaw saw got its name for its purpose, it is convenient to cut grooves and teeth with inclined edges. It is used in combination with other carpentry tools, among which the most important are the chisel and chisel. A hacksaw of this type is now used only in limited areas of production, for example, in the construction of yachts or luxury housing in the "eco" style. True carpenters usually have this tool.
Walls of the ancient Kremlin
Yes, yes, and the Moscow Kremlin, and many other medievalfortifications have been carrying the same “dovetail” on their walls for many centuries. It is enough to carefully consider any of the battlements crowning the fence of the heart of Russia in order to discern the bifurcation of its specific outline. It is difficult to say how unique this form is, similar decisions were made in other European fortresses of that time. For what? It is possible that the architects were driven by practical considerations, and the forked recess served as a support for squeakers or cannons, although gaps between the teeth could be enough for these purposes. Or maybe it was a kind of architectural fashion. Nevertheless, similar merlons (teeth) adorn the walls of the Kremlin in Tula, as well as the fortresses of many European cities (Pisa, Florence, Pistoia, Lucca, etc.). Who invented the "dovetails" to decorate fortifications first is unknown. Most likely, architects invited from Italy brought fashion for them to Russia (for example, Pietro Solari took part in the construction of the Moscow Kremlin at the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries).
Trailer
Trailers are used to transport vehicles and other equipment that cannot be transported on their own (from defective cars to tanks). They are also called "dovetail". The trailer has characteristic retractable or rising structural elements, sometimes equipped with guide rails, designed to pass the wheels of the loaded vehicles. During transportation, these "tails" rise. Why such a name has taken root is understandable:retractable or lifting ramps are two parts, similar to the forked plumage of a swallow.
Tripod Application
Indispensable for tripods is the dovetail joint. This connection can be found on various tripods of optics for the most diverse purposes (from telescopes to movie cameras) and other devices, the design of which requires high-precision translational mobility. Among its advantages are the minimization of backlash, ease of movement along a given line, the ability to install a measuring scale, which can be equipped with a carrier bar. The "dovetail" in this case is a kinematic pair of a fixed guide having side cutouts (angular in cross section) and a carriage moving along it, equipped with a counterpart of the corresponding shape. Of great importance is the possibility of unifying such tripods. The distance between the side parts may vary, the main thing is that the angle of the edges matches. To pair different devices with one base, a dovetail adapter is used, in the design of which there are adjusting threaded elements that allow you to change the base of the bearing part.
Every hunter desires…
Every shooter knows that the essence of aiming is to align three points: the slot of the bar, the top of the front sight and the place where you need to hit. Only if the distance, wind and lead are correctly taken into account (if the object of hunting is mobile)you can hope to hit. The design of the weapon, and therefore the sights, may differ. There are slots semicircular, rectangular and those that are called "dovetail". This type of sight allows an experienced shooter with certain skills to quickly calculate the distance to the target.
And the method of mounting it is often the same as on tripods of optical instruments, and what it is called is easy to guess. In general, modern weapons without a dovetail are almost hard to imagine.
Tails in other fields of knowledge
The term turned out to be so figurative and successful that it denotes almost any divergent (or convergent) figure. Mathematicians call "dovetails" the graphs of intersections of complex curvilinear surfaces, mechanics - a special kind of gear kinematic pairs, physics - the dependence of ambiguous parameters. Even economists believe that charts of exchange rates or investment expectations sometimes look like a dovetail. This happens when the spread of data decreases or increases over time. In general, this is the name of everything that diverges in two, or vice versa, combines into one from two parts.
