The Human Machine
This particular entry is one that I have taken the time to copy straight from a book I love; The Human Machine, by George B. Bridgeman. It was originally published in 1932, and it is a brilliant little book using 200+ illustrations to explain the musculo-skeletal marvel that is the
human body. His illustration style is absolutely beautiful, and presents the human form in its ideal. I use this book as an inspiration for my art (my sketches, when I draw!) and also for my own personal fitness, as his description of the human system allows me to focus perfectly on the muscle I am currently working, what effect that particular exercise is achieving, and how the muscle itself operates in relation to the tendons and bones. It works with any muscle from those tiny ones in your fingers, all the way up to the difficult to work (in my opinion) obliques at your core. Without any further ado, here is the exerpt:
IT APPEARS to be a fixed law that the contraction of a muscle shall
be towards its centre, therefore, the subject for mechanism on each
occasion is so to modify the figure, and adjust the position of the
muscle as to produce the motion required agreeably with this law.
This can only be done by giving to different muscles a diversity of
configuration suited to their several offices and to their situation with
respect to the work which they have to perform. On which account
we find them under a multiplicity of forms and altitudes; sometimes
sometimes with one tendon to several muscles; at other times with
muscle to several tendons. The shape of the organ is susceptible
of an incalculable variety, while the original property of the muscle.
The law and line of its contraction remains the same and is simple.
Herein the muscular system may be said to bear a perfect resemblance
to our woks of art. An artist does not alter the native quality of his
materials or their laws of action. He takes these as he finds them.
His skill and ingenuity are employed in turning them such as they
are, to his account by giving to the parts of his machine a form and
relation in which these unalterable properties may operate to the
production of the effects intended.
human body. His illustration style is absolutely beautiful, and presents the human form in its ideal. I use this book as an inspiration for my art (my sketches, when I draw!) and also for my own personal fitness, as his description of the human system allows me to focus perfectly on the muscle I am currently working, what effect that particular exercise is achieving, and how the muscle itself operates in relation to the tendons and bones. It works with any muscle from those tiny ones in your fingers, all the way up to the difficult to work (in my opinion) obliques at your core. Without any further ado, here is the exerpt:
IT APPEARS to be a fixed law that the contraction of a muscle shall
be towards its centre, therefore, the subject for mechanism on each
occasion is so to modify the figure, and adjust the position of the
muscle as to produce the motion required agreeably with this law.
This can only be done by giving to different muscles a diversity of
configuration suited to their several offices and to their situation with
respect to the work which they have to perform. On which account
we find them under a multiplicity of forms and altitudes; sometimes
sometimes with one tendon to several muscles; at other times with
muscle to several tendons. The shape of the organ is susceptible
of an incalculable variety, while the original property of the muscle.
The law and line of its contraction remains the same and is simple.
Herein the muscular system may be said to bear a perfect resemblance
to our woks of art. An artist does not alter the native quality of his
materials or their laws of action. He takes these as he finds them.
His skill and ingenuity are employed in turning them such as they
are, to his account by giving to the parts of his machine a form and
relation in which these unalterable properties may operate to the
production of the effects intended.
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