(thing) by scs Sat Jul 14 2001 at 6:30:00
A pointed weight, designed to be attached to and dangled from a string, to determine a true vertical line, or to orient two points perfectly vertically in space (that is, the point the string is dangled from and the point the tip of the plumb bob points to, e.g. a transit level on a tripod and the benchmark on the ground you're taking measurements from).

Like plumbing, the name "plumb bob" (and the adjective "plumb", meaning perfectly vertical) comes from the Latin word for lead, plumbum.

del.icio.us Furl Facebook Digg StumbleUpon Reddit   (I like it!) 1 C!
Y'know, if you log in, you can write something here, or contact authors directly on the site. Create a New User if you don't already have an account.