turned point

English

Noun

turned point (plural turned points)

1. (typography, obsolete) Synonym of interpunct ⟨·⟩.
   • 1916, Lucien Alphonse Legros and John Cameron Grant, Typographical Printing-Surfaces: The Technology and Mechanism of their Production‎, Longmans, Green, and Co., page 671:

     The turned point (·, e.g. 3·5 ; used as decimal mark in England)

   • 1920 August, “Notes and comments”, in The Foundry Trade Journal‎, volume 22, number 224, page 614:

     With a view of cheapening the cost of printing mathematical equations, and with a view to facilitating the reproduction of mathematical equations on the typewriter, the Concret Institute have recently suggested that those writers who employ :−(1) The high point as the decimal separatrix (example 3⋅7 = 3 + seven-tenths); (2) the middle point as the sign of multiplication (example m⋅r = m multiplied by r); (3) the low point as the sign of abbreviation (example B.H.P. = Brake horse power), may avoid the use of subscript letters, and write the qualifying letters on the line of printing :−Example, m = Es/Ec, where m = modular ratio, Es = elastic modulus of steel, Ec = elastic modulus of concrete. The high point (or turned point) is the new British decimal point. (See treatise by LEgros and Grand on Typographical Printing Surfaces.) The middle point is the usual sign of multiplication in American engineering text books and is also used in Germany. The low point, or period, is the international sign of an abbreviated word.

   • 1966, Franco Riva, “Book printing in Italy”, in Kenneth Day, editor, Book typography, 1815-1965, in Europe and the United States of America‎, London: Benn, page 211:

     Next comes: Le Elegie Romane of Gabriele D’Annunzio (Milano, Editrice Lombarda, 1905), in medium format. [...] The date is drawn ount: the initial L is two lines high, the U is represented by V; the turned point is used before the date.