REESE -LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, * Accessions A ^ Class No. ■ I M SPECIFICATIONS PRACTICAL ARCHITECTURE. SPECIFICATIONS FOR PRACTICAL ARCHITECTURE A GUIDE TO THH Jtfrj/itert, (fanQimtx, Surbxpr, %nb |frtilkr, WITH AN ESSAY ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE OF MODERN BUILDINGS. UPON THE BASIS OF THE WORK BY ALFRED BARTHOLOMEW, THOROUGHLY REVISED, CORRECTED, AND GREATLY ADDED TO, FKEDEBICK ROGERS, ARCHITECT. £rcotrtr euittott, Rcbtertr, tottfj 3Rffittton$. LONDON CROSBY LOCKWOOD AND CO, 7, STATIONERS' HALL COURT, LUDGATE HILL 1886. j+*j&^ y' PREFACE. A VOLUME of Specifications of a practical character being greatly required, and the old standard work of Alfred Bartholomew being out of print, I have taken his work as my basis, and have struck out and altered the preliminary matter, so as to make it more adapted to modern science and requirements. The Specifications I have so altered as to bring in the now universal use of concrete, the more general use of drainage, the use of iron, glass, asphalte, and other material. Where it has seemed to me to be necessary, I have inserted Specifications of works that have been erected in my own practice, and I have added a form for General Conditions and an Agreement. I am confident that the work will be useful in the office of Architects, and all those who have the pleasure or necessity to build. The whole work is published at a price and in a form that renders it easily attainable, and I hope that my endeavours will lighten the labours of very many of my brethren in the art of Architecture. NOTE TO SECOND EDITION. The Author, in preparing this new Edition, has carefully revised the work, and made certain additions which have been rendered necessary by the introduction of new systems of building and the greater attention which in these days is given to hygienic matters. Chapter XXVII. has been re-written, giving an entirely new Workhouse Specification. The Regulations of the Metropolitan Board of Works with reference to Concrete Buildings, which in themselves constitute a good Specification of this kind of work ; and also the heads of a Building Contract agreed upon between the Royal Institute of British Architects and the London Builders' Society, have been inserted, and it is believed will be found valuable. FREDK. ROGERS. 89, Chancery Lane, March, 1886. CONTENTS. PART I. PAGE Exactness of Drawings and Specifications 1 Disputes arising from badly drawn Specifications ..... 2 Trouble and Vexation from a badly drawn Specification ... 2 Marginal References 3 Copies of Drawings and Specifications for Reference .... 4 Depressing Influence on Architecture of Bad Building .... 5 Influence of Contracting on Architecture 5 Sureties to a Contract .......... 6 Present State of Architectural Mechanical Knowledge .... 7 Improvements in Operative Machinery ....... 7 Excellence of Material in Modern Times 8 Have we improved in our Practical Building ? . . . . . .8 Bad Modern National Policy of discouraging Public Works and Useful Arts 9 Some Laws w t hich further tend to depress English Architecture . . 10 Defects in Buildings from Insufficient Education . . . . .11 Foundations 12 Masonry 13 Cramps and Plugs in Masonry . . . . . . . . .14 Use of Iron in Stone and Brickw t ork 18 Injury from Use of Bath Stone 19 Extra Caution required with Square Stone ...... 20 Quantity of Material in a Building 21 Improper Materials used for Duration ....... 22 Injury from Timber in an Improper State 23 Careless Use of Combustible Materials in Public Buildings . . .24 Inferiority of Modern Brickwork ........ 30 Geometrical Science in Architecture . 33 Three Great Constructive Principles in Architecture . . . .36 Simple Repose in Construction 37 Equipoise in Construction . 37 Tie in Construction 40 Union of several Great Principles in Construction . . . .41 Gravity the Source of all Principle and Defects in Construction . 42 Three Modes in which Gravity acts 43 On the Mechanical Trussing of Buildings 45 Abutments 49 But a Small Portion of the Materials in Modern Edifices performs the intended Duty ........... 53 The Excellence of Gothic Arches 54 VI 11 CONTF.NTS. Defects fhom the use of Gothic Akches observations on roofs and gutters Use and Abuse of Timber Partitions . " . bltessummers in buildings, and their abuse Faulty Method of covering External Apertures Abuses in the Formation of Entablatures On neglecting other Branches for Architectural Drawing All Materials should form Part of the Structural Strengt Neglect of Dynamics a Cause of Instability Little Knowledge possessed regarding Chimneys Architects not Scientific Men ...... The Resources still left to the English Architect 57 69 60 61 65 66 67 71 72 72 73 PART II. Chapter I. Specification for a Small Dwelling House „ II. „ „ „ and Shop „ III. „ ,, ,, and Offices „ IV. }1 ,, Public House and Dwelling Housb ,, V. „ „ Finishing a House .... ,, VI. „ ,, Additional Story to House „ VII. ,, ,, A new Parlour and Kitchen . „ VIII. „ „ Attic Story and Flat „ IX. ,, ,, General Reparation of House „ X. ,, ,, Repairs of Roof .... „ XL ,, „ Labourer's Cottage .... „ XII. ,, „ Cottage ...... „ XIII. ,, „ Small Lodge or Cottage . „ XIV. „ ,, Park or Garden Wall . „ XV. ,, „ Palisading with Gates „ XVI. „ ,, Additional Wing to Villa „ XVII. „ ,, Mansion „ XVIII. ,, ,, Villa Residence „ XIX. „ „ Rectory House . „ XX. ,, ,, Rectory House . „ XXI. ,, ,, New Church „ XXII. ,, ,, New Roof to a Church . „ XXIII. ,, „ Rebuilding upper part of Tower of Church ...... „ XXIV. „ ,, Transepts and Chancel, and Re- pairs to Church .... „ XXV. ,, ,, New Schools and Master's House . ,, XXVI. ,, ,, Farm Buildings ,, XXVII. ,, ,, Workhouse APPENDIX. Concrete Buildings Building Contracts PA^E 75 92 108 128 141 147 166 178 191 203 210 217 223 230 234 238 261 279 304 320 337 345 349 356 374 383 389 403 405 FART THE FIRST. REMARKS ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE OF MODERN BUILDINGS. Of the exactness requisite in the practical profession of archi- tecture^ and how far it is influenced by the correctness of specifications and working-drawings. The whole course of practical architecture requires, in all its details, the most minute and indefatigable exactness of execution : the architect cannot plead therefore want of method and exact- ness in the measures which it is his business to take for the proper direction of the artificers who are to act in pursuance of his mandates ; and hardly can he with any grace call to account those under him who have, perhaps, acted with more precision than himself. While, from the great influx of young professors to the building art, there are now almost more professors than buildings to execute, it is to be lamented that out of that number so many have not received the benefit of an education so liberal as is required by an art needing such a fund of literary as well as practical knowledge. Without critical knowledge of the nature of the words, it is impossible that the practical architect can, in a specification, to be put into the builder's hands, so describe and so define his intentions that they can be executed. The author has seen many specifica- tions which, besides having their sentences grossly ill-constructed and ungrammatical, were otherwise so obscure in their phraseology as to render it impossible to understand the intentions of the writers. It should be the glory of an architect's specification that it be so clear that the builders, who are estimating from it the probable cost of the intended work, may have to ask no questions; that the specification contain an exact, comprehen- sive, and proper description of the work as it really can be, and as it ought to be executed, omitting nothing whatever which the architect's practical knowledge, experience, and foresight may tell him must be included in the work ; that the words of it be so chosen and be so arranged that there be not the shadow of a doubt or ambiguity in any part of it, and that the whole of the intended work be completed without extra charge for things negligently omitted and without the possibility of a dispute upon the construction of any of the words of the specification. B 2 ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE The architect has too frequently, the unpleasant reflection, that want of accuracy in the execution of his work is more his own fault than that of the operators, from his drawings and specifications not being made with the precision sufficient to insure exactness of execution. With every possible care, accidental mistakes will still occur ; and whoever has busied himself in the admeasurement of existing buildings well knows how very few of them will, in this respect, bear the test of actual admeasurement. It is not sufficient for him to trust to the clerk-of-the-works, or to his own clerk (unless the clerk be the real architect), or to the foreman of the works ; if the architect will not himself take the trouble to examine the dimensions of the work while the founda- tion of it is being laid, and constantly from time to time after- wards, he may be certain of finding, to his annoyance, some mis- take or other which will greatly trouble him, and that perhaps in some prominent decorative part of the work. Of the disputes and expenses which arise from badly drawn specifications. Almost solely from sufficient pains not being taken in drawing the specifications for buildings, and from a want of proper fore- sight, may be traced most of the disputes between the builder, the architect and the employer which so often occur, and which lead to excessively and even ruinously expensive law-suits and arbitra- tions, leaving results that are unsatisfactory to all parties. The turn of a phrase, the situation of a single word, the causing or the avoidance of a possible ambiguity, may sometimes involve the question of many hundre Is and of even many thou- sands of pounds; while it ought to be the duty of the professional man to take care that when a contract is entered into no dis- appointment may ever occur as to how much work the builder has to perform, and how much money the employer shall have to pay for that work. Indeed, oft-times it is only owing to the circumstance of the contractor for the execution of a building not having sufficient education that he does not detect the loop-holes which a man possessing the requisite technical knowledge of education, can frequently discover in a badly drawn specification. Of the trouble and vexation which an architect occasions to himself by a badly drawn specification ; and on the pro- priety of general clauses in specifications. Sometimes a careless or incompetent professional man, knowing the flimsy nature of the specific part of his specification, OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 3 will intrench himself behind a host of strong general clauses, which indeed assert that the work must be finished in some way or other to his satisfaction ; but if such a professor would only reckon the time occupied in disputes ; the trouble to himself in from time, to time discovering what were his real intentions, if they were indeed ever developed to himself, and in giving the subsequent explanations, as well verbal as written, — he will find, that the saving of a little time and pains in the first instance will, in the end, cause him an infinitude of extra trouble, in addition to which, if he be an irritable man, he will be kept in a constant state of feverish excitement with the builder, — he will have many disputes with him; and the builder, thinking himself injured, will probably involve the whole matter in a law-suit. Nor are there wanting many cases in which the architect, through such carelessness, has lost a valued patron's employment. Except for the mere manner of the work, the author does not think that strong general clauses are just ; and he never inserts them, unless he has previously included in the particular des- cription every thing which he believes the building can require; indeed, he cannot think it borders upon honesty to involve, perhaps in bankruptcy, the builder, who, like all laborers, is worthy of his hire, by rendering him ignorantly liable to perform to the detriment of his family and his creditors, and to the scandal of society, that work, of whosenature, at the time of the signing of the contract the architect himself has not had a clear idea. Of marginal references in specifications and contracts, their convenience, and their tendency to insure the correct per- formance of the work ; and of the care with which speci- fications should be copjied in contracts. Above all, it is recommended that every specification have added to it a complete set of marginal references: the adding of these will cause the architect no extra trouble, if done while he is composing the work ; they will rather serve him as an amuse- ment, as he is preparing his mind to go into some other part of his labor ; or if any thing cross his mind, which he knows must be inserted in some other part of the specification, he can place the name of the subject forward in the margin, so as to insert the particular matter in its proper place, and thus not forget that which perhaps it may be of the highest importance should not be forgotten : indeed, in addition to the above mode of helping his memory, the author has always at his side, while composing a specification, a slip of paper upon which he writes a list of all such things as occur to him out of place, but which he might otherwise not remember in place ; and after the draft appears otherwise complete, he reviews the whole of it, and if any thing in the memorandum 4 ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE should be found omitted in the specification, he then inserts it. By this means he very rarely finds any thing forgotten ; and with- out his having to overstrain his words, which an honest con- scientious man would think unjust, he finds the contractors in general cheerfully complete their work, without observation, and without asking for any amplification or extra payment. Without marginal notes, the architect himself cannot readily turn to such particular parts of the specification as he may require to read or to explain ; and in addition to that inconvenience, he will often find, that neither the clerk-of-the-works, nor his own clerk, has found the particular material directions till after the work is performed, and then it will be too late to make the requisite amendment, either from time not permitting, or from the utter impossibility of doing so without a re-construction of the whole building. In one thing the architect must not spare his pains. If the contract be drawn up by an attorney it is absolutely requisite, that the architect should very diligently read over, examine and correct the copy of his specification, as inserted in the contract; otherwise he will afterwards find, to his great mortification, that it contains many of the most strange and oft-times ludicrous errors, which the copyist, from the want of the requisite technical know- ledge, will not have previously corrected. Of the advantages which would result, if copies of the working- drawings and specifications for all public works, were deposited somewhere for public and private reference. It would tend greatly to the acquisition of general practical architectural knowledge, if by act of parliament, copies of all the working-drawings and specifications for the building of all churches and other public works were deposited in the British Museum, or some other place rendered fire-proof, for public access and exami- nation : this would also prove of infinite use to those architects who might afterwards have to repair or restore public buildings ; and it would besides insure strict integrity in the carrying on of every part of the work, from the fear of detection in case of scrutiny ; it would tend to purge the profession from all incom- petent and dishonorable practitioners, from the fear of exposure of ignorance or dishonesty by such public documents ; and it would enable the scientific man to possess printed copies of all important and valuable documents, relative to executed works. OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 5 Of the evil and depressing influence which bad building has upon architecture. The injury of bad building is not confined to itself, but, by the influence of evil example, effects the total ruin of a noble art. Proprietors, for the most part, unable to discriminate be- tween good and bad building, — between correct and imperfect architecture, — between confusion of style and purity, — between durable and profitable materials and those the reverse, — between sound and wise construction and reckless mal-formation, — be- tween the secrets of mathematical tie and equipoise and thrust, — and between seeming economy and practical economy ; influenced by false appearances — believing the stability and propriety of all that is sanctioned by a professor — they are sometimes ready to give into all that is practically extravagant, absurd, and disas- trous ; and frequently the more clever they are upon ordinary subjects, the more rash are they in practical architecture, from not considering sufficiently the duration of different materials, their toughness, strength, stiffness, and weight, or the exposure to which they may be subjected. Of the influence which contracting for the erection of buildings has upon architecture. As if modern buildings were not designed slightly enough, as if the spirit for good building were not otherwise sufficiently depressed, as if the quantity of science employed in English archi- tecture were not sufficiently low, to the other evils is added, in an eminent degree, that of bad execution in an enormous number of cases : and this results almost entirely from the work being per- formed by contract. It is not that a contract ought to insure or does insure the bad execution of the work ; but the party with whom the contract is made may and does in many instances so insure it. Formerly, many of the noblest and most intricate works were executed by contract ; the astonishing stone roofs of King's College Chapel at Cambridge, and Saint George's Chapel at Windsor were so per- formed; they were " workmanly wrought made and sette up " after the best handlynge and forme of good workmanship, " according to a plat thereof made and signed," the contractors agreeing that they " shall provide and fynd at their costs and " charges as moche good sufficient liable ston," " with lyme, sand, " scaffolding, cinctores, moles, ordinaunces, &c." as should be necessary. But then a contractor who would deal faithfully was found, and was employed because he would so deed, and deal so he did, and his work is become a proverb in the land ; at home and abroad, the Englishman is proud of it ; he likes to possess de- 6" ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE lineations of it ; and were it by any accident destroyed he would be uneasy till a restoration of it were attempted. A contractor is rarely now employed because he is known to be a skilful and a faithful man ; a public advertisement is put' forth, and except in such undertakings as are only within the ability of a very few large capitalists, this acts as a warning to most solvent and trustworthy tradesmen to keep aloof, while it acts as a call to the needy, the broken-down, the incompetent, and the dishonest. Though frequently the employers and trustees, are merchants or tradesmen, or are acquainted with mercantile pursuits, and know that a needy man without capital or credit buys dearly, though they know that embarrassment destroys the ability to execute, still is the broken-down or the fraudulent entrusted with the execution of a great work ; he brings a ramification of sureties of his own kind ; his creditors are eventually defrauded ; and though the work may have cost somebody much more than the amount of the consideration of the contract, still the materials and workmanship, are generally of such a description as to bring a real loss to the proprietors, and to mortify and make them ashamed. Public committees are fond of punishing public contractors ; but they forget that in inviting such men they assist them in their frauds. All public committees should consider that they are in some sort a branch of their country's police and that fraud is better prevented by discouraging it than by punishing it. Of sureties to a contract. It is certain tnat almost all well-executed work has been done either without contract or by contract without sureties ; while it is equally certain that nearly all work badly executed by contract has been performed with the safeguard of sureties. It may be taken as a general rule, that if a man cannot perform work excellently without them neither contract nor suretyship will compel him to do so ; he may perform something, but he will not execute the spirit of the contract. If a man need security he ought not to be entrusted ; and yet even public committees are sometimes so eager to secure the bait of a low tender that they have instantly required the signa- ture of a conditional agreement to subsist while the contract is being prepared, yet have found the very next day the character of the contractor is such as should be avoided. How virtuous is the advice of Solomon against suretyship : it may at first seem hard that an honest man should not obtain it from his dearest friend ; but were not the present artificial system in use no surety would be required of such a man ; and should unforseen misfortune overtake honest integrity, the consequent OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 7 default would fall lightly and would fall seldom : but at present the most vicious and least trustworthy is employed, because he brings the guarantee of those relations whom he has already half- ruined by his recklessness or his fraud, but whose nearness of kin forbids their refusing him that suretyship which they know from experience will be forfeited. Thus that which is intended to prevent fraud is the most powerful engine of fraud and ruin ; while it keeps from employment the honest man who either cannot or will not obtain it. If only men of character were employed on public works rarely would guarantees be found requisite ; and even in public contracts if such a failure did take place the public could better make good such an occasional default than call upon the private purse of the surety to be employed in default of the reckless estimator. Of the 'present state of architectural mechanical knowledge. Perhaps at no age of the world, was there ever such an abundance of practical and theoretical mechanical knowledge, applicable to architecture, within the reach of every one as at present : we know how to truss roofs, floors and other members of buildings, so as in the most wonderful manner to save materials and afford greater strength and security than could be obtained from solid beams, while we can save the expense and weight of solidity ; we know how to build vaults nearly as well as did the architects of the middle ages ; we have more experience than our forefathers in the chemical properties of materials and in their actual duration ; we know more of geometry and calculation than they; and our abundance of capital and our navigation and roads enable us to procure from any distance the rarest materials at prices which compared with those paid by our ancestors are really very low ; while in the workmanship of all but carving, which requires the slow operation of the human hand and the distinct operations of the human mind, our machinery can be made to perform that in a minute which took our ancestors a whole day to execute. Of the improvements in the operative machinery which may be adopted in building. Our forefathers performed with excellence almost every thing which they undertook; but it was by constant laborious and painful exertion. The triumphs of modern mechanical science have now rendered unnecessary, in a great measure, that painful bodily exertion : we have now mechanical powers which render the quarrying of huge and magnificent masses of stone an easy 8 ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE labor; the steam-engine can be applied to effect the most extra- ordinary feats of exertion ; we have powers which have raised an enormous ship ; and we have the advantages of such roads, canals, and seaward navigation as no country at any former period ever possessed. Of the excellence of the materials which the English architect may have in modern times at his disposal. Since the improvements in railways and navigation we may have at our easy disposal, and at a cheap price, the magnificent produce of the quarries of granite ; we have an abundant supply from the Isle of Portland of the most compact, white, hard, beautiful, and durable free stone that perhaps earth can produce ; and, besides inexhaustible stores of iron and lead, we have such an improvement in the making and burning of bricks that they are sometimes, and always may be, more durable than those of any former period, and even more durable than most kinds of stone ; we have inexhaustible stores of stone-lime, which in two or three years become scarcely penetrable ; our ports may be inundated, as it were, with durable fir of the most splendid growth ; and from the great way which English capital will go, when expended in other and poorer countries, we can procure cheaply all the beautiful and rare materials produced by foreign nations; and from the constant vast influx of the precious metals from the mines of Australia and America, money, compared with labor and general produce, has become cheap, not those articles become dear, for they are comparatively cheaper than ever ; we can now buy for our edifices, lead, iron, copper, brass, bronze, silver, and gilding at real intrinsic prices which would have astonished our forefathers. Of the question "Have we improved in our Practical building V With all our advantages have we improved in our practical building ? The short answer is, No. Under the fostering influ- ence of our Royal Academy, painting and sculpture have made rapid strides ; the benevolent art of engraving brings home to every man's house, stores of knowledge and beauty which were formerly unpurchaseable. Mechanical power and mechanical knowledge have advanced in thirty years more than they advanced in three thousand years before ; we know how to build, in most cases, with as much skill as our forefathers, and in some with an infinite deal more skill ; we can procure and raise such excellent materials as our ancestors hardly ever could ; our money will go further in purchasing mag- nificent foreign materials for the adornment of our edifices ; we OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 9 can cover them with gilding with as much ease as they could cover them with paint ; for every cramp of iron which they put we can put one of bronze, and even almost of silver ; capital can be found At an hour's notice sufficient to finish a building, the funds for which could not formerly be collected under a hundred years ; and yet, with heart-breaking shame, almost every modern English architect is obliged to admit, that he rarely does anything of which he may be proud ; from the use of mean and rapidly decaying materials, from marred design and from false appearances. Of the bad modem national policy of discouraging 'public works and useful arts. At a time when English territory was contracted and poor, at a time when much of English money was expended both in domestic as well as foreign war, at a time when papal demands drew off its gold to Italy, at a time when its population was scanty and its lands were ill-cultivated, every part of its extent was at once being gemmed over with the most beautiful churches, cathedrals, monasteries, halls, castles, colleges, arjd other beautiful public as well as private works. This enormous accumulation of excellence, which, after the havock that time and human fury have exercised against it, still forms, next to the works and gifts of nature, its proudest merit ; this accumulation of wise science and beauty employed the children of the soil, but left no national debt ; no debt, other than the debt of gratitude and esteem, has been left to the nation by those who built the cathedrals of Salisbury, Wells, London, and of our other cities. But now that England is mighty all over the earth ; now that by her political influence and her powerful domestic machinery she is almost ruining and under-selling all the world, and would quite ruin many of her neighbours were it not for the counterpoise of her national debt ; while gold flows into her coffers from all nations and she has become the usurer of the world, — now is her land fallen to meanness ; the costly beauties of her soil are the crumbling wrecks of former times; and with little exception beyond the mere means of access — roads, bridges, canals — all is poverty-struck and expiring. Surely in this there is great national mistake. The employ- ment of a population, eager for employment, does not impoverish a land, it enriches it : the growth of nature is but an ordained and necessary re-combination of nature's atoms ; but the work of the laborer is a new creation ; to draw from the quarry a block of stone, and to chisel it into beauty wastes not one grain of gold, but circulates it: were our half-employed population, who must live, and who do live, employed to their full powers in beautifying the land with useful and tasteful works, nothing that we now 10 ON TIIE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE possess (except idleness) would be lost ; while the beautiful aggre- gate result of labor would be wholly gained : nay, there can be little doubt, that were our poor-rates paid to our destitute poor and to their fathers, sons, brothers and other relations for the performance of useful public works a more independent, a more moral and a better substitute, would be found for cherishing the destitute and unfortunate; and by the beautifying of the land the rich foreigner would, to our profit, come from afar to view its wonders ; the money paid every year to the idle able-bodied poor would every year produce, under skilful guidance, one or two such national buildings as Wells Cathedral, which is more like the work of enchantment than human labor : the money paid every year to the idle poor of a large parish, is sufficient to rebuild the parish church, and might so rebuild it, and keep most of the paupers from destitution, if paid to them and their relations for labor performed : how wise is the old principle that the overseer shall find employment for the poor ; such employment would, in fifteen years, entirely rebuild of granite and Portland stone, all those cathedrals which have been three hundred years decaying; and all our decayed public buildings would be rebuilt in a superb and durable manner, in an incredibly short time. Many parishes could, without extra charge, keep three or four hundred laborers constantly employed on public works. Hence the money laid out in public railroads is all gain to the nation without one penny loss ; for no money is annihilated ; but iron and stone are dug up, ground is removed, clay is moulded into bricks, while no gold and silver are lost, destroyed or hoarded up ; and perhaps it is not going too far to believe that the surplus idleness of this country, properly awakened to activity, might by means of rail-roads and other improved communications cover over with fruitful soil and bring into culture most of the present barren tracts. Of some laivs which tend to the still further depression of English practical architecture. While the general principle of the British laws is wisdom, soundness, and equality, it seems strange that among the other causes which have, in the nineteenth century, conspired to ruin our practical architecture are some singularly foolish laws, the repeal of which it is to be trusted will ere long be the forerunner of a revival of practical excellence in building. Formerly we had a plentiful store of English oak for all purposes of domestic carpentry ; much of this still remains in our ancient buildings and it seems rather seasoned than impaired by time : our glorious ship-building has now rendered the employ- ment of fine timber of this description and of ample growth, rather rare with us ; still, we obtain from the Baltic, on very OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 11 cheap terms, noble fir timber inferior only to oak, and for its squareness, length, straightness of grain, stiffness and kindly nature even superior to it. The author will yield to no man in love for his country, its church, its constitution, and its other institutions, yet he must confess that he thinks it hard, that timber fit for little else but fire-wood, should be brought here ; while the magnificent, excellent and faultless timber from the Baltic should be too seldom employed. This folly fills every peer's and every commoner's dwelling, with the dry-rot; it disparages every man's freehold; it injures every leaseholder; it every moment adds one more popular jeer to the outcry against the modern building-art ; and it every day adds strength to the praise of " the good old buildings.'''' It is not the author's intention to join in the too common outcry against the Metropolitan Building Act, which indeed needs some revision, partly from practical errors discovered in it, but which, though it be an act of a somewhat stern and interfering nature, has perhaps saved more lives and property than almost any other legislative enactment whatsoever. * Of defects in buildings resulting from professors of archi- tecture 'practising before they have acquired sufficient knowledge. Taken from school at an age in which he cannot have im- bibed in any degree sufficient of a polite and liberal education, the architectural pupil, frequently with no knowledge whatever of geometry, never acquires any beyond the mere manual dexterity of drawing circular and plain lines ; abandoned by his master while yet scarcely arrived at manhood, forced into premature and profitless practice with all the expenses of a separate establish- ment, it cannot be wondered at that the adolescent architect sometimes has, in after-life, bitter cause to repent the circum- stances and the rashness which led him to acquire practical design and practical construction, solely by his youthful failures ; for it is then with deep repentance that he perceives the con- fusion of styles into which he has fallen ; in many a breaking-up and fracture he has the mortification to find that inventions upon which he has relied for eternal duration have not sur- vived their inventor's ruin ; that he has formed his pinnacles with graduated outlines as if Rosslyn chapel or some other impure source were his only pursuit ; he regrets that he has placed his columns opposite apertures, instead of oppo- site piers, he regrets that from false bearing, want of plumb * This was written before the repeal of the timber duties and the late revision of the Metropolitan Building Act. — Ed. 12 ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE and equipoise, his work is so fractured that even a man of more experience than himself cannot restore it; he perceives too late that his patronage of mean and fragile stone and pretended substitutes for it, his reliance on had timher, has added something to the wreck of his country's architecture ; he perceives with deep mortification that his want of mathematical and mechanical skill, both theoretical and practical, has led him to perform that which a professor of more experience would avoid ; broken arches, tie-less roofs, walls thrust from their right position, partitions falsely trussed and groaning beneath loads which, formed otherwise they might have borne unflinchingly, and a foundation which fails in all directions from want of sufficient spread to the footings or from the building being carried up piecemeal, or from other causes — these are a few of the faults and disasters, which, in after times, make a precocious practitioner wish he had studied five or ten years more before he had risked himself and his employer's property. Of foundations. The foundation of a building, should be of such a nature, that it will bear without compression or flinching the weight laid upon it. If the soil under a building, be of a soft nature, it will of necessity yield or compress beneath the weight placed upon it; if the building be uniform, and be well compacted and tied together, this compression may not lead to very serious consequences ; but if any part of the building be loftier and more weighty than the other portions of it, as in the case of a church-tower or steeple, the soil beneath the extra weight will be more com- pressed than the other parts of the site ; hence all that portion of the building will be sunk something into the ground ; and in thus descending the masonry or brickwork will break away from the adjoining work, which remains more at its original level : this is the case at the churches of St. James, Clerkenwell, St. Leonard, Shoreditch, St. Martin in the Fields, and in many other instances. In proportion as the soil is of a softer and more yielding nature, the footings of a building should spread the more ; for if a square yard of ground will bear a ton weight with a certain degree of compression, two separate square yards will bear two tons weight with the same degree of compression, or they will bear one ton weight with only half the degree of compression, and perhaps less: on this principle, though a man in common shoes OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 13 will sink by his weight into snow, yet with shoes with extended soles, which will meet with the resistance of a larger extent of snow, he can walk freely over the surface of it without sinking ; and indeed upon a rolling soil, such as sand, a foundation of two united yards superficial will hear more than two separate yards superficial, — for the soil can less readily roll away from the centre of a large plot than from the centre of a small plot ; for in the former instance it has further to move before it can escape and fly up at the edges. Gravel, next to unflinching solid rock, is the best foundation ; for it does not flow and diminish in quantity, from water running through it. The next best foundation is strong clay, in a confined situa- tion ; preserved from the heat of the sun, it is very certain ; but in open country situations, during drought, it is apt to split, and cause fracture to buildings, unless their foundations be laid below the range of the fissures which occur in it. St. Paul's Cathedral, one of the very loftiest and weightiest buildings in the world, stands upon a layer of clay, only from four to six feet thick, above a quick-sand forty feet deep ; yet, from the breadth and compact- ness of its footing, the goodness of its masonry, the equipoise of its several parts, and the masterly skill with which it is put together, it is freer from flaws and settlements than all other great buildings in the world, however good their foundations. Of Masonry. Of good square masonry, nothing need be said : no architect or mason is so ignorant as not really to know what good masonry is ; it will therefore be better rather to mention the nature of bad masonry that it may be avoided by the architect, careful of his reputation, and jealously desirous that not one farthing of his employer's property may be foolishly dissipated. That masonry is bad which being neither laid in courses so as to have only a downward pressure, nor bound properly together by the mere gravity of its materials, roils apart, rends, and will not remain in a state of rest. That masonry is bad which bursts open from internal rubble-work forcing out the external faces of the wall. That masonry is bad which by the friable nature of its materials splits under its mere weight. That masonry is bad which, however carefully and artificially constructed, soon decomposes by the mere operation of wet, frost, air and time. 14 ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE That masonry is bad, the materials of which, however good, fall to ruin by the faulty manner in which they are put together. Of cramps and plugs in masonry. Of all the practical grievances under which modern masonry labours none is more dreadful than the absurd manner in which cramps and plugs are used for the purpose of connecting it together, but really to destroy it. A building composed of good and honourable masonry, in ordinary situations, may be said to need no cramps ; nearly equi- poised and in a state of rest, scientific masonry falls together almost as certainly as the particles of the earth fall to one common centre. If masonry be not equipoised to a state of almost perfect rest it is in vain that it be cramped together ; neither cramps, nor girths, nor the cohesive strength of the stone itself will preserve it from irregular settlement and consequent fracture. Where some other force, beyond that of mere gravity, is exercised against the masonry, as that of the waves of the ocean, or the current of a river, or where the masses of stone are light and may be easily removed by the hand of man, or by accident, cramps are necessary. Cramps should never be of iron : the Author has never used one single cramp of iron, and he never will; he could produce such a catalogue of disasters and architectural destructions, merely from the corrosion of iron cramps, as would astonish any one previously uninformed upon the subject. If cramps be used at all they should be of some material which will not corrode ; for iron, particularly wrought-iron, unless buried a great way in the masonry soon becomes so bossed round with rust, as to split in pieces the strongest masonry. A large stone building, with its masonry cramped with wrought-iron, has really thousands of wedges silently, but power- fully and unrestrainedly, operating its destruction. The following observations relative to cramps, are taken from Wren's " Parentalia." Page 286. " This has been observed, in " taking out Cramps from Stone-ivork at least four hundred " years old, which were so bedded in Mortar that all Air was " perfectly excluded, the Iron appeared as fresh as from the " Forge. Therefore in cramping of stones, no iron should " lye within nine inches of air, if possible; for the Air is the " Menstruum that consuones all Materials whatever. When " there is a Necessity to use Iron for want of Stones large " enough, Care is to be taken to exclude sufficiently the Air from " it." And even Wren's caution in this matter, does not appear to have been sufficient in every instance ; or else the great number OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 15 of his architectural works in hand at once did not permit him to see with his own eyes that his intentions were fulfilled ; for there is very little decay or injury come to his buildings, except that which has occurred by the corrosion of iron. The following observations are from James Murphy's work upon the church of Batalha, in Portugal. " The spire of " Salisbury, for instance, is but seven inches thick ; and that " of Batalha is about the same thickness, independent of the " embossed work, though almost a fourth part of its superfices " is perforated. Great care must consequently have been taken " in selecting the materials employed in constructing such light " spires, especially as they are, i believe, in general, con- " NECTED WITHOUT THE AID OF IRON CRAMPS ; FOR THIS METAL, " WHEN EXPOSED TO AIR OR MOISTURE, IS SUBJECT TO CONTRACT " RUST, WHICH IN TIME WILL SHP7ER IN PIECES AS MUCH OF THE " block AS rr comes IN contact with. Cramps of copper were " also used by the ancients in their buildings, which, according " to the account of Father Montfaucon, were tempered to an " extraordinary hardness." Mr. Smeaton in his invaluable account of the construction of the Eddystone lighthouse (section 158), gives the following account relative to a stone steeple which was partly destroyed by lightning, January 25th, 1757. "The steeple of the church of Lostwithiel " before this accident was 113 feet high, whereof the lower part " was a square tower of 49 feet, finished above with an elegant " Gothic octagon lantern, 12 feet high, and above it a stone spire " of 52 feet, of which a portion of 20 feet of the upper part was " entirely burst, and dispersed in all directions ; and some of the " stones that composed it were found at the distance of 200 yards. — " The masonry, as is usual in ancient and well-built spires, was " very light, the stones composing the shell of it being no more " than seven inches thick ; so that the single stones of it could " not in general exceed one hundred weight : yet as they were all " curiously joined together at the ends, mortoise and tenon " fashion, and appeared to have been exceedingly well cemented " together, nothing, as it should seem, but a great power of some " elastic vapour, similar to the sudden explosion of a considerable " quantity of gunpowder, could have burst and dispersed the " materials of the spire in the manner it had done : for besides " the part entirely destroyed, to six feet further down, one half of " the shell was thrown down, and the other half left standing, in " so perilous a state, that it was judged necessary to take it down ; " and in doing this, the work was found so disjointed and shattered " that it was thought necessary to take down six feet more. It " was in this situation when I viewed it, the beginning of March ; " and I found that the whole of the spire left standing, as well as " the lantern, was greatly cracked and damaged. Many other " circumstances occurred which showed the effects of an elastic 16 ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENT'E " vapour, that wanted to get at liberty by expansion, somewhat " similar in its most obvious effects to that of gunpowder ; and " under this idea, I might have been tempted to suppose, that had " the shell or spire been rendered stronger by cramping the stones " together, as well as tenoning the ends, it might have sustained " the elastic pressure outwards, without being torn to pieces : but " there were some attending circumstances which convinced me, " that the action had not been altogether in the way of an included " elastic vapour, endeavouring to expand itself; upon which prin- " ciple, the weakest parts would have given way, and have afforded " an opening to the vapour : for, at the bottom of the steeple, at " the level of the ground, an hole had been pierced entirely " through the wall, and through an opposite buttress, whose " compound thickness amounted to eight feet." To the opinions of other eminent men, may be subjoined that of the justly celebrated Leon Batista Alberti, who, in the 11th chapter of the third book of his Architecture, says, " Cramps and "pins of iron are not reckoned amiss; but I have observed in " the works of the ancients, that iron rusts, and will not last; " but brass will almost last for ever. Besides, I find that marble " is tainted by the rust of iron, and breaks all round it." " The " cramps must be so placed that no drops of rain may penetrate " to them ; and it is thought that the brass ones* are yet more " strengthened against old age, if in casting they are mixed with " one thirtieth part of tin." — Leoni's Translation. There no longer remains any excuse for using any but cramps of copper, bronze, or gun-metal. From the vast increase in the world of the stock of the precious and other metals the incomes of workmen and of their employers are now apparently so great that whereas in the reign of King Edward the Third a single pound of iron cost nearly the diurnal wages of a labourer, now a pound of copper does not cost above one-third of the daily wages of such a labourer : and moreover, even in the reign of Edward the Second, although ties of metal which would not corrode might have been deemed too expensive, yet it appears that at the palace of Westminster iron ties with tinned heads were made use of. Thus it may be concluded, that at the present day, with the present experience, and at the present prices, no one can use iron cramps in masonry without justly incurring the charge of igno- rance or of self-willed obstinacy. The author has not himself been without chagrin upon some occasions when, after he has elaborated a specification, with directions, the soundness and • Brass, would here be probably translated better by copper. That ordinary brass does not stand in the weather so well as copper may be seen even in so small in article as the Thermometer, the bridles and screws of which last long if made of copper, but which quickly decay if made of brass. A portion of tin mixed with cramps of cof per renders them both harder and more durable. OF MODEKN BUILDINGS. 17 economy of which observation upon the defects of existing struc- tures has fully proved to him, to find that from some uncontrol- lable circumstances his work has fallen into the hands of some vain, ignorant, or unprincipled man, who, besides the other inter- meddlings of destructive folly, has exchanged his instructions for the use of copper or gun-metal in connexion with stone, into orders for the use of corrosive iron, and has thus set wedges for the cleavage of that building which had perhaps till then escaped the violence of time and the artillery of civil-war. The considerate practical reader will recognise with a smile, with esteem, with confidence, and with delight, the prudent obser- vations upon this subject of the honest, inventive, and in his time the courtly De L'orme. " Soubz ombre du fer et du piastre, ilz ont esperance J'inconue. " que leur ouurage tiendra trop. I'ay ueu aduenir un "Sauiennent " autre grand mal aux bastimets pour mettre du fer dans <<^ u f ' rTia e " les maconneries et auec les pierres de taille: car le fer |J n ! a ^? nM - " s'enrouille, et s'enrouillant il s'enfle et faict rompre les " pierres et murs qui ne peuuent durer longuement. De " ce nous prendrons par exemple, le Liarre, duquel les " racines liees et prinses dans les murs attirent et rongent " la substance du mortier, et comme elles deuiennent " grosses, se font faire place, recullant les pierres qui " n'ont plus de mortier, et par ainsi les rendent prestes " de tomber. Quoi, uoyant aucuns en ont faict cest " diuise, Inimica amicitia, qui est a dire, ennemie " amitie: ou, ce qui m'aime me ruine. Ainsi est-il du "Nature da " fer, lequel les meschantes maconneries aiment de peur "ma?one- 1C8 " qu' elles ne tombent, mais a la fin il les ronge et ruine. " ries " " Faisant tout ainsi que ledict liarre, lequel apres auoir " acheue de miner la muraille, et l'auoir mise par terre, " n'ayant aucune chose pour se soustenir, est contrainct " de tomber sur le chemin. Auquel, apres auoir marche " dessus, est couppe, pour les empeschemens qu'il peult " faire : et par ainsi il meurt comme il a faict mourir le " mur. Chose semblable aduient a aucuns hommes, qui " soubz ombre d' amitie, appuis ou alliances auecques " autres, ilz en tirent leur substance, et les font mourir " d'ennuits et pauurete, pensants y gaigner beaucoup : "* a " lte " " mais apres auoir succe et attire d'eux iusques au sang, ||sonsusans " ilz trebuchent et sont mis a neant par le uouloir et.^timents." " iustice de Dieu, qui ne ueult le mal demeurer impuny. " Philibert de L'orme. Novvelles Inventions " povr Bien Bastir." Paris, A.D. 1561, cap. iv. folio 6 18 ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE On the use of iron in stone and brickwork. In general the architect must fear to attach any iron-work whatsoever to stone-work, or even to let it touch it ; but he need not take the same pains with regard to attaching iron to brick- work : buried in brickwork, very little if any change in it takes place ; nor does it appear that brickwork is injured by it : but he should take care, that no iron-work, particularly if wrought, should at its issue from brickwork cause rust-stains to the facing-work, more especially if of white bricks. The wrought-iron discharging cradle-bars, which the author has placed over stone window-heads, he has had soldered up com- pletely in a sheathing of milled-lead to prevent corrosion, or the imparting any stain to the stone-work ; and where he has placed such cradle-bars he has afterwards neither observed rust nor breach of the stone heads : but even the slightest settlement or yielding of those bars would have broken the stone-work beneath them if there had not been an arched hollow space left between the iron and the stone ; which space, after the building had settled, was merely concealed by an extremely thin face-work, set in a great deal of very soft mortar, on purpose to yield in case any further settlement should occur. Perhaps if the cradle-bars were heated, and pitched all over they would need no other preservation from rust ; and common red sealing-wax, applied to hot iron, appears to form a perfect anti- corrosion varnish, which neither cold nor great heat will destroy. The author has had the ends of wrought-iron railings filed smooth and tinned over, when inserted in stone-work ; but this is very expensive if applied on a large scale. How injudicious is the exposure of iron in situations where its corrosion and destruction may lead to serious consequences was to be seen in the steeple of Saint Mary-le-bow, London, where there was a wrought-iron chain-bar running through the shafts of the Peristylium ; this chain-bar was, in a great measure, destroyed by rust ; and two of the columns split by it, through the body of the stone, and only held together by girths of iron : this defect, in the end, led to a very expensive further repair and restoration of the steeple. The author had, some time since, to survey a steeple and to make a specification for the repair of it ; this steeple had two exposed chain-bars of wrought-iron running through the eight piers supporting the spire of it; these were found considerably rusted: he therefore deemed it requisite that means should be taken, to prevent their further injury, especially as the foundation of the steeple was defective, was ill-drained, and had been badly dealt with ; the means proposed were to file them clean, to heat and pitch them over, and to encase them in sheet copper. OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 19 Of the cheapness of granite for the facing of ordinary buildings. Mean in its buildings, but truly sumptuous in its pavings, London is a surprise to most strangers. Paving of undressed, but square granite, nine inches deep, is provided and laid down at about one shilling per foot superficial : now allowing for the extra price which is paid for the facings of brickwork, and deducting an average of nine inches from the thickness of the brickwork, it appears that the plain parts between the decorations of churches and other public buildings may be faced with regular courses of granite, un- polished it is true, but almost everlasting, and better wrought and smoother than the rubble-work of most Gothic churches, and that at the same price as our present mean brickwork ; but if instead of with courses of square granite we were to face our walls in the ancient manner, with the " Opus in- certum" small irregular granite could be brought to us as ballast, at a price cheaper than that of any kind of stone which we at present use ; and in villas and many other buildings, it might, by judicious use, be made to appear very picturesque by forming it in courses thus, with quoins of squared granite, or of other stone : and granite curb eight inches thick, and squared all round, costs only two shillings per foot superficial. In- deed, walls may be built in London of superb masonry, twelve inches thick, wholly composed of solid blocks of squared granite curb, of excellent bond, being in blocks five or six feet long, at three shillings per foot superficial ; while walls one brick and a half thick, faced with yellow bricks, cost fifteen pence or more per foot superficial. The granite may be brought from Scotland or Cornwall, of the exact required size, without the enhanced expense of the high- priced labour of the metropolis. Section of brickwork faced ex- ternally with rough blocks of granite in courses 6 in- ches high, and alternately 12 inches thick and 6inches thick, so as to form an ave- rage thickness of 9 inches. ===== .A-V A^ =~z== 4^y Elevation of a kind of granite "Opus incertum" masonry, ranging in courses with quoins of squared stone. Of the injury which has fallen upon English architecture, from the extensive use of Bath stone; and of the difference between good stone and bad stone. Perhaps one of the most fatal events for modern metropolitan architecture, and for that of a considerable portion of the re- mainder of England, is the repute into which, in modern times, 20 ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE Bath stone has come: of all building free-stones it is, if not properly selected, perhaps the worst; it is naturally of so ill a color, is of so seamy and coarse a texture, is so porous, and so readily becomes still darker and more disagreeable in color, is so soft and of so fragile and rapidly-decaying a nature, that however little it may cost to work it, that little may be justly considered to be thrown away : of the churches which have been built within less than the last thirty years, wherever this material has been made use of, hardly one exists in which more or less dilapidation in the stone-work has not already taken place : the restorations of Henry the Seventh's Chapel at Westminster, soon after they had been finished, of the very choicest and of the most carefully selected specimens of this perishable and grim material, were, it is to be deplored, already crumbling away, while the original sub- plinths of the building, being of a harder material, have after 300 years suffered little from the tooth of time. The columns, bases, plinths, cornices, balustrades, and other work of Bath stone, with which the Eegent Street and the new buildings of the Regent's Park, London, have been pretended to be decorated, have in numerous instances arrived at a frightful degree of decomposi- tion ; indeed parts of the columns of the park-lodges, near the Regent's Circus, have been replaced ; the columns of All Souls' Church, Langham Place, are fretting away, the stone casing of the tower of the same church is flawed in many places, and the tower is altogether in a deplorable condition. If any one be really unacquainted with the ungenerous nature of the competition between the brilliant and admirable quarries of Portland roe- stone, and the doleful ones of Bath, let him compare the superb masonry of the water-front of Somerset House, built about seventy years since, with that of the building at the opposite corner of Waterloo Bridge, built about twenty-five years since, and which is chosen specimen of its kind. Of the extra caution required in building edifices with square stone. So guarded must an architect be in the erection of edifices of large square stone, the various blocks of which are accurately fitted together so that one stone cannot alter its position without dis- arranging many, that all his attention is called into the most active play to guard against every irregular settlement and sub- sidence ; for the materials not being flexible, but friable, must certainly break and rend in coming to a state of repose, which the enormous weight of materials in even a very small building cannot effect without great strain and powerful effort : even the stone window-sills of a prison, one or two feet thick, and though they scarcely enter the piers at the sides of them, from being pinned in OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 21 tightly, often crack in the middle ; and not unfrequently, a small piece is rent perpendicularly from off each of their ends. Much of the firmest ancient masonry consists of very small blocks of stone, set with rather coarse joints in a considerable quantity of mortar, which the stone has well imbibed : of this description of work, were formed many of the ancient Gothic vaultings : — and to this day, upon digging almost anywhere into the ground in the neighbourhood of the destroyed Priory of the Knights Hospitallers, at Clerkenwell, voussoirs of the arch- ribs of that building are constantly disinterred : these are in general not more than 5 inches long, are in perfect preserva- tion, and though wrought with very great precision are not arched, their shortness enabling them to be set to the proper curvature with apparent exactness ; while the frequent recurrence of the mortar-joints between them, has preserved them from frac- ture by settlement. In building with squared stone, too much care cannot be taken to prevent the different courses of the masonry from touch- ing each other externally ; for if this precaution be not taken the external face of the stone-work will certainly be splintered off: where the stones are heavy, as in the case of columns, damage of this description is most effectually prevented by the interposition of plates of lead in the horizontal joints, leaving the joints open half an inch back, or more, and pointing them up only when the work has found its full state of rest. Of the quantity of material requisite in a building. Much ignorance exists in modern times in the great quantity of material requisite to be employed in rendering a building successful ; wisdom in putting it together does more than the quantity of material. A Grothic architect has built a vault only a few inches thick, which has lasted five or six hundred years unimpaired, and has saved purse, walls, piers, and foundation, alike from a heavy burthen : but a modern vault of immense thickness, has either fractured instantly, or has thrust out the walls, sunk the founda- tion, and led to a rebuilding of the whole structure. Five hundred years ago the stone spire of Salisbury Cathedral was carried up to a height which few human works have ever attained, and has ever since resisted storm, tempest, and lightning; and if violence be not used against it, may last as long as the pyramids, though compared with them it is almost as light as a feather ; but the more cumbrous dome of Saint Peter's, at Rome, has, from its want of sound construction, split desperately in five hundred places, from its crown to the foot of its supporting peris- tylium ; and many modern small steeples from that and other 22 ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE causes have required to be rebuilt in less than a hundred years from their first construction. The exercise of wisdom empowered the carrying up of the proud spires of Fribourg, Vienna, Strasburg, Antwerp, Salisbury, and Norwich ; the decay of constructive wisdom, compelled the intended western campaniles of Saint Peter's to remain unbuilt, the foundation of the church to be relieved from their rising burthen and the facade of the building to remain to this day the largest but meanest on earth. Of the "prevalent perverse spirit by which materials the least proper for the duration of architecture are employed in the various parts of many edifices. Another gradation in the decline of practical architecture, ensues from the bad adaptation and choice of materials. The worst property of iron beams or girders is their uncertain nature ; frequently, though they will bear considerable weight in an inert condition, the least addition to that weight or the least tremor given to them will break their substance and cause perhaps, besides destruction of property, loss of life or limb. The only legitimate and scientific use of iron in buildings is the subjection of it to compression : nearly all the instances of its use in modern architecture where it is subjected to the cross-strain of its own gravity and to that of a heavy additional load, savor strongly of a decline of art and skill. In ground-floors in contact with damp, cast-iron beams laid upon wall-plates of stone or iron, are well applied ; for a floor so constructed will last long ; but by fatal perverseness, this useful application of cast-iron is rarely made ; the author, wherever he has so applied iron, has found the most successful result. Iron breast-summers will not easily decay by rot ; but under fire they are far less certain than even those of wood. The author has surveyed many houses after conflagration but he never remembers to have seen even one wooden breast-summer wholly destroyed, — for being near the bottom of a fabric and too thick to ignite entirely they are hardly ever consumed through. All the architectural works of the olden times, which exhibit such structural excellence, do all awaken the most delightful sensations in the poet the antiquary, the philosopher, the lay- man, and the churchman, the civilian and the warrior, the prince and the peasant : — Structural excellence and poetry, go hand in hand, alike with the works of the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Hindoos, the Eomans, the Arabs, the Moors, and the early Christians. But now instead of so forming our architecture we disdain structural excellence; the only endeavour is to copy at second-hand some ancient work in bad and improper materials, OF MODEEN BUILDINGS. 23 and strike alone (and that even but very rarely) at pictorial effect; yet we wholly fail ; the proof of this is that the soul of the modern painter which delights in embodying in his charmino- works all kinds of ancient architecture, will not copy one particle of our modern architecture ; nor will we ourselves copy from it. This proves incontestabiy that art and science in architecture have fallen ; were it otherwise, our porcelain our plate, our furni- ture, every thing- around us, would bear the strong- family impress of our architecture as such things have in all times past and in all nations. Of the injury resulting to architecture from the improper state in which timber is generally used. Added to the other defects of modern English building, par- ticularly that of the metropolis and its immediate neighbourhood, is the improper state in which timber is used. The major part of our best timber is imported from the north of Europe and is immersed in docks and lies their floating till it is sold for immediate use ; the consequence of this is, that the timber, (though even it may be previously properly seasoned) becomes swelled to much beyond its former and its ultimate bulk, is hastily framed together, and very soon after it is so converted it shrinks to such a degree, that every tenon becomes loose, every joint strains falsely from the shrinkage, and every ceiling and quartered partition cracks by the opening diminishing and distor- tion of the wcod. If to immerse timber in water seasons it, it does not render it fit for use, but in fact, the very reverse of it. Timber for ordinary purposes should be shrunken to its smallest limits before it is worked up ; the least possible change should occur in the timber after the work is framed and adapted ; for all the oblique joints of it, by shrinkage, become imperfect, each bearing-timber then hangs straining upon a single point instead of upon a flat direct abutment ; thence many of the struts and other bearing- timbers rend by the weight hanging merely upon their angles. In very many cases dry-rot is engendered in our hastily-con- structed buildings by the quantity of dock-water pent up in the timber, by its mortices and other joints, by the plastering, by the brick-work, and by many other causes. While our timber is at the saw-pit the water streams from it ; and though it may appear choice and close when first selected and wrought, the sun and air in a very few days suffice to render it coarse, open, full of cracks, and wholly unfit for good work. (Plate I.) Our specifications are very strict in the requirement of the perfection and proper seasoning of timber ; but these precautions are almost useless : the builder can hardly procure at any price 24 ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE timber which is not in a dropsical condition ; and twelve months, in general, suffice to diminish in bulk, and to split our carpentry, alike whether it be framed for the palace or the cottage, for the public or the individual. On the carelessness of not banishing from public buildings all combustible materials, and of the disasters emanating from this vice. It does not appear whose fault it is, yet hardly can it be deemed anything short of a crime against the nation, that the most truly valuable collection of riches in the world, — the statuary, the curiosities, the records, the books, the royal library, the im- mense wealth of the British Museum, the liberal gifts of the public, the munificence of kings, the liberal and princely gifts of high-souled true patriots, — this wonderful, this admired, this un- purchaseable store, of art, taste, wisdom, learning, of heavenly and of human mind, should be placed in a new building where the consuming floor, the blazing roof-beam, the ignited wainscot, may destroy in a few hours the relics of four thousand years, or more, invaluable manuscripts, the Magna Charta, and the innumerable other things, which neither industry, wealth, nor time, can replace. How many centuries did the timber-work of York Minster escape, and was yet at last consumed, and with its destruction entailed that of much of the precious sculptures in stone, which till lately enriched that sacred and august fabric ? A public building ought to be built without joists, girders, floorings, or ceilings ; an incombustible roof may be difficult to construct well ; but the case demands imperiously that it should be so constructed ; the building should contain no skirtings, wainscottings, or door-linings of wood ; these should be of stucco, stone, or marble, or of some other incombustible material ; scarcely should the doors and windows be of wood or have any material about them which can burn. And, above all, as many of these fine stores of knowledge, in- dustry, and history will themselves burn they ought to be so detached in small portions that any lamentable accident shall only destroy a comparatively small portion of them. On this subject, Alberti, with his accustomed wisdom, speaks thus : — '•' I am entirely for having the Roofs of Temples arched, as " well because it gives them the greater Dignity, as because it " makes them more durable. And, indeed I know not how it " happens that we shall hardly meet any one temple whatsoever " that has not fallen into the calamity of fire Cesar " owned that Alexandria escaped being burnt, when he him- " SELF TOOK IT, BECAUSE ITS ROOFS WERE VAULTED. Nor are OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 25 " vaulted roofs destitute of their Ornaments. The Ancients trans- " ferred all the same Ornaments to their Cupolas, as the Gold- " smiths used about the Pateras or Cups for the Sacrifices ; and " the same Sort of Work as was used in the Quilts of their Beds " they imitated in their vaulted Roofs, whether plain or camerated. " Thus we see them divided into four, eight, or more pannels, or " crossed different Ways with equal Angles and with Circles, in " the most beautiful Manner that can be imagined. And here it " may be proper to observe, that the Ornaments of vaulted Roofs, " which consist in the Forms of their Pannels or Excavations, are " in many Places exceeding handsome, and particularly at the " Rotonda at Rome ; yet we have no where any Instruction left " us in Writing how to make them. My Method of doing it, " which is very easy and cheap, is as follows : I describe the " Lineaments of the future Pannels or Excavations upon the " Boards of the Scaffolding itself, whether they are to be Quad- " rangular, Sexangular, or Octangular. Then those parts which " I intend to excavate in my Roof, I raise to the stated Height " with unbaked Bricks set in Clay instead of Mortar. Upon this " Kind of Mount thus raised on the Back of the Scaffolding, I " build my vaulted Roof of Brick and Mortar, taking great Care " that the thinner Parts cohere firmly with the Thicker and " Stronger. When the vault is compleated and settled, and the " Scaffolding is taken away from under it, I clear the solid " Building from those Mounts of Clay which I had raised at first ; " and thus the Shapes of my Excavations or Pannels are formed " according to my original design." — Book vii. Chap xi. — Leoni's Translation. Is it not enough, that most of our churches were burnt down several times within a very short period before our prudent ancestors adopted stone for the structure of the principal parts of them, and the use of which material has since saved most of them for centuries ? Is it not enough, that in and near our own times, London and other cities have suffered so severely from conflagra- tion, — that the Cotton manuscripts, now in the British Museum, should have once been partially destroyed, — that the Custom House of London was consumed, — that the British Parliament Houses suffered the same fate, — that the roof of the precious Abbey of Westminster has been on fire, — that the Cathedrals of Rouen and Chartres met the same fate, — that the like misfortune, tsome time smce, occurred to the Marquis of Salisbury's celebrated house at Hatfield, in Hertfordshire, — that Warwick Castle has also in the same way suffered considerably, — and that the Royal Exchange, London, was destroyed ? These form but an exceedingly small portion of the disasters which have, within a short period, oc- curred to buildings of consideration ; but the accidents by fire, which have happened within memory to private buildings, no catalogue could enumerate; it is true, that in London, the excellent pro- 26 ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE visions of the Building act, for the partial prevention of fire, have many times saved the metropolis from a fate similar to that of the year 1666, and do in most cases of burning confine the damage to one house; yet such is the strange perverseness of many of those who build, or such are the perverse circumstances under which they build, that they seem to consider this benevolent act as one which it is their duty to evade, — and the district-surveyors appointed to see its provisions fulfilled, as men whom it is their duty to out -wit. Now, on the subject of rendering buildings fire-proof, the reader is referred, for ordinary buildings, to the Transactions of the Institution of Civil Engineers of London, in the xviiith Article of the 1st Volume of which is to be found a most inte resting " Description of the Method of Roofing in use in Southern Concan, in the East Indies, by Lieut Francis Outram" For buildings for the purposes of store-houses, the reader is referred to the warehouses erected of brickwork, stone and iron, at Sheer- ness, Kent, and other places ; and to the vaulted apartment under St. Stephen's Chapel, Westminster, which withstood, uninjured, the great fire which consumed the Houses of Parliament. And for buildings of a sacred character, the reader is referred to the stone roof of the Church of Batalha, in Portugal ; Kosslyn Chapel in Scotland ; to the Cathedral of Milan, relative to which see Archaiologia, Vol. 16, p. 303, where the late ingenious accom- plished and Kev. Mr. Kerrich states, " It is extremely singular that " there is no covering of tiles, or lead, or copper, or any roof of " timber, to this church : it is merely vaulted over, and upon the " vaulting are laid large slabs, or planes of marble, to carry off the " rain and moisture." And again, the Reader is referred to the instances of the stone-roofed chapels of Ireland, some accounts of which will be found in the "Antiquities of Ireland^ by Edward Ledwich, LL.B., A.D. 1790, and from which the following extracts are taken: — " The Church of St. Doulach, situated about four miles to the " East of Dublin, on the road to Malahide, is a curious structure. " It is forty-eight feet long, by eighteen wide. There is a double " stone roof, the external which covers the building, and that " which divides the lower from the upper story." " You enter the " chapel. This is twenty-two feet by twelve, and lighted by three " windows, one at the East, and two at the South ; the arches " pointed and decorations Gothic, these with the tower are later " additions. The roof is of stone and carried up like a wedge. " The stones which cover it are not large, but so well bedded in " mortar, that after many centuries this roof transmits neither " light nor water." — p. 144. " There is a very ancient crypt in an isle in the Shannon, not " far from Killaloe, but that of the greatest magnitude and best " architecture is Cormac's Chapel at Cashel. This stands on au OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 27 high insulated rocky hill. The inside length is forty-seven feet eight inches ; the hreadth eighteen : the height of the roof from the ground, on the outside, is fifty-two feet, and the slant of the roof twenty-four. It has a chancel and nave. On square pillars, adorned with a lozenge net-work, rest round columns as on their pedestals, from which the springers of the arch arise. These columns are short and thick, and have bases, tores, capitals and entablatures, rudely executed : the portal is semicircular, with nail-headed and chevron mouldings, and the windows are also half circles." — p. 146. "The stone-roofed chapels before de- scribed, and denominated from Cormac, I think, must have been constructed posterior to the age of this prelate." " The dimen- sions of this chapel are thus stated : — " Length of the nave .... " Breadth " Length of the choir .... " Breadth " Breadth of the grand arch leading to the choir " Width of the north door " Of the south door ..... " Of the west door ..... " Mean thickness of the walls . " Length of the square tower . " Breadth " Height " Height of the stone roof from the ground " Slant of the roof ..... " Diameter of the columns of the grand arch " Height " Height of the entire arch " Breadth of the archivolt " Length of the chapel inside . " Length outside , Ft. in . 30 . 18 o . 13 s . 11 (5 r 9 . 2 7 o O 4 . 4 6 . 4 1 . 10 o . 6 s . 68 . 52 . 24 . 6 . 8 . 12 6 3 6 . 47 8 . 53 " This is certainly one of the most curious fabrics in these " kingdoms. It is a regular church, divided into nave and choir, " the latter narrowing in breadth, and separated from the former " by a wide arch. Under the altar, tradition places the bones of " St. Cormac. There is a striking resemblance between this " Chapel and the Church of St. Peter, at Oxford ,with Grymbald's " crypt beneath it." — p. 150. Moreover, the reader is referred to the instances of the in- combustible brick dome over the Pantheon at Eome, which is perhaps the cheapest as well as the most durable and uncon- sumable roof which could have been erected over so great a building : other instances are the reputed tomb of Theodoric, at Ravenna ; the Abbot's kitchen at Glastonbury ; the ancient 28 ON THE STRUCTLTxb AND SCIENCE curious brick dome of the temple of Jupiter in the Palace of Diocletian, at Spalatro, in Dalmatia ; and above all the excellent instance of the reputed Temple of Vesta at Nismes, in Languedoc, the vaulting and external covering of which are of the lightest yet most durable description, and may be imitated in common brick- work and slate ; this specimen may be applied successfully to the very largest class of modern churches, and while it affords the greatest possible internal sectional space, it possesses the further advantage of the inclination of its external covering being adapt- able to the rake of a pediment : — and among modern instances may be mentioned the early instance of the celebrated cupola of the Church of Santa Maria del Fiore, at Florence, the work of Filipo Brunelleschi ; that of the Vatican designed by Buonarotti, though very defective in structure ; and that of the Church of Saint Genevieve at Paris : to these may be added many oriental domes ; and in general, the Gothic cathedrals and great churches, in England and other countries, are indestructible by fire, except their roof-timbers ; and the same may be said of the Cathedral of Saint Paul, London, which, except the carpentry over its various domes, is entirely fire-proof; and among the other structural excellencies of this sumptuous building, its several porticos possess the exceedingly rare merit, of having their soffits entirely formed of beautiful stone so as, in this particular, to throw into the shade all the porticos of Greece, the roofs of which were formed of the most expensive materials, yet were weak and perishable, — the marble coverings of them, from want of science, being frequently upborne merely by wood-work, which, if it escaped conflagration, soon decayed by the moisture which it imbibed. And here it is but justice to Sir John Soane to praise the manner in which he constructed nearly all the apartments of the Bank of England, entirely fire-proof and without any carpentry whatever : in his arches and domes he made use largely of hollow pots or cones, of coarse earthenware, of the description shown in the accompanying Plate I., fig. 1 : these, while possessing strength sufficient not to crush, — by their lightness relieve the walls in a great measure both from the lateral thrust and the perpendicular pressure, which result from the use of heavy solid materials : and indeed, it might be possible to form arches and vaults of equi- librium of these pots by leaving empty those of them placed at the summit of the work, and gradually filling them with cement or mortar of different densities, increasing towards the springing of the arch, and thus to prevent both crushing and drift to the haunches and lower part of the work. The following instance of the use of hollow pots in the con- struction of vaults, cupolas and other parts of edifices, by the ancient Eomans, are noticed by d'Agincourt in the 135th page of the first volume of his Histoire de VAvt, par les monumens, depuis sa decadence an 4 C siecle jusqu'a son Renouvcllemcnt au 16 e . OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 29 " L'emploi des vases de terre, dans la construction des mnrs, " et sur-tout des voutes, offre une singularite qui merite d'attirer " notre attention. " On ne s'en servait point comme des vases d'airain dont parle " Vitruve, lib. v. cap. 5, dans l'intention de donner a la voix plus " d'eclat et au son des effets plus prolonges. " Les vases de terre cuite, dont Vitruve parle aussi, avaient " uniquement pour objet d'alleger le poids des constructions dans " lesquelles on les employait, et de prolonger la duree des monu- " mens, en diminuant leur depense. C'est ce qu'on voit au cirque " de Caracalla, fig. 50. " Le genre de service que la poterie pouvait rendre, comme " objet de maconnerie, devait la faire principalement employer dans " la construction des nicbes et des voutes. Nous en avons vu la " preuve, a Rome et a Ravenne, dans des monumens rapportes " sur les plancbes xxii et xxiii. La figure 51, nous en " offre ici un exemple : c'est l'escalier par lequel on descend " de l'eglise de St. Sebastien, bors des murs de Rome, dans " l'oratiore souterrain dit de St. Damase, Ce monument est du " 4 e . siecle. " On retrouve encore la meme construction dans deux fabriques " des environs de Rome, dont je ne puis indiquer la date, mais qui " sont certainement tres anciennes. La premiere, fig. 49, est situee " a peu de distance de la porte Majeure, sur l'antique voie Prce- " nestina : elle est entierement en ruines. Des vases de terre, de " la forme de celui que j'ai figure dans son entier, se voient encore " de distance en distance dans le massif des murs, et en les trouve " disposes sur deux rangs sur la cime d'une espece de calotte qui " recouvrait l'edifice. La seconde fabrique est situee a trois milles " a-peu-pres de la meme porte, sur la voie Labicana, dans un lieu " qui s'appelait autrefois Inter duas lauros. Cette ruine, de " forme circulaire, offre une telle quantite de vases de terre cuite, " qu'on l'appelle encore aujourd'bui Torre pignattara, du mot " Italien pignatta, qui signifie un vase de terre. Ce surnom " populaire est loin de rappeler l'auguste et religieuse origine de " la fabrique qu'il designe : celle-ci faisait partie de l'eglise dans " laquelle Constantin avait place la magnifique urne qui contenait " le corps de sa mere Helene. " On a trouve, en Sicile, une porte antique, fig. 35 et 36, dont " les j ambages sont en pierres de taille, et dont le ceintre est " forme par trois rangs de vases ou de tubes en terre cuite enfiles " les uns dans les autres. Les vases de terre trouves a Metz, dans " un pave de mosaique, nous offrent une pratique beaucoup plus " extraordinaire, que le comte de Caylus a cbercbe a expliquer iC - dans le tome v, page 327, et PL cxviii, de son Recueil d'An- " tiquites." In conclusion, if otber instances were wanting to sbow in vvbat manner even regal babitations may be rendered fire-proof, 30 ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE may be instanced the Portuguese King's Palace of Mafra, a de- scription of which may be seen in the work of Father John do Prado, published at Lisbon, A.D. 1751*; and of which also may be found in the 289th page of Murphy's Travels in Portugal, A.D. 1789-90, the following notices: — "The entire of this vast " pile is vaulted and covered over with flags, forming a platform, " whereby we may walk over the summit of the edifice ;" but even this building it appears suffered from the effects of lightning and the want of proper conductors, which have since been erected in some parts of the building ; for Murphy goes on to state that, " Here I observed several large blocks of stone that were shivered " by lightning. Conductors are erected in the different parts " wherein the injuries happened, but nowhere else." On the inferiority which is often to be found in modern brickwork. (See Plate I.) Soundness is nothing more than that the work should be composed of good materials correctly bonded in every part, should be thoroughly cemented together, and that as few broken bricks as possible should be used in the work. An idea is prevalent that great care and exactness in the choice of the materials of Brickwork, and in the workmanship of it, are too burthensomely expensive to be borne in ordinary build- ings ; no idea could be more erroneous, for bad materials will not support much more than their own weight ; and though bad Brickwork may even cost only £10 per rod, a much larger bulk of it is required for supporting the same weight, and for keeping out the weather equally well, than for the same purpose would be required of Brickwork of a better quality, while the carriage is as costly and the mortar and workmanship of it are as expensive and sometimes more so. It will be found that for the performance of a certain quantity of good malm, paving-bricks set in the best stone-lime mortar will (besides their superior duration) be cheaper than the worst descriptions of place-bricks. It is useless to plead, that of itself, circumstances apart, such a wall is too thick or too thin; for sufficiency of substance depends entirely upon the purpose for which work is required. If he who built Salisbury spire found out the art of so disposing the materials of it as to make a thick- ness of 7 inches of stone last 500 years and still to remain, it is in vain to say that a wall 9 inches thick will not serve for such or • *' Monumento Sacro da Fabrica, e Segracao da Santa Basilica do Real Ccnvento de Mafra. Joao do Prado. Lisboa, 1751." A copy of this work is in tbo Royal Library of the British Museum. OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 31 such a purpose : the masonry of Gothic edifices is but rarely in its particles so sound as excellent Brickwork. When you deduct from Brickwork in ordinary buildings the loss of strength occasioned by badness of material, by discon- nection of the bond, by small pieces being inserted where whole bricks should have been used, and by the weakness which is the result of the work not being duly cemented, you will find that the useful part of common work (if indeed it possesses any such) executed at £10 period really costs £50 or more per rod: and then when it is considered, in a vast number of our erections, that from one pier not being set over another a large portion of such piers instead of supporting the superincumbent weight act as ruinous burthens upon the remaining parts of the pier, it will be found that the quantity of effective Brickwork is often so reduced as to cost more than £100 per rod: and indeed it is almost a mistake to say that any of it is effective while in jeopardy from defective nature and mal-construction. It is universally admitted that English-bond is the mode in which Brickwork can be put together with the greatest strength, — (Plate I., fig. 2,) for in no part of such work, when properly done, does joint come over joint, and it does not require small pieces of brick to fill up the work ; moreover it may and ought to be done entirely with whole bricks, except the " closers " near its angles, requisite in order to adjust properly the bond. Whereas Flemish-bond (Plate I., fig. 3) requires of necessity through its whole structure a multitude ofsmall pieces, and pos- sesses the additional inconvenience of having throughout its struc- ture* a series of coffers (filled with unbonded work) which extend perpendicularly from the base to the summit of the work. It is customary to consider Flemish-bond as indispensable for the external facing of even the commonest descriptions of buildings ; hence there is license given for the most defective workmanship ; for as in general bricklayers use for all work out of sight the English-bond, they make the insides of external walls of English-bond and the outsides of them of Flemish-bond, and thus much irregularity and breach in the bonding of the work ensue. In order to avoid this evil the author, for some consider- able time past, has had all his external walls, except those of principal fronts, executed entirely within and without in English- bond ; and he would have adopted the same mode of structure even in principal fronts had he not been restrained by the fear of increasing the proportion in the quantity of facing-bricks which are in general much softer and inferior in goodness to the descrip- tion of grey-stock bricks which he in general uses : and this imperfection of the ordinary facing-bricks has almost induced him to lay aside altogether the ordinary facing '-bricks , and to make his walls only of moderate thickness ; but within and without entirely of the very best malm paving-bricks, a description of 32 ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE material which he believes to be the most excellent for walls ; and this would remove altogether the imperfection of softness, and the want of tie, in the ordinary facings of brick-work ; for by the ordinary mode of carrying into the body of the work the "headers" of but every alternate course, only one sixth part of the superficial extent of the facings can be tied into the work (Plate I., fig. 4) ; and when it is considered how many of the " headers " break off while the workman is laying them, how many he omits from care- lessness or fraud, and how many of them are short when used, — it will be found that only about one-eighth part of the superficial extent of the work is bonded, — and in common bad ordinary work the tie is reduced to one-tenth ; — and the author has seen work in which it was reduced to less than one-twentieth of the superficial extent, and acted rather as a burthen than a support to the brick- work. But if a wall bebuilt wholly of malm paving-bricks, the facing, if the work be in Flemish-bond will have one-third of its superficial extent bonded in, and if of English-bond one-half of its superficial extent will be bonded. (Plate I., fig. 5.) By the ordinary mode of bonding in only the " headers " of each alternate course two thirds of the extent of facing through- out the work, are separated from the back-work by a series of perpendicular joints extending from the base to the summit of the work. See section from c to d. (Plate I., fig. 4) The author believes that if the favour in which Flemish-bond facings are held be not altogether a prejudice, the superior sound- ness of facings of English-bond ought to prevent the use of Flemish-bond in most cases where it is now adopted. It is of the greatest importance to reduce brick-work to the smallest possible dimensions ; for besides the saving of the carriage of the materials, the foundation is thereby disburthened of a crushing heap. In many parts of structures their grace and convenience depend solely upon the ability to reduce the bulk of their substantial component parts ; and moreover, every proprietor has a natural inherent feeling against the occupation of the site of his habitation by an useless bulk of materials : and the dis- parity in favour of the quantity of permanent strength to be pro- duced out of a given sum of money by the use of good materials and good workmanship should for ever, with the wise and truly economical, banish inferiority. The wonder with which mankind in general view a small quantity of materials reared by delicate art, should be sufficient inducement for the architectural prac- titioner to take some pains in this respect. The author has sometimes under peculiar circumstances, run up to a considerable height walls in their principal parts no thicker than 9 inches and has been cautioned against this ; but he has found although he could not get the brick-work executed to his satisfaction these walls from even the moderate care which has been used in their formation have remained without Haw, — Plate I Ftg.7. of the pots : i\ inches square ;hes diameter at the soffit. Ength H inches ; thickness. Die through the soffit of each plastering. e pots, showing the rough upon their exteriors to hold (lb 4oz. brick, of the same external of Brickwork. Kg. 10. lans of the nd Course. Work one brick thick. Work one brick and a half thick. Work two bricks thick. .£. S. A Principal and a Strut framed with close abutments into a king-post or suspender of new timber. Sh. Sh. A Principal and a Strut origi- nally framed with close abut- ments, but afterwards strain- ing each upon one angle on account of the shrinkage of the timber rendering the abut- ments, a, a, less inclined. r, r. Rents frequently caused to the timbers by the irregular strain resulting from the shrinkage. 'IC/.2-. Flemish-Bond of Brick-work. 2nd Course. Fl-g.3 . Brick-work Faced with Malm Stocks. ci b ci d b d { Fic,A. Flan of the 1st Course. Flan of the 'And Course. tzr TT Section from c tod. Fig. 5. i — r~r : plastering. : pots, showing the rough irks scratched upon th of solid hrick, of the English- Bona of Brick i jhuld 1 , 1 ,1 I I I I S. S. A Pri with cloi king-post or suspender of new timber. S/t. Sh. A Principal and a Strut origi- nally framed with close abut- isulting from the shrinkage. Fig 2. iti of Brick-tvork. Fig. 3. I II IT I t Fu,.+. I I 1.1 I, Fig 5. Malm Slock Facings in Flemish- Facing of English-bond. bond. The only Bricht wA/cA lie the facing with the body ,/t'ie mtlll. UiUl Court, E.C OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 33 while walls much thicker, raised by those who gave him their advice, have in a few months cracked and fallen to ruin because they were worse constructed and were reared contrary to all static principle. Of how much importance it is to reduce the bulk of the com- ponent materials of an edifice to the smallest bulk which safety will allow is the circumstance of the fondness with which so many persons view the adoption of small coarse and proportionless pillars of iron in preference to the most beautiful piers and columns of either Grrecian or even 'pointed architecture. Perhaps no other description of work executed at the present day in England, calls for such asperity of condemnation as much of our London brick-work : where it is to be exposed to view it is too often bad enough ; but where it is to be concealed as is so often the case by vicious plaster finery, one half the expense of which might have made it work indeed, no pen can describe adequately its abominations, its pseudo-arches, its want of bond, its shattered condition, its internal uncemented state, and its general badness of materials. Of geometrical science in architecture. y'' / \ \ N- >is^\/ ^^--<\ " On en trouue d'autres, quoy que rarement a la verite, qui " ayant bien establi leur premiere estude sur les principes de la " Greometrie auant que de trauailler, arriuent apres sans peine et " asseurement a la connoissance de la perfection de l'art, ce n'est " q'ua ceux-la que ie m'addresse." — Paralelle, by Roland Freart, Sleur de Chambray, p. 2. During the middle ages, geometrical science was applied to architecture in the loveliest manner : the general plan, the columns, the arches, the doors, the windows, the galleries, the vaultings, the flying-buttresses, every panel, every compartment, the most minute ornament, exhibited an intimate acquaintance with that profound and masterly science, without which building becomes vicious, cumbrous, expensive, mean, fragile, absurd, and D OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 33 while walls much thicker, raised by those who gave him their advice, have in a few months cracked and fallen to ruin because they were worse constructed and were reared contrary to all static principle. Of how much importance it is to reduce the bulk of the com- ponent materials of an edifice to the smallest bulk which safety will allow is the circumstance of the fondness with which so many persons view the adoption of small coarse and proportionless pillars of iron in preference to the most beautiful piers and columns of either Grecian or even 'pointed architecture. Perhaps no other description of work executed at the present day in England, calls for such asperity of condemnation as much of our London brick-work : where it is to be exposed to view it is too often bad enough ; but where it is to be concealed as is so often the case by vicious plaster finery, one half the expense of ivhich might have made it work indeed, no pen can describe adequately its abominations, its pseudo-arches, its want of bond, its shattered condition, its internal uncemented state, and its general badness of materials. Of geometrical science in architecture. " On en trouue d'autres, quoy que rarement a la verite, qui " ayant bien establi leur premiere estude sur les principes de la " Geometrie auant que de trauailler, arriuent apres sans peine et " asseurement a la connoissance de la perfection de l'art, ce n'est " q'ua ceux-la que ie m'addresse." — Paralelle, by Roland Freart, Sleur de Chambray, p. 2. During the middle ages, geometrical science was applied to architecture in the loveliest manner : the general plan, the columns, the arches, the doors, the windows, the galleries, the vaultings, the flying-buttresses, every panel, every compartment, the most minute ornament, exhibited an intimate acquaintance with that profound and masterly science, without which building becomes vicious, cumbrous, expensive, mean, fragile, absurd, and D 34 ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE disgusting* : a single superficial foot of Moresco paving contains more delicate geometry than is to be found in many a modern English building of high assumption which covers several acres of ground ; many of the porcelain wall-linings of the Moors are covered over with figures of such geometrical intricacy that none but those possessed of a very considerable degree of geometrical skill could have designed them : the celebrated tower of the Giralda at Seville, the architecture of which is ascribed to El Geber, the reputed importer to Europe of algebra, is covered all over with geometrical forms. After the decline of Gothic archi- tecture a foolish notion went abroad in the world, that cumbrous- ness and extravagance of material, were the characteristics of Gothic architecture ; even that great and talented man John Evelyn, who possessed a very superior knowledge of architecture, entertained the then current opinion : but of late mankind have become strangely undeceived upon this point ; and the plans and sections of ancient and modern buildings, brought together in parallel, now fill the mind with astonishment that so compara- tively small a quantity of materials, and those frequently of mean quality, could have been piled up to exist with little failure or decay such a long course of time : it is not that Gothic buildings are always perfect in construction, but in general they are nearly so ; in fact so light are some of them, that they need more substance as well as harder materials to resist the mere operation of time upon their surfaces. The Gothic architects always built with the greatest economy : when square stone was easily procurable they formed their walls very thin, but where from the length of the carriage of it, it became costly, they used for their walls the most ordinary rubble-stone of the country, and they then gave to their walls thickness sufficient to prevent them from rending and rolling apart from the fluent nature of their materials. Saint Paul's Cathedral, the most scientific and successful work which was ever erected, contains in addition to the superb nature of its masonry, a proportionate bulk of materials, enormously greater than the Gothic cathedrals, alike in its piers, its foundation, its arches, its walls, and its vaultings : probably Wren could have poised up his work, using as little of material as the Gothic architects, but he aspired to something more : blessed by circumstances, with an unity of plan and superior materials, he aimed at length of duration ; and the bulk of his work will probably * To such an extent was the love of geometrical forms carried by the mid-eval architects and sculptors that not only were crowns and mitres enriched with orna- ments of geometrical figure, but even sceptres, crosiers, sword-belts, buckles, sword- handles, mail-clasps, scabbards, finger-rings, brooches, sleeves, fringes, borders, cushions, biers, stools and tables, were so embellished. Some examples of these applications of geometrical forms are to be seen in Stothard's exquisite work, Monumental Effigies of Great Britain, with Introduction and Descriptions by A. J. Kempe, London, a.d. 1813—32. Plate II. Plan ok thr Central part of St. Paul's Cathedral, London. $-|-j4}]j jj-j-lj— \\-J> Fig. 7. A. The Nave of the Cathedral. -A*. The Ante-choir. C. The Northern Transept. D. The Southern Transept. E. E. E. E. E- E. E. E. The aisles of the Nave, Ante-choir, and Transepts, which possess vistas from one to another, through the cen- tral Octagon of the Church, in the same man- ner as those at St. Paul's Cathedral, London. Plan of the Central Part of Ely Cathedral. Venus Fig.Z A. The Nave of the Cathedral. B. The Ante-choir. C. TheNorthernTrans.pt. D. The Southern Transept. E. E. E. E. E. E. E.E. The aisles of the Ca- theoral, all meeting, and possessing clear vistas every way through the dome of the Cathedral. on: Crosby Lockwood and Co., 7, Stationers' Hall Court, E.C. I. The Nave r.fthe Cathedral. /f. The Ante-choir. C. The Northern Transept. D. The Southern Transept. E. E. E. E. E E. F- E. The aisles M the Nave, Ante-choir, and Transepts, which possess vistas Irom one to another, through the cen- tral Octagon "f ihi- Chnn.-h, in di<_- -in I'- m in- ner as those at St. Paul's Cathedral, London. Fig. 3. Fig.Z. o C. The Northern Transept. /'. Tin- Si.utheMi Trans.-pt. E. E. E. E. E. F. E. E. The aMes n iheoral, =-11 meeting, ftnd jmssess vistas every way through the doi London: Crosby Lockwood and Co., 7, Stationers* Hall ( OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 35 remain when every particle of the present Gothic cathedrals has disappeared. The works of Wren were a splendid revival of geometrical science ; to a foreigner it must indeed seem strange that except Saint Paul's Cathedral his works are very little known to even most resident London architects. De Quincy, in his Histoire de la Vie et ties Ouvrages des plus Gelebres Arckitectes, vol. ii. page 251, thus expresses himself: " On pent s'etonner qu'il n'ait " point ete fait de recueil grave des edifices que cet architecte, " dans le cours d'une longue vie, parait avoir construits en " divers lieux de V Angleterre. On en est reduit a de simples " mentions de son biographe, mentions insuffisantes pour fair e " juger de la valeur d'ouvrages qui, sHls se sont conserves, auront " du eprouver plus d'un cliangemenV The geometrical management of the Dome of Saint Paul's Cathedral, in beauty and science, outstrips all other works, both ancient and modern : in addition to the masterly manner in which the inner dome, the cone, the lantern, and the external covering of the cupola are contrived, and which are worthy of the most attentive study by the architect, the engineer, the geometrician, and the man of general science, — the grand scientific and artistic master-stroke of this fine edifice, is the unrivalled manner in which the Dome and the twelve internal avenues of this church unite without intercepting each other: this is the most successful triumph which geometry has ever achieved in architecture : the science of the Gothic architects was exceedingly great, but nothing so great in art as this is contained in their works, though some may admire the particular taste of them more than that of St. Paul's Cathedral. (See Plate II., fig. 1.) It is doubtlessly probable, that Wren caught the beautiful and magical idea of the cross vistas of the aisles of his church from the central part of Ely Cathedral (see Plate II., fig. 2), of which his uncle was Bishop ; but then the celebrated octagon of Ely Cathedral, however beautiful, could teach him nothing of the mode wherein the spandrel-spaces in which the eight side aisles at St. Paul's meet in pairs, are vaulted over with sections of hemi- spherical domes. And, indeed, if examples be sought for, the germ of the plan may be found in that of the ancient temple of Venus, at Baia ; but we have no knowledge of Wren's acquaintance with this. (See Plate II., fig. 3.) The simple geometrical secret once disclosed, it is in many cases readily adaptable ; and one fortunate instance of this adap- tation is to be seen in the Bank of England, where Sir John Soane having to make from the south entrance-court a new entrance to the great Rotunda, which lies askew from the court, overcame the difficulty successfully by some way in bending the passage to it to an angle of 45° beneath a small triangular section of a dome, similar to the four spandrel-domes at St. Paul's : here the belting OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 35 remain when every particle of the present Gothic cathedrals has disappeared. The works of Wren were a splendid revival of geometrical science ; to a foreigner it must indeed seem strange that except Saint Paul's Cathedral his works are very little known to even most resident London architects. De Quincy, in his Histoire de la Vie et des Ouvrages des plus Gelebres Architectes, vol. ii. page 251, thus expresses himself: " On pent s'etonner qu'il n , ait " point etc fait de recueil grave des edifices que cet architecte, " dans le cours oVune longue vie, parait avoir construits en " divers lieux de V 'Angleterre. On en est reduit a de simples " mentions de son biographe, mentions insujfisantes pour fair e " juger de la valeur oVouvrages qui, tfils se sont conserves, auront " du eprouver plus d'un changement" The geometrical management of the Dome of Saint Paul's Cathedral, in beauty and science, outstrips all other works, both ancient and modern : in addition to the masterly manner in which the inner dome, the cone, the lantern, and the external covering of the cupola are contrived, and which are worthy of the most attentive study by the architect, the engineer, the geometrician, and the man of general science, — the grand scientific and artistic master-stroke of this fine edifice, is the unrivalled manner in which the Dome and the twelve internal avenues of this church unite without intercepting each other : this is the most successful triumph which geometry has ever achieved in architecture : the science of the Gothic architects was exceedingly great, but nothing so great in art as this is contained in their works, though some may admire the particular taste of them more than that of St. Paul's Cathedral. (See Plate II., fig. 1.) It is doubtlessly probable, that Wren caught the beautiful and magical idea of the cross vistas of the aisles of his church from the central part of Ely Cathedral (see Plate II., fig. 2), of which his uncle was Bishop ; but then the celebrated octagon of Ely Cathedral, however beautiful, could teach him nothing of the mode wherein the spandrel-spaces in whicli the eight side aisles at St. Paul's meet in pairs, are vaulted over with sections of hemi- spherical domes. And, indeed, if examples be sought for, the germ of the plan may be found in that of the ancient temple of Venus, at Baia ; but we have no knowledge of Wren's acquaintance with this. (See Plate II., fig. 3.) The simple geometrical secret once disclosed, it is in many cases readily adaptable ; and one fortunate instance of this adap- tation is to be seen in the Bank of England, where Sir John Soane having to make from the south entrance-court a new entrance to the great Rotunda, which lies askew from the court, overcame the difficulty successfully by some way in bending the passage to it to an angle of 45° beneath a small triangular section of a dome, similar to the four spandrel-domes at St. Paul's : here the belting 36 ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE arches of the ceiling span correctly across the plan in straight lines are of simple construction and fit exactly the section of a dome. Not so that of the embouchure of the passage into the Eotunda, for there cutting into a semi-circular alcove to the spherical head of which it does not ascend, the arch becomes circular also on the plan, and thence distorted and weak, though much more diincult of execution. After a student in architecture has acquired a fair know- ledge of arithmetic and mensuration, he should acquaint himself thoroughly with the sections of spheres ; this he may do from balls of wood or other materials ; and the result will be, that in a very short time he will out-distance in practical scientific architecture all his competitors who pursue a different course ; while he who merely attends lectures, at which little is to be acquired beyond the most superficial knowledge of the orders of architecture, (and which can in general be much better acquired from books) or who occupies all his time in making designs before he has acquired a solid elementary knowledge of art and science, will wholly fail. It is not that he is to expect his designs to be chosen for their science, in competition with others : for he would wait long before he found judges in such cases able either to discover or to appreciate the science of his design, the public in general being perhaps less acquainted with the Practical Science of Architecture than with any other art, although every man's worldly estate and convenience are most materially concerned with it : but after he shall have once found opportunity of showing his skill, accom- panied by integrity, and by even a very moderate degree of taste, he will be sought for as one who can overcome difficulties, and upon whose ability reliance can be placed. Let him not forget, that Smeaton was sent for to build the Eddystone Light-house merely from his known scientific acquirements, before he had built anything, and that this great man's skill and caution soon made him one of the greatest of engineers. Some of the most useful sections of spheres, cut to suit vault- ings to ground-plans of different shapes are shown on Plates III. and IV. The curvilinear surfaces of all the twelve Examples of Domes here given are generated from Hemispheres of the same diameter, the centres of which are marked by the letter c, the letter r indicates the portions of the Hemispheres which are re- trenched : and against the letter / are given the face-ribs of the arches uniting the walls with the Domes. Of the three different great constructive principles in building. In disposing the materials for the construction of buildings, there are three distinct great principles called into use : — Simple Repose, Equipoise, Tie. I'l ,t. III. c No. 2. Hemispherical Dome, cut to fit a Plan in the form of a Square. No. 3. Hemispherical Dome, cut to fit a Plan in the form of a Pentagon No. 5. Hemispherical Dome, cut to fit a Plan in the form of a Regular Octagon. Any other number (even or uneven) of sides may be chosen for the Plan. No. 6. Hemispherical Dome, cut to fit an irregular Plan, the angles of which TOUCH the circumference ok a circle. This instance is given in order to show that an irregularity, either obvious o> impercepti- ble, does not of necessity pre- vent an apartment from being covered with a dome. Crosby Lockv.'ood and Co., 7, Stationers' Hall Court, EC m ,« f . „r tU Equilateral Triangle This instaiu e is given in order- to show that an irregularity, either obvious ot in/'ene/'ti- blc, does not of necessity fire- veil tan apartment front being London; Crosby Lix'kwood tiud < OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 37 The object in all these three distinct principles is the pro- duction of such a state of quietude in the materials of a building that their weight shall not produce any fracture or displacing of them. Of simple repose in the construction of buildings. The principle of Simple Eepose in the construction of buildings is used where the materials are merely piled up perpendicularly so as to form piers or columns, with cross- beams, architraves or lintels laid horizontally upon the piers or columns, pressing downwardly merely with the gravity of the materials, without any thrust or other inclination to destroy the position of any part of the arrangement (see Plate V., fig. 1.) All very ancient buildings are formed upon this principle. This construction is destitute of all science, yet it is, as far as its capabi- lities go, more perfect in its application than any other construction : this is proved by the enormous duration of the temples of the Egyptians, Greeks, and Druids, which were formed upon this principle : it needs no calculation for obtaining equipoise, or for the avoidance of the pendent materials wedging apart those sup- porting them : buildings so constructed need only tenacity of material and unflinching foundations to be altogether perfect in construction : but buildings of this kind, owing nothing to geometrical science, lead to an enormous consumption of mate- rials ; all the materials of the horizontal spanning masses of even a small building must be huge, and are thence immensely expen- sive to procure and to raise to their destined places ; if these spanning masses be either so long or so brittle as to yield by their own weight, or by that which may be put upon them, the principle of Simple Repose becomes destroyed ; the horizontal masses sink and the piers or sustaining masses are thrust outwardly (see Plate V., fig. 2). From the many columns, or props, required for the support of a roof or covering upon this principle the internal space is greatly impeded. This manner of building affords great exter- nal beauty but leads to internal comparative uselessness; hence most of the large Grecian buildings, as temples and theatres, were left roofless. Of equipoise in the construction of buildings. Equipoise in the construction of buildings is made use of where smaller, even the smallest, materials, are piled up, building OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 37 The object in all these three distinct principles is the pro- duction of such a state of quietude in the materials of a building that their weight shall not produce any fracture or displacing of them. Of simple repose in the construction of buildings. The principle of Simple Repose in the construction of buildings is used where the materials are merely piled up perpendicularly so as to form piers or columns, with cross- beams, architraves or lintels laid horizontally upon the piers or columns, pressing downwardly merely with the gravity of the materials, without any thrust or other inclination to destroy the position of any part of the arrangement (see Plate V., fig. 1.) All very ancient buildings are formed upon this principle. This construction is destitute of all science, yet it is, as far as its capabi- lities go, more perfect in its application than any other construction : this is proved by the enormous duration of the temples of the Egyptians, Greeks, and Druids, which were formed upon this principle : it needs no calculation for obtaining equipoise, or for the avoidance of the pendent materials wedging apart those sup- porting them: buildings so constructed need only tenacity of material and unflinching foundations to be altogether perfect in construction : but buildings of this kind, owing nothing to geometrical science, lead to an enormous consumption of mate- rials ; all the materials of the horizontal spanning masses of even a small building must be huge, and are thence immensely expen- sive to procure and to raise to their destined places ; if these spanning masses be either so long or so brittle as to yield by their own weight, or by that which may be put upon them, the principle of Simple Repose becomes destroyed ; the horizontal masses sink and the piers or sustaining masses are thrust outwardly (see Plate V., fig. 2). From the many columns, or props, required for the support of a roof or covering upon this principle the internal space is greatly impeded. This manner of building affords great exter- nal beauty but leads to internal comparative uselessness; hence most of the large Grecian buildings, as temples and theatres, were left roofless. Of equipoise in the construction of buildings. Equipoise in the construction of buildings is made use of where smaller, even the smallest, materials, are piled up, building 38 ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE arches upon piers or columns : this principle, being the means by which science enables us to overcome the smallness and meanness of materials, admits of the grandest masses being reared cheaply : theoretically it should be perfect ; but from the complicated principles which it involves it is very frequently more or less imperfect; but even with its frequent practical imperfections it has proved for many ages the means whereby man is enabled to arch, to vault, and to dome over, large build- ings in a manner in which he otherwise could not. Almost all simple arches and vaults have a tendency more or less to thrust apart the abutments which support them ; to prevent this disastrous effect these abutments require to be sufficiently weighty, or even to have a tendency directly falling towards the thrust of the adjoining arches or vault, so as by counter-gravity to counteract their expanding pro- perty. The flatter the segment of the circle composing an arch or vault the greater the thrusting or wedging power of the arch or vault against the abutments ; consequently, the greater must be the strength and gravity of the abutments to counteract the otherwise irregular settlement of the work. This is equi- poise. Again, there is another grand instance in which equipoise is demanded. All semi-circular or segmental arches, vaults, and domes, if consisting of a crust of materials equally thick all over, that is, with their internal and external curvatures which are technically called the intrados and extrados, concentric or parallel to each other, in all such arches, vaults, and domes, the upper materials being least supported by the abutments are most in jeopardy, have a more direct tendency to fall by their own weight, and becoming thus depressed, they wedge upwardly the materials next them at those parts of the curve which are vulgarly called the haunches of the arch, vault, or dome, forming a distorted curve, and frequently leaving vents in the work, near the parts x x (Plate V., fig. 3) ; now a dome or cupola being formed, as it were, by a succession of half arches meeting together at the crown, if that crown became depressed it must force out the haunches of the work cdl round in a circle at the parts x x ; and this same quantity of solid mater icds being forced to occupy a greater circumference the enlargement can alone take place by openings or vents occurring there : from this very defect some of the grandest cupolas in the world have become greatly endangered, and some have wholly failed. To remedy this ruinous defect it becomes necessary to add upon the haunches of arches and vaults weight sufficient to lit a L — -0 either it has no strain to counteract, or it will soon gradually straighten at the bend a, and thus lengthening will offer no restraint to the moving power. When ties form complete OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 41 hoops or circuits, as those round a dome or a steeple, they should if possible be each in one piece or at least in as few pieces as possible, and they should lie horizontally in every part. Of the union of the several great principles of construction in buildings. Most modern buildings contain more or less of the Three several great principles of construction combined together. A suspension bridge, contains all the three principles : thus at the points A A the chains should merely lie, if possible, with nothing but their mere gravity in simple repose : again, the divisions B and C of the chains should be in exact equipoise with the outer divisions of the chains D and E ; thus the whole would be equally balanced as exactly as a scale-beam, with the towers supporting the fulcrums A A merely compressed downwardly without being strained or thrust from their original situations and form, and at least without any but equal strains. And thirdly, as the chains of the catenary are striving by their own weight to disengage themselves from the shore at the two points F F, they call into action the third principle of tie, to restrain them. The theories of catenary bridges are very perfect ; but then the mechanical arrangement of them is so sensitive that the slightest addition of weight especially that of a passing carriage or of a file of soldiers, deranges their equilibrium and produces such an alteration that rollers are required for the free action of the chains at the fulcrums A A : added to which inconvenience, there is a prodigious inclination to fracture at the points F F ; and yet with these defects, suspension bridges are so very beautiful, they are so economical, so capable of being erected where no other bridges perhaps could be erected that they form one of the noblest, most useful, and most successful inventions of man. Other bridges thrust against the shores — suspension bridges draw away violently from the shores. If Engineers ever succeed in rendering their horizontal roadways by longitudinal beams and braces so un- flinching that they will not shrink in length by the efforts of the external chains at F F, then may such bridges merely lie upon abutments at their junctions with the shores; and while their chains themselves last no fracture may be feared. It may be observed that some of the suspension bridges which have failed have not had their four great divisions adjusted in equilibrio: — if such an adjustment be not the principle of its design a suspension bridge will have its fulcrum-towers drawn 42 ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE over from the perpendicular, and an increased strain will be given to the abutments of it. Some of the handsomest and best sus- pension bridges, as that of Hammersmith and the present Pont des Invalides at Paris, are formed nearly with an equalization of the gravity of their four great divisions. Gravity the source of all principle and defects in architectural construction. Gravity is the source of all the principles, inventions and ingenuity called into action in the structure of architectural works. The weight or downward-tendency of their materials, is the cause of buildings holding together or falling, or being thrust apart. Gravity in its various dynamic modifications is the sole acting power which operates in a building, unless forces (as of machinery) be applied which are not usually applied within a building. The gravity of an imperfectly formed roof, thrusts out and sometimes even overthrows the walls; the gravity of a perfectly formed roof holds those walls together : the gravity of a sinking floor draws in the walls of a building : the gravity of a common valley roof, by leverage expands and overthrows the walls : the gravity of the different stones composing a column, holds them firmly together : the gravity of the voussoirs of an arch con- structed properly (if possible) causes all those voussoirs to press with an equal weight towards the centre of the curve.: the gravity of stone vaulting operates against the walls of a church, and the gravity of the flying-buttresses counteracts that active force. All the mechanical perfections of scientific building result from a clear knowledge of the operations of gravity, and from the ability to direct their course : all the mechanical defects of build- ings result from an ignorance of the laws of gravity, and from inattention or from inability to counterbalance their effect. A judicious architect enslaves to his purpose the active force of gravity, and compels it to exert all its force in holding together more firmly his structure : an ignorant or careless architect or workman allows that force to exert itself in wracking, straining, distorting, breaking and destroying his work. By far the greater portion of the generic beauties of archi- tecture (particularly of Gothic or pointed architecture) have arisen from an intimate acquaintance with the operations of gravity, and from the consequent art of restraining it. This may be characterized as the age most eminent for the display in the major part of its buildings, of inattention to gravity. A child, in piling up a fabric of cards, displays a far better knowledge of gravity and dynamics than the greater part of modern builders ; were it otherwise, how could it ever have come into use to so enormous an extent, — so disgraceful and ruinous a OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 43 piece of mal-construction as the common V roof, which is either a roof turned upside down or two halves of a roof bearing upon void instead of upon walls, and by its gravity endeavouring to fall flat like an open book. No excuse whatever can be made for this shamefully absurd piece of ignorance and improvidence. The shallow pretence of saving one gutter is destroyed by the waste of timber in the gutter-plates and by the consequent extra altitude of the walls. Of the three modes in which gravity acts upon materials. Gravity (by their own weight and by the weight added to them) operates in three ways upon materials, which three ways, though so obvious, are frequently either so little known to the practical builder, or if known, are so little attended to, as to cause the most ruinous effects. (Plate V., fig. 6.) Of these three operations the first is the least destructive, and when the force of compression is not too great it forms the principle of the best construction, and enters the most largely into all well-constructed buildings : all the materials which are placed in simple repose gravitate in this manner. (Plate V., fig. 7.) A concentration of this compression occurs to the key-stone of an arch by its own gravity, by the weight bearing upon it, and by the gravity and lateral operation of the adjoining voussoirs. The same operation of compression occurs when a wedge or screw is forced under the base of a column or post, but gravity tends, on the one hand to draw away the apparatus and, on the other, to bring down upon the apparatus the mass forced upwardly. (Plate V., fig. 8.) The same gravitation acts horizontally against a level strut set against a bulging wall, or other member of a building : it acts in the same manner against the abutments of a tie-beam by the operation of the principal-rafters, but in this case the force endeavours to rend them from the rest of the timber, and the abutments are usually assisted by a bolt or brace of iron. The same operation occurs obliquely upon a strut set to pre- vent the bending in of a rafter ; and this last description of com- pression occurs to the head of a Gothic flying-buttress caused by the drift of the vaulting. The second mode in which materials are operated upon by gravity, viz., by cross-strain, is simply by pressure upon the longest side of a piece of timber, stone, or other material so as to bend or break it : all beams suffer a portion of cross-strain simply from their own weight ; this is vulgarly termed sagging ; and to counteract the evil effects of this, materials require a previous up- ward curvature termed a camber. Gravity acting by cross-strain upon this camber con-cen- 44 ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE trates the particles of the materials and renders them firmer : gravity acting by cross-strain upon materials not so cambered ere-centrates the particles of the materials and causes them to break easily. The struts (sometimes improperly termed braces) of an im- perfectly-formed roof enhance the cross-strain upon the tie-beams by punching them in. An upward cross-strain is produced against the soffit of a bridge, tank, or drain, by the overflow of water, frequently to such an extent as to blow up the crown of the arched work ; and the same effect frequently takes place by the sudden rising of springs under the bottom of an empty tank, which bottom has been laid flat instead of being counter-arched in order to resist the force of springs. Gravity will even sometimes cause an upward cross-strain to the centres of beams by heavy walls loaded with a roof, sinking the foundation, while light story-posts or columns placed under the beams not having compressed the ground so much as the walls, the ends of the beams borne down by the sinking of the walls, the beams have become bent like immense cross-boivs or balistas, and have thence sprung up in their middles. The author once knew a large and heavy building which was erected in a few weeks upon a soft foundation ; in a short time the great timber girders of it bent in this manner full six inches, when at length the brick piers upon which the story-posts were set split in ribbons by the force exercised upon them ; and shortly afterwards crumbling to atoms, the story-posts themselves were shot away down into the basement- story, and the beams were relieved from their unnatural flexure. This case is however rare, for story-posts and columns most fre- quently sink more than the walls, from the concentration of much weight upon small spots of ground. (See Plate VI., fig. 1.) Cross-strain operates horizontally against the wall of a build- ing when a horizontal strut is placed against it (without a counter- strut) to restrain the bulging or prevent the fall of another building : the same effect is occasioned by a vault expanding against the middle of a wall : a like effect is caused to the outer face-work or ashlaring of a wall by the rolling downwards and consequent bulging of internal rubble-work: the same injurious cross-strain, produced by the irregular settlement and bulging of brick-work, occasions slight window-jambs, door-jambs, and pilasters of stone to snap across their bodies. Cross-strain ope- rates obliquely upon a principal-rafter by a purlin being set upon it without a strut beneath it in order to prevent deflexure. The third mode wherein materials are affected by gravity, viz., by tension, in general causes less injury to buildings than either of the other operations of weight ; for in general Tension is not suffered by any of the materials in a building except such as are well able to bear it : simple direct tension is here intended ; for Plate V Fiy.l 'Tig. 3. Fy.4. Fig. 5. Cross Strain. Fig. 6- Tension. *J= /'. I'. V. Voussoirs. IV. IV. W. Weights pressing the central Voussoir. l: Crosby Lockwood and Co., 7, Stationers' Hall Court, E.C. London . Crosby Lockwood find ( ' HivU Court, EX. OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 45 indirect tension will mostly be found to be cross-strain. All tie- beams of roofs, suffer horizontal tension by the outward sliding upon them of the principal-rafters ; all king-posts {suspenders) and queen-posts {suspenders) receive vertical tension by the sus- pension to them of the tie-beams, ceilings, &c. ; but while gravity comparatively rarely does injury to materials by direct tension very frequently injuries occur to buildings by ties and suspenders not being so disposed as to receive direct tension by gravity, but to be borne down and inflected by it, and thus cease to operate in the direction intended : this is in effect as bad as gravity straight- ening crooked ties. A very common effect of gravity upon materials intended to act by tension, is to be observed in those pieces of iron which are frequently set as raking-ties against chimney-shafts, but which, by their weight, drive over and cripple the work which they are in- tended to restrain. Again, the links of a chain-bridge suffer violent cross-strain by the suspension of the roadway to them, but then each link which receives cross-strain most successfully resists defiexure in itself by the still more violent tension which it endures from the adjoining links, as well by their gravity as from the straining power given to them by the weight of the other parts of the roadway and chains. On the mechanical trussing of buildings, On the subject of the mechanical trussing of the roofs, floors, and quartered partitions of buildings, it is to be lamented that architects are not sufficiently acquainted with this beautiful, simple, yet highly scientific principle ; to the neglect of which are owing so many of the failures in buildings. The whole principle, which can be understood in a few minutes by the most ordinary capacity, if properly explained, ought to be really understood by the meanest artificers employed about a building, and not only understood, but every one connected with building ought to be so indued with the fear of forgetting the principle, as on no proper occasion to dispense with it. The first principle of the truss may be thus described ; first imagine a plank laid across between two walls, with two rafters placed at an angle upon them, bolt the feet of the rafters to the horizontal plank to prevent them from slipping from their footing ; and the plank must be placed edge- wise so as not to bend down by its own weight. In order still further to economise material ; in order to support the centre of the rafters, a diagonal timber, technically called a strut, is carried from near the foot of the suspender up to each wrestling rafter, and thereby prevents it from sinking : the strut must not be carried down to the horizontal beam, instead OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 45 indirect tension will mostly be found to be cross-strain. All tie- beams of roofs, suffer horizontal tension by the outward sliding upon them of the principal-rafters ; all king-posts (suspenders) and queen-posts (suspenders) receive vertical tension by the sus- pension to them of the tie-beams, ceilings, &c. ; but while gravity comparatively rarely does injury to materials by direct tension very frequently injuries occur to buildings by ties and suspenders not being so disposed as to receive direct tension by gravity, but to be borne down and inflected by it, and thus cease to operate in the direction intended : this is in effect as bad as gravity straight- ening crooked ties. A very common effect of gravity upon materials intended to act by tension, is to be observed in those pieces of iron which are frequently set as raking-ties against chimney-shafts, but which, by their weight, drive over and cripple the work which they are in- tended to restrain. Again, the links of a chain-bridge suffer violent cross-strain by the suspension of the roadway to them, but then each link which receives cross-strain most successfully resists deflexure in itself by the still more violent tension which it endures from the adjoining links, as well by their gravity as from the straining power given to them by the weight of the other parts of the roadway and chains. On the mechanical trussing of buildings, On the subject of the mechanical trussing of the roofs, floors, and quartered partitions of buildings, it is to be lamented that architects are not sufficiently acquainted with this beautiful, simple, yet highly scientific principle ; to the neglect of which are owing so many of the failures in buildings. The whole principle, which can be understood in a few minutes by the most ordinary capacity, if properly explained, ought to be really understood by the meanest artificers employed about a building, and not only understood, but every one connected with building ought to be so indued with the fear of forgetting the principle, as on no proper occasion to dispense with it. The first principle of the truss may be thus described ; first imagine a plank laid across between two walls, with two rafters placed at an angle upon them, bolt the feet of the rafters to the horizontal plank to prevent them from slipping from their footing ; and the plank must be placed edge-wise so as not to bend down by its own weight. In order still further to economise material ; in order to support the centre of the rafters, a diagonal timber, technically called a strut, is carried from near the foot of the suspender up to each wrestling rafter, and thereby prevents it from sinking : the strut must not be carried down to the horizontal beam, instead 46 ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE of to the foot of this suspender, as many ignorant persons carry it; for it would then tend to distress and sink the fir- beam, and to separate it from the suspender. (See Plate VI., figs. 2 and 3.) The whole system of mechanical trussing in build- ings, however applied, is a modification of this principle. When a truss becomes of more considerable length it is customary to suspend the tie-beam of it in tivo places by two pieces of material called improperly queen-posts, but which should with more propriety be termed queen-suspenders, or queen- stirrups. (See Plate VI., fig. 4.) This description of truss is like a truss with a king-post separated into two halves, and with a horizontal strut placed between the heads of the two halves of the king-post, in order to prevent the inclined beams or principals from being pressed together: this horizontal strut is termed a co War-beam, Aammer-beam, or straining-beam ; and sometimes a smaller collar-beam, termed a straining-s^W, is placed upon the tie-beam, between the feet of the queen-stirrups. Increasing the number of suspenders to the tie-beams, renders smaller and weaker timbers sufficiently stiff for the purpose of tie ; and the principals, being also shortened, partake of the same economy. Sometimes three suspenders are obtained to the tie-beam by forming a queen-truss within a king-truss, (See Plate VI., fig. 5) ; and this kind of framing will answer properly for a roof 60 feet or 80 feet span. Sometimes instead of one king-post this descrip- tion of truss has two boards hung to the heads of the upper principals and extending down to the tie-beam ; in this case the collar-beam is in one piece and passes between the two boards. There is yet another method of managing this king-post as prac- tised more than 400 years ago at the Basilica of St. Paul at Eome. This was by splitting as it were the whole truss longitudinally into two separate lighter or half trusses and then keying the king-post between these two separate trusses, so as to form one mass. Sus- penders of iron obviate this reduplication of the trusses. If it be determined to split each truss into two, it will be best then to place them only half as far apart as thev would otherwise have been, and thus reduce the bearing, bulk, and burthen of the purlins, and hold in the walls at twice the ordinary number of places, and perform all this with a smaller quantity of material.* The points of suspension may in this last description of truss be still further increased to seven in number, by screwing through the tie-beam four intermediate queen-bolts of wrought-iron hung to the backs of the principals. The last-mentioned kind of truss may be simplified by using only two principals instead of four of them, and by making all the * For this method of roofing see the article Charpentc, in M. Viollet lo Duc'.s Dictionary of Architecture, in which numerous plates and instructive diagrams aro given. OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 47 suspenders of wrought-iron. Indeed there is no limit to the number of suspenders which may be used in this system of framing ; the more these are in number the lighter may be all the parts of the truss except the two inclined beams or principals, which can only be lightened in proportion to the burthen which they have to carry. (See Plate VI., fig. 6.) The span of this kind of truss is only limited by the length of timber which can be obtained for the principals : 95 feet is the greatest length of fir timber which the author remembers to have seen in England, so that 150 feet or 160 feet is perhaps the utmost span to which this truss can be carried without scarfing the principals, which is unadvisable, as the more there are of such joints the greater will be the settlement of the framing. All timber trusses are subject to very considerable downward settlement from their weight from the natural flexibility of the timber and from the shrinkage of it by drying : in order to counteract the effect of this settlement it is usual to form, at first, the tie-beams of trusses with an upward curvature, called a camber, so that after the unavoidable settlement has occurred, the tie- beams, with the ceiling or whatever else may be attached to them, may not droop down. But it must be observed that the defiexure of the tie-beams of trusses is increased by the reprehensible practice of framing the king-posts and queen-posts at first close into the tie-beams, by which practice the slightest depression of the principals by settlement causes the king-posts and queen- posts to punch in immediately the tie-beams, and thus to cause them to sink ; whereas, if the king-posts and queen-posts be only attached loosely to the tie-beams by stirrups of iron, as is the case in the roof of the Theatre d' Argentina at Home, and as was also the case in some of the trusses of the Basilica of St. Paul at Rome, all defiexure of the tie-beams may at any time be corrected by wedges or by screws, and thus a ceiling the most sunken may be restored to its original level. The ordinary mode of forcing up a tie-beam to an excessive camber is very ignorant and reprehensible; for the tie-beam then, not only by its own weight but also by its natural spring, endeavours to recover its natural state of rest; and thus the principals become the more readily deflected and deranged ; to draw up the tie-beam by screws or wedges, only after it is deflected, is to leave the principals free from all strain, except that caused by gravity. In framing the principals and struts into king-posts and queen-posts of ordinary unseasoned timber, it will be well to leave the diagonal joints at first open, as shown at the letters o, o, (Plate VI., fig. 7,) so that when the broad heads and feet of the king-posts and queen-posts have completely shrunk and rendered the abutments more steep the principals and struts may ft closely, as shown at the letters a, a. 43 ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE It should be a general maxim with the architect never to leave exposed to the weather members of buildings so important as trusses, whether of timber or of iron : if of timber they may rot and the fabric may thus become endangered ; and if of iron, decomposition will take place and every thing around them be tainted with rust. Dr. Kobinson makes, with regard to the trusses of roofs, the following excellent remarks : — " Nothing shows the skill of a carpenter more than the dis- " tinctness with which he can forsee the changes of shape which " must take place in a short time in every roof. A knowledge of " this will often correct a construction which the mere mathema- " tician thinks unexceptionable, because he does not reckon on " the actual compression which must obtain, and imagines that " his triangles, which sustain no cross-strain, invariably retain " their shape till the pieces break. The sagacity of the experienced " carpenter is not however enough, without science for perfecting " the art. But when he knows how much a particular piece will " yield to compression in one case, science will tell him, and " nothing but science can do it, what will be the compression of " the same piece in another very different case. Thus he learns " how far it will now yield, and then he proportions the parts so " to each other that, when all have yielded according to their " strains, the whole is of the shape he wished to produce, and " every point is in a state of firmness. It is here that we observe " the greatest number of improprieties. The iron straps are " frequently in positions not suited to the actual strain on them, " and they are in a state of violent twist, which both tends strongly " to break the strap and to cripple the pieces which they sur- " round." — System of Mechanical Philosophy. Sir David Brewster's edition, Edinburgh, A.D. 1802, vol. 1, p. 60. § 576. There are two observations more to be made concerning mechanical trusses : the first with regard to struts, and the second with regard to the feet of principals. With regard to struts, it seems to be rather extensively imagined that they are as much placed according to some vain ideas of symmetry, or of particular inclination, as for any useful purpose ; whereas it should never be forgotten that their only use is to prevent weak principals from being deflected by purlins or other burthens : therefore struts in trusses should be as numerous as, but for the struts, would be the deflected parts of the principals; and they should be most exactly directed to the points of the principals which, but for them, would be deflected : thus it may happen that two or even three struts may emanate from the foot of one king-post or queen-post, and counteract the pressure upon the principal from as many purlins. With regard to the feet of principals, it is to be observed, that many of our modern trusses are exceedingly faulty, from the FlateV] carried down by the supe- IV.) and sinking of the is sprung upwards by the escending, the story-posts ig fulcrums for the lever- ng less depressed by the forces w. iv. crushed and split by the IV. w. and the spring of P. P. Principals. T. T. Tie-beam preventing the Principals from expanding. A". Suspender hung to the heads of the Principals, holding up the Tie-beam in its centre, and improperly termed a King-post, but more correctly termed a King-stirrup. St. St. Struts abutting upon the King-stirrup, and preventing the Principals from bending inwards by their own weight and weakness, and by the burthen which the Truss may have to bear. ^d^ 3 Tie-beam. lung to the heads of the suspending the Tie-beam R. R. The Rafters or Inclined Principals. W . W. Weight straining the Rafters or Prin- cipals. T. The Tie-beams. S. S. The Struts bending down the Tie-beams at X. X. by the Weight communi- cated to them at W. W. T. T. Tie-beam. the heads of the upper ning the Tie-beam in ig to the heads of the jstaining the Tie-beam i its ends. The t(pper made to support more ng round them :ads of the \ St. St. St. St. Struts abutting upon the King- stxrrup and Queen-stirrups, and supporting the upper and lower Principals. C. C. CoUar-beams between the King-stirrup and Queen-stirrups . C. C. Corbeilles of oak to strengthen the ends of the Tie-beam where all the weight and action of the Truss are concentrated. '. Tie-beam. enders of wrought-iron af the Principals, and bam. St. Struts abutting up- nd directed exactly to incipals which receive e Suspenders and the ave to carry. Fxg C. C. Collar-beam. cc. cc. Other Collar-beams which may be framed in short pieces between the Struts, but which will become loose by the shrinkage of the Struts, and will then require re-adjustment. .9*. Straining-sill. Sc. Sc. Parts of the Tie-beam between which the timber may be scarfed. ■.7. n: Crosby Lockwood and Co., 7, Stationers' Hall Court, E.C. © %•'■ ® lateral walls. b. Centres of the beams sprung upwards by tlic ends art of them descending, the story-posts r gravity or forces Pier of brick-work crushed and split by the combined forces W. w. and the spring ol P. P. Principals. T. T. Tie-beam preventing the Principals from expanding. A". Suspender hung to the heads of the Principals, holding up the Tie-beam in its centre, and improperly termed a YJm^-post, but more correctly termed a King-j/irrM/*, St. St. Struts abutting upon the King-stirrup, and preventing the Principals from bending inwards bytheirown weight and weakness, and by the burthen which the Truss may have to bear. P P. Principals. T. Tie-beam. Q. Q. Queen stirrup: hung to the heads of the Principals, and suspending the Tie-beam SI. St. Struts abutting upon the feet of the ' J. tirrups, and supporting thi Principals, and sustaining the Tie-beam in Q. Q, Queen-stimsps hung to the heads of the lower Principals, and sustaining the Tie-beam between its centre and its ends. The tipper Principals may also be made to suppoi of the burden by passing round them iron strap.-, from the heads of the Quccn-stirrHfs. St. St. St. St. Struts abutting upon the King- stirrup and Queen-stirri/ps, and supporting the upper and lower Principals, ". Collar-}* ,nd Queen Corbeilles of oak to strengthen the ends of the Tie-beam where alt the weight and action of ihe Truss are concentrated. P. P. Principals. T. T. Tie-beam. S. S. S. S. S. S. S. Suspenders of wrought-iron hung_ to the backs of the Principals, and holding up the Tie-beam. St. St. St. St. St. St. St. St. Struts abutting up- on the Suspenders, and directed exactly to those points of the Principals which receive the cross-strain of the Suspenders and the burthen which they have to carry. C. C. Collar-beam. cc. cc. Other Collar-beams which may be framed in short pieces between the Struts, but which will become loose by the shrinkage of the Struts, and will then require re-adjustment. Ss. Straining-sill. Sc- " Fig. 7. London: Croaby Luukwood and Co,, 7, OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 49 feet of the principals being cast a long way within the walls, and thus bending the ends of the tie-beams, so as also to bend and crack the ceilings : the thinness of most modern walls and the lowness of the pitch of some modern roofs cause this defect to be the greater ; and it is sometimes still further increased by a heavy pole-plate with the weight of the rafters and covering of the roof upon it, being set injudiciously within the walls upon the ends of the tie-beams. Even some roofs of modern churches have speedily required the correction of this defect. If the rafters be set horizontally as small purlins upon the backs of the principals, the strain of the principals may be set in ordinary cases almost upon the walls, and thus save the ends of the tie-beams from the improper cross-strain. It must always be remembered that when trusses are used a vast weight is concentrated upon each end of them : great care must therefore be taken to support well their ends ; and if they be inserted in walls, the weight should be diffused over as large and as firm a surface as possible by strong plates or templets of stone, iron, or wood ; but no truss of wood should be set upon supports of stone absorbent of moisture without the interposition of plates of lead, iron, or other metal, in order to prevent the wood from rotting. Of abutments. Much of the failure in modern edifices results from the defec- tive nature of their abutments. The abutment must always be sufficient to sustain the weight, thrust, or moving-power, which it has to resist ; and it should be more than sufficient ; otherwise the slightest accident, as addi- tional weight irregularly disposed, yielding of foundation, sudden emergency or shock, will render it insufficient. Thus the limbs of two similar arches, meeting upon one pier, afford an abutment to each other of the most perfect kind : but if one of the abut- ments supporting the other limb of one of the arches be so weak as to cause one of the arches to give way, the other arch may also lose its exact equilibrium. Again, if one of the arches have upon its crown more weight than the other, the other arch also may be made to settle irregularly : hence it becomes necessary that, besides unflinchingness of foundation, there must be abutment sufficient to resist all accident. The most perfect system of abutment is that which is in all respects equal : thus, for instance, the inclined sides of a hollow conical or pyramidal steeple afford abutment of bulk, inclination, certainty of material, and weight, equal to those of each opposite side ; and the entire circuit of abutments gives to the whole perfect equilibrium, which nothing but violent accident or undue settlement at the foundation can in the slightest degree derange, E OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 49 feet of the principals being cast a long way within the walls, and thus bending the ends of the tie-beams, so as also to bend and crack the ceilings : the thinness of most modern walls and the lowness of the pitch of some modern roofs cause this defect to be the greater ; and it is sometimes still further increased by a heavy pole-plate with the weight of the rafters and covering of the roof upon it, being set injudiciously within the walls upon the ends of the tie-beams. Even some roofs of modern churches have speedily required the correction of this defect. If the rafters be set horizontally as small purlins upon the backs of the principals, the strain of the principals may be set in ordinary cases almost upon the walls, and thus save the ends of the tie-beams from the improper cross-strain. It must always be remembered that when trusses are used a vast weight is concentrated upon each end of them : great care must therefore be taken to support well their ends ; and if they be inserted in walls, the weight should be diffused over as large and as firm a surface as possible by strong plates or templets of stone, iron, or wood ; but no truss of wood should be set upon supports of stone absorbent of moisture without the interposition of plates of lead, iron, or other metal, in order to prevent the wood from rotting. Of abutments. Much of the failure in modern edifices results from the defec- tive nature of their abutments. The abutment must always be sufficient to sustain the weight, thrust, or moving-power, which it has to resist ; and it should be more than sufficient ; otherwise the slightest accident, as addi- tional weight irregularly disposed, yielding of foundation, sudden emergency or shock, will render it insufficient. Thus the limbs of two similar arches, meeting upon one pier, afford an abutment to each other of the most perfect kind : but if one of the abut- ments supporting the other limb of one of the arches be so weak as to cause one of the arches to give way, the other arch may also lose its exact equilibrium. Again, if one of the arches have upon its crown more weight than the other, the other arch also may be made to settle irregularly : hence it becomes necessary that, besides unflinchingness of foundation, there must be abutment sufficient to resist all accident. The most perfect system of abutment is that which is in all respects equal : thus, for instance, the inclined sides of a hollow conical or pyramidal steeple afford abutment of bulk, inclination, certainty of material, and weight, equal to those of each opposite side ; and the entire circuit of abutments gives to the whole perfect equilibrium, which nothing but violent accident or undue settlement at the foundation can in the slightest degree derange, E 50 ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE and even after such settlement has taken place, frequently no fracture is observable ; hence a steeple, consisting of four or more open buttresses, at which the moderns shake their heads in fear and trembling, is a more safe and certain mode of construction than modern square towers, which, by the slightest settlement, have a tendency to fall apart, and overhang, and after that fall to premature decay, merely by the weight of their materials. Thus the circular drum beneath the dome of Saint Paul's is conical, settlement tending to consolidate its whole circuit of counter-abutments, and its form adding great charm to the in- ternal perspective of the building, — while the perpendicular drum under the cupola of the boasted Basilica of St. Peter at Rome, is split in many places down to its very base, by the gravity and out- ward thrust of the cupola above it. Perhaps there can hardly be found in the world, a specimen of exact counter-abutment more beautiful than the twelve stone curved ribs (forming a skeleton dome), which rise in a circle from the columns to the upper work of Bow Church steeple, Cheapside. They may indeed afford a lesson in the art of constructing real domes, for they show with what safety ribs may be raised from piers which may support a roof of slabs of stone, which may be lapped over each other so as to prevent the penetration of rain, which will ruin any ordinary dome, the joints of which radiate to the centre of the curvature ; and while the masonic stone-work of such a skeleton dome might settle considerably in each distinct rib, with- out showing any flaws like those in the dome of the Vatican, even the weight of the stone covering-slabs may be made to act in some sort as a counter-abutment to each rib. The mid-eval architects seem, by nothing short of inspiration, to have obtained the most delicate acquaintance with architectural dynamics ; a knowledge which taught them at once to unite in their abutments, strength with economy, use with beauty. This refined intelligence taught them to render every necessary part of their constructions such exquisite ornaments, that the ignorant modern looking at them, without knowing their use, fancies them to be merely ornamental. They first began in their vaultings with reducing the lateral thrust of the work to the smallest limits, by cutting out all the otherwise more level and hazardous parts of the vaulting, so that what remained scarcely left its perpendicular bearing upon the walls : they next greatly reduced further the weight of the vault- ing by forming it of small stone ribs, with a mere thin cuticle of lighter materials in short and narrow panels between the ribs ; and whereas in our modern brick vaultings, the groin-points are weak by their bond, and are still weaker from the soft and inferior nature of the bricks of which they are composed (vulgarly terme< L " cutters," and wholly unfit for the purposes of any good work), and we know scarcely any thing of the dynamics of such a vault, OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 51 — the mid-eval builder put all the strength in the ribs, strutted his ribs across as he deemed necessary, and made every strut a beautiful feature, conducted the active force down those ribs as easily as water is conducted down a pipe, and then, instead of leaving the active force within each rib to expend itself in committing un- known and unrestrained damage to the walls of the fabric, he united their force in one point, so that he could deal with it as an active power well ascertained ; then knowing by the laws of the resolution of forces the way in which the united thrust of the ribs would move, he counter-acted by the smallest possible quantity of materials set in the form of flying-buttresses, pinnacles, and wall- buttresses, that force which, unrestrained, might have endangered the walls. Thus, by making use only of a small quantity of materials, every particle of which was brought into active service, he was enabled to carve, ornament, and enrich every part of his fabric out of those funds which we ignorant moderns expend in raising coarse masses which perform no duty, or, ill-directed, either waste much of their weight and strength, or else employ it in rending and dilapidating the fabric. The manner in which the Gothic architects conducted the active force of a vault to one place, and then with practical certainty counter-abutted that force by a small quantity of materials placed exactly in the situation proper for the purpose, has just been shown : it is now proposed to show the wonderful manner in which the flying-buttresses, the wall-buttresses from which they spring, and the surmounting pinnacles, are together disposed so as with the most delicate union of the extreme of beauty, to unite the most wonderful economy and such a know- ledge of mechanics as will in vain be sought for in any other description of buildings. Having found out exactly the precise place where the active force of the vaulting was pressing against the wall, they distended the flying-buttress or arc-boutant widely at that part, in the same manner as a modern carpenter, in temporary shoring, places a board flat against a dangerous wall ; they then gradually con- centrated this distention of the wall-thrust into one point, where the flying-buttress joins the wall-buttress : thus they concentrated at the head of the wall-buttress all the active force communicated by the vaulting, in the same manner as in wrestling, all the force received by the arms becomes concentrated in the spine, pressing its vertebrse closely together (see Plate VII., fig. 1) : but then, as the operation of this force would have required the wall-buttress to be made sprawling out to a vast distance from the wall, in order to prevent the active power from throwing it over, they changed the course of the active force simply by running up the head of the wall-buttress in the form of a pinnacle, which having only a direct downward gravity, by the resolution of forces, so changed the course of the active force that it could be confined within the 52 ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE body of a buttress of comparatively moderate dimensions, — the downwardly-increasing gravity of the wall-buttress in fact mingling with the force communicated to it, curved the direction of the force more and more inwards till it was eventually re-diffused horizontally over the broad foundation of the buttress and was from thence communicated to the earth itself. Thus pinnacles became the most refined instruments in the economy and security of ecclesiastical and other buildings, and, like the position of the human head, had a most material influence upon the stiffness and activity of the whole frame. They did not always stop here, for knowing that there was a portion of the iv all-buttress near the ground and adjoining to the side aisles, which received no thrust, and lay as it were dead, this they cut out altogether, as at Gloucester Cathedral, some of our English Chapter-houses, Westminster-hall, and some of the con- tinental cathedrals which have chapels set between their wall- buttresses ; so that, in fact, the whole form, position, and manage- ment of the counter-abutments of Gothic vaultings were like those of a human skeleton, placed in a leaning posture, with the bones of the legs away from the base, those of the hands and arms pressing against the moving part of the vault, with the skull erect to confirm and steady the spine, and the whole strengthened by sufficient flesh and muscle. The true mechanical office of the pinnacles of pointed archi- tecture (see Plate VII., fig. 2) requires that the double set of flying-buttresses on the south side of Westminster Abbey be respectively inclined so as to receive within their solid substance the pressure of the vaulting ; and that on account of the operation of the two sets of pinnacles the lower flying-buttress be set more uprightly than the upper one. If the original builders were not fully versed in the subject (which may be greatly doubted), Wren, who restored these buttresses, was so, and probably by his great scientific knowledge was enabled to adjust more accurately their proper positions. The great masters who had to do with this fabric could not avoid the great extra consumption of materials which arose from removing the great buttresses away from the wall out in the cloister-green, in order to leave room for the north avenue of the cloister : but having a difficult task to perform they performed it with admirable skill, and with knowledge greater than is exhibited in many of the continental cathedrals, some of which have two sets of buttresses, in order to admit side chapels. With what humility should we look upon our whole modern use of buttresses, pinnacles, and abutments, which we pretend are the results of a far outstripping science, and of an improved taste, — while men whom we have been in the habit of calling bar- barians, have in a dark age (more enlightened in many things than the best ages of Greece and Rome) at once mingled in their works poetry, economy, taste, strength, and invention. OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 53 Of hoiv small a portion of the materials constituting most modern edifices performs the intended duty ; and how this defect renders our ivories not only broken, but denudes them of all proper adornments, by that expense which might have furnished them with such decorations as would have entered into, and have grown out of, their very structure, being wasted in merely adding an expensive burthen to the efficient parts of such edifices. In a multitude of instances, where no competent professional man directs the construction, so little care is taken that the materials of edifices shall be sound, and shall be put together with such art that they shall all perform their duty, in either supporting or holding together the fabric, that take edifices generally, it is not improbable that less than the quantity of materials employed might have made them far more secure and free from flaw, leaving a great portion of the materials to be either saved or to be employed in solid and intrinsic adornments, which, like those of architecture, in all her ages of true glory and true economy, should live and die alone with the strength of the fabric. Thus, if the degree of strength which is found in an ordinary dwelling-house, with its flaws, distortions, and sinkings, be deemed sufficient, and if a way can be discovered of producing the same degree of substantiality without the employment of so much material, no doubt great benefit will be done. It is rare to find in a modern structure any brick-work which, what with the bond of it being broken by the disconnexion between the better work of hard grey-stock bricks and the softer, more perishable, and scarcely-tied facings of yellow bricks — the broken bricks in the interior of the work — the deteriorations caused by the workmen leaving in the work all those bricks which break under the operation of laying them, and which he never cements together after they are broken — what with holes and spaces left in the walls, bricks set closely only in the front and broken away at the back, — and then again, considering that in most of our struc- tures piers are placed over apertures, and very frequently upon pretended arches of gauge-work, or the more worthless pretences for arches — this part of the work is not so secure as if it had been composed of only one tenth part as much material, but that of good quality and put together with watchful care. The author has seen modern structures of comparatively good materials, which, from being carried up in every part in defiance of every static principle, have of themselves gradually flawed, and in some cases pulverised nearly one half of their component bricks ; while many of Wren's lofty church towers are almost without a flaw, although their interior work is evidently mainly composed of the ruins of the former buildings which were destroyed by the great fire of London. 54 ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE Of the excellence of Gothic arches. A great deal has been written relative to the strength of different kinds of arches ; but it seems that from the fall of pointed architecture, till very lately, we have lost sight of the principle that, the thing which is practically the strongest and convenient is practically the best. These properties are possessed in an eminent degree by Gothic arches; for they will subsist firmly, of a construction much lighter and containing much less quantity of materials than any other kind ; the most ignorant may learn this without acquiring scien- tific knowledge : all other arches require to be complete or they will almost entirely fall ; but aspiring pointed arches, containing no materials which are really hanging in a state of jeopardy from downward pressure, have less tendency than any other kind of arches to thrust out their abutments and derange their haunches; for having no horizontal crowns to fall down, they are destitute of that outwardly wedging property, which causes the ruin of other arches, and that of the piers beneath them. The stones composing the lofty ancient pointed arch, even without cement, would scarcely slide from their places ; hence we see, that although violent destruction has come to an infinite number of the finest buildings in the pointed style, in numerous instances the whole sides of their arches remain perfect even up to their very points, notwithstanding their other halves have been destroyed, and three centuries of rain, snoiv, frost, and storm, have preyed upon them, while almost half the number of our modern arches, though possessing all their parts, are a complica- tion of fracture, and need but some slight accident to remove a small portion from each of them, to cause them to fall to utter ruin. It is a high praise of the strength of Gothic arches, that all the handsomest and most successful great modern domes, are nearly, if not quite, in the form of Gothic arches, merely with their points surmounted by spires or lanterns ; in fact, they are a series of Gothic semi-arches, rising from a circle or other figure, and meeting together at their heads ; the best domes of Europe and of Asia are all of this form. Some of those who write upon the equilibrium of arches, assert that over each abutment (a) of a semi- circular arch a load of infinite altitude is required in order to counter-balance the key-stone and other parts of the arch, which, from their down- ward pressure are in jeopardy and tend to thrust away the abutments intended to confine them ; but as such an altitude would be neither convenient nor possible, and as great weight added to the abutments would make them OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 55 sink into the earth, and thus ruin the arch, some have imagined that to omit the lower parts of the arch and to make it only a segment of a circle, with no part of the arch deeper than from b to c, is to omit that portion of it which it is neither convenient nor yg rr^Xl Dj ' ' ' ' Uj J^T^-. A? even possible to load sufficiently to Nav^^"^ ^^SAy resist the outwardly wedging property — of the upper voussoirs. But however this subject may be in- volved in obscurity, and however little may from the want of actual experiments be known relative to it, yet it is certain that a very considerable portion of the ^C\_iL whole weight of a circular segmental arch is /WWv thrusting away the abutments, whereas a high A/ \A pointed arch, not having its voussoirs carried up /^/ \3k beyond d, cl, there are no materials at e in Hf F3 jeopardy, with a direct downward pressure, so that the Gothic architects, in omitting all the dangerous parts of an arch, showed a kindlier and more refined acquaintance with practical science than those who have written the most ingenious and abstruse theories upon the equilibrium of arches, and who instead of seeking to reduce the quantity of materials in jeopardy, have only sought to burthen, at an enormous expense of solid masonry, the extrados and piers of the arch in a manner which in cases of doubtful foundations might grind the whole work into the earth. Mr. "Ware, in discoursing upon the same subject, notices that Gautier says, " that pointed arches were used in bridges, churches, and other buildings, ' par la faire moins de poussee.' " Sir Christopher Wren makes a similar observation, adding, " that these arches require less centering and thinner stones." How very nearly the builders of the edifices of pointed archi- tecture removed all lateral thrusting power from their arches is still further proved by the frequent absence of flying-buttresses, as mentioned by Jean Eondelet, in his Traite Theorique et Pratique de VAvt de Batir, sixth edition, vol. iv. p. 293. " Cette multitude d'Arcs-boutans, dont la plupart des eglises " Gothiques sont garnies a l'exterieur, sont souvent superflus, ainsi " que le prouvent, independemment de la theorie, plusieuis " edifices de ce genre, ou Ton a evite d'en mettre, quoique leurs " voutes soient beaucoup plus elevees que la plupart des grandes " nefs au-dessus des bas-cotes des egHses ordinaires, telles que la " Sainte-Chapelle a Paris, et la petite eglise de Cluni, pres la " Sorbonne, que nous avons deja citees, et plusieurs autres qui n'en " sont pas moins solides." And again, the same author observes, " La courbure de cintre " la plus favorable pour les voutes d'arete est celle des arcs " Gothiques, parce que la partie qui pousse le plus se trouve " supprimee. On trouve que l'effort de leur poussee n'est que les 56 ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE " trois septiemes de celui des voutes en plien-cintre de meme " diametre, epaissure, hauteur de pied-droit et forme d'extrados, " et qu'il suffit de donner a leurs points d'appui les trois quarts de " ceux des voiites en plein-cintre de meme forme et dimension." — Vol. iv., p. 292. There is yet another excellence which has been practised in the construction of Gothic arches, as mentioned by Dr. Moller, in his Denkmdler der Deutschen Baukunst. " In regard to the buttresses or contreforts of the vaulting, " we find a method practised in the cathedral at Cologne, which, " although hitherto unnoticed, appears to be as judicious and " serviceable as it is simple. " The lower part of the vaulting is formed by horizontal " courses of the stone-work projecting out from the wall, similarly " to the construction observed in the treasury of Atreus. Conse- " quently, the actual span of the vaulting, and its volume or bulk, " are proportionately decreased while, on the other hand, the " abutment is in the same degree strengthened. Still more " deserving of attention is the manner in which the essential parts " are so linked together as to be rendered incapable of thrusting " or giving way, and must therefore, of necessity, remain in the " precise position they were intended to be in." — Translation by W. H. Leeds, p. 153. Now, an examination of the steeple of St. Dunstan's in the East, London, will show that Wren, either from studying the Gothic buildings, or by his own skill, was led to practise the same mode of construction as is to be observed in the vaulting of Cologne Cathedral ; for the lower courses of the four flying-but- tresses of St. Dunstan's steeple are laid horizontally and form indeed one with the courses of the masonry of the four pinnacles surmounting the angles of the tower of the church. (See Plate VII., fig. 3.) Of the defects resulting from the use of Gothic arches, and of the remedy for those defects. There is one defect which may by oversight subsist in an eminent degree ; the property by which pointed arches may, by reason of their steepness, throw off from their extrados or backs the spandrils or materials which are frequently piled upon them. In a range of arches of equal size and strength, this is of no ill effect ; for repose is preserved by the materials of the spandrils tending to slide equally from the backs of each pair of arches, and thence falling upon the pier beneath them : but against the end arches must be abutment sufficient to resist the moving power ot the spandrils, or they will slide off, and the end arches becoming crippled, the adjoining arches also will be more or less deranged. OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 57 This is found in actual practice : a great portion of Gothic masonry, being cheap rubble-work, has a very great tendency to roll wherever there is a want of equilibrium ; hence at the crossing of the nave choir and transepts of most Gothic cathedrals, there is more or less giving inwards of the four great central piers ; and to counteract this failure, and to render those piers capable of bearing a stupendous tower or steeple, the most scientifically in- genious internal " arc boutants " have been inserted in some cathedrals, as those of Salisbury, Wells, and Canterbury. (See Plate VII., fig. 4.) To prevent this bad effect, the spandrils over Gothic arches, and indeed over all arches, should be laid in courses of squared masonry or brick-work ; and the backs of the arches should be formed in a series of horizontal gradations, so as to have no tendency to roll from off their seats the superincumbent masonry. General observations relative to roofs and gutters. As it is in vain that roofs are formed upon scientific principles, unless when they are so formed they will for a long period remain unimpaired by time and weather, one of the most im- portant considerations in their structure is the guarding against premature decay : on this point, therefore, the author does not scruple to insert the very valuable observations of Dr. George Moller, which are to be found in his highly-esteemed work on Gothic architecture, at the description of the Minster of Freiburg in the Breisgau. They are as follow : — " While we are making our observations upon this section, it " will not be irrelevant to notice, how in this as well as all similar " buildings, the water-channels of the roof and the parapets " are formed without there being any attic. The timbers, joists, " and wall-plate, which would be liable to be injured by damp and " wet, lie higher than the gutters ; and the intervals between the " joists are not closed up externally, but left open to admit the " air, while the gutters themselves are for greater " security formed of hollowed stone, or of metal. " Evidently rational and laudable as these precau- " tions are, and greatly as they, undoubtedly, have " contributed to preserve the timbers of the roof in " a sound state during so many centuries, they are " almost entirely neglected and disregarded in our " times, when it is usual to form the gutters above the level of " the wall-plate, and to insert the timbers into the stone, so that " they soon become damp and require a long time to get dry " again. The mischievous consequence of all which is that con- " stant repairs are needed, and it frequently becomes necessary " entirely to renew the timber work of the roof. 58 ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE " Nevertheless, we find the same perverse practice in all our " modern buildings of importance, and not only in Germany, but " in both France and England : and, moreover, taught in ele- " mentary works on building. Greatly however is it to be wished " for the interests of art, that it were henceforth banished, and the " wiser practice of our forefathers adopted once more." After these important observations by the excellent German architect, it is scarcely requisite to add here anything relative to the situation of gutters, except that in general, gutters over- hanging the walls, save the timbers from rotting better than when they are placed within the walls, in which latter case, if there be any leakage, all the wet runs into the building, and damages it ; but then there is a draw-back upon this method, — viz., that the gutters cannot, without a parapet, be readily examined and cleansed ; but even this very defect has some advantage, since it frequently prevents incautious persons from ascending to the roof, and damaging the tiles or slates of it : and it must be observed, that it is very difficult in most of our slight English buildings, to place the gutters in the excellent manner stated by Moller, from the walls not being sufficiently thick. Sometimes, to keep the two sides of a gutter parallel, we place a heavy timber pole-plate off the walls ; this saves the waste of lead, at the highest parts of the gutter, where width is least wanted ; but then there is the disadvantage in this mode of con- struction, of increasing the weight upon one point of the tie- beam ; to prevent which from bending even at its very end, a corbeille of oak is obliged to be placed under it ; and even in this case the end of the tie-beam will yield beneath the pressure of the pole-plate, so as to appear very unsightly within the building, and so as to cause the ceiling to crack. With regard to the coverings of roofs, perhaps well-burnt plain tiles are the very best covering, if they are laid to a proper lap, and, when the pitch is low, laid in hair mortar. Slating, from its cheapness, lightness, and excellent appear- ance, can hardly be discouraged, though frequently not so durable as could be wished ; it requires, indeed, very great attention on the part of the professional man, if the work be not done by workmen upon whom he may depend, to prevent the fraud of the slates being fixed with iron nails instead of with nails of copper, zinc, or some other lasting material ; for though small is the difference of expense between iron nails, which in two or three years corrode, and leave the slating loose and imperfect, and nails which will not corrode, yet this fraud is frequently practised. Too much caution cannot be given to the architectural student, as well as to the employer, to avoid all pretended econo- mical substitutes for lead, tiles, slates, and other coverings for roofs, whose excellence is well known : all such inventions have hitherto failed ; and, besides the loss of their own cost, a renewal OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 59 of the timbers and other injured parts of the fabric has been the consequence. The roofs of the new Houses of Parliament might be instanced as a case where the injudicious use of galvanized iron instead of lead has been productive of great trouble and expense. It should be the architect's study in all roofs to have as little as possible that will either burn or rot : if the roof-trusses were made of cast-iron, as Mr. Gwilt has made those to his restoration of the choir of Saint Saviour's Church, Southwark ; and the new roof of Chartres Cathedral ; and if slight horizontal rafters reach- ing from truss to truss supported tiles of the ornamental descrip- tion above mentioned, all combustible materials might be banished from our invaluable cathedrals. Now iron and copper are comparatively so cheap, it would be a laudable exchange, if the beautiful truss-work of Saint Paul's dome were reconstructed in cast-iron and copper, to prevent the disaster which the fire of some plumber or fanatic will some day bring upon the cone, lantern, cupolas, and vaultings of this building. On the use and abuse of timber partitions. The proper use of timber partitions is for separating the xipper stories of buildings into more divisions than the lower parts of them, without impeding the lower apartments by props for the support of the upper divisions ; and if made on true principles, they not only subsist without casting any weight upon the ceilings below them, but form the means whereby those ceilings may be more firmly upheld ; for a quartered-partition, properly formed, contains truss-work as capable of upholding a floor, as the trusses of a scientific roof are of upholding a ceiling of prodigious weight and span. Abuse in the use of quartered-partitions consists in the adoption of them where they reach the ground. In London, when properly constructed, they usually cost as much as walls of the best brick-work nine inches thick ; and in the country, where stone is easily obtained, they frequently cost as much as walls of unhewn stone, eighteen inches or two feet thick. Sometimes we are almost compelled to use them in order to avoid loss of space in con- tracted sites ; but this forms no excuse for the use of them in new buildings, in open situations where a few inches of ground are estimated at little value. An absurd notion is abroad, that thin walls of brick-work are incfpaole of subsisting. For this there is no foundation: the defects of thin walls arise not from their thinness, but from their imperfect structure and materials. If several hundred feet in height of a steeple subsist for more than five hundred years, of masonry scarcely on an average thicker than a nine inch wall, the 60 ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE non-subsistence of a low nine-inch wall cannot result from its want of thickness : six feet in length of nine-inch walling contains as much strength as three feet of eighteen-inch walling ; and no one ever disputed that a pier of eighteen-inch brick-work, three feet wide, is capable of supporting very considerable weight. The material of good brick-work, is harder, stronger, and more durable, than are the stones of most Gothic buildings; while the mortar with which they are put together, can rarely be com- pared with the best kinds of stone-lime with which tolerable modern walls are built ; and the substance of modern bricks will stand fire an infinite deal better than most descriptions of stone. The great conical steeple which bears the lantern and all the external dome of St. Paul's has already subsisted far longer than most dwelling-houses of the best construction ; and has still suf- fered no decay, although the cone itself is more than ninety feet high, and is only eighteen inches thick. As if it were not bad enough to support the roof of an ordi- nary London house (if to support it may be called) upon a droop- ing gutter-plate of timber, that gutter-plate itself commonly rests but upon a stack of wretched mal-formed quartered-partitions which lie between the back-rooms and the front-rooms of the house, for which in most cases a wall of brick-work might be sub- stituted, increasing the depth of the house only four or five inches. (See Plate VII., fig. 5.) Of breast-summers in building; how abuse in the frequent use of them has increased in modern times ; of their incon- venience ; some thoughts and suggestions for preventing the evils resulting from the use of them; and some further sug- gestions for superseding on many occasions the use of them altogether. Viewed as a principle of construction, the use of breast- summers is wholly inadmissable: for the super-incumbent weight upheld by them, acts upon them by direct cross-strain, a test to which no materials whatever should be put in a building formed upon a correct principle of construction. It has been stated, that from the shrinkage of the wood, the brick-work over a breast-summer usually cracks, falls, and be- comes disjointed. But it must be admitted that sometimes though this be the case, a timber breast-summer is not itself defective further than happens from its shrinkage and yielding; for its fibrous nature imparts to it such toughness, that it will rarely break : but the inconvenience of leading to the disruption and distortion of the super-incumbent wall is sufficient cause for its rejection. Besides the shrinkage and deflexure of wood breast-summers, OF MODERN BUILDINGS. Cl their liability to rot and to burn must be added ; and if they be made of iron, though they will not shrink or rot, yet when fire happens, they may be (though said to be fire-proof) still more disastrous and less certain than those which are of wood. Breast- summers of stone could hardly under any circumstances be relied upon. The author has used for the reception of walls which could only admit supports at their ends, a kind of breast-summers (or rather arches) composed of brick-work, with stone abutments, and the whole contained within two long hoops of wrought-iron : and this has proved successful ; for provided the hoops be completely welded together, and be sufficiently strong, and the arch be bonded so closely as to admit of no settlement, neither expansion nor sinking to any sensible degree can take place : this trial proving successful, he has since employed the same means in an old build- ing ; whereby much of the trouble, expense, and inconvenience of shoring, were saved. In adopting this method in old buildings, success will depend upon the care an address with which the work is performed. (See Plate VII., figs. 6 & 7.) The author also suggests the following method, which he believes may with good success be adopted upon many occasions, both in new and in old buildings ; this is by supporting all the chief super-incumbent weight by a strong arch of brick-work or of masonry, semi-circular or Gothic, as the case may require (but the latter always if the work is to be covered with stucco, and is in old buildings): in this as in the last described method, shoring is nearly if not entirely superseded ; and if address and care be used, no fracture will occur. The mode to be adopted, is first to fix the story-posts of iron ; then to proceed to mark out the great arch, which may be inserted bit by bit (without endangering the fabric) till the whole is complete*. The tie across may be made very light, according to circumstances, and sometimes so as merely to be sufficient to hold the story-posts from being driven apart ; and in lieu of a breast-summer, may be inserted one or several such assemblages of work as are before described. Of the faulty method of covering over the external apertures of edifices and of the destruction of property to which this fault leads. Another cause of the vast inferiority of private edifices, is the modern method ot covering over their external apertures. A • It is a common practise in Italy to mark out on a wall the lined form of an arch intended to be inserted; to cut the old work out gradually, and bit by bit, as gradually, to insert the new arch, and thus save the expense of shoring or needling. -[Ed.] ( n ■ r-i i i ii ii i l i l ii i i i i SM w ifj ut ~H -jj-j. ' hr G2 ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE multitude of structures are literally dropping to pieces from frac- tures in the arches or other coverings of their external openings ; whether built by common bricklayers, or by masons, or by surveyors, by jobbing speculators, or by wealthy bankers, little difference is to be found. An incredible number of our edificv;s are in this condition ; nor indeed is the difference very great, where pier is erected over pier, and window over window. But perhaps the most scandalous instance of modern ignorance or culpable imprudence, is the covering over of the apertures of structures, other- wise good, with an arrangement of bricks, possessing none of the properties of an arch. Some call the brick-work so placed a French arch : the author is not acquainted with any name for it ; and were he disposed to give it one, it might be no-arch or flaiv- watt. Almost all our new buildings, which are intended to have their sins hidden by external plaster, are endowed with this kind of mal-formation ; even over Venetian windows eight or ten feet wide the same silly freak is repeated ; sometimes these pieces of brick-work are set in cement, but are even then little better. The truth is, they are un-geom etrically absurd; they depend upon nothing but the tenacity of the cement, or the violent friction of the bricks one against another; even if they otherwise escape fracture, the slightest settlement at the foundation is sufficient to destroy the whole of them in a building. In the construction of arches, the author brings together a few of the modes followed in times past, the meanest of which evinces the earnest desire to provide sound construction, whatever the cost might be. The first example here given (Plate VIII., fig. 1) is from a Roman sepulchre upon the Appian Way, and exhibits not only arch-stones of a proper wedge shape, but with a curious invention, the result of great care and skill, by which one course of the vaulting is prevented from sliding upon another: it much resembles the joggle-joints made use of in the pendent parts of a modern stone architrave. The second example is taken from the abutments of an arch over the doorway of another Roman sepulchre, also upon the Appian Way, and exhibits great care and skill. (Plate VIII., fig. 2.) The third example (probably of later date), is perhaps the earliest existing instance of a curious but excellent mode of pre- venting the voussoirs of level stone architraves or lintels from settling downwardly (Plate VIII., fig. 3), which became prevalent in various parts of Europe during the middle ages : it is from Diocletian's palace at Spalatro, in Dalmatia, which has so often been referred to as exhibiting some germs of the peculiar orna- ments which afterwards became prevalent in the Romanesque, Plate VI I. F—B. Bent ff Jp of the Force fe^^l communica- ?//\\ ted to the £__JJ ist Flying Buttresses. B. P. C. Parallelo- gram of Forces. C — F. Direction of the combined Forces. f— b. Bent of the Force communicated from the ist to the 2nd Flying buttress. p — f. The direct downward force of the gravity of the 2nd Pinnacle. c— -/. The active direction of the combined Forces after leaving the 2nd Buttress, and more and more inflected till it reaches the ground at g. a. Gutter-plates. e.e. Rafters forcing in the Gutter-plates. g.g. Floors sunk by the settlement of the Quartered-partitions, and the Stress of the Roof. h. Door-head forced out of level by the racking of the Quartered-partition. k. Door-posts driven out of perpendi- cular by the cross-strain upon them -of the Struts above the doorway. in which the old brick- einoved and to be re- arch of brick-work set be eventually left be- cradle-bars. ary-posts is not to be le other processes are ew work, much of the 3e unnecessary. tched over to prevent ss ties may be used in ro hoop- from moving <2&£t^^E& £2k^^S&E&^&tt!%. A. P- Story-posts of iron to be first inserted. S. s. Skew-backs of stone to be in succession inserted. A. Arch which is to be formed piecemeal, only a small part of the old work being removed at once. G% Gothic arch, which may on some occasions be preferred to the one last described. W. w. &c. The old wall upon which the arch is to be first marked out, and into which the arch is to be afterwards set- /./. Minor story-posts of iron, which may be after- wards inserted if required. a, b, c. Arched work instead of a breast-summer. T. t. Wrought-iron tie, to prevent the arch and the story-posts from expanding. 1: Crosbj Oookwood and Co., 7, Stationers' Hall Court, EC'. buttress, till the ground at g . f, b t ■•, c. Parallelogram of racking of the Quartered -partition. cular by the cross-strain upon them •of the Struts above the doorway. A. Rubble-work rolling offback of aGothic arch B. Bubble-work retained in repose between twc Gothic arches, C. Spandril graduated in regular courses upor /■-,,,.«. placed by a will lr.nik.1 .inh of brick-work set in Parker's cement. /* , &c. Vacancy which may be eventually left be- tween the hoops :md (hr ir.id le-bars. The old work between tin; story-posts is not to be ■emoved till after all the other processes are If this mod< hoops should be pitched uble work, much of the necessary. prevent A. P- Story -post 1 ; of irun to be hrst inserted. S.s. Skew-backs uf stun.- to lie in succession inserted. A. Archwhn.h is tube formed piecemeal, only a small part of the old work being removed at once. G. Gothic arch, which may on some occasions be preferred to the one last described. W. -m, &c. The old wall upon which the arch is to be first marked out, and into which the arch is to hr. afterwards set- p.p. Minor story-posts of iron, which may be after- wards inserted if required. a, b, c. Arched work instead of a l>rc;ist-summer. T. t. Wrought-iron tie, to prevent the arch and the stoiy-posts from expanding. ■"ndoii: Croabj tyockwood and I OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 63 Norman, or Byzantine style of architecture ; and the gradual western spread of this same method, till it at length reached England, seems almost to furnish another argument for the Oriental origin of some particular parts at least of Grothic archi- tecture. The fourth example (Plate VIII., fig. 4) is taken from the lower story of the reputed tomb of Theodoric, at Eavenna, and exhibits a semi-circular arch with its vomssoirs joggled or refracted as those of the third example. The fifth example (Plate VIII., fig. 5) is taken from the upper part of the reputed tomb of Theodoric, at Eavenna, and is similar to the third example, but displays double precaution. The sixth example (Plate VIII., fig. 6) is taken from the Transom of the Norman work of the western doorway of Kochester Cathedral. The seventh example (Plate VIII., fig. 7) is from the mantle of a fire-place in Edlingham Castle, Northumberland. The eighth example (Plate VIII., fig. 8) is from the mantle of a fire-place in Conisborough Castle, Kent, and is exactly similar to that at Diocletian's palace shown in the third example. The ninth example (Plate VIII., fig. 9) from the gate of the Alhambra is copied from the magnificent Spanish work published at Madrid, a.d. 1804, entitled Antiguedades Arabes de Espagna" There is even below this arch another of the Moresco horse-shoe shape : and Mr. Murphy gives two instances of the same kind of construction in the first plate of his superb work on the Church of Batalah. The tenth and eleventh examples (Plate VIII., figs. 10 & 11) are from the fifth chapter of the fourth book of Sebastian Serlio's Opere $ Architettura, and are both very excellent : the following is their author's description of them : — " Et perche la maggior parte de' supercilij, o architraui che " dir uogliamo, che sono posti sopra alcune porte, ouero botteghe, " per la larghezza dell' apetura, se la pietra non e di buonissima " grossezza non puo resistere al peso, and per questo in processo di " tempo si uiene a rompere, si come in moltissimi luoghi si puo " uedere ; si potra per gran distantia che si sia, pur che le spalle " dalle bande siano forti, far tal cosa di pezzi, nel modo qui disotto " in due modi designate, che indubitamente tal opera sara for- " tissima :" but experience will withhold the reader from following Serlio's further observation : " & quanto il carico disopra sara piu " grande 1' opera andera a maggior perpetuita." The twelfth example (Plate VIII., fig. 12) is taken from Mylne's work of Blackfriars' Bridge, London, and exhibits an excellent and economical piece of construction more applicable to ordinary cases than any of the preceding examples: in this example the joggles consist each of a cubic foot of hard stone. In small works copper plugs would be more proper, from requiring the OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 63 Norman, or Byzantine style of architecture ; and the gradual western spread of this same method, till it at length reached England, seems almost to furnish another argument for the Oriental origin of some particular parts at least of Gothic archi- tecture. The fourth example (Plate VIII., fig. 4) is taken from the lower story of the reputed tomb of Theodoric, at Kavenna, and exhibits a semi-circular arch with its vomssoirs joggled or refracted as those of the third example. The fifth example (Plate VIII., fig. 5) is taken from the upper part of the reputed tomb of Theodoric, at Kavenna, and is similar to the third example, but displays double precaution. The sixth example (Plate VIII., fig. 6) is taken from the Transom of the Norman work of the western doorway of Rochester Cathedral. The seventh example (Plate VIII., fig. 7) is from the mantle of a fire-place in Edlingham Castle, Northumberland. The eighth example (Plate VIII., fig. 8) is from the mantle of a fire-place in Conisborough Castle, Kent, and is exactly similar to that at Diocletian's palace shown in the third example. The ninth example (Plate VIII., fig. 9) from the gate of the Alhambra is copied from the magnificent Spanish work published at Madrid, A.D. 1804, entitled Antiguedades Arabes de Esjpagna." There is even below this arch another of the Moresco horse-shoe shape : and Mr. Murphy gives two instances of the same kind of construction in the first plate of his superb work on the Church of Batalah. The tenth and eleventh examples (Plate VIII., figs. 10 & 11) are from the fifth chapter of the fourth book of Sebastian Serlio's Opere d) Architettura, and are both very excellent : the following is their author's description of them : — " Et perche la maggior parte de' supercilij, o architraui che " dir uogliamo, che sono posti sopra alcune porte, ouero botteghe, " per la larghezza dell' apetura, se la pietra non e di buonissima " grossezza non puo resistere al peso, and per questo in processo di " tempo si uiene a rompere, si come in moltissimi luoghi si puo " uedere ; si potra per gran distantia che si sia, pur che le spalle " dalle bande siano forti, far tal cosa di pezzi, nel modo qui disotto " in due modi designate, che indubitamente tal opera sara for* " tissima :" but experience will withhold the reader from following Serlio's further observation : " & quanto il carico disopra sara piu " grande 1' opera andera a maggior perpetuita." The twelfth example (Plate VIII., fig. 12) is taken from Mylne's work of Blackfriars' Bridge, London, and exhibits an excellent and economical piece of construction more applicable to ordinary cases than any of the preceding examples : in this example the joggles consist each of a cubic foot of hard stone. In small works copper plugs would be more proper, from requiring the 64 ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE removal of less of the substance of the arch-stones, in order to admit the joggles. It is hardly necessary to observe that whatever ingenuity is displayed by each of the above examples, the Gothic architects made still greater advances in the science of constructing arches, for their pointed arches, as has been already observed, were formed without any of their parts being in jeopardy, and that they there- fore needed no other means for preventing their voussoirs slipping from each other ; whereas the modern pseudo-arches have none of their parts which are out of jeopardy. Another excellence of the pointed arches is, that they may be formed well of such small stones as to be scarcely either curved or wedged in form ; and it is probable that the workman, by narrowly observing the natural inaccuracy and oblique angles of the blocks of stone as roughly quarried, was enabled to shape them to his purpose without any waste whatever; whereas whoever knows anything of modern masonry, is well aware of the enormous consumption both of material and labour necessary for the production of the stones of a modern arch, or of even a piece of plain square masonry. There is yet another method of forming arches (Plate VIII., fig. 13) which is indeed still practised in masonry : it consists in joining by an elbow to each voussoir a portion of the neighbouring horizontal course of the work. At first sight this method appears to be more excellent than any other : but observation upon its practical effect will tend considerably to lower that high estimate: as the angle of the elbow will not yield, irregular settlement will cause the horizontal parts to fracture from the radial parts of the voussoirs ; specimens of this mode of fracture are to be seen at the " London Institution," Moorfields, which stands on a foundation so swampy that its side colonades and portals have settled away from the main building, although they have been once rebuilt on the same account. In the northern gate of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, there are examples of the same kind of fracture ; and even at the side of the north portal of St. Paul's Cathedral there are in the small apertures which light the crypt, some speci- mens of similar rupture : in the last case the arches have above them an altitude of one hundred feet of solid masonry, and a quick-sand below them. It must be confessed that the rustic channels of arches wrought in this form have a beautiful effect. First, then, Buckingham Palace contains many broken window-heads, both in the original building, and in the subsequent additions to it : secondly, St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, possesses only about fifty of them, while a plastered Metropolitan Hospital erected only a few years ago contains more than four- score of them : thirdly, of the twenty-four doorways and lower windows of the new church at Bryan ston Square, London, eighteen of them have their stone architrave-lintels broken : fourthly, of the ten lower windows of St. Mark's Church, at Clerkenwell, not one OF MODERN BUILDINGS. 65 of their heads has escaped fracture : fifthly, of sixty windows of the new buildings in the Middle Temple, London, fifteen are broken : and sixthly, of seventy-one stone windows-heads to the new Westminster Hospital sixty-one are fractured.* The author has had the flat external arches of various brick buildings, erected under his direction, prevented from fracturing or dropping by means of cradle-bars of wrought-iron (Plate VIII., fig. 14) placed invisibly below the arch-soffits, especially where he has suspected any uncertainty of foundation : and in all the buildings in which he has made the application not the slightest symptom of defect has occurred : emboldened by this success, he feels greatly disposed to follow the same method in all brick buildings whatsoever. The universal fracturing of modern build- ings is certainly an unadulterated disgrace to us as a profession. Gauged arches (Plate VIII., fig. 15), that is, arches of cut and rubbed bricks, are, of all things used in building, the least capable of duration and of the resistance of fracture : made of the softest, and therefore of the worst possible bricks, the soffit or under side of the arch being usually only four inches thick, the bricks carelessly jarred away except in front, and the joints not half filled with mortar, and that mortar of no durable quality, they hardly bear their own weight : they should upon every possible occasion be discarded. But not so those arches which are used in the counties where the best white bricks are made : they are as excellent and commendable in every respect as those of London are bad and absurd : the arches alluded to are composed of very long, hard, and fine white bricks, burnt of a wedge-shape ; these are not shattered by the process of cutting, and require little be- sides grinding to a perfect surface ; they do not lose their hard outward crust for a porous texture ; while from their considerable length and wedge-like upward increase, they never from any ordi- nary circumstance slip or fracture ; and in colour, and perfection of surface and joint, they almost resemble the finest marble, while they are in this climate more durable than marble. Surely, if the same method were universally adopted less first cost would be incurred than by the use of the present pieces of mutilated brick- work misnamed gauged arches. On certain abuses in the formation of entablatures. While in these latter times of great architectural knowledge, but of small architectural practise, one man with an over-weening, self-complacent, busy-idleness, attempts to prove that Vitruvius * No modern instances are given ; all these mentioned here are examples exist- iiig twenty-five years ago. — Ed. 6G ON THE STRUCTURE AND SCIENCE was an imposter ; and another, with equal certainty, proves that Vitruvius never existed, and was therefore no imposter ; while some who have given themselves superior light, prove thatPalladio was a corrupter of his art, and that Inigo Jones was hut a fortu- nate quack who rose only because he had no competitors ; while such, with a share of egotism more than ordinary among the scientific of mankind, assert a superiority of skill and of practice, though rot and flaw show the claim to practical superiority, at least, to be groundless ; nothing could more forcibly prove in- feriority in taste as well as practice, than the abuses which have so spread in modern English architecture in the management of entablatures. He who despises what Vitruvius says upon many subjects proves, by his works, that he holds in equal contempt all the best works of antiquity. Different strange fantasies have come into the heads of some practitioners with regard to the continuation or the discontinuation of entablatures. These are both almost equally practically evil. If some be still so perverse as to attempt to erect Grecian struc- tures when columns are placed at undue distances, the architraves above them will sink, so that the blocks of the architrave in sink- ing, open at their soffits ; and the fulcrums then formed by the inner angles of the abacus of each capital will by the descent of the architrave be thrust apart, and the columns, if of one piece each, will be moved over from their very bases ; and if of several blocks, will be thrust over gradually more and more upwardly as gravity becomes less and less. Perpendicular jambs under an arch invariably appear wider apart at their junction with the arch, than at their bases, even before that almost constant settlement which drives them apart ; and they in fact require to be set something together at their heads, in order to counteract that optical illusion. Mr. Hope, in his essay upon architecture, was wrong in con- demning the Koman triumphal arches for the disposition of their columns and entablatures ; they were very different, it is true, from temples, but not less proper in their way ; good construction required their entablatures to be managed as they were : and the works of all nations and of almost all ages down to our times, show that the ancients and our forefathers were rather more displeased, if possible, with bad construction than with bad taste : very few of our works raised since the middle of the eighteenth century would escape censure on both those grounds. Of architectural draiving ; and how neglecting other branches of knowledge neither makes a good artist nor a good architect. There is no small boasting at the present day of architectural drawing. An architect cannot draw too well ; but when he obtains much practice, he will find, that besides designing the form and PlateVM Fuj.Z. Fig A. A. Skew-back. B. Counter-abutment. C. Wedge-shaped Joggle. D. D. Plugs. Fvq. 3. Iting, formed of three ine Stone Voussoirs, ne Voussoirs, drawn m of vVedges, rising of one Voussoir into oussoir immediately /em one arch-stone her. Fig. 6. zs Fig. 7. Fig. 14. tK ) t I Fief .16. ■ Fig 17. n: CYosby Lockwood and Oo., 7, Stationers' Hall Court, E.C. Fu) 1. Fuj.Z. C. View of one of the Stone Voussoirs, drawn to a larger scale, D. D. Joggles in the form of Wedges, rising from the upper sidi* of one Voussoir into the under side of the Voussoir immediately above it, so as to prevent one arch-stone from sliding upon another. Fig. 15. Fig. 7. i the surface of the arch. Fig. 13. 11 Fig. 10. Fig 8. Fig. 11. I Fig 16 ■ J . Lime-whiting, &c All the interior work of the hasement-story, of every part of the shop, of the stahle, the chaise-house, and the loft, is to be finished completely fairly, and is to be twice lime-whited. Iron curb and railing. Scaffolding. Jobbing-work. To lime-whiten twice also the unplastered timbers and boarding of the underside of the one-pair flooring-, and of the leaded flat, and also of the basement floor- ing. (The ground story was to be used principally as a warehouse). To inclose according to the drawings the leaded flat over the loft, along the front parapet thereof, with cast-iron curb, wrought-iron rail, 1\ inches by \ inch, wrought-iron standards 1 inch square, and cast-iron bars | inch square, fitted up, fixed, run with lead, and made complete. (The iron-work is not separated from the other works in this specification). To provide and fix all scaffolding which may be requisite for the performance of the whole of the works of every kind, including the plumber's work of the intended dwelling-house, and of the offices and appur- tenances thereof, with sufficient poles, putlogs, boards, ladders, and other things proper and requisite thereto. (See p. 79). Steps. MASON. To put along the principal front, under the story- posts and iron-columns, two pieces of parallel square Aberdeen granite curb scantling 12 inches by 9 inches each, feet, inches long, fine worked where in sight, and cut out to receive the bases of the columns and story-posts. To put to the four external doorways of the dwel- ling-house, the best tooled solid Yorkshire stone steps, 7 inches by 13 inches properly back-jointed, with SPECIFICATIONS. 113 Ptonn dressings. Wiudow-sills. Cornice coping, &c. I-andinff under water-closet, &c. Chimney-pieces, &c. mortise holes to receive the bottoms of the door-posts, and with the projecting corners rounded off, as shown by the plan. (See p. 80). To put to the two front windows over the gate- way, sunk, weathered, and throated sills of Portland stone, scantling 4 inches by 9 inches. To put to all the other windows of the dwelling- house and offices, sills of 3 inch Yorkshire paving- stone wrought with fair edges and ends, throated, and laid sloping, (See p. 80). To execute the level and raking cornice, inclosing the pediment of the principal front of the dwelling- house according to the drawings, of Portland stone scantling, 18 inches by 5 inches, with proper raised sunk water-joints, channelled and run with lead, and with solid apex and angle stones, the sunk bed- moulding to be mitred round each block or truss ; to put under the same brick blocks or trusses, and a plain throated and weathered string-course of Portland stone, 3 inches by 6 inches ; and to put to the parapet above the gateway Portland stone coping scantling 15 inches by 3 inches, throated and run with lead at the joints therein. To provide and fix for the support of the water- closet and the lobby thereof a piece of the best tooled Yorkshire stone-landing, 8 feet 6 inches long, 3 feet 6 inches wide, and 3^ inches thick, wrought with fair and chamfered outer edges, and with the projecting angle thereof rounded to the shape of the water-closet. To put to the principal kitchen chimney jambs and mantle, each of 2 inch Portland stone, 10 inches wide. To put to the scullery chimney, and to the chim- ney of the lesser kitchen, jambs and mantles, each of 2 inch Portland stone, 6 inches wide. To put to the best room on the one-pair story a chimney-piece, p. c, £15. To put to each of the four other fire-places in the I 114 SPECIFICATIONS. north party-wall of the dwelling-house a chimney- piece, p. c, £2. To put over the chimney-bar of each of the same four fire-places a piece of 4 inch Yorkshire stone, 7 inches wide, 3 feet 6 inches long, and chamfered away at the back, so as not to check the ascent of the smoke. To put to all the remainder of the fire-places jambs, mantles, and shelves, each of 1^ inch Portland stone, 6 inches wide. sotting. (See p. 80). Hearths and slabs. To put to the whole of the fire-places hearths of 1\ inch rubbed Yorkshire stone. To put to all the fire-places hearths of 2 inch Portland stone. To provide and fix under the copper a hearth of 3 inch Yorkshire stone containing 12 feet superficial. yard "amuses. ^° P ave the two privies and the small yard ad- joining thereto each with one piece of 2^ inch York- shire stone. pSe andingt ° To P ut to tne entrance-passage on the south side of the gateway a floor of 3 inch tooled Yorkshire stone, let into the brick-work in pieces as large in size as possible. pavnlg R0(Kl public To pay to the commissioners of paving the ex- pense of making good the paving which will be injured or disturbed by the execution of the intended works. sinks. To provide and fix in the scullery and small kitchen two sinks as shown by the plan, of Yorkshire stone 7 inches thick, with proper bearers, and with holes cut out for the pipes and traps. Jobbing-work, &c. (See p. 81). SLATEtt, Countess slating. (See p. 81). SPECIFICATIONS. Bond.rtc. (See p. 81). Beparatioa (See p. 81). 115 New materials, &c. CARPENTER, JOINER, SMITH, AND IRONMONGER. To provide sufficient new materials for, and frame, fix, and finish all carpenter's work and joiner's work, which may be requisite for carrying into effect, and for completing in every respect the intended dwelling- house, and the offices and appurtenances thereof, ac- cording to the design. Ironmongery, &c. (bee p. 82). Timber and deal. (See p. 82). Old timber. Hoarding. Shoring. Sundries. 4 cwt. iron ties, &c. Centering. Wood-bricks Llnteia. Any portion of the old timber at present on the premises which may remain sound and good, and of the proper description according to the specification, may be used in the new work. To provide and fix strong hoarding, sufficient to inclose the ground during the time the work is being carried on. (See p. 83). (See p. 82). To provide and fix in and about the intended building, 4481bs. avoirdupois of wrought-iron in such straps, ties, screw-bolts, and other light, wrought and hammered work, as the architect may direct; all addi- tions to the said quantity, and all deductions therefrom, are to be taken after the rate of per pound avoirdupois, including the fixing thereof. (See p. 82). To put all wood-bricks requisite for fixing the skirtings of the ground story, and for receiving the other finishings and works so requiring. To put over the window of the principal kitchen a lintel extending from the North party-wall, of fir 18 1 1 6 SPECIFICATIONS. feet 10 inches long;, scantling, 9 inches by 9 inches, with a return of similar sized timber, 7 feet long, halved thereto, and extending round the South-side ot the staircase. To put over the window of the room above the principal kitchen a lintel of fir, 13 feet long and 9 inches square. Lintel8 To put over the openings in the building lintels and filling-in -lintels wherever else requisite, each 5 inches high, 18 inches longer than the bearing, and of the width of the brick- work. (See p. 83). Ground-flooring. To construct the ground-flooring according to the drawings, with six fir girders, each 18 feet 6 inches long, and scantling, 10 inches by 8 inches, — five oak sleepers or plates, and oak side wall-plates under the girders, 4 inches by 4 inches, and fir joists, 7 inches by by 2tt inches ; and to lay the whole of the timber-floor of the ground-story with 1^ inch deal rough boards, clear of sap-wood, ploughed and tongued, with wrought- iron lj inch by one-sixteenth inch ; a portion of the shop-flooring is to be ledged, and to be hung with strong joints and flush rings, in order to form a pair of large folding trap doors. For the heads of timbers which are to be inserted in the damp brick-work, which lies near the ground, sockets of cast-iron are to be recom- mended. Brenst-fmmmew, To put under the girders of the ground-floor six coimnns"'&c. fir-framed and chamfered story-posts, 6 inches square, each with York stone corbel, 6 inches by 6 inches, and 2 feet 6 inches long ; and a box socket of cast-iron § inch thick, extending 9 inches high up the post, and with an iron plate-base cast thereon, 15 inches square, with a rim extending all round 2 inches down over the brick pier. To put for the support of the front and back walls of the dwelling-house, fir breast-summers scantlings, 15 inches by 13 inches; the breast-summers over the gateway being cut away 3 inches to the form of an arch, SPECIFICATIONS. 117 to put under the front of the gateway two fir story- posts, 9 inches by 13 inches : to put under the hack of the gateway two fir wrought story-posts 6 inches by 13 inches, and two oak wrought and shaped corbels 1 3 inches by 9 inches, and 2 feet 6 inches long ; to put at the ends of the shop-front two fir story-posts, 4 inches by 12 inches. To put by the front shop-door- way a fir story-post, 9 inches by 3 inches. To put over the window and the door on the South- side of the shop a fir wrought breast-summer, 12 inches by 12 inches. To put to each of the story-posts on the ground- floor a cast-iron socket-base of metal, f inch thick, and 10 inches high. cast-iron columns. To provide and fix the following columns of cast- iron. Three under the shop-breast-summer, each 4^ inches diameter at bottom, and 4 inches diameter at top. One column 4 inches square for the support of the breast-summer, inserted in the brick-work of the counting-house-chimney. And one column 3^ inches square for the support of the back front above the scullery. To put to the iron columns, bases and capitals, as shown by the drawings. one-pair floors. To construct the one-pair flooring with five fir wrought girders, scantlings 12 inches by 6 inches and 18 feet 6 inches long, with fir wrought joists 5 inches by 1\ inches corked thereon, and trimmers and trim- ming-joists 5 inches by 3 inches ; two fir wrought girders over the gateway, 10 inches by 9 inches, and 13 feet 9 inches long, with fir joists 7 inches by 2 inches corked thereon, and trimmers and trimming- joists 7 inches by 2 inches; to lay the whole of the one-pair story with inch-wrought yellow clean deal boards, clear of sap-wood, and grooved and tongued to the part over the shop, with wrought-iron, 1£ inch by one-sixteenth inch. 118 J.oft-ftoor. Floor to the water-closet, &c SPECIFICATIONS. To construct the loft-floor with joists 5 inches by 2 inches; and trimmers and trimming-joists 5 inches by 2^ inches and to lay the same with inch yellow deal, clear of sap-wood. To lay to the water-closet, and to the lobby thereof, inch clean batten floors, on sufficient furrings or bearers. Two-pair ami attic floors. Wall-plates and templets Poofs over the low buildings. To construct the floorings of the two-pair story and of the attic story, with joists 12 inches by 2ijr inches, and trimmers and trimming-joists 12 inches by 2| inches ; and to lay the whole of the two stories with inch yellow deal half boards, listed clear from sap-wood. To put to all the floors above the ground-story the requisite wall-plates of fir scantling, 5 inches by 4 inches, continued all round the walls at the one-pair, two-pair, and three-pair stories, except where the flues occur ; and to put under the ends of the girders and other principal timbers the requisite templets each of fir 2 feet 6 inches long, and scantling 6 inches by 4^ inches. To construct the roof over the western part of the shop with wall-plate 5 inches by 4 inches, one wrought gutter-plate 12 inches by 8 inches, one wrought gutter-plate 12 inches by 3 inches, wrought blocks framed between the two gutter-plates, wrought joists 9 inches by 2 inches, laid to a current, wrought trim- ming-joists against the party-wall 9 inches by 2 inches (the brick- work being corbeled out beneath the same), inch yellow deal boarding for lead, clear of sap-wood, and with rolls for the lead. Poofs to watrr- closet and scul- lery. To construct and fit up the flat over the loft, with wall-plate 4 inches by 4 inches, fir joists 8 inches by 2 inches, laid to a current, trimming-joists against the west wall 8 incites by 2 inches (supported upon brick- work corbeled out), gutter-plate 8 inches by 3 inches, with framed bearers and inch deal boarding for lead, with rolls as described to the flat last mentioned, and to put along the northern side of the same flat a strong guard-rail with sufficient standards. To put over the scullery a roof with fir joists 5 inches by 2 inches, laid to a proper current ; to put SPECIFICATIONS. 119 over the water-closet and the lobby thereof a roof with joists 3^ inches by 2 inches, and to lay both the same roofs with inch yellow deal, clear of sap-wood, with rolls for lead. Minor roofs over the gateway, &c. Upper or principal roof. To construct the lower roofing over the three-pair story, according to the drawings, with wall-plates 4 inches by 4 inches, diagonal ties and dragon-pieces 4 inches by 2± inches, rafters 4 inches by 2 inches, frames to the sky-lights 5 inches by 3 inches, ridges 8 inches by 1 inch, valley-pieces 1\ inches by 6 inches, braces to the rafters below the curb-plate 4 inches by 2^ inches, and slate battens 1\ inches by 1 inch. To put over the stair-case, a 2 inch yellow deal sky-light, with inch deal beaded linings, and all other requisite fittings and appurtenances complete. To construct the upper principal roof with wall- plates 5 inches by 4 inches, rafters to the small lean- to roof 3 inches by 2 inches, other rafters and curb- rafters 5 inches by 2 inches ; two braces to the curb- rafters 4 inches by 3 inches, rounded ridges and hips 8 inches by 1 inch, valleys 1\ inches by 8 inches, four angle ties each 4 feet long, four dragon-pieces 4 inches by 1\ inches, slate-battens 2\ inches by 1 inch, four binders, each running in one piece from east to west, scantling 10 inches by 3 inches, and ceiling joists spiked each in one length below the binders 2\ inches by 2 inches, and fixed with proper fillets at the ends thereof. Gutters, &c. QnaTtered-par- titious. To put in the south quartered-partition at the head of the principal stair-case, an upright 1^ inch bead-butt and square two-panel dormer-door, with 1£ inch re- bated and beaded linings, and hung with strong hinges and bolt ; and to form the heads of the two dormer- windows, with frame-work and fittings complete. To lay to the several roofs inch yellow deal gutter- boards, on strong fir-bearers, with current H inch to every 1 feet, 2^ inch drips in the situations shown by the plans, and cess-pools to the heads of the rain- water-pipes: to put to the gutters and valleys the requisite | inch yellow deal lear-boards 10 inches wide. To construct the quartered-partitions between the back-rooms and front-rooms, with heads 6 inches by 5 inches, ties above the doorways 4 inches by 5 inches, 120 SPECIFICATIONS. queens above the ties 6 inches by 5 inches, four posts to each story 3^ inches by 5 inches, upper and lower braces or struts 3^ inches by 5 inches, quarters 5 inches by 2 inches, and inter-ties not more than 2 feet 6 inches apart 2 inches by 1 inch. To construct the quartered-partitions on the South side of the principal staircase with bottom-sill and heads 6 inches by 5 inches, kings 4 inches by 5 inches, struts 4 inches by 3 inches, quarters 5 inches by 2 inches, not more than 13^ inches apart, and inter-ties not more than 2 feet apart ; scantling 5 inches by 1 inch. To construct the quartered-partitions on the North side of the principal staircase, with top and bottom plates 4 inches by 3 inches, ties above the doorways 4 inches by 4 inches, queens above the ties 4 inches by 5 inches, struts or braces above and below the ties 3^ inches by 3 inches, door-posts 4 inches by 3 inches, quarters, 4 inches by 2 inches, and inter-ties not more than 2 feet 6 inches apart ; scantling 2 inches by 1 inch. To construct the partition between the stable and the chaise-house with oak bottom plate 4£ inches by 3^ inches, fir upper plate 4£ inches by 4 inches, king- post 4£ inches by 5 inches, struts 4£ inches by 3 inches, quarters 4£ inches by 2 inches, and inter- ties 4£ inches by 1 inch. To provide and fix the other requisite quartered- partitions with top and bottom plates, and posts, and braces 4 inches by 3 inches, quarters 4 inches by 2 inches, and inter-ties not more than 2 feet 6 inches apart, 2 inches by 1 inch. (See p. 84). Framed deal par- To fill in the arched opening in the wall on the South side of the gateway with 2 inch deal partition- ing framed bead-flush on both sides. To divide off the rooms from the lesser staircase, and to divide off the other parts of the premises as shown by the drawings by 2 inch deal square-framed partitions with neat door-stops and with f inch deal panels, neither glued, nor more than 10 inches wide. The partitioning of the counting-house is to have the upper part thereof formed with ovolo sashes therein. SPECIFICATIONS. 121 cradling, &c. To form out properly with strong yellow deal ribbed cradling for the plasterer the ceiling of the best room on the one-pair story, and the ceiling of the lobby to the water-closet. Doors, &c. To put to the side-entrance under the gateway a 2 inch four-panel moulded and bead-flush door, hung with a pair of 4 inch butt-hinges, a 10 inch best draw- back iron rimmed lock with key and strong plain brass furniture, and two 10 inch barrel-bolts, in a fir proper door-case 4 inches by 5 inches, with a transom 4 inches by 3 inches ; and to fit up the front doorway on the South side of the gateway in all respects the same as the doorway last described, except that the back of the door is to be bead-butt ; and to put round the outside of the same doorway a deal moulded architrave, accord- ing to the drawings. To fit up the principal entrance of the shop with 2 inch folding-doors, as shown by the drawings, framed in three leaves, hung with hinges, lock, and six bolts, of the same description as those last described for the other doors. To fit up the side doorway of the shop, next the yard, with a pair of 2 inch folding sashed doors with 1^ inch bead-flush and square panels, 1£ inch bead- flush and square shutters with corner shoes, dogs, and sockets, and strong screw fastenings, all of wi'ought-iron, and hung with lock hinges and four bolts, the same as to the front doors, in fir proper door-case 5 inches by 6 inches, with transom 5 inches by 3 inches. To put to the stable and to the loft inch deal ploughed, cross-tongued, beaded, and strongly ledged doors, hung with strong cross-garnet hinges in fir door-cases 5 inches by 5 inches ; to put to the loft- doorway two 10 inch rod-bolts, and a 2 inch oak rounded threshold 12 inches wide ; and to put to the stable doorway a 9 inch copper-warded stock-lock, a Norfolk thumb-latch, and a transom 5 inches by 3 inches, with wrought-iron bars 1 inch square, and not more than 4 inches apart above the same. To put to the best front-room on the one-pair story a 2\ inch four-panel door, moulded on both sides, and hung with a pair of 4 inch butt-hinges, and a best strong mortise-lock, with plain strong brass furniture. 122 SPECIFICATIONS. To put to the best front chamber on the two-pair story a 2 inch four-panel, moulded and square-framed door, hung with hinges and lock, the same as to the door last described. To fit up all the doorways of the remainder of the dwelling-house and offices with 2 inch four-panel deal square-framed doors, with § inch deal panels hung with 3 inch wrought butt-hinges, and with best 7 inch iron rimmed locks with keys, and the best plain brass furniture complete. The upper panels of the door to the smaller kitchen, and of the chamber over the same, are to be left out, in order that ground glass may be put thereinto, instead of deal ; and the door of the counting-house is to be sashed. Door-iininss, &c. To put to all the doorways in the walls and quartered -partitions 1£ inch deal single-rebated linings ; to put to all the doorways in the walls and quartered -partitions of the one-pair and two -pair stories (except next the inside of the scullery) inch deal framed and beaded grounds ; and to put round on both sides of the doorways of every description throughout the house (except to the closets adjoining to the minor staircase) mouldings to form architraves, according the drawings. Gates &c. To construct the front gates according to the drawings, moulded out of the solid, with 3 inch deal stiles and rails, 2 inch deal muntins, f inch deal panels, inch deal braces, and large grooved and moulded capping with neat wrought-iron spike-heads on the top thereof, and to hang the pair of gates with hinges and fastenings value £6., exclusive of the expense of fixing. To case the front breast-summer, and the story- posts of the gateway and side doorway adjoining thereto, all over with inch yellow deal rebated and beaded ; and to put over the gateway and the side-door adjoin- ing thereto a moulded fascia as shown by the drawings. To put to the chaise-house a pair of inch deal, strongly ledged, ploughed, cross-tongued, and beaded gates, hung with hinges and fastenings, value 30s. ex- clusive of the expense of fixing. To put to the front of the stable and chaise-house SPECIFICATIONS. 123 a wrought and rebated door-head of fir 9 inches by 6 inches, and two wrought and rebated posts 9 inches by 4 inches, with cast-iron socket-bases of metal § inch thick, and forming a cube 9 inches by 6 inches and 9 inches high. Closets and pantry. To construct the closets according to the drawings*, with 2 inch deal square-framed inclosures, with § inch deal panels not more than 10 inches wide (except where the drawings show the inclosures to be of quartering), 1^ inch deal four-panel square-framed closet doors with f inch deal panels, hung with 3 inch butt-hinges, and strong 5 inch iron rimmed locks, with strong brass furniture. To put in the pantry and in each of the closets three tiers of inch deal shelves of the several widths shown by the plans, the lower shelves being in some instances of extra width as thereby shown, and the whole being securely fixed upon proper strong bearers; and to put over each of the two kitchen chimneys a shelf of 1£ inch deal 8 inches wide, fixed upon strong- cut brackets. Skirtings. Skirting grounds, &c. French case- ments, &c, &c. To put round the best front-room on the one-pair story moulded skirting 12 inches high according to the drawings. To put round the best front-room on the two-pair story inch plain moulded skirting 9 inches high. To fit up every other part of the dwelling-house (the shop and the basement-story thereof excepted) with inch square skirting 8 inches high. The whole of the skirtings are to be fixed with ploughed grounds and the requisite backings. To provide and fix before the Venetian window, a balconet according to the drawings, with wrought-iron rails and standards, to detail. To fit up the Venetian window of the best room on the one-pair story with fir proper frame 5 inches by 4 inches, with muntins, English oak sunk sill, and 2^ inch lamb's tongue sashes and French casements, hung with 4 inch brass butt-hinges, and with fasten- ings value 7s. 124 SPECIFICATIONS. To put to the window of the principal kitchen and to the window of the scullery 2 inch folding bead- flush and square-framed sashed doors, hung in fir proper door-cases 5 inches by 4 inches, with oak sills 4^ inches by 4 inches, and with 1£ inch bead-flush and square-framed shutters, with wrought-iron do<>-s, sockets, corner-shoes, shutter-lifts, and thumb-screws; and a transom and an 1| inch ovolo sash to be placed over the sashed-doors of the kitchen. Fan-iights, &c To provide six similar sashes or fan-lights of cast- iron according to the drawings, and to fix the same in and over the foiding-doors of the shop-front. To put over all the other external doorways H inch deal fan-lights according to the drawings. other windows. To fit up all the other windows of every kind throughout the building with H inch ovolo yellow deal sashes, double-hung with the best large patent lines, iron weights, iron axle-pulleys, and patent spring fastenings, in deal cased frames, with English oak sunk sills. The upper sash of the pantry is to be filled in with strong copper fly-wire, and the sills of the windows to the water-closet and to the lobby thereof are to project 3 inches, and to be throated. shop front. To construct and fit up the shop-front according to the drawings with inch Honduras mahogany fascia, two cast-iron pateras to pattern, a pair of carved trusses, moulded cornice with enrichments of cast-iron, 1 inch deal moulded pilasters with moulded capitals, 1^ inch deal pedestals, 1| inch plinths and moulded imposts, 1 inch deal linings to the pilasters, story-posts, and breast-summer, turned oak balusters, 2 inch deal stall-boards, 2-| inch deal ornamental sashes, 2 inch deal square -framed one -panel backs behind the balusters and under the stall-boards, and all other requisite fittings, bearers, furrings, linings, dressings, and appurtenances complete. To put to the side-windows and to the three leaves of the door of the shop-front 1£ inch deal moulded and bead-butt shutters according to the drawings, with strong wrought-iron corner-shoes, dogs, and plates, sunk shutter-lifts, and strong wrought-iron, bars with pins, staples, dogs, and all proper fittings and appur- tenances. Folding shutter* Oilier window- fittings. SPECIFICATIONS. (For folding shutters see p. 99). 125 To fit up all the remainder of the windows through- out the dwelling-house and offices with 1£ inch deal tongued linings, finished so as to form double-quirked beads to the stucco. Area-gratings. To provide and fix over each area a cast-iron grating with bars 1^ inch by f inch not more than H inch apart, frames 1^ inch by 1 inch, and with strong flanges let into the paving and brick-work. The frames of flat area-gratings are best made of cast-iron about 3 inches deep and rebated so as to extend all round under the paving. window-guards. To put to the lower two windows adjoining to the principal staircase and to the window of the counting- house guards of wrought-iron with bars 1 inch square not more than 4 inches apart, and with frame-work of iron of the same substance securely fixed to the brick- work. staircase. To construct the principal staircase according to the drawings, with 1 \ inch best clean deal risers, steps, and landings with moulded returned nosings, \\ inch beaded cut and mitred string-boards, lj inch wall- strings, strong bracketed carriages, best large moulded Spanish mahogany hand-rail, strong square bar dove- tailed balusters (each tenth baluster being of wrought- iron), turned and framed newels, and all requisite inch deal apron-linings, and all proper blockings and other fittings complete. To construct the minor staircase with 1£ inch deal treads landings and risers housed into 2 inch string-boards and wall-strings, and deal moulded hand- rail, but in all other respects as described for the principal staircase. To construct the two flights ot oasement-stairs, with 1^ inch rough oak treads housed into 2 inch rough oak strings, and to put at the sides of the stairs strong deal rounded guard-rails with chamfered newels and diagonal braces. To provide and fix a wrought and dove -tailed 126 ('intern (if of lead). ■Water-closets. SPECIFICATIONS. 2 inch deal cistern-case, feet inches long, feet inches wide. feet inches deep, internal dimensions : and to put thereto all requisite bearers and other fittings, and also a f inch deal cover strongty ledged and with saddle-backed fillets and four water-channels to each joint. To fit up the water-closets with inch clean deal seats, risers, and clamped flaps and frames ; to provide all requisite bearers and other fittings ; to attend upon the plumbers while fixing the pipes and apparatus ; and to cut all requisite pipe- holes. Stable fittings, To provide and fix neat inch deal casings for the pipes of the water-closet, with rebated and beaded grounds, butt-hinges, and brass buttons. To put in the back kitchen a dresser with two drawers, three sunk shelves, standards, pot-board and bearers, together in value £4; and to put in the scullery 1^ inch deal clamped dresser-top, hung with strong hinges, rule-joint, and moveable bracket- bearers. To fit up the stable with approved patent stable fittings, fixed complete ; to form in one angle of the stable a step-ladder to ascend to the loft; and to put in the stable-paving a cast-iron strong trapped grating 12 inches square. To provide and fix in such situation as shall be directed a dust-bin with inch yellow deal sliding trap- door and top, with hinges, timber-work, and all proper appurtenances complete. Grates. Ladders. To provide and set to the bed-room, grates, average price £1 „ „ best room „ 4 10 „ ,, kitchen range „ 10 „ „ scullery do. „ 5 To provide a strong step-ladder for ascending from the upper landing of the principal staircase to the side dormer, and to provide a strong oak step- 2o cubic feet of Or extra. Jobbing-work. SPECIFICATIONS. 127 ladder for ascending from thence to the principal roof; and to provide a similar oak step-ladder for ascending from the leaded-flat over the shop to the leaded-flat over the loft, with a strong guard-bar and standards at the side thereof. (See p. 89). (See p. 89). L. P. F. S. and W. Cornice, &c, &c. Stucco. PLASTERER. To lath, plaster, float, set and whiten ceilings and strings to every part of the intended dwelling-house except to the basement-story and to the shop thereof. To run and execute round the drawing-room and round the principal staircase, cornices (here mention the girths of the several cornices, in inches, and also describe the enrichments, if any). To execute in the very best floated and troweled stucco fit for painting, every part of the sides of all the rooms, staircases, closets, and every other part of the interior of the dwelling-house and counting-house (except of the basement-story and shop). The whole of the quarters and furrings are to be lathed. Beads, quirks, and To run and execute all requisite beads, quirks, and arrises ; to perform such dubbing out, and to make out and form such additional thicknesses to the plastering as may be found requisite ; and to counter-lath all such parts of the work as may so require in order to afford a proper key to the work. 128 SPECIFICATIONS. CHAPTER TV. A Specification for erecting and completely finishing fit for occupation a new public-house and dwelling-house of building, at the corners of street and according to the drawings signed with and forming part of the contract for the performance of the work, and under the direction of the architect appointed to superintend the same. BRICKLAYER. Notice, &e , to district-sur- veyor, &c. Digging, &c To give to the district-surveyor or other public officer, and to all other public officers, the requisite notices, and to pay to the whole of them their proper fees and official charges. (See p. 75). To perform all requisite digging of every kind for the foundations, drains, and other works ; to fill in and make good the ground to all the foundations ; to remove and cart away all rubbish, superfluous ground, and useless matters of every kind, arising from the performance of the various works, and finally to leave the whole of the house and premises clear therefrom : the ground is to be wholly taken out to the depth of 11 feet 6 inches beneath the timbers of the floors of the kitchen and back part of the parlour. (See p. 75). To bale out, draw off, or pump away, and remove all water and soil which may come into the foundation from springs, currents, drains, cess-pools, rain, or otherwise ; and to make good all damage from acci- dent or other cause which may occur during the lay- ing of the foundations as well to the works of the intended new building, as also to the neighbouring premises therewith connected. (See p. 75). (See p. 75). Repairs an.t To repair thoroughly, with the requisite new Ewo n rl to ° ia bricks, and make good the old south wall of the base- ment-story, and to rake out the mortar joints there- Water. Concrete. SPECIFICATIONS. 129 frora, and point the whole of the same wall with stone- lime blue coal-ash mortar. Repairs to ad- joining brick- work. To repair thoroughly the brick-work of the kitchen-building-, to cut out for and make good to the two windows intended to be inserted therein, and to repair and make good the kitchen-chimney. To repair in a workman-like manner all damage which may be occasioned to any adjoining buildings by reason of the building and works of the intended new house. General brick- work. Rough arches. Gauged arches CMsaaeys. To execute all brick-work requisite in order to carry into effect the buildings according to the draw- ings, and to render the whole of the house and premises in every respect complete. (See p. 76). To turn rough arches where requisite the back-front are to be fiat-pointed. those of To put to seven of the openings of the west-front gauged arches according to the drawings, cut in a close and accurate manner, and properly set. To properly turn, parget, and core all the flues ; to put to each fire-place a 4 inch brick trimmer, 18 inches longer than the chimney-opening; to carry up the chimney-shafts as shown by the drawings, and to put over each flue a second-sized chimney-pot, set in tiles and Parker's cement. UeuUing, &c. Piers under kitchen-floor, &c To bed in mortar all the plates, lintels, bond- timber, wood-bricks, stone-work, and all other things in or about the buildings which may so require ; and to bed and point with lime and hair mortar all the window-frames and door-frames. To put beneath the sleepers of the kitchen-floor eight brick-piers 1 ft. 6 inches high and 9 inches square. Brick-nogging to the privies. Vavement of ite basement. To brick-nog the partition between the two privies. To repair thoroughly the old pavement of the basement-story, using for that purpose such of the old bricks to be taken down from the present house as may be requisite for that purpose. 130 Drains. Facings. Extra brick- work. Samples. Mi.tfsr. Grouting, &c. SPECIFICATIONS. (Seep. 77). To face externally with the best second malm- stocks, matched of an uniform colour, the whole of the brick-work of the north-front of the house, and all that part of the west-front thereof which lies over the shop-front; all the other brick- work is to be faced externally with hard picked stock- bricks. The north and west parapets are to have pro- jecting fascias of brick-work 18 inches high, according to the drawings. (See p. 78). All the bricks, except the malm facings, are to be new approved hard-burnt square grey stock-bricks, without any admixture of soft-bricks, place-bricks, or other inferior bricks. (See p. 78). The whole of the mortar is to be compounded in the proportion of one-third by measure of the best Dorking stone-lime, and two-thirds by measure of sharp Thames sand properly beaten together. The whole of the brick-work is to be flushed in at every course thereof with mortar, and is to be thoroughly grouted with liquid mortar at every alternate course, great care being taken in order that the outer faces of the work shall not be stained. Mode of doing [lie work. Reparation «f accidents. tut. No four courses of brick-work are to rise more than one inch, exclusive of the height of the bricks ; all the external walls above ground are to be scrupul- ously carried up in Flemish bond, throughout their whole thickness, with all the heading bricks carried through both withinside and withoutside, in order to prevent excuse for the bad union of two different kinds of bond ; all the other brick-work is to be laid in manner of English bond ; all the joints of the work are to be neatly struck, and those on the outside there- of are to be drawn. (See p. 78). All the walls are to be built level, except where otherwise directed ; and should any damage occur to SPECIFICATIONS. 131 the work by accident, settlement, or otherwise, during the time of the building, or during twelve calendar months thence after, the contractor is to make the same good as shall be by the architect directed. Tile cresting, Jobbing-work. The whole of the walls which are not intended to have stone coping thereon, are to be finished with double plain-tile cresting and brick-on-edge, both set in and jointed with cement and Thames sand, mixed together in equal measures. (See p. 79). MASON. 8 pieces of granite To bed in the brick- work of the basement-story yiniers'. 10 "' eight pieces of granite street-curb, each 3 feet long, to receive the ends of the cast-iron girders of the ground-flooring. C.ranire base to sliop-l'routs. To provide and bed all along the two shop-fronts, and the circular corner connecting the same, a con- tinuous base formed of new parallel square Aberdeen granite curb, 12 inches by 8 inches, dressed fair all round where in sight, and at the joints thereof, and plugged with lead : the granite base is to be continued so as to form a step to the side entrance doorway. Six winriow- architraves. String-course. Window-sills. Coping. To provide and fix the six window-architraves, according to the drawings, of the best Portland stone, in as few pieces as possible, plugged and cramped with copper, and fixed with sufficient bond-stones. To provide and fix beneath the windows of the two-pair story a weathered and throated string-course of the best Portland stone 6 inches high, 8 inches bed to the part forming the window-sills, and 6 inches bed to the other parts. To put to all the remainder of the windows York- shire stone weathered and throated solid quarry sills, 8£ inches by 4^ inches. To cover the parapets of the nortli and west fronts of the house with the best Portland stone coping ■1 inches thick, moulded in front, chased out to receive the flashing, and with the joints plugged with lead. 132 SPECIFICATIONS. chimney-ptoceB, To put to all the fire-places 2\ inch Yorkshire ttone hearths, 1^ inch Portland stone slahs 18 inches wide, and \\ inch Portland stone jambs, mantles, and shelves, each 6 inches wide. sink. To put in the scullery a sink of Yorkshire stone 7 inches thick, as shown by the plan, and cut out for the waste-pipe and grating. (See p. 81). ravin-. To pave the yard and the scullery with new York- shire stone, not less than '2\ inches thick, worked quite fair on the edges through the whole thickness thereof, and laid in regular courses. To put in the pavings of the yard a five-hole sink-stone. Public paving. To make good all the public paving (damaged or affected by the execution of the works) to the satis- faction of the surveyor to the Local Board, or defray to them the expense thereof as they may require. SLATER. To slate the roof of the principal building with the best countess slates fixed with zinc nails, and with cut heading-courses with bond as to the other parts of the work. To repair in a satisfactory manner all damage which may occur to the work, and finally leave the same perfect at the rendering up of the whole build- ing as complete. CARPENTER AND JOINER. Materials, s& To provide materials for, and frame and fix all carpenter's work and joiner's work of every kind (com- plete with ironmongery of the best quality) which may be requisite for carrying into effect and for finishing in every respect the house, buildings, and premises, according to the design, and in order to render the same complete and perfect. Timber ana All the oak timber is to be of English growth ; all the other timber is to be either Dantzic, Riga, or Memel yellow fir; all the floors and joiner's work, and other wood-work, are to be of the best yellow Christiana SPECIFICATIONS. 133 deal, except where herein otherwise directed ; all the timbers and deal are to be cut out square, and per- fectly free from the least sap-wood in any part thereof, and from shakes, large knots, and all other defects : none of the joists, rafters, ceiling-joists, or quarters, are to be respectively more than 12 inches apart. To erect and maintain sufficient hoarding for in- closing the ground while the building is being carried on, and to remove the same when so directed. Wood-bricks. Centi ring. Slioriiifc'. To put in the brick-work such wood-bricks as may be requisite for fixing the various finishings. To provide, fix, ease, and finally remove when so directed, centering sufficient for all the openings, gauged and rough arches, and trimmers. To fix all the smith's work so far as connected with the carpenter's work. (See p. 82). To provide and fix all requisite templets, lintels blocks, stops, linings, casings, fillets, til ting-fillets, beads, grounds, furrings, cappings, and other usual and appropriate fittings and finishings, proper and neces- sary for the carpenter's work and joiner's work ; and to perform to the wood-work all needful grooving, beading, rebating, tonguing, framing, mitring, housing, and other proper work and labour. To shore up the ground all round the new build- ing in a secure manner ; and to provide, fix, maintain, and finally remove all shoring which may be requisite to the adjoining buildings, with the exception of the shoring requisite to the next house in consequence of the building of the new party-wall ; the expense of which shoring is to fall upon the proprietor of the said next house. Floor of ground storv Joists (laid on the iron girders) ... Trimmers and trimming-joists 2 sleepers of oak to the kitchen ... 2 cross plates under the parlour ... 1£ inch yellow deal folding-floor of half boards, listed free from sap-wood, and rebated and fitted on the under side thereof. Ins. Ids. 6 by 21 3 3 2! 134 SPECIFICATIONS. 2 steps to be formed in the passage leading to the yard, and the back outer duur to have 1£ inch oak tread. To cover over the cellar-entrance with 1} inch oak, strongly ledged with oak, in a rebated oak frame 4 inches by 5 inches, with wrought-iron dogs and all other proper ironmongery. Ins. Ins. otner floors. Wall-plates ... ... ... ... ... 4 by 3 Joists 10 " 2 Trimmers and trimming-joists ... ... 10 1\ Each floor with one tier of herring-bone struts down the middle thereof. Inch white deal folding-floor of half-boards listed, free from sap-woodi i iai over ground Wall-plate ... ... ... ... ... 4 2^ Btory, &c. Joists 4 2 Inch yellow deal boarding for lead upon proper furrings. Breast-summer to receive the ends of the joists and the back front, in two thick- nesses, bolted together with axiom fletch in the centre 1 story-post under ditto Inch deal tongued and beaded casing to breast-summer. Roof over attic Curb-rafters story. Circular framed plate to the curb rafters at the feet of the circular corner of the roof Curb-plate ... Upper rafters Ridge and one hip (rounded for lead) Angle-ties (each 5 feet long) Hinders Ceiling-joists (spiked beneath the binders) Dormer with inch ledged tongued and beaded trap-door and outer trap-door and fittings complete, and with a step- ladder to lead out therefrom. 2 inch sky-light 6 feet long and 5 feet wide, with inch linings and all proper fittings complete. Inch yellow deal gutter next the party-wall 2 6 9 H 5 H 5 3 5 4 4 2 1 4 9 s.V 3 n H shop-fronts, 8k SPECIFICATIONS. 8 inches wide at the lower end, with current H inch to 10 feet, 2\ inch drips, and f inch deal lear-board 8 inches wide, f inch yellow deal slate- battens 2 inches wide. Breast-summers, Breast-summers framed and bolted together in two thicknesses, as described for ground floor ... 2-end story-posts Inch deal tongued and beaded casings to breast-summer story-posts and iron columns. 1 £ inch keyed frieze to show 2 feet wide. Cornice with composition enriched ovolo and bead (or of cast-iron). \\ inch plain pilasters with moulded capitals. Framing between the pilasters according to the drawings, with f inch panels with plain mitred margins Z\ inches wide, 1£ inch bottom rails 8^ inches wide, H iuch double-faced top-rails 6^ inches wide, with large grooved and moulded capping, \\ inch styles and muntins 6 inches wide, with small capitals mitred round the tops thereof to form pilasters. \\ inch three-panel bead-flush outside shut- ters, hung with large patent lines, brass axle-pulleys, iron weights, and screw- fastenings, complete in proper deal cased-frames. H inch three-panel square framed internal window-backs. 2 inch lamb's-tongue sashes hung in frames complete, the same as the shutters. 135 Ins. Ins. 12 by 6 9 4* To fit up all the other windows of the premises with deal cased-frames with oak sunk sills and 1^ inch ovolo sashes, double hung with iron pulleys and weights, large patent lines, and patent spring fasten- ings ; the three windows of the ground story are to have 1£ inch bead-flush and square outside shutters, hung complete with Redmund's rising and falling hinges, and two strong bolts to each window. 13^ SPFX'IFICATIONS. ed-partl- Framed parti- tions. Skirtings. Dwarf wainscot- ting. External iloors. To put to the two dormer-windows 1 £• inch pilas- ters, and entabulatures and mouldings, and other dress- ings, as shown by the drawings. Ins. Ins. To provide and fix the quartered partitions as shown by the drawings, with Plates and posts ... ... ... ... 4 by 3 Quarters ... ... ... ... ... 4 2 Braces ... ... ... ... ... ... 3 3 One tier of inter-ties to each story ... ... 3 1 To divide off and inclose the rooms, passages, and other parts of the premises, as shown by the drawings, with 2 inch square framed deal partitions, with f inch deal panels ; the partitions of the parlour to be framed flush on the inside to receive canvas and paper- hanging. To skirt the whole of the premises with plain f inch deal 6 inches high, plugged to the walls. To put round the brick-work of the parlour, and round the brick-work of the tap-room, If inch square framed wainseotting, 4 feet high, with beaded capping and proper backings. To put to the three outer door-ways of the house 2 inch lamb's-tongue sashed-doors, hung in fir proper frames, 4 inches by 4 inches, the posts thereof let at bottom into the stone-steps, and with a socket of 4lbs. milled-lead to the foot of each post, and with inch tongued and beaded linings round each doorway : each door is to have also an inch bead-flush one-panel shutter, with wrought-iron dogs and corner-shoes and screw- fastenings complete. The doors at the corner of the house are to be circular on the plan, to be moulded, and to be hung folding with Smith's patent spi'ing hinges, — hinges and other ironmongery of 20s. value in addition thereto. Each of the other doors is to be hung with a pair of Smith's patent spring hinges, a strong 8 inch iron l immed lock, and two 9 inch barrel bolts. The side entrance is to have 1 1 inch circular fan-light with transome complete. SPECIFICATIONS. 137 To put to every other part of the premises 1^ inch square framed four-panel doors, hung with 3 inch butt hinges and 7 inch mortise locks ; two of the doors on the one-pair-story and two of the doors on the two- pair-story are to be sashed, in order to throw light on the staircase. Door ana window To put to the doors and windows the requisite lining, &c. inch deal, tongued, beaded, and double-quirked linings, and to put round the doors beaded and mitred stops and ogee mouldings. staircase. To construct the staircase from the ground-story upwards, according to the drawings, with 1£ inch clean deal treads, risers, and landings, housed into 2 inch string-boards, strong turned and framed newels, deal moulded hand-rail, turned balusters, and all requisite linings and fittings complete. To construct the staircase from the ground-story to the basement-story with 1^ inch rough oak treads and strings framed together, and with a fir rail and a newel 3^ inches by 3^ inches. The head of the base- ment stairs is to be inclosed by a framed partition and a door, both the same as to the rooms. Privies. To fit up the insides of the privies with 1£ inch clean deal seats and risers on proper bearers, and inch deal clamped flaps and frames, the flaps hung with 2 inch brass butt-hinges. closet shelves. To provide and fix in the closets 50 feet superficial of inch deal shelves on proper bearers. £40 other fittings. To put in the other parts of the premises such other fittings, to the value of £40, as may be by the architect directed. Extra flr timbar. (See p. 89). Jobbing-work. (See p. 89). SMITH. giraer 8 M '° n To provide and fix at the ground-floor four rolled- iron girders, each equal in weight to a solid scantling of cast-iron 8 inches by 21 inches. 138 SPECIFICATIONS. S i ast Iron columns. Chimney -bare. 224!bs. wrnimht- iron lies, &c. To provide and fix five cast-iron columns to support the breast-summers, each 4 inches diameter at bottom and 3i inches diameter at top, and with proper capi- tals, and also plates at top and bottom, each 12 inches square and 1^ inch thick. To put to each of the fire-places a wrought-iron chimney-bar 2^ inches by ^ inch properly corked at the ends thereof. £ s. d. To furnish and set to the bed-rooms, grates average price, each ... ... ...1 Best rooms ... ... ... ... ...4 Kitchen range ... ... ... ... 7 10 To provide and fix 2241bs. weight of such ties, bars, bolts, and other wrought-iron work as may be requisite for the building ; and if more or less than 2241bs. are required then a deduction or extra is to be allowed by the contractor ; and he is to state in his tender the price per lb. for such iron-work. PLASTERER. r . p. s. To lath with heart of fir laths, and plaster and set the curb-rafters and the whole of the ceilings, strings, and quartered-partitions above the basement-story. Bender and set. To render and set the whole of the internal brick- work above the basement-story throughout the whole premises. Colouring ami whiting. Cornices. e;u millcd-lead gutter. To whiten the whole of the ceilings and strings, and to colour the whole of the plastered sides of the premises, the plastering of the parlour excepted. (See p. 127). PLUMP. KR. To lay the gutter next the party- wall with 61b. milled-lead turned up 5 inches high against the brick- work and 9 inches wide against the rafters. 61h. milled-lead to flat. To lay the small flat over the ground-story of the principal part of the house with 61b. milled-lead with a roll down the centre, a gutter sunk 6 inches deep at one end, and the lead turned up 5 inches high all round the fiat. SPECIFICATIONS. 139 51b. milled-lead to shop-fronts. 41h. milled-lead flashings. To cover the entablatures of the shop-fronts with 51b. milled-lead turned up 4^ inches high against the brick- work. To put to the gutters, to the flat, and to the' shop-fronts, flashings of 4ib. milled-lead 5 inches wide. UK miiied-ieaa To cover the ridge and the hip of the roof with' Bnd'tos^-ifc'nt 41d - milled-lead 16 inches wide, properly dressed and secured. To put to the sky-light over the staircase 41b. milled-lead flashing's 15 inches wide. 511). milled-lead to dormers. To cover the heads of the two dormer-windows and the top-sides and foot of the dormer-way out from the roof, with 51b. milled-lead, turned and dressed 6 inches at the least over the slating. 5lb. milkd-lcal to curb roof. To put beneath the bottom of the slating of the curb-rafters a flashing of 51b. milled-lead 9 inches wide burnt into the stone coping. (By this construction the principal evils of curb-roofs were avoided ; the curb-rafters were made to pitch upon the wall-plate instead of casting the weight of the roof some way in upon the flooring, as is usual, and from which cause many houses are much injured ; by this mode the usual narrow and dangerous guttering at the feet of the curb-rafters is altogether omitted). Iiain-watcr- piues. To put at the south-east angle of the house, a stack of 4 inch cast-iron rain-water-pipe, to lead from the lead-gutter at the top of the party-wall down to the gutter of the small leaded-flat, and from thence to the drain ; and to put from the roof over the kitchen a 3 inch cast-iron rain-water-pipe ; the whole of the rain-water-pipes are to be fixed with heads and shoes complete. Eaves' gutter. To put to the eaves of the roof above the curb- rafters 4 inch cast-iron guttering, fixed on strong wrought-iron brackets complete; the circular corner of the guttering is to be of copper. Wnste-pipe to sink. To put to the sink in the scullery a 2 inch strong lead waste-pipe with a brass grating ; the 140 SPECIFICATIONS. end of the pipe is to be carried through the wall (See p. 81). w.c.'s, cisterns, (See pp. 105 and 106). and hot and cold ^ rr ' Wuter service. PAINTER. To knot, stop, prepare properly, and paint four times with the best oil-colour the whole of the wood- work, iron-work, and other works of the whole premises which usually are painted a plain tint to choice. GLAZIER. To glaze with good ground glass the four sashed doors next the staircase, and to glaze with good second Newcastle crown glass the whole of the remainder of the sashes and lights of every kind above the ground- floor and other windows, except the ground-floor fronts. The whole of the glass is to be properly bedded, bradded, and back-puttied, and is to be cleaned and left perfect at the final rendering up of the premises as complete. To glaze the windows of the ground-floor front with British plate glass of the best quality, properly bedded ; and the size of the squares to be as shown on the elevations. SPECIFICATIONS. 141 CHAPTER V. Form of specification to be inserted in an agreement for the purchasing of, or for taking upon lease, a house not yet finished, according to which specification the house is to be finished by the builder prior to the execution of the lease or conveyance. Particulars for finishing a house and premises situate on the ivest side of the Road from , the carcass of which house is already erected, being the most southern of three houses which are now being constructed by Mr. , at the southern extremity of a piece of ground which he holds of . ROOFS. To take off the present covering of the roofs, to lay all the gutters of the premises with inch yellow deal gutter-boards and 61b. milled-lead, as the case may be, with current 1^ inch to every 10 feet run, and with 2\ inch rebated drips ; to batten all the roofs with f inch yellow deal, and to slate the whole of the roofs with the best countess slates nailed with copper nails, pointed on the inside with stone lime-mortar with hair therein, and filleted with cement, cast-iron nails being first driven into the brick-work to secure the filleting. attic story. To lay the floors with inch white deal (or yellow deal, as the case may be) clear of sap-wood ; to fit up the windows with 1^ inch yellow deal ovolo sashes glazed with second Newcastle crown glass, and double hung with large patent lines, iron weights, iron pulleys, and spring fastenings, in deal cased-frames with English oak sunk sills ; to put round the windows | inch tongued and beaded and quirked linings ; to fit up the doorways with 1^ inch yellow deal square- framed four-panel doors hung in 1^ inch beaded and single rebated linings ; to skirt the whole of the story with | inch yellow deal, 6 inches high, plugged to the walls; to put ceiling-joists 3 inches by 2 inches spiked in one length beneath the binders of the roof. To 142 SPECIFICATIONS. lath, plaster, float, and set the ceilings and quartorod- partitions of the whole of the story ; to render, float, and set all the brick-work, to whiten the ceiling, to colour the sides of the back-room and of the closets, and to hang the walls of the front-room and of the closet thereto attached with paper cut close, value — d. per piece. TWO-PAIR STORY. To lay the floors with inch white deal (or yellow deal, as the case may be) clear of sap-wood ; to fit up all the windows with deal cased-frames with English oak sunk sills, and 2 inch yellow deal ovolo sashes glazed with second Newcastle crown glass, and double hung with the best large patent lines and iron weights and iron (or brass, as the case may be) axle-pulleys, and inch square-framed window-backs, and f inch yellow deal window-linings ; to provide and hang 1^ inch yellow deal four-panel moulded and square-framed doors with 1^ inch yellow deal double-rebated linings; to put inch yellow deal grounds, and also moulded architraves,"round the windows, and on both sides of each door; to put to each room a Portland stone chimney-piece, with a slab of 2 inch Portland stone, wood (or stone, as the case may be) mantle-shelf and dressings, and a rubbed Yorkshire stone hearth ; to put two closets in the front room with 1£ inch square- framed (or moulded, as the case may be) fronts and doors with mouldings round the doors to correspond with the architraves, and with three shelves in each closet ; to skirt the rooms and the closets with f inch yellow deal 8 inches high, fixed with proper ploughed grounds ; to lath, plaster, float, set, and whiten the ceilings ; to run a plain cornice 8 inches girth round each room ; to lath the partitions and to plaster, float, set, and hang with paper of the value of — d. per piece and border — d. per piece, all the sides of the rooms and closets. ONE-PAIR STORY. To lay the whole of the story with inch (or \\ inch, as the case may be) yellow deal floor clear of sap-wood ; to fit up the windows with deal cased-frames, with English oak sunk sills, and 2 inch yellow deal ovolo sashes glazed with the best Newcastle glass, and double hung with large patent lines, brass axle-pulleys, SPECIFICATIONS. 1 43 and iron weights, ]£ inch moulded window-backs, elbows, and soffits, 1 inch bead-butt back-linings, and 1£ inch moulded and square-framed shutters and back-flaps, hung with strong hinges, brass furniture, and strong spring shutter-bars complete, in 1J inch proper boxings, with mouldings to correspond with the door-architraves ; to provide and hang 2 inch yellow deal four-panel moulded doors with the best mortise- locks with brass furniture, in 1£ inch yellow deal double-rebated linings, with grounds and architraves on each side complete, as described to the two-pair story; to put round both rooms moulded skirtings 1 foot high, ploughed grounds and backings complete; to put a closet in the back-room the same as described for the two-pair story, moulded to correspond with the other joiner's work of this story; to put 1\ inch rubbed Yorkshire stone hearths, a good chimney-piece in the front-room value £5, exclusive of the carriage and fixing, and a 2 inch Portland stone slab and a good Portland stone boxed chimney-piece in the back- room; to lath, plaster, float, set, and whiten the ceilings ; to put a cornice round each room 15 inches girth, with enriched soffit and bed moulding ; to lath the partitions, and to plaster, float, set, under-line with strong cartridge-paper and hang with figured paper value — d. per piece, and border value — d. per piece all the sides of the rooms and of the closets. GROUND STORY. To fit up the sides of the fire-places with four dwarf closets, with 1£ inch moulded fronts and doors, inch Spanish mahogany moulded tops with mahogany skirtings over the same, and to put one shelf in each closet ; to form folding-doors between the two rooms, to correspond in finishing with the other doors ; to put in the rooms two good chimney-pieces, with Yorkshire stone hearths and Portland stone slabs, value altogether to the two chimneys £12, exclusive of the carriage and fixing ; to put to the back parlour 2 inch yellow deal moulded French casements, hung in fir proper door-cases, with English oak sunk sills ; and in other respects to fit up both rooms as described for the one- pair-story. KITCHEN. To put at the sides of the fire-place two closeta 144 SPECIFICATIONS. with three shelves in each thereof ; lay across the side of the room upon which the fire-place is placed a 4 feet wide 2 inch rubbed York paving, set in mortar upon dwarf brick walls ; to lay the other portion of floor with 1£ inch yellow deal, listed, free from sap- wood, on fir joists, English oak sleepers and brick piers, with the ground excavated full 6 inches below the sleepers ; to put square skirting G inches wide of ce- ment, to fit up the window with 1^ inch ovolo sashes glazed with second Newcastle glass complete, and double-hung with large patent lines, iron weights, and iron pulleys, in deal-cased frames with English oak sunk sills; to put 1^ in. bead-butt and square-framed shutters, to fold back against the wall, hung with strong hinges, bar, and bolts complete ; to put 1 £ inch yellow deal four- panel moulded and square-framed door, with lock and hinges, and 1£ inch linings with mouldings round the same; to put a 2 inch Portland stone chimney-piece, and a 2 inch Portland stone slab, wood mantle-shelf and dressings, and 2\ inch Yorkshire stone hearths ; to lay on the water with § inch strong lead pipe; to provide and fix a cistern to contain 100 gallons, with a case of 1^ inch yellow deal, and line the bottom thereof with 71b. cast- lead, and the sides thereof with 51b. milled-lead (or as the case may be, a cistern of strong slate secured together by sufficient copper bolts), to put over the cistern a cover of f inch yellow deal ; and to put a Yorkshire stone-sink with strong 2 inch waste pipe and brass bell- trapped grate thereto complete; to provide and fix a good dresser with 2 inch clean deal top, inch yellow deal pot-board, and with drawers, shelves, and cut-standards complete; to lath where requisite, plaster, set, and whiten the ceiling, and plaster, set, and colour the sides of the kitchen, and of the closets attached thereto. CELLARS. To repair and make good all the vaulting with the requisite new sound stock-bricks, and to point the brickwork where requisite ; to inclose the cellars with new brick-work and inch yellow deal cross-tongued and lodged doors, in fir proper door-cases, 4 inches by 5 inches, with strong hinges and stock-locks ; to pave all the cellars with hard stock-bricks laid flat in mortar, and grouted between the joints with liquid mortar ; and to fit up the coal-cellar door with 1£ inch yellow deal sliding coal-boards 4 feet high. SPECIFICATIONS. 145 WATER-CLOSET. To fit up the water-closet with apparatus cistern- pipes, Honduras mahogany seat riser and flap, door, skirting floor, plastering, and paper-hanging complete. (See pp. 105 and 106). STAIR-CASE AND PASSAGE. To put inch clean yellow deal steps, risers, and landings, with return moulded nosings, 1£ inch yellow deal, sunk, moulded, cut and mitred string-boards, strong square bar-balusters, each tenth baluster being of wrought-iron, turned and framed newels, moulded hand-rail of Spanish mahogany up two stories, and of deal to all the remainder of the stair-case, curtail-step and scroll at the ground-story, windows the same as to the two-pair story, f inch yellow deal torus-skirting with grounds complete, plaster-moulded block-cornice, arch and two enriched plaster-trusses in the passage ; to lath where requisite, plaster, float, set and whiten the ceilings and strings ; and to plaster, float, set and hang with figured paper, value 6cZ. per yard, cut close, all the sides of the stair-case and passage from the basement-story upwards (or stucco and paint four times, as the case may be). OUT3TDE. To make perfect all the brick-work ; to cut out and make good in a secure, neat, and workmanlike manner, with new sound bricks and new quick cement to all the settlements over the front entrance and ; to inclose the fore-court as to the adjoin- ing house with iron rails, gate, and Portland stone curb ; and to provide and lay two courses of 2\ inch Yorkshire paving outside the railing : to put a Port- land stone solid step to the principal front door-way, and 2\ inch Yorkshire stone paving 4 feet wide from the outer gate up to tiie principal front door-way ; to put solid Portland stone steps from the back parlour window to the garden. To raise the south garden wall 2 feet higher with new grey stock brick-work set in stone-lime mortar ; to inclose the east end of the intended garden with a wall to correspond with the south garden-wall when L 146 SPECIFICATIONS. raised ; to rake out, point with stone-lime mortar, and make complete all the present walling round the in- tended garden ; and to finish all the garden walls with brick-on-edge, and double plain tile cresting, both set in and jointed with good quick cement aud Thames sand, mixed together in equal measures. Water service. (S ee pp. 105 and 106). GENERALLY. To make perfect the whole of the carcass, pro- viding for that purpose all requisite new Baltic yellow fir timber, all requisite new brick-work, and all other requisite materials ; to complete the cellar with all fittings requisite thereto ; and to finish the whole of the house and premises with all labour, materials, iron- mongery, and joiner's work, and other works whatso- ever which may be necessary for rendering the whole of the house and premises complete, though not par- ticularized in this specification ; to paint four times with the best oil-colour, as may be directed, the whole of the internal and external works usually painted, and to flat extra in three tints to match the paper all the joiner's work of the ground-story and one-pair-story ; to make all requisite cess-pools, drains, and water- courses ; and to leave the whole of the house and premises fit for occupation, with all the locks, keys, hinges, brass-work, appurtenances, fittings, and fixtures, in every respect complete, and to the satisfaction of such architect as may be appointed by the (lessee) to superintend the same. SPECIFICATIONS. 147 CHAPTER VI. Specification for the erection of an additional story, for other additions, and for alterations and repairs to the house and -premises No. for , from the designs, and under the superintendence of , of , architect. BRICKLAYER. Notice, ftc, to To give to the district-surveyor, and to all the veyor C &c" r " other public officers concerned in the execution of the intended works, the requisite notices, to obtain all requisite licences, and to pay to the district-surveyor and to the other public officers their proper fees and charges. Taking down, To take down the parapets and as much of the other brick-work of the house and premises as may be unsound, or which will of necessity require removal, in order to carry into effect the intended alterations and additions to the house and premises. ni?ging, cartage, To remove from the basement-story all the sub- divisions thereof, and to remove from all round the four walls the ground and brick-work and other materials and things at present lessening the dimen- sions of the cellarage. (This cellarage had extended only partially under the site of the house.) To excavate the basement-story, with the new vaults and areas intended to be thereto attached, so that the story may be 8 feet deep below the upper surface of the ground flooring ; and to dig out for the foundations of the intended new brick-work, and as may be otherwise found necessary. The ground is to be removed to full 18 inches below the paving and boarded floor of the ground- story of the back buildings. To beat down and consolidate the ground under all the footings ; to fill in again and consolidate the ground to the brick-work, and as may be otherwise found necessary to the house, buildings, and premises. 148 Indents, &c. T T iit1er-piiiiiing- f &c. Mnking good, &«.,