Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/544

484 BUILDING [CARPENTRY. of one of which we avail ourselves, from a house at Rheims of the 15th century (fig. 37). He gives an example also of JOIST FIG. 37. Mediaeval Flooring. a floor formed of a girder into which joists are laid formed of square timbers cut in half through the diagonal. These are fixed close together like a succession of v s, thus vvvvv, and boarded over. The top of the angle space formed by two joists is filled up with a small angle fillet presenting a flat surface. The whole effect is unique. In mediaeval carpenters work it was always the rule only to mould the useful members, and so it was also as regards the carving. Most of the old wood carving is so contrived as to be wrought out of the same plank or thickues? as that which is moulded, or else is a separate piece of wood, in a spandril for instance, enclosed within the constructional members. In joining their work, which was of oak, they trusted entirely to tenoning and pinning with stout oak pins. Pillars. Although cast-iron columns and stanchions have for some years been preferred to timber posts as supports to girders of warehouse floors, lately the latter have again come into use from their known greater resistance to fire, whereas cast-iron soon succumbs to the great heat and the effects of water upon it. Such posts are usually made of fir or of oak, the dimensions of which vary according to their compound of crushing force and stiffness which is as 25 to 40. The caps to them should be long, so that they may not press into the girders, and if practicable, iron dowels should pass through the girders to catch the bases of the posts in the floor above. Partitions. Partitions of timber are called quartering partitions, and they are generally framed. Common quartering partitions, which rest on a wall or floor, and have nothing to carry, consist merely of a sill, a head, and common up rights called studs to receive the lath for plastering ; these last may be simply joggled or tenoned into the head and sill, as shown in Plate XXIV. fig. 4, c, and stiffened by struts or stretching pieces put between them and nailed. When, however, a quartering partition is over a vacuity, or rests only on certain points, and has, moreover, to sustain a weight, a floor perchance, it is framed and trussed with king or queen posts and trussing pieces as to the tie-beam of a roof, and is thence called a trussed partition ; and the filling in of common uprights or quarters for the laths is generally performed by joggling them at one end into either head or sill, and nailing them securely to the trussing pieces. In the diagram, Plate XXV. fig. 5, it is supposed that an opening or doorway is to be made in the partition, so that the timbers of the truss are placed around it with queen- posts, and a small internal truss is put over the door-head to prevent it from sagging, and to carry the long part of the partition, which we supposed required to bear a floor, so that the partition acts also, in fact, the part of a trussed girder in the most available form. Fig. G presents another method of framing a similar partition. Such partitions should be set up in every story before the beams and joists of the floors are laid, that their horizontal timbers may be notched on to the wall-plates, and that the joists or binders may be notched on to them if occasion require it ; but they should be fixed rather below than above the level of the wall-plates, because they are not liable to settle down so much as the walls, though even that will depend in a great degree on the nature of the walling, and its liability to yield. As the whole weight on partitions is supported by the principal posts, their scantlings must be first con sidered, which should be done in two different ways : first, when the studs are to be filled in with brickwork and rendered thereon, when they are called brick-nog partitions ; or secondly, when they are to be lathed and plastered on both sides, or to be wainscoted. Thin partitions of wood only are called framed partitions and are considered in the portion relating to the joiner. Roofing is another very important branch of the art of Pioofmg. carpentry. The most simple form is a shed-roof or lean- to, which is merely obtained by pieces of wood being laid across in the position of an inclined plane to throw off the water. Rectangular buildings are usually covered by a roof in the form of a prism, the vertical section of which is an isosceles triangle. The height of this, or as it is technically called, the pitch of a roof, has varied in different ages, to suit the exigencies of the climate or the taste of the designer. A few examples showing the insertion of the foot of a principal rafter into a tie-beam, the struts into a post, and the heads of struts, are given in Plate XXIII. To relate all the specialities which the carpenter may Special! have to do in some particular buildings, as a church, for of carp instance, would far exceed our limits. The mode of r>> executing such things would be the same as already de scribed, the style only making a difference in the result. Pewing or benching the pulpit and reading-desk, stalls, screenwork, font cover, gallery front, &c. all depend on the architect s designs. Again, shop fronts are now almost a speciality, together with shop-fittings ; and among the minor things in a house are the cupboards, closets, bath, cisterns, kitchen-dresser, plate-rack, dust-bin when not of wholly of brick, also stable fittings if the improved iron fittings be not used, Centering for arches and for bridges, wharf-walls, spires, turrets, belfries, church bell hangings, gables, are all embraced in carpenter s work, as v;ell as timber houses, the manner of framing which, and the names of the different timbers, will be found described in Le Muet s work (1747) and others of that period, and illus trated in many valuable publications, by Nash, Richardson, Habershon, Clayton, Viollet de Due, Parker, Dollman, and others ; and not least of such works in timber are the barn, porches, lych gates, palings, with chests and presses, and tables and chairs formerly. Pugging floors, firring down joists, bracketing and cradling for plastering, and some other things, are operations per formed indifferently by the carpenter or the joiner, as less or greater precision is required in the performance. See Moxon, Mcchanick Exercises, 4to., 1679 ; Godfrey Richards, Translation of the First Book of A. Palladia, 8vo, 1676 ; Smith, Carpenter s Companion, 8vo, 1 735 ; Price, British Carpenter, 4to, 1733-35 ; Batty Langley, Builder s Complete Assistant, 8vo, 1738, and his Builder s and Workman s Treasury of Designs, 4to, 1740; Swan, Carpenter s Complete Instructor, 4to, 1759 and 1768 ; Pain, British Palladia, fol., 1786 and 1804, and his Practical House Carpenter, 4to, 1774; Nicholson, Carpenter s New Guide, 4to, 1792, his Builder s New Director, 4to, 1824, and his Architec tural Dictionary, 4to, 1835 ; Tredgold, Principles of Carpentry, edit, by Barlow, 4to, 1853; Weale, Carpentry, 4to, 1849; New- land, Carpenter s Assistant, &c., fol., 1860 ; Laxton, Examples of Building Construction, large fol., 1855-58 ; Tarbuck, Encyclopedia

of Practical Carpentry and Joinery, &c., 4to, 1857-59; A. W.