Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/558

This page needs to be proofread.
ABC—XYZ

496 BUILDING [JOINERY. Linings from 4 to G inches in width, and from three- fourths of an inch to an inch in thickness, are nailed on to the edges of the pulley pieces, and to the sill and head above and below, inside and outside, in the direction of the breadth of the sash frame, and are returned along the head in the direction of its length. The outside linings are made to extend within the pulley pieces about half an inch, to form a stop for the upper and outer sash; and the inside linings are made exactly flush with their inner faces. The casing is completed by fixing thin linings on the outer edges of the outside and inside linings, parallel to the pulley pieces, to prevent anything from impeding the weights. Thin slips called parting-beads are fitted tightly into the grooves previously noticed in the pulley pieces, but they are not fixed, as the upper sash can be put in or taken out only by the temporary removal of the parting-bead. An inner or stop bead is mitred round on the inside to complete the groove or channel for the lower sash ; the stop bead covers the edge of the inside linings on the sides and head, and is fixed by means of screws, which may be removed without violence when it is required to put in or take out the sashes. A hole covered with a movable piece large enough to allow the lead or iron weight to pass in and out, is made in each of the pulley pieces, so that the sashes may be hung after the frames are set, and to repair any accident that may occur to the hangings in after use (Plate XXVI. fig. 4). It may be remarked that sash frames require greater truth and precision from the workman than anything else in the joiners work of a building ; and unless the stuff employed be quite sound and perfectly seasoned all the workman s care will be thrown away. Fitting of Sashes, it may be remarked, are never fitted until these sashes. frames are immovably fixed, so that if there be any inaccuracy in the latter, the sashes are cut away or pieced out to make them fit ; but, as they are intended to traverse, the fitting in that case can only apply to one particular position, and in every one but that there must be something wrong. Any incorrectness in the sash-frame, again, must throw the shutters and their back flaps out; indeed, the sash-frame, though apparently a secondary part of the arrangement, is that which affui Is all the rest beyond anything else. When gashes have been fitted, a plough groove, wide and deep enough to receive the sash-line, is made in the outer edges of the styles, for about two-thirds of their length, at their upper ends. They are then primed and glazed, and when the putty is sufficiently set the joiner hangs them. He is furnished with sash-line, which is made of the best flax well plaited together, tacks, and iron or lead weights, which are generally made cylindrical, with a ring at one end, to which the line may be attached. A sash is weighed, and two weights are selected which together amount to within a few ounces of a counterpoise. The line is then passed through the pulley, which was previously fixed in the pulley style ; the end is knotted to a weight which is passed in at the hole left for the purpose ; and at a sufficient distance, which a common degree of intelligence will readily deter mine, the line is cut off and the end tacked into the groove in the style of the sash. Other modes of attaching the sash-line to the sash are also used. Of recent inventions connected with windows there are some for enabling the parting-beads to be taken out, or are dispensed with, so that sashes may be readily cleaned without the operator standing on the sill, a dangerous practice, and without the use of the glazier s horse, which tends to injure the inside painting. A contrivance for easily opening and closing sashes of large size by an arrange ment of cords and pulleys, which likewise secure it when shut, is patented by Mr Meakin. Another, having counterbalancing rack slips for hanging sashes, dispenses with the use of sash lines, pulleys, and sash weights. An objection to this invention may be that both upper and lower sashes must be opened at the same time. There are other useful arrangements for opening windows, such as those used in the wards of hospitals, where the opening is divided into about four horizontal lights working on pivots, all opening to any required extent by a rack and pinion. A sash fastener with a second spring, which clips the projection on the lower sash when the fastening is closed, and another where the shape of the arm of the fastener is altered, both prevent the sash being opened from without by a knife, a common mode of forcing an entrance into buildings. Patent wrought windows, and patent wrought iron water-tight windows and frames suitable for churches, parsonage houses, Ac., are readily obtainable, The fittings of a window which has boxed shutters consist Windc of back linings, grounds, back elbows and soffit, together fitting with shutters and back flaps, and architraves (or pilasters) round on the inside to form a moulded frame (figs. 1 and 4, Plate XXVI.) Back linings are generally framed with flush panels ; they fit in between the inside lining of the sash frame and the framed ground, to both of which they are attached, and form the back of the boxing into which the shutters fall back. They are tongued into the inside lining by their inner edge, and on the outer edge the ground is nailed, and they are set at right angles to the sash-frame, or obtusely outwards, as the shutters may be splayed or not. The back is the continuation of the window fittings from the sash-sill to the floor on the inside ; the elbows are its returns on both sides under the shutters, and the soffit is the piece of framing which extends from one side of the window to the other across the head, or from back lining to back lining. These are all framed to correspond with the shutters on the face ; but, as they are fixed, their backs are left unwrought. Window shutters simtt< are framed in correspondence with the door and other framed work of the room to which they belong, in front, and generally with a flush panel behind ; the back-flaps are in one or two separate breadths to each shutter, according to the width of the window and the depth of the recess ; they are made lighter than the slmtters themselves, and they should, when shut to, present faces exactly correspond ing with those of the shutters, both . internally and externally. The shutters are hung to the sash-frame with butt hinges, and the back flaps are hung to their outer styles with a hinge called a back-flap, from its use. The shutters and their back flaps are hung in one, two, or more heights, as may be found convenient. The moulded margin round the boxings of a window on the inner face are made to harmonize generally with the similar parts of the doors of the room or place to which it belongs. See other examples of shutters and their boxing in fig. 98. The fixing and hanging of window fittings or dressings are hardly less important, for the accuracy required, than the making and fixing of the sash-frame itself ; the slightest infirmity or inaccuracy in any part will be likely to derange some essential operation. To this old manner of forming shutters must be added Rolli the rolling shutters of Clark, Bunnett, Francis, Snoxell, shutt and others. These can be fixed either at the top, bottom, or side of the window as convenient, and are made of wood, steel, iron, or of wood and iron, many of them requir ing machinery to raise and to lower them. The advantages consist in the small space occupied, the great security obtained, and the rapidity and ease in opening and shutting them. They are, however, apt to stick, and some are noisy, but one is called the " noiseless self-coiling revolving steel shutter." One variety consists in a sheet of well-tempered corrugated steel, which coils up on itself like a roll of paper ; another is a self-acting wood revolv

ing shutter, with hardened steel bauds.