Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/561

STAIRS.] to suppose the rail executed, and a plain board laid upon the upper side of it, the board would touch the rail at three points ; and a plank laid in the same position as the board would be that out of which the rail could be cut with the least waste of material. Let it be required to find the moulds for the part a b of the rail in fig. 112, and to avoid confusing the lines in the small figure, the part a b has been drawn to a larger scale in fig. 114. The plain board mentioned above would touch the rail at the points marked C and 15 in the plan; draw the line CB, and draw a line parallel to CB, so as to touch the curve at the point E. Then E is the / <*3*m&-K"-Jm -->-> other point on the plan ; and , e, and b , are the heights of these points in the development in fig. 110. Erect perpendiculars to CB, from the points C, E, and B (fig. 114), Fia. 114. Illustrating the Tracing of and set off Ca in fig. 114 equal to a c in fig. 110, Ee equal to de, and B6 equal to ft . Through the points C and E, draw the dotted line C/i ; through , e , draw a line to meet CE in h ; and through the points a , b , draw a line to meet CB in g ; then join hg. and make Ci perpendicular to lig. Now, if Cc be equal to Ca, and perpendicular to Ci, and d i be joined, it will be the angle which the plank makes with the horizontal plane, or plan. Therefore, draw FD parallel to C/, and thence find the section, which is the same thing as would be obtained by projecting vertical lines from each point in the hand-rail against the surface of a board laid to touch it in three points. The inexperienced work man will be much assisted in applying the moulds if he acquires a clear notion of the position when executed. To find the thickness of the plank, take the height to the under side of the rail cr in the development (fig. 110), and set it off from s, in the line C/, to r, in fig. 114 ; from the point r draw a line parallel to d i, and the distance between those parallel lines will be the thickness of the plank. The mould (fig. 114), which is traced from the plan, is called the face mould. It is applied to the upper surface of the plank, which being marked, a bevel should be set to the angle i d C, and this bevel being applied to the edge will give the points to which the mould must be placed to mark out the under side. It is then to be sawn out, and wrought true to the mould. In applying the bevel, care should be taken to let its stock be parallel to the line d i, if the plank should not be sufficiently wide for d i to be its arris. In the method fig. 113, ADE, on the rise of the stair, is the bevel. After the rail is truly wrought to the face-mould, the falling-mould (fig. 110), being applied to its convex side, will give the edge of the upper surface, and the surface itself will be formed by squaring from the convex side, holding the stock of the square always so that it would be vertical if the rail were in its proper situation. The lower surface is to be parallel to the upper one. The sudden change of the width of the ends of the steps causes the soffit line to have a broken or irregular appearance ; to avoid this, the steps are made to begin to wind before the curved part begins. Different methods of proportioning the ends of the steps are given by Nicholson, Roubo, Rondelet, and Krafft. We cannot in this place enter into a detail of these methods, nor can we give the varied systems of cutting the rail in the spring and in the plumb, about which so much has been written, but for the reader s information a list of the 499 principal writers on Staircases and Hand -Hailing is subjoined. Nothingappearstohave been written on joinery untilJosephMoxon, Biblio- a fellow of the Royal Society, published a work entitled Mcchaniclr, graphy. Exercises, or the Doctrine of HandyworJcs, 4to, 1677. The introduc tion of the geometrical staircase, or stair supported on one side by the wall, invented, says Palladio, by the famous Luigi Cornaro (the first English example of which is said to be that erected in stone by Sir Christopher Wren in St Paul s Cathedral), led to the greatest changes in the art of joinery, inasmuch as the lines for setting them out necessitated a very considerable knowledge of geometry. The hand-rails of these stairs offered most difficulties, and an imperfect attempt to remove them was first made by Halfpenny, in his Art of Sound Building, published in 1725. Price, the author of the British Carpenter, published in 1733-35, was more successful, and his remarks show a considerable degree of knowledge of the true nature and object of his researches. The publication of this book must have produced a considerable sensation in the trade, for it was soon followed by many other works of different degrees of merit. Of these the publications of Langley and of Pain were the most popular, and were followed by Eoubo, IS Art dc Mcnuisicr, folio, 1771 ; Skaife, Key to Civil Architecture, 8vo, 1774 ; Transactions of the Society of Arts, &c., for 1814 ; Treatise on the Construction of Staircases and Hand-Rails, 4to, 1820 ; Rondelet, Traite de VArt de bdtir, torn. iv. 4to, 1814 ; Krafft, Traiti sur TArt de, la Charpenticr, part ii., folio, 1820 ; Jeakes, Orthogonal System of Hand-Railing, 1849 ; Ashpitel, On Hand-Rails and Staircases, 4to, 1851 ; Galpin, Joiner s Instructor, Staircasing and Hand-Railing, 4to, 1853 ; and Riddell, Hand-Railing Simplified, folio, Phila delphia, 1856 and 1860. The establishment of the principles of joinery on the sound basis of geometrical science was reserved for Nicholson. In his Car penter s New Guide and Carpenter and Joiner s Assistant, published in 1792, 4to, lie has made some most valuable corrections and addi tions to the labours of his predecessors. This writer has been the founder of all the subsequent works on the subject ; his books have been published again and again, in various forms, M ith additions from time to time, by different hands, as Galpin s Joiner s Own Book, showing Improvements since the Days of the late Mr Nicholson, 4to, 1856. Corresponding improvements were also made in tho practice of joinery, for which we are much indebted to an architect, Mr James Wyatt. For revived mediaeval and Elizabethan joinery, particularly as adapted to windows and staircases, see Weale s Carpentry, 4to, 1849, and Shaw, Details of Elizabethan Architecture, 4to, 1839. Many modern improvements are given in Laxton s Examples of Building Construction, fol., 1855-58, and in Newland s Carpenter and Joiner s Assistant, fol., Liverpool, 1860. The principles of joinery were cultivated in France by a very different class of writers. The celebrated Blondel, an architect of great eminence, had given details for the construction of shutters, wainscoting, doors, hinges, fastenings, &c., in his work Distribution dcs Maisons de Plaisance, 4to, 1737-38. In the extensive work of Frezier, entitled Coupe des Pierrcs et des Bois, 3 vols. 4to, 1739, all the leading principles are given and explained with tedious minuteness, offering a striking contrast to the brevity of English writers. The first elementary work on that part of geometrical science which contains the principles of joinery appeared in France in 1705, from the pen of the celebrated Gaspard Monge, who gave it the name of Geometric Descriptive. The most celebrated French work which treats of joinery is Rondelet s L Art de bdtir, which occupied fourteen years (from 1802 to 1816) in publication. It is also the best foreign work on the subject ; but it is little adapted to the state of joinery in England. In practice the French joiners are very much inferior to the English workmen. Their work is rough, slovenly, and often clumsy, and at the best is confined to external effect. The neatness, soundness, and accuracy, which is common to every part of the works of an English joiner, is scarcely to be found in any part of the works of a French one. The little correspondence, in point of excellence, between their theory and practice leads us to think that their theoretical knowledge is con fined to architects, engineers, &c. , instead of being diffused among workmen, as it is in England. See also Tliiollet et lloux, Nouveau Mecueil de Menuiserie, 1837 ; Viollet-le-Duc, Diet. Raisonni du Mobilier Francais, 8vo, 1858, &c. ; and Nosban, Manuel dc Menuiserie, 4to, 1849. Much also may be learned from Emy, Traite de la Charpente, fol., 1847 particularly with regard to framing. The publications of other nations do not call for parti cular notice. CABINET-MAKING. Cabinet-making, or that part of the art of working in wood which is applied to. furniture, has some affinity with

joinery, the same materials and tools being employed in