Anonymous

“ ON THE DURABILITY OF STONE BUILDINGS.
“Everything belonging to the earth, whether in its primitive state, or modified by human hands, is submitted to certain and innumerable laws of destruction, as permanent and universal as those which produce the planetary motions. The operations of nature, when slow, are no less sure; however man may for a time usurp dominion over her, she is certain of recovering her empire. ”

“ Probably but few of our readers think of the means by which timber is conveyed from the forest where it grows, to the spots where it is to be applied to the purposes of building. And yet it must be evident that the means of transport form a matter of no small importance. We know that our timber-yards are plentifully supplied with the various kinds of wood necessary for building; and that the timbers are shaped by the axe and the saw. But, in most cases, the wood which we employ is brought from foreign countries, often many miles inland. ”

“ Cleanliness is also more easily preserved where paint is employed. If a room door, for instance, were not painted, it would require the same scouring and cleaning which an uncarpeted floor so often receives, though perhaps not so frequently. When we consider, therefore, that durability, cleanliness, neatness, and pleasing decoration, are all derived from the judicious employment of oil-paint in a house, we shall conclude that a painter renders important service in the preparation of a dwelling-house. ”

“ We have in the above details confined our attention to that more general and economical kind of house-painting in which a large surface is painted of one uniform colour. But the department of house-painting in which the taste of the workman is more fully developed, is that in which imitations of various species of wood and marble are attempted; these processes are called graining and marbling. We may perhaps call this a humble branch of the fine arts, since the workman prepares a picture of a piece of wood or of a slab of marble ”

“ We now come to that material which is, in England, a more important agent than stone in the construction of dwelling-houses; namely, bricks made from clay. There were three millions and a half of houses in Great Britain in the year 1841; and there can be no doubt that of this number those which were built of brick constituted a vast majority. It is only in a few particular districts that stone is a more available material for houses than bricks. ”

“ The current of fresh air which enters to feed the fire becomes very remarkable when doors or windows are opened, for the chimney can take much more than it otherwise receives when the doors and windows are shut; and thus the room with its chimney becomes like an open funnel, rapidly discharging its warmed air. ”

“ It is to this last-named mineral that granite owes the sparkling appearance which it presents when the sun shines on it; quartz is the hardest and most imperishable of the three minerals which form the granite-rock. The third, mica, is distinguishable from the other two by its satiny, shining, dark hue, and is very apparent in the coarse-grained, handsome stone of our own country, brought from Cornwall. ”

“ The best mahogany is that which grows in dry, cold, and exposed situations. Such wood is fine-grained, hard, and dark in colour, richly variegated, causing it from its beauty to rank among the most ornamental of fancy woods, while the light, coarse-grained wood, which grows in warm moist climates, is sufficiently abundant to be used for ordinary purposes, and yet possesses admirable properties for all, where no great strength or tenacity is wanted. ”

“ The masonry is excellent, and the ancient Roman brick-work is rivalled by that of the present generation; houses are built of brick, in which all the exterior decorations are moulded in that material as perfectly as if executed in stone. The skill with which the Italian workmen build in brick, may be exemplified by the Florentine practice of arching over rooms without centering of any description. ”

“ A roof to cover the dwelling, a glass window which may exclude the wind and the rain, while it admits light,—a fire-place, with appliances for carrying off smoke and the products of combustion—however far above the standard of the uncivilized man—are not sufficient for the Englishman of middle station. He must have his rooms nicely squared and neatly fitted; the roof must be concealed from view by a smooth white ceiling; the rough brick walls must be covered not only with plaster, but with an ornamental covering of paper or paint. ”

“ The artist traces his design, colours it, and completely finishes in one day so much of his picture as will occupy the wet plaster ground that has been prepared for him, so that when the ground is dry, he may not retouch any part of his work. This is the characteristic distinction of painting in fresco—a method by which the painting is incorporated with the mortar, and drying along with it becomes extremely durable, and brightens in its tones and colours as it dries. ”

“ It is not simply to make a square opening by the side of a room, to have a vertical chimney or flue above that opening, and a few bars within it; it is not by such means that the object to be answered by a fire-place can be attained; some knowledge of chemistry, pneumatics, and hydraulics, is required before we can properly regulate the combustion of our fuel, the ventilation of our apartments, or effectually warm them by the ascension of hot air, the circulation of hot water, or the condensation of steam. ”

“ He converts her rocks, her stones, her trees, into forms of palaces, houses, and ships; he employs the metals found in the bosom of the earth as instruments of power, and the sands and clays which constitute its surface as ornaments and resources of luxury; he imprisons air by water, and tortures water by fire to change, to modify, or destroy the natural forms of things. ”

“ If, however, a platform of good timber were employed as the base of the whole, and the weight so contrived as to keep this platform constantly under water, it would last a long time. The upper part of the structure formed of the floating bricks, might have all the appearance, and, indeed, all the stability of a brick house upon land; for this description of brick resists the influence of the atmosphere as well as the action of fire; and although it is not absolutely so strong as the heavy brick in common use, it is far more so in proportion to its specific gravity. ”

“ The comparative cheapness of lead, its admirable qualities, and the facility with which it can be cast and rolled into thin sheets, and drawn into pipes, cause it to be extensively used in building. The most productive mines of this metal in our own country are situated in Derbyshire, Devonshire, Cornwall, in Wales, and in the North; in short, the ore from which lead is generally obtained, called Galena, or Sulphuret of Lead, is found in all countries where the primary rocks appear at the surface. The ore greatly resembles the pure metal in brilliancy ”

“ The flame produced by the combustion of the gas may be most economically employed for heating soldering irons. A few seconds suffice to bring the iron to the desired temperature, and it can be kept at that temperature for many hours without being liable to burn, nothing more being necessary than to regulate the flame by means of cocks, and the workman need not be obliged to change his iron, or even to leave it for a single moment. Hence there is not only a considerable saving in manual labour, but also in fuel, which in most cases is of greater consequence. ”

“ The uniformity in size in the bricks themselves, arising from their being copies of one mould, is obviously the first condition that tends to the object; the next is, that they should be put together in such a way as to cause them mutually to adhere, independently of the tenacity of the mortar employed; and lastly, the bricks must be set with great attention, that their surfaces may be perfectly parallel and perpendicular to the direction of gravity, for otherwise the wall composed of them, instead of being truly perpendicular, would lean over on one side and fall. ”

“ In such a place as London, where there is an immense mass of tenacious clay beneath the vegetable soil, and where solid stone is not to be had, except by bringing it, at a great expense, from a distance of many miles, clay seems to be the natural material for dwellings; and thus we find that almost all the London houses are built of brick formed of clay. In other parts of Great Britain, such as Glasgow or Edinburgh, the case is very different; for, in those places, clay is scarce, and stone is plentiful. ”

“ Ordinary bricks for building are burnt in clamps, which are large oblong masses, built up of the unburnt bricks, laid regularly in layers, with large flues or passages at intervals, in which ashes, cinders, coal, and brush-wood are laid; layers of ashes are strewed over those of the bricks. The object is, that the fire, when the fuel is ignited, may penetrate every part of the mass, and bake every brick equally; even the ashes mixed up in the clay are intended to be partly burnt by the heat. ”

“ The building of houses has in all ages formed part of the employment of man as he advanced from a state of mere barbarism to one of comparative civilization. In devoting this little volume, therefore, to the subject of the Application of the Useful Arts to the construction of Dwellings, it is necessary to set a limit to so large a subject. ”

“ One apartment might be set on fire, but before the flames could spread to the one under or over it, or to a staircase adjoining it, the fire might be extinguished. In a house so constructed, there would be no piece of timber that was not in close contact with mortar, at least on one side; and all the strong pieces of timber, such as joists, rafters, quartering in partitions, &c., would be closely embedded in mortar on two sides. Where the partition could not be made entirely of brick, the interstices might be filled up with a mortar prepared of clay with a small proportion of lime. ”

“ The first step to decay is a process of fermentation, which is more or less rapid in proportion as heat and moisture are more or less present. In the absence of damp air, even the vegetable mass will of itself supply moisture; for, according to Count Rumford, the best-seasoned timber retains one-fourth of its weight of water. A certain extent of moisture is essential to vegetable fermentation; but a complete saturation appears inimical to it. A temperature not so low as to produce freezing, nor so high as to produce rapid evaporation, is also favourable to it. ”

“ In a crowded room, with an open fire, the air is for this reason often highly impure. As another source of impure air in a house, it may be noticed that the demand of the chimneys, if not fully supplied by pure air from about the doors and windows, operates through any other apertures. 6. Smoke and dust.—These are often unavoidable from an open chimney, much affecting the comfort and health of the inhabitants of the house, and destroying the furniture. Householders would make great sacrifices in other respects to be free from the annoyance of smoke. ”

“ The love of neatness and elegance which distinguishes the cultivated from the rude man in the decoration of his dwelling, is not the only motive for these interior fittings of a modern house. There are in many instances manifest advantages, in relation to dryness and durability, resulting from such arrangements. ”

“ The great ductility of lead, which, in many cases, is one of its most valuable qualities, is, however, an inconvenience when instruments or utensils are required of considerable strength. At the same time, there are circumstances where this metal alone can be employed, on account of the manner in which it resists chemical action. By constructing vessels or instruments of iron, zinc, or wood, and covering them with lead, utensils can be formed that will resist pressure and blows, and most chemical agents, as well as if they were made of solid lead. ”

“ The metal of which the stove is formed becomes so highly heated near the stove, that it acquires a burnt smell, owing to the decomposition of animal and vegetable particles which are at all times floating about in the air. The air, too, in the room, becomes close and oppressive from another cause; for as only a small quantity of air is consumed by the stove, the air does not become renewed in the room so frequently as when an open fire is used, and thus it is respired over and over again. ”

“ The kitchen fire-place is no larger than is requisite for roasting; all the other processes being performed either in the oven, the steaming vessels, or at the gas stoves. These stoves are placed in the bay of a large window, thus giving the cook the advantage of a good light above the level of the pans. A close boiler at the back of the grate affords steam for the cooking utensils and for a hot closet; it also contains a coil of iron tubing, through which the water of a bath, placed in a dressing-room on the chamber floor, is made to circulate when a hot bath is wanted. ”

“ It is considered equal to oak for ship-building, and has some resemblance to it in its timber; many vessels trading between this country and India are constructed of it. That which grows near the banks of the Godavery is beautifully veined, closer in the grain, and heavier than other varieties. “On the banks of the river Irrawaddy, in the Birman empire, the teak forests are unrivalled; and they rise so far over the jungle or brushwood, by which tropical forests are rendered impenetrable, that they seem almost as if one forest were raised on gigantic poles over the top of another. ”

“ They seem to me not so liable to set fire to as thatch. Pitch (especially if coated over with sand or smithy ashes) will not be lighted by a spark, nor even by the application of a slender flame, as will that material; though, on the other hand, when lighted, it will unquestionably burn with greater velocity than any species of thatching.... In the steward’s house and men’s lodge wood is constantly used as fuel, which, though more dangerous for emitting sparks than coal, yet no accident has or is ever likely to happen to the roof. ”

“ Stone buildings decay more rapidly in towns than in the open country, where dense smoke, fogs, and vapours, which act injuriously on buildings, do not exist. There is also another curious cause which contributes to the durability of stone buildings situated in the country. In the course of time, the stone becomes covered with minute lichens, which, though in themselves decomposing agents, act with extreme slowness, and when once firmly established over the entire surface of the stone, seem to exercise a protective influence, by defending the surface from the more violent destructive agents ”