Bracket (architecture)

“ Fig. 1.—Photograph Frame and Wall Bracket Combined.
One method of treatment for designs in light rustic work is to split the sticks and use them to overlay the work with a Swiss pattern, as [Pg 11] shown by Fig. 1; another method is to work the sticks up after the manner that canes are used in bamboo furniture (see Figs. 3 and Fig. 42, pp. 12 and 36) .
Fig. 2.—Section of Bracket, showing Fixing of Glass.
Fig. 1 represents a wall bracket with a photograph or mirror in the frame. To make this, the piece forming the back is first cut out of 3/8-in. deal. ”

“ Every child who has ever built with bricks feels the reckless wastefulness of using for steps the bricks so much needed for walls and towers. And who has not experienced the aggravation of finding when his tower is built that he has used up all the long bricks near its foundation and has now none left which are long enough to lay across its summit and form its roof? The slabs of board should be, like the bricks, of seasoned oak, and should be an inch thick. There should be plenty of arches—so as to render possible some sort of resemblance to Norman and classical architecture. ”

“ The beauty of a bracket depends entirely upon the artistic skill displayed in ornamenting it. The engraving here given is to illustrate the form of bracket best suited to give it strength and solidity, and to aid the artist in bringing the work well out, the strips of wood on each side of the piece in the centre will be found exceedingly useful to nail and glue the work [37] upon; they must be entirely covered with the foliage; the centre piece can be hidden or not to suit the design; the appearance of brackets are much improved by having the edge of the upper part gilded. ”

“ Stone and brick-work, in their rectilinear shapes, impose a rigidity in architectural design from which modern bricks, in their rich variety of flat and curved surfaces, have wrought emancipation. In the new residential streets of St. Louis, for example, the architecture owes much of its freedom and beauty to the new shapes in which brick is now manufactured. Even wider liberty than now falls to the lot of the brick-maker has always been enjoyed by the potter. In his hands clay lends itself to any desired imitation, to any fresh design however fanciful ”

“ Frames and brackets for marble slabs, picture frames and frames for looking-glasses, girandoles, sconces, etc., etc., appealed very naturally to the carver. The very charming bracket, No. 1 on Plate XLII. with its frets, its scrolls, shells, roses, and leaves, which was, of course, intended for gold leaf, is very simple when compared with the girandoles and mirrors, of which Chippendale has given so many examples. One frame for a marble slab (really a console table) he evidently likes. It is “supported by two piping Fauns, leaning against two vines, intermingled with foliage, etc. ”

“ If no curtain or fringe is to be tacked on the shelf to cover the uprights, some simple ornamentation on these is desirable. If a scroll-saw is conveniently at hand, this is easily accomplished. A design should first be drawn upon paper the exact shape and size of the bracket desired. This should then be transferred to the wood and the surplus portions carefully cut away. After the pattern is sawed out, the edges should be rubbed down with sand-paper, or if left very rough, a rasp would reduce this unevenness more readily ”

“ Brackets.—When a pillow block has to be fixed to a wall or column a bracket such as that shown in figs. 27 and 28 may be used. The pillow block rests between the joggles A A, and is bolted down to the bracket and secured in addition with keys at the ends of the base of the block, in the same [Pg 34] manner as is shown, for the attachment of the bracket to the column. ”

“ When, from the Third Dynasty onwards, these were built of stone, houses and palaces were still built of brick. And this distinction holds good for all subsequent periods. Under the First Dynasty, when brick architecture came into its own, this new and more permanent architecture was used, at first, for the royal tombs which were decorated with buttresses and recesses on all four sides (Figs. 46, 47, 50) . This ornamentation was achieved, in some cases (Fig. 46) , [181] by the use of two kinds of bricks—large ones for the core of the building and smaller ones for the recessing. ”

“ Thus when an arch is built to bear against an upright wall, a buttress or other counterfort is applied in a direction opposed to the pressure of the arch. In like manner the inclined roof of a building spanning from wall to wall tends to thrust out the walls, and hence a tie is applied to hold the opposite sides of the roof together at its base, where alone a tie can be fully efficient, and thus the roof is made to act upon the walls wholly in the direction of gravity ”

“ Anything that is all of one piece is likely to prove more lasting than the other kinds, in the lavatory. There are various combinations, some of them including handsome marble tops, but basin and top should not be separate. If the wall is tile, the back that fits to it is not essential; but if the back is used, it should be of a piece with the slab, bowl, and apron, to avoid ugly cracks and breakage. The bracket form is usually regarded as most convenient, as legs are often in the way, unobtrusive looking as they may be. ”

“ It is more usual to have the tie rods of the horizontal diagonal bracing, and the braces themselves, meet in a point about midway of a Truss panel on the centre line, nearly, of the chord. This will generally give a half panel of diagonal bracing near each end of the truss—and it is very usual to have the diagonals foot at their intersection there against a cross timber interposed between the trusses, while the tie rod prevents any spreading. ”

“ Were our brickwork like that employed in the buildings of Nero's time, almost close-fitting as carved stone, without visible cement, uniform in shape and tender in colour, sharply moulded into every architectural member and ornament, and put into every comely disposition that can copy, without simulating, stone, one would be glad to see such an adaptation of a material, cheap, manageable, and everywhere at hand. ”

“ In the matter of color, it is undeniable that the brick-work has in places a patchy look by reason of the comparatively small quantities in which it is used, the whole front on the avenue being virtually of highly wrought stone, and it seems clear that the building would have gained if the brick had been omitted altogether from this front. ”

“ Frankfort, much picturesque domestic architecture abounds, most of it of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and even later, and all full of piquancy and beauty. In North Germany, where there is a large tract of country in which building stone is scarce, a style of brick architecture was developed, which was applied to all sorts of purposes with great success. The most remarkable of these brick buildings are the large dwelling-houses, with façades ornamented by brick tracery and panelling, to be found in Eastern Prussia, together with some town halls and similar buildings. ”

“ Thus, in Fig. 232, the ceiling joists (A) have their ends resting on the plate (B) , so that the rafters are in line with the joists.
Braces.—It would also be well, in putting up the studding, to use plenty of braces, although for a one-story building this is not so essential as in two-story structures, because the weather boarding serves as a system of bracing. ”

“ Put up shade brackets with the slot or open bracket to the left side of the window and the hole or closed bracket to the right, leaving a little play between the brackets and the roller. Place the shade in the brackets and pull it down full length. If the spring is too weak to carry it up smartly, take it out of the brackets and roll it partly up, replace it in the brackets and try it again. If still too weak, take it out and roll up a little higher. ”

“ Mensch is a weak one. If he were making a cantilever bracket to support a slab by tension from the top, the bracket to be tied into a wall, would he use an indiscriminate lot of little vertical and horizontal rods, or would he tie the slab directly into the wall by diagonal ties? This is exactly the case of this retaining wall, the horizontal slab has a load of earth, and the counterfort is a bracket in tension; the vertical wall resists that tension and derives its ability to resist from the horizontal pressure of the earth. ”

“ The central roof, for example, is supported by a system of ornamental triple brackets, which combine great strength with lightness and elegance of design. They are strong enough to prop up the heavy superstructure, by which a cool shade is obtained, and, at the same time, sufficiently open to admit light and air into the inner hall. ”

“ In buildings of small width in proportion to their height this method of securing rigidity is generally found to be inadequate, and the frame is also braced at right angles to the outer walls to take up the strains directly. In each case all strains are carefully computed. The bracing is accomplished by the introduction at the angles of the columns and girders or beams of gusset plates or knee braces, or by diagonal straps or rods properly attached by rivet or pin connexions. ”

“ Baker himself, when in a public lecture he assured his audience that half a dozen of our ponderous modern ironclads might be hung from the cantilevers. Everyone knows that a bracket requires to be strongest nearest the base, and the lower steel arms that stretch out 680 feet each diminish in diameter until at the end it has decreased to five feet, and the pairs approach each until, from being 120 feet apart at the base, they are only 33 feet apart at the ends. ”

“ Although the worker may produce various forms of strip-metal work, the bracket is, as a rule, the most profitable to handle. The plain bracket is shown in Fig. 3, and is made by bending the strip at the proper angle on form A, after which the brace is adjusted by means of rivets. A rivet hole boring tool will be needed. A small metal turning or drilling lathe can be purchased for a few dollars and operated by hand for the boring, or a common hand drill can be used. ”

“ In spite of such unhappy freaks as that by which the stone basement merges into the brick superstructure with no architectural mark of the transition, and cuts the openings quite at random, or as that by which the brick wall, for a considerable but indefinite extent, is quite promiscuously aspersed with irregular bits of stone, it shows a considerable skill in the placing and detailing of features, and the disposition of the openings gives the principal front a grateful sense of stability and repose. ”

“ It may be allowable to construct the rear of a house, or a side that is to be built against speedily, of a cheaper stone; but to make the face upon one street of marble, and the face around the corner of brick, as in the case of Stewart's store, and the Society Library, is an outrage as ridiculous as it would be to make alternate gores of a woman's skirt of Petersham and Brussels lace. Bricks are very respectable; we say nothing in their dispraise; but to any man of taste, an edifice is much more beautiful built entirely of bricks than it is with but one of two exposed parts of marble ”

“ If stepped-up footing of brick is used in place of stone above the concrete, the offsets if laid in single courses shall each not exceed 11/2 in., or, if laid in double courses, then each shall not exceed 3 in. offsetting the first course of brickwork back one-half the thickness of the concrete base, so as properly to distribute the load to be imposed thereon. It will be seen by the foregoing that the American acts are far more extensive than in London. The London Building Act mentions that the footings of a wall shall rest upon the solid ground or concrete or upon other solid substructure. ”

“ Bricks are cut as necessary to fit within the wooden framework. The photograph suggests a question which visitors ask:—what holds the brick panels in place and prevents them from falling out? The explanation is simple and shows the cleverness of the designers. The brick panels fit into frames that have been slightly hollowed out on their inner sides. Through the window one has a glimpse of an inside wall. It has exposed timber construction too. ”

“ One architect may plan a house which will be plain to ugliness, the bricks laid in the most severe and commonplace fashion, and the outlines of the design—if design it can be called—devoid of any grace or variety. No projections to break up the dull flatness and give light and shade; no attempt to relieve the unmitigated square, hut-like appearance of the building. Another puts a pointed roof to his house, pierces it with pretty windows that have form without diminishing the light. He runs some courses of brick work round his building laid in diagonal or otherwise diversified lines. ”

“ The small bracket at the left of the hinge is equipped with a set screw, which holds the pole rigid, while the right-hand bracket is provided with a large opening through which the pole slides with the opening of door. Portières are usually made to just clear the floor, and should be suspended from rings which traverse freely on the poles. Appliqués look best on plain materials. Materials with prominent patterns are better without them. ”