Construction

“ No matter what the weather may be, he is in the mud up to his knees; not a movement on the part of his workmen escapes him; he knows the why and how of everything, and is pushing forward the construction of an enormous mill, a dwelling-house, with garden and buildings, sheds, dams, roads and bridges—in a word, a magnificent establishment. ”

“ Do not imagine that, Paul; construction, apart from certain branches of scientific and practical knowledge, which you will be able to study at leisure, is nothing but a method,—a habit of reasoning,—a compliance with the rules of common sense. ”

“ But when once the work is above ground, and construction begins, when the structure lifts itself, when it aspires,—the crow line dissolves and melts quite away. This, in a sense, is true of man in any of his operations. ”

“ Houses of the best taste are like clothes of the best tailors—it takes their age to show us how good they are; and I frequently recognized, in the region of the upper reaches, this direct appeal of the individual case of happy construction. Construction at large abounds in the upper reaches, construction indescribably precipitate and elaborate—the latter fact about it always so oddly hand in hand with the former; and we should exceed in saying that felicity is always its mark. ”

“ This same grandeur of idea is seen in the vast masses used in construction. Man did not then regard his work as a piling together of stones, but as the erection of masses that rivalled those of nature. If a cell or chamber was required, each side was formed of one single stone.... If a building was set up, it was an artificial hill in which chambers were carved out after it was piled together.... ”

“ That necessity, which must do without the aid of the mechanic or the knowledge of his skill, has developed a principle in construction that has sufficient merit to warrant its use by all who wish to erect in a cheap and substantial manner any class of wooden buildings. ”

“ General Construction.—On the question of general construction there is little to be said, except that buildings are now being properly designed in more permanent form than were some of the earlier buildings. On the whole there is little fault to be found with factories in general, except in so far as the output has outgrown the accommodation. ”

“ This may be well illustrated in the construction of a great building, for which an architect gives all attention to a plan, and may require a considerable force of assistants and draftsmen to embody his ideas on paper; then contractors, one or several, secure material, employ men and direct them in placing materials in form and combination to suit the plans; but a host of workmen move as directed at the will of a foreman to pile brick, mortar, stone, iron or timber according to the plan. ”

“ Building is, in its turn, divided into two parts, of which the first is the construction of fortified towns and of works for general use in public places, and the second is the putting up of structures for private individuals. ”

“ To the best of my mature consideration, I have now treated the materials which are necessary in the construction of buildings, the proportionate amount of the elements which are seen to be contained in their natural composition, and the points of excellence and defects of each kind, so that they may be not unknown to those who are engaged in building. ”

“ One unpalatable expression I suppose the laws of construction oblige me to appropriate to myself, as my reward for a certain amount of labor bestowed on the investigation of a very important question of evidence, and a statement of my own practical conclusions. ”

“ Moreover, the character of the building materials, and the methods of construction used by the more prosperous among the people, were easily imitated in kind, if not in costliness, by the less prosperous. ”

“ The necessity of having a plan prepared by some one who understands the principles and requirements of simple building construction, before undertaking the erection of any building, cannot be too strongly emphasised. This great need, which is often overlooked by the settler, cannot be economically dispensed with. ”

“ As in all building construction the first appeal was made to material things and their relation to the pocket-book, while the last and most enduring appeal is spiritualistic and is made to the pleasures of the imagination. ”

“ If the engineers build a bridge, the architects say it is ugly—and are not always wrong in saying so. If the architects build a palace, the engineers think, not without reason, that in its construction the materials have been employed unskilfully, and without due economy or an exact acquaintance with their properties in point of durability and strength. ”

“ A building erected by a sham architect will be an incubus in a quarter of a century. People are beginning to see this, and we are endeavoring to prepare men thoroughly to know the best materials, to calculate their strength in construction, and to combine material and construction according to everlasting laws, and not according to some pretty present fashion ”

“ The construction of each building has been studied with very great care, so as to secure the minimum amount of material, the least possible amount of work in construction or erection, and the means of arranging all the parts in separate packages capable each of being carried by two men; and the result is that each building is the cheapest and lightest that has yet been constructed in proportion to the area covered. ”

“ "The successful construction of all machinery depends on the perfection of the tools employed; and whoever is a master in the arts of tool-making possesses the key to the construction of all machines..... The contrivance and construction of tools must therefore ever stand at the head of the industrial arts."—C. BABBAGE, Exposition of 1851. ”

“ Sometimes a builder could choose his materials and kind of construction. At other times and places a builder had little or no choice of materials and was limited to using the simplest tools and construction methods. ”

“ Having laid these two foundations at this distance from one another, build cross walls between them, uniting the outer and inner foundation, in a comb-like arrangement, set like the teeth of a saw. With this form of construction, the enormous burden of earth will be distributed into small bodies, and will not lie with all its weight in one crushing mass so as to thrust out the substructures. ”

“ But of common buildings, built in common circumstances, it is very possible for every man, or woman, or child, to form judgment both rational and rapid. Their necessary, or even possible, features are but few; the laws of their construction are as simple as they are interesting. ”

“ If, then, increased building accommodation and improved buildings are to be provided, the solution of the difficulty would appear to lie in a better arrangement of buildings and in the adoption of cheaper methods and materials of construction. ”

“ Every piece of construction should be complete in itself, and independent as such of everything Particular objects of construction.beyond it. A door or a gate serves its purpose by an application wholly foreign to itself, but it is a good and effective, or a bad and ineffective, piece of construction, independently of the posts to which it may be hung, whilst the wheel of a wheelbarrow, comprising felloes, spokes and axletree, is a piece of construction complete in itself, and independent as such of everything beyond it. ”

“ Even the Most Beautiful House must have a Background to Soften the Conventional Lines and Areas of Construction
One should Build a House as one Builds a Reputation, Gradually, Allowing Ideals and Execution to Expand and Develop Together. ”

“ A second stage in Economy is reached when we have to plan the different kinds of dwellings suitable for ordinary householders, for great wealth, or for the high position of the statesman. A house in town obviously calls for one form of construction ”

“ There are three departments of architecture: the art of building, the making of timepieces, and the construction of machinery. ”

“ They will prove of great worth to adults in helping with the construction and definite visualization of their life ideals and business problems. By this process you can easily learn to direct con [Pg 81] centrated thought power to the bringing about of your plans and ideals.
The Construction of a Home
Visualize a forest, into which some lumbermen are coming. See them cutting the trees, sawing them into mill lengths, and donkey engines drawing them to the railroad. They are loaded and hauled to the mill, where they are converted into lumber. See as much detail as you know of the mill processes. ”

“ In the various designs which we present our readers in this volume, nearly all of which have been erected under our superintendence, and are now in operation, the manner of construction can be judiciously economical, or it may be elaborated to the most substantial and ornamental structures of the class to which they belong. There is no more reason for making these buildings of a temporary character, than there is for putting up our barns and other outbuildings in a cheap and unworkmanlike manner. ”

“ Sixthly, his learning must comprise Architecture, that he himself may construct the various machines and timber work required underground, or that he may be able to explain the method of the construction to others. ”

“ Hundreds of dwellings have already been erected on the various plans we have issued during the past year, and many others are in process of construction.
Architects, Builders, and Owners will find this work valuable in furnishing fresh and useful suggestions. All who contemplate building or improving homes, or erecting structures of any kind, have before them in this work an almost endless series of the latest and best examples from which to make selections, thus saving time and money. ”

“ It carries us back from days which on our side of the Alps we deem ancient, but when the arts of construction were as well known as they are now, to days when men were making the first rude attempts towards the greatest of constructive inventions. Attempts of this kind, simply because they are mere attempts, failures and not successes, have a more ancient look than those examples where the builders were fully satisfied with the lintel construction and attempted no other. ”

“ The most inexperienced laborers can do all the work of the most elaborate béton construction, excepting only the surface-finishing, and this, with all the other work, can be superintended by one competent, experienced builder. ”

“ In constructing summer-houses, bridges, and other rustic work, there should be a careful plan made before the work is begun. Never work "by guess." Go at the undertaking precisely as the mechanic sets about the construction of a house. Draw a diagram of what the structure is to be. A rough diagram will answer quite as well as any, provided it covers all particulars. ”

“ 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. ”

“ They systematized their methods of construction so that soldiers and barbarians could execute the rough mass of their buildings, and formulated the designing of the decorative details so that artisans of moderate skill could execute them with good effect. ”

“ Such correspondence with the surroundings, which forms a striking feature of many primitive types of construction where intention of concealment had no part, is doubtless mainly due to the use of the most available material, although the expression of a type of construction that has prevailed for ages in one locality would perhaps be somewhat influenced by constantly recurring forms in its environment. ”

“ So in timber-work we should master the old system of construction, and then think how far it is perfect and where open to improvement, and also how far the old system as applied to oak is suited to our own constructions in fir, and what are the practical variations suggested by the material. ”

“ The provisional nature of the building.
"2. The advisability of constructing it as far as possible in such a form as to be available, with the least sacrifice of labour and material, for other purposes, as soon as its original one shall have been fulfilled, thus insuring a minimum ultimate cost.
"3. Extreme simplicity, demanded by the short time in which the work must be completed.
"For the arrangements of the plan we rely for effect on honesty of construction, vastness of dimension, and fitness of each part to its end. ”

“ He must be acquainted with the principles of timbering in trenches, and excavations, shoring, brickwork, fireproof construction, stonework, carpentry and joinery, smiths’ work, plumbing, heating, ventilation, bells, electric and gas lighting, water-supply, drainage, plastering, tiling to internal walls or pavings and roofs, slating of roofs, glazing, painting and decoration. ”

“ They build roads and bridges, and manifest wonderful engineering skill in their construction. They even tunnel under rivers. They go far from home, and find their way back again. They inhabit towns, and build splendid and spacious palaces. ”

“ He was the author of ‘Notes on Building Construction,’ published anonymously, 1875–9, in 3 vols. 8vo. It is the best book on the subject published in this country. A fourth volume, on the ‘Theory of Construction,’ was published in 1891. ”

“ From the time when men wove together branches of trees or piled up loose stones and mud for shelter to the present day, when they erect huge heaven-soaring structures of steel to house a multitude, the builder has played a most important part in the progress and development of human civilization. ”