Moulding

“ Setting up the mould with plaster of Paris.
When the model has been completed, the next thing to be done is to make a mould on it. For this purpose the moulders are called in. Some sculptors do their own moulding; but if they are busy men it does not pay them to do so, the moulding of a large group being a long job. It is, moreover, a strictly mechanical operation, although one requiring much manipulative skill and a fine touch. The first thing the moulder does, when the model is handed over to him, is carefully to consider the way in which he is going to accomplish his task. ”

“ Not yet to be checked, it pushes forward until the roll itself becomes subordinate to it, and is finally lost in a slight swell upon its sides, while the concavities have all the time been deepening and enlarging behind it, until, from a succession of square or cylindrical masses, the whole moulding has become a series of concavities edged by delicate fillets, upon which (sharp lines of light, observe) the eye exclusively rests. ”

“ The distinction between a rake moulding and a raked or raking moulding should be noted:
A rake moulding is simply a moulding that is inclined to the horizontal. It has the same profile as the horizontal moulding to which it is joined.
A raked or raking moulding is an inclined moulding that joins a horizontal or other moulding that does not lie in the same plane. It does not have the same profile as does the moulding to which it is joined. It takes its name from the fact that its profile must be altered or raked in order to join with the other moulding. ”

“ Great skill and discrimination are required in designing and applying mouldings, but that matter falls to the qualified designer and is perhaps outside the province of the practical workman, whose work is to carry out in an accurate and finished manner the ideas of the draughtsman. The character of a moulding is greatly affected by the nature and appearance of the wood in which it is worked. ”

“ Square Return Miter.—Figure 245 shows the profile of a moulding. Mouldings are seldom of standard design, although the architect builds up a given design from standardized parts or members. In the profile shown, the compound curve is known as an ogee. This shape is encountered more frequently in mouldings than any of the others. Line 9–10 of Fig. 245 is often referred to as a "fascia," which is a plain band or surface below a moulding. Line 10–11 of Fig. 245 forms the drip of the moulding since it compels the water, flowing down the surface of the moulding, to drop off. ”

“ A particular species of moulding is thus made, which resembles, in its section, that part of the frame of a window which separates two adjacent panes of glass. Being much stronger than wood, it can be considerably reduced in thickness, and consequently offers less obstruction to the light ”

“ Every little rill that flows down the mountain side is charged with finely-powdered sediment which it is ever wearing away from the surface of its own bed. Every great stream, besides the immense quantities of mud and sand which in times of flood it carries along in its turbulent course, has its channel strewn over with pebbles at which it never ceases to work, rounding off the angles and polishing the surfaces; and these pebbles, what are they but the fragments of old rocks and the elements of new,—the rubble-stone of Nature’s edifice on its way from the quarry to the building? ”

“ When a hard clay soil is revealed by the operations for draining a meadow, and the crust of black or reddish mould on which the sweet green grass flourishes is seen to be but spade-deep, the idea naturally occurs that that thin crust must have been originated by some similar process to what is now going on in the ash wood. Those six or nine inches of mould perhaps represent several centuries of forest. But if the keeper admits the old woman shivering over her embers in the cottage to pick up these dead boughs, how can he tell what further tricks others may be up to? ”

“ The mud, the sand, the stone which cover seams of coal, could not have been laid over them without the agency of water to bring them down, and spread them out in regular layers of stratification. When the hollow bark of a tall tree is found erect upon its roots, with those roots still permeating the clay from which they once drew nourishment, it is evident that time must be allowed for the growth of the tree, for the almost complete decay which left nothing of it but its bark and roots, and for the slow accumulation of sediment which has encased without overthrowing it. ”

“ In thick and level woods, protected from the wind, castings will never be removed as long as the wood lasts; and mould will here tend to accumulate to the depth at which worms can work. I tried to procure evidence as to how much mould is blown, whilst in the state of castings, by our wet southern gales to the north-east, over open and flat land, by looking to the level of the surface on opposite sides of old trees and hedge-rows ”

“ The top layer of soil in the wood is soft, dark in colour, and is evidently leaf mould mixed with sand or soil.
Leaf mould is highly prized by gardeners, indeed gardeners will often make a big heap of leaves in autumn and let them "rot down" and change into mould. If you can in autumn collect enough leaves to make a heap you {34} should do so and leave it somewhere where the rain can fall on it, but cover it with a few small branches of trees to prevent the wind blowing the leaves away. ”

“ Joyce describes one floor as covered at the western end by rubbish and mould to a thickness of 281⁄2 inches, and at the eastern end by a thickness of only 111⁄2 inches. A very slight slope suffices to cause recent castings to flow downwards during heavy rain, and thus much earth will ultimately reach the neighbouring rills and streams and be carried away. By this means, the absence of very thick beds of mould over these ancient ruins may, as I believe, be explained. ”

“ Huge boulders weighing several tons, great trees, with smaller débris of rocks, gravel, sand, and clay, are swept along with resistless force, until the decreasing slope diminishes the energy sufficiently to permit the greater boulders to come to rest, while the smaller ones are still swept onward. ”

“ Wherever the forest has been undisturbed by fire, they have accumulated, by shedding their foliage through a long succession of ages, and by their own decay, a covering of vegetable mould from six to twelve inches deep, and sometimes from eighteen to twenty-four. This mould is the best of all soils, and eminently friendly to every species of vegetation. It is, indeed, no other than a mere mass of manure, and that of the very best kind, converted into mould; and so long as it remains in considerable quantities, all grounds produce plentifully. ”

“ All around the site of the mound the soil to the depth of 20 inches is composed of the débris of old camps, a mixture of ashes, mussel shells, bones of fishes and wild animals, charcoal, broken pottery,&c.; and here hundreds of implements of stone, bone, and shell have been obtained. The big mound is said, by persons who have often seen it before the hand of vandalism desecrated it, to have been more than 30 feet high by 150 feet in diameter at the base. ”

“ The women bring water, clay, and earth, and mix a mud mortar, which is used sparingly between the layers of stone. Walls are from eight to eighteen inches thick and seven or eight feet high, above which rafters or poles are placed and smaller poles crosswise above these, then willows or reeds closely laid, and above all reeds or grass holding a spread of mud plaster. When thoroughly dry, a layer of earth is added and carefully packed down. ”

“ Long lines of stone wall still separate the mowing land from the pasturage; and scattered over the fields are heaps of boulders, thrown together thus to get them out of the grass’s way. About the edges of every pile, and sometimes through the midst, have sprung up a few shrubs,—shad bushes, cherries, willows, and the like. ”

“ Masses of stone and vast quantities of pumice and mud were then thrown up to a great height for two days and nights, and, falling on the sides of the vent, formed a great mound, which was climbed up by adventurous persons on the third day, a quiet one. The ejections were resumed on the next day, when several persons who undertook to climb the hill were killed or injured, but ceased on the seventh or eighth day. The mass of the hill, which is four hundred and forty feet above the sea, was chiefly composed of the materials which were thrown out during the first two days and nights. ”

“ Each chunk of red dirt dislodged by the pick falls into the running water, and if it be hard and will not readily dissolve it must be broken up by pick or shovel to keep the stream clear and unimpeded. The large boulders are picked out by hand and thrown behind us—not in disordered fashion, either. Room in the cut is scarce and must be economized, so the ever-accumulating bowlder pile is “faced up” with a neat wall, laid without mortar, but with some care and skill. The bed-rock is under our feet. ”

“ Recollect what I said in my first paper: that water drops its pebbles and coarser particles first, while it carries the fine clayey mud onward in solution, and only drops it when the water becomes still. Now currents of such tremendous violence as to carry these boulder stones onward, would have carried the mud for many miles farther still; and we should find the boulders, not in clay, but lying loose together, probably on a hard rock bottom, scoured clean by the current. That is what we find in the beds of streams ”

“ Thus, as the current sweeps along in its course, the sediment which it bears away from the land will be in a manner sorted, and three distinct layers of different materials will be deposited in the bed of the ocean;—first, nearest to the shore, a layer of pebbles and coarse gravel, then a layer of sand, and last of all a layer of fine mud or clay. This is the first step in the construction of stratified rock. To complete the work nothing more is necessary than the consolidation of these loose and incoherent materials. ”

“ Decay and mold or worms would destroy the finest wood. Besides, these logs, or poles, laid side by side in the mud, soon get to be as solid as a rock, for the mud, oozing up between the chinks of the logs, dries out and leaves them baked tight in the grooves. ”

“ The rains had softened the trail, until it was of the consistency of very stiff mud. In 58 this mud the first mule had left his tracks. The next mule trod carefully in the first mule’s footsteps; and all subsequent mules did likewise. The consequence was a succession of narrow, deep holes in the clay, into which an animal’s leg sank halfway to the shoulder. No power on earth, I firmly believe, could have induced those mules to step anywhere else. ”

“ Huge boulders, with deep mud-holes between, dead oxen, dead horses, dead men, every few yards. Sometimes thick scrub, with spiky thorn bushes, and with slippery foothold, was interlarded [279] with the mud and boulders; then came basaltic rocks, superimposed in fantastic fashion, and mountainous boulders, with beech scrub, and berberis, and juniper between; but always, whatever else there might or might not be, there was mud, two and sometimes three feet deep. To-day this was of a rich red colour.
In one wood there were many dead men. ”

“ Our road after this, till six o'clock in the evening, lay through the most exquisite forests, but with terrible footing for the mules—thick, pudding-like, wet mud, and loose, slippery stones, corduroys of hard mud striping some of the most difficult places, where only a surefooted mule can tread. ”

“ These branches we place vertically in front of the big logs, adding other branches and small trees in the same way. Most of our wood, however, we lay crosswise, and almost horizontally. The spaces in between are filled with mud and stones, which we mix together to form a kind of cement. We bring the mud in tiny handfuls, holding it under our throats by means of our forepaws, and often making as many as a thousand journeys backward and forward from the bank before we have enough. We always build by night, you know, and for a long time no man could say just how we worked. ”

“ It must contain, in heterogeneous admixture, the great boulders, the lesser rock fragments, the gravel chips, the sand, and the slimy mud; these settling down quietly in the cold, gloomy waters, overshadowed by the great ice-sheet, must form just such an agglomeration as we find in the boulder clay and tills, and lie just in those places where these deposits abound, provided the relative level of land and sea during the glacial epoch were suitable. ”

“ When spring sets in, and the upper parts of the rivers begin to thaw, the swollen waters burst their wintry integuments, and the ice is then said to pack. Layer is pushed over layer, and mass heaped upon mass, until great floes are formed. These have often the most fantastic shapes, and are borne down by the current, dropping, as they go, the mud and boulders, with which they are charged, until they are stranded along some coast line, or melt away in mid-ocean. ”

“ Such rounded cores, known as bowlders of weathering, are often left to strew the surface.
Differential weathering. This term covers all cases in which a rock mass weathers differently in different portions. Any weaker spots or layers are etched out on the surface, leaving the more resistant in relief. Thus massive limestones become pitted where the weather drills out the weaker portions. In these pits, when once they are formed, moisture gathers, a little soil collects, vegetation takes root, and thus they are further enlarged until the limestone may be deeply honeycombed. ”