Part 9

3. The bricks employed in the walls constructed according to the Flemish method, are of two, and frequently of three, qualities. Those placed in the front, or on the external surface, are manufactured with greater care, and, in some cases, are formed in a larger mould. A wall put up on this principle may be said to consist of two thin walls composed of stretchers, with occasional headers, to unite them together. The space between them, when the wall is thick, is filled in with the inferior bricks.

4. The inclosing walls of all brick edifices are erected on this plan, although they are thought to be more insecure than those constructed on the old English method. The reasons alleged for the preference, are its superior beauty, and a considerable saving in the most expensive kind of bricks. Greater security might be attained by the use of larger bricks, say sixteen inches in length, and wide and thick in proportion. Besides, an edifice constructed of well-made bricks of this size would be but little inferior in appearance to marble itself.

5. Most of the instruments used by the bricklayer are also employed by the stone-mason; and they have, therefore, been already mentioned. The particular method of laying bricks, in their various applications, can be learned by actual inspection in almost every village, city, or neighborhood, in our country, a more particular description of the bricklayer's operations is hence unnecessary.

6. Before closing this subject, however, it may be well to state that the chimney appears to be an invention comparatively modern, since the first certain notice we have of it is found in an inscription at Venice, in which it is stated that, in 1347, a great many chimneys were thrown down by an earthquake. It is conjectured that this valuable improvement originated in Italy, inasmuch as it was here that chimney-sweeping was first followed as a business.

7. Before the introduction of the chimney, it was customary to make the fire in a hole or pit in the centre or some other part of the floor, under an opening formed in the roof, which, in unfavorable weather, could be closed by a moveable covering. Among the Romans, the hearth or fire-place was located in the _atrium_ or hall, and around it the _lares_, or household gods, were placed. To avoid being infested with smoke, they burned dry wood soaked in the lees of oil. In warming other apartments of the house, they used portable furnaces, in which were placed embers and burning coals.

8. It is said by Seneca, who flourished about the middle of the first century of the Christian era, that in his time, a particular kind of pipes was invented, and affixed to the walls of buildings, through which heat from a subterranean furnace was made to circulate. By this means, the rooms were heated more equally. In the southern parts of Italy and Spain, there are still very few chimneys. The same may be said of many other countries, where the climate is pleasant or very warm.

9. Hollinshead, who wrote during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, thus describes the rudeness of the preceding generation in the arts of life: "There were very few chimneys even in capital towns: the fire was laid to the wall, and the smoke issued out at the roof, or door, or window. The houses were wattled, and plastered over with clay; and all the furniture and utensils were of wood. The people slept on straw pallets, with a log of wood for a pillow."

THE PLASTERER.

1. In modern practice, plastering occurs in many departments of architecture. It is more particularly applied to the ceilings and interior walls of buildings, and also in rough-casting on their exterior.

2. In plastering the interior parts of buildings, three coatings of mortar are commonly applied in succession. The mortar for the _first coat_ is composed of about twelve parts of sand, six of lime, and three of hair, with a sufficient quantity of water to bring it to the proper consistence; that for the _second coat_ contains a less proportion of lime and hair; and that for the _third coat_ is composed exclusively of lime and water.

3. The mortar is applied directly to the solid wall, or to thin strips of wood called _laths_, which have been fastened with small nails to the joists, and other parts of the frame of the building. The tools with which the plasterer applies the mortar are _trowels_ of different sizes and shapes, and the _hawk_. The latter instrument is a board about a foot square, with a short handle projecting at right angles from the bottom.

4. In all well-finished rooms, cornices are run at the junction of the wall and ceiling. The materials of these cornices are lime, water, and plaster. The lime and water are first incorporated, and the plaster is added with an additional quantity of water, as it may be needed for immediate application. The composition is applied in a semifluid state, but the plaster causes it _to set_, or to become solid immediately. In the mean time, the workman applies to it, in a progressive manner, the edge of a solid piece of wood, in which an exact profile of the proposed cornice has been cut.

5. Ornaments of irregular shape are cast in moulds of wax or plaster of Paris, and these are formed on models of the proposed figures in clay. Such ornaments were formerly the productions of manual operations performed by ingenious men called _ornamental plasterers_. The casts are all made of the purest plaster; and, after having been polished, they are fastened to the proper place with the same substance saturated with water.

6. The branch of this business called _rough-casting_, consists in applying mortar to the exterior walls of houses. The mode in which the work is performed varies but little from that adopted in plastering the walls of apartments. It, however, requires only two coats of the cement; and, when these have been applied, the surface is marked off in imitation of masonry. It is likewise sometimes colored, that it may resemble marble or some other stone.

7. The cement is commonly made of _sharp sand_ and lime; but sometimes a kind of argillaceous stone, calcined in kilns and afterwards reduced to powder by mechanical means, makes a part of the composition. The qualities of this material were first discovered by a Mr. Parker, who obtained letters patent for this application of it, in England, in 1796; hence it has been called _Parker's cement_.

THE SLATER.

1. Slate stone is valuable for the property of splitting in one direction, so as to afford fragments of a sufficient size and thinness to answer several purposes, but especially for covering houses and for writing slates. The best slates are those which are even and compact, and which absorb the least water.

2. The slates used in the United States, are obtained either from our own quarries, of which there are several, or from those of Wales, in the county of Caernarvonshire. The stone is quarried in masses, which are afterwards split into pieces of suitable thinness. These are trimmed to an oblong figure by means of a knife and a steel edge, which act upon the slate much in the manner of a large pair of shears.

3. As it is impossible to dress all the slates to the same size without much waste of material, those engaged in their manufacture have introduced several sizes, the smallest of which are made of the fragments of the larger kinds. These are designated by names known to the trade, and to those practically conversant with the art of building.

4. The slates, when brought to market, especially those from Wales, require additional dressing to fit them for use. The manner of applying them to roofs differs but little from that employed in putting on shingles, as they are lapped over each other in the same way, and confined to their place by means of nails of a similar kind. The nails, however, have a broader head, and are somewhat larger, varying in size to suit the dimensions of the slate. The holes in the slate for the nails are made with a steel point attached to the slater's hammer, or to his knife, technically called a _saix_.

5. Slates are preferable to shingles on account of their durability, and, in a majority of situations, for their fire-proof quality. They, however, are objectionable on account of their weight and expensiveness, and are therefore beginning to be superseded in this country by sheets of zinc, and by those of iron coated with tin. Copper and lead are also used for roofs, but the metals just mentioned are beginning to exclude them altogether.

6. A serious objection to metal roofs has been their liability to crack, caused by the contraction and expansion of the material, in consequence of variations in the temperature of the weather; but a particular method of putting the sheets together has been lately devised, which appears to obviate the difficulty. Tiles are not used in this country, although in Europe they are very common.

THE PAINTER, AND THE GLAZIER.

THE HOUSE AND SIGN PAINTER.

1. The painting which is the subject of this article relates to forming letters and sometimes ornamental and significant figures on signs, as well as to the application of paints to houses and other structures, for the purpose of improving their appearance, and of preserving them from the influence of the atmosphere and other destructive agents.

2. The substances capable of being employed by the house and sign painter, comprise a great variety of articles, derived from the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms; but he ordinarily confines his selection to but few, among which are white lead, litharge, Spanish brown, yellow ochre, chrome yellow, red ochre, terra di sienna, lampblack, verdigris, linseed-oil, spirits of turpentine, and gold-leaf.

3. White lead and litharge are manufactured in great quantities at chemical works, sometimes established for the express purpose of making these and some other preparations of lead. The substances of which we are now speaking, are produced in the following manner: the lead, in form of a continued sheet, about three feet long, six inches wide, and one line in thickness, is wound spirally up in such a manner, that the coils may stand about half an inch apart.

4. The metal in this form is placed vertically in earthen vessels, at the bottom of which is some strong vinegar. These vessels, being placed in sand, horse manure, or tan, are exposed to a gentle heat, which causes the gradual evaporation of the vinegar. The vapor thus produced, assisted by the oxygen which is present, converts the exposed surface into a carbonate of lead, the substance known as white lead, or ceruse.

5. The corrosion of one of these sheets occupies from three to six weeks, during which time it is repeatedly uncoiled and scraped. Litharge, or flake white, is nothing more than the densest and thickest scales produced in the manner just described. It can be obtained in a pure state from the dealers in paints, whereas the white lead of commerce is most commonly adulterated with chalk.

6. Spanish brown, yellow ochre, and terra di sienna, are earths impregnated with iron in different degrees of oxydation. Red ochre is yellow ochre burned. Chrome yellow is extensively manufactured in Baltimore, from the chromate of iron, found near that city. In chemical phraseology, the manufactured article is the chromate of lead, since the chromate is separated from the iron by the aid of a solution of the nitrate or acetate of lead.

7. Linseed-oil is obtained from flax-seed by pressure. It is afterwards filtered, and then suffered to remain at rest, to precipitate and clarify. This oil improves in quality by keeping, as it becomes, in a few years, as transparent as water. In this state, it is employed in the finest painting.

8. Before the oil is used, it is commonly boiled with a small quantity of litharge and red lead, to cause it to dry rapidly, after the paint has been applied. During the boiling, the scum is removed as fast as it rises, and this is mixed with inferior paints of a dark color. Linseed-oil, thus prepared, is vended by dealers in paints, under the name of boiled oil.

9. Spirits of turpentine is produced by distilling with water the resinous juice or sap of several species of the pine. The residuum, after distillation, is the turpentine of commerce. Spirits of turpentine is mixed with paints, to cause them to dry with rapidity. Like oil, it improves with age, and it is sold in the same manner by the common wine measure.

10. White lead, and several other principal paints, are purchased in their crude condition, and reduced to a state of minute division in paint-mills. They are afterwards mixed with boiled oil, and put up in kegs of different sizes for sale. Many articles, however, are pulverized, and sold in a dry state. The preparation of paints is commonly a distinct business, and very few painters seem to be acquainted with the mode in which it is performed.

11. In mixing colors for house and sign painting, white lead forms the basis of all the ingredients. This the color preparer, or the painter himself, modifies and changes by the addition of coloring materials, until it is tinged with the proposed hue. The pigments derived from vegetable bodies, produce, when first applied to surfaces, a brilliant effect; but they cannot long resist the combined influence of air and light, while the mineral colors, in the same exposure, remain unchanged.

12. Painters, in the execution of their work, commonly lay on three coats of paint. In communicating a white, the two first coats are composed of white lead and oil; and in the last, spirits of turpentine is substituted for the oil, for the inside work. For the outside of buildings, especially in warm and dry climates, this liquid is inapplicable, since it causes the paint to crack and flake off. It is, however, frequently used, when the painter is compelled to do his work at too low a rate, or when he is regardless of his reputation.

13. For other colors, the composition for the different coats is the same, except for the two last, in which other coloring substances are added to the materials just mentioned, to give the proposed hue. The tools for painting houses are few in number, and consist chiefly of brushes of different sizes, made of hog's bristles.

14. _Graining_ is understood, among painters, to be the imitation of the different species of scarce woods used for the best articles of furniture. But the manner in which this kind of work is executed can be hardly gathered from a concise description, although it may be easily learned from a practical exhibition of the process by a painter.

15. _Ornamental painting_ embraces the execution of friezes and other decorative parts of architecture on walls and ceilings. The ornaments are drawn in outline with a black-lead pencil, and then painted and shaded, to give the proper effect. Some embellishments of this kind are executed in gold-leaf, in the same manner with gold letters on signs. This kind of work is called _gilding in oil_.

16. Painting in oil, as applied to the execution of designs, seems to have been invented, or at least to have been brought into notice, in the early part of the fifteenth century, by John Van Eyck, of Flanders. Before this time, house-painting, so far as the exterior was concerned, could have been but little, if at all, practised.

17. One profitable branch of common painting is that of painting and lettering signs. In performing this kind of work, the sign is first covered with two or three uniform coats of paint. The letters are next slightly sketched with chalk or a lead-pencil, and then formed in colors with a camels'-hair brush. When the letters are to be gilt, the process, so far, is precisely the same. The leaf is laid upon the letters, while the paint is in a tenacious state, and is suffered to remain untouched, until the oil has become dry, after which the superfluous gold is removed. The whole is then covered with an oil varnish, which, in plain lettering, completes the operation.

THE GLAZIER.

1. Glazing, as practised in this country, consists chiefly in setting panes of glass in window-sashes. In the performance of this operation, the glazier first fits the panes to the sash by cutting away, if necessary, a part of the latter with a chisel; he then fastens the glass slightly with little pieces of tin, which have been cut to a triangular shape; and, lastly, he applies _putty_ at their junction with the sash, and by this means confines them firmly and permanently to their place. The putty is made of linseed-oil and whiting. The latter of these materials is chalk cleared of its grosser impurities, and ground in a color-mill.

2. Plain glazing is so simple, that no person need serve an apprenticeship to learn it; and there are but few who confine their attention to this business exclusively. It is commonly connected with some other of greater difficulty, such as that of the carpenter and joiner, or house and sign painter, but with the latter more frequently than any other.

3. When the glass, as received from the manufacturer, may not be of the size and shape required for a proposed application, the panes are cut by means of a diamond fixed in lead, and secured by a ferrule of brass, which is fastened to a small cylindrical handle of hard wood. This instrument is used, in conjunction with a straight edge, like a pencil in ruling lines on paper for writing. The glass is afterwards broken in the direction of the fracture, by a slight pressure downwards.

4. Although glass windows seem to us to be indispensable to comfort, yet glass had been manufactured many centuries in considerable perfection, before it was applied to this purpose. The houses in oriental countries had commonly no windows in front, and those on the other sides were provided with curtains, or with a moveable trellis-work in summer, and in winter with oiled paper.

5. In Rome and other cities of the empire, thin leaves of a certain kind of stone called _lapis specularis_ were used. Windows of this material, however, were employed only in the principal apartments of great houses, in gardens, sedans, and the like. Paper made of the Egyptian papyrus, linen cloth, thin plates of marble, agate, and horn, seem likewise to have been used.

6. The first certain information we have of the employment of glass panes in windows, is found in the writings of Gregory of Tours, who flourished in the last quarter of the sixth century. This prelate states that the churches were furnished with windows of colored glass, in the fourth century after Christ. The oldest glass windows now in existence were of the twelfth century, and are in the Church of St. Denis, the most ancient edifice of this description in France.

7. Æneas Sylvius accounted it one of the most striking instances of splendor which he met with in Vienna, in 1458, that most of the houses had glass windows. In France, all the churches had these conveniences in the sixteenth century, although there were but few in private dwellings. Talc, isinglass, plates of white horn, oiled paper, and thinly shaved leather, were used instead of glass. A similar state of things prevailed in England.

8. The glass used for the windows of churches and other public buildings, after the fourth century, was very commonly intrinsically colored or superficially painted. Painting on glass had its origin in the third century, and at first it consisted in the mere arrangement of small pieces of glass of different colors in some sort of symmetry, and constituted a kind of mosaic-work.

9. Afterwards, when more regular designs came to be attempted, such as the human figure, the whole address of the artist went no farther than drawing the outlines of the objects in black on glass resembling in color the subjects to be represented. The art, in this state of advancement, was spread over a great part of Europe.

10. About the beginning of the fifteenth century, a method of fixing metallic colors in glass by means of heat was discovered, and from this the art derived great advantages. It flourished most during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; but it declined in the following age, and in the eighteenth century it was very little practised in any country. It has, however, been partially revived, of late, in Germany. A very good specimen of this kind of painting, as well as of colored glass, may be seen in St. John's Church, in Philadelphia.

THE TURNER.

1. Turning is a very useful art, by which a great variety of articles are almost exclusively manufactured. Besides this, it constitutes a considerable part of the operations of several trades and occupations, such as the chairmaker, machinist, cabinet-maker, brass-founder, &c., since every substance of a solid nature can be submitted to the process.

2. Turning is performed in a _lathe_, an apparatus constructed in various ways, according to the particular purposes to which it is to be applied, although, in all cases, the general principle of its operation is the same. The kind represented in the above picture, is used for plain or circular turning in wood. On examination, it will be perceived, that two wheels of different sizes make essential parts of it. On the extended axle of the smaller one, is fastened the piece to be turned; and immediately in front of this is the _rest_, on which the cutting instrument is supported during the performance of the operation.

3. When the material to be turned is wood, it is commonly cut to the proper length with a saw, and brought to a form approaching to the cylindrical by means of an axe or drawing-knife. It is next fastened in the lathe. This is done by different means, varying according to the particular form of the thing to be turned. In plain circular turning, as applied to bed-posts, legs of tables, and rounds for chairs, the piece is supported at each end. That at the left hand is driven upon a piece of steel, which has been screwed upon the extended axle of the small wheel; and the other end is fixed upon a steel point, placed in an upright moveable piece called a _puppet-head_.

4. In case the wood is to be turned on the inside, as in making a bowl, cup, or mortar, the piece is supported altogether at one end, by means of a hollow cylinder of wood, brass, or iron, called a _chuck_, which receives it on one side, and on the other is screwed upon the end of the axle. The axle is sometimes called the _mandril_, and any extension of it, by means of a piece added to it for a centre, on which anything may be turned which will admit of a hole through it, is denominated an _arbor_.

5. The tools used in turning wood and ivory, are _gouges_ and _chisels_ of different sizes and shapes. In using these, they are placed upon the _rest_, and brought in contact with the revolving material of the proposed figure. The gouge is employed in cutting away the rough exterior, and the chisel, in producing a still further reduction, and a greater smoothness of surface.

6. In working in very hard wood and in ivory, the _grooving tool_, a sharp pointed instrument somewhat similar to the graver, is used in the first part of the operation; and by this the grain of the substance is cut into contiguous grooves, and prepared for an easy reduction by the chisel. The instruments for turning metals are numerous, but they differ in some respects from those for cutting wood.