The Useful Arts Employed in the Construction of Dwelling Houses. Second Edition

by Anonymous

A Beau-ideal English Villa.

The work from which the above has been derived, viz., Loudon’s Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture, contains a chapter contributed by an anonymous writer, but devoted to a singular and interesting subject. The object is to lay down rules for the construction and furnishing of a villa which should be the beau-ideal—the standard of excellence—of this class of dwelling-house. He describes the characteristics of the old English country-house; and, taking that as his model, shows how modern improvements may be brought to bear on the general arrangements of the building. The description is too long to be given here in full, even if it were right so to do; but we will condense into a few paragraphs those details which relate to the construction and fittings of the house, omitting all those matters which relate only to furniture.

The residence here described, or rather imagined, is the country house of an English gentleman of ample means, but partaking much more of the manorial than of the palatial character. The term villa is not perhaps so fixed in meaning as to convey to every one the same idea of the kind of building alluded to. The word was originally used by the Romans to denote a farm-house, with the offices requisite for the accommodation of a husbandman. Afterwards, when luxury increased, the term villa was applied to the country residence of an opulent Roman citizen. It is in a somewhat similar style that the word is here to be used.

The villa being a place of agreeable retirement, but not one of seclusion from the world, it should be situated within reach of a public road, at an easy distance from the metropolis. “I should prefer a situation removed about a mile from the great public road, and about ninety miles or a day’s journey from the metropolis. Here I would inclose a park of 100 or 150 acres; bounded on the north and west sides by lofty wooded hills; on another side by a road; and elsewhere by the inclosed country of the district; the surface of the park varied, but gently inclining to the south, with a rapid stream of water passing through it at no great distance from the site of the house.”

A villa (the writer proceeds to say) should always form part of a village, and be placed if possible on rather higher ground. The old English style of architecture is preferred; as being more picturesque and ornamental; as according best with rural scenery; as, by admitting great irregularity of form, it affords space for the various offices and conveniences necessary in a country house; and as being better suited to our climate than the Grecian style, which, by requiring porticoes, projecting cornices, and windows of rather small size, tends to intercept the light and make the house gloomy. The old style also allows more variety of ornament upon the roof, such as the stacks of chimneys, gables, pinnacles, turrets, and other appendages to the general effect of a building when seen at a distance; whereas in the Grecian style, which requires perfect symmetry of form, and the prevalence of straight lines, these arrangements could not be admissible. For these reasons an old English or “Elizabethan” house is selected. The front of the house would present a centre and two projecting wings. The centre would contain the hall and dining-room, with a gallery and staircase behind them. One wing would be occupied by the drawing-room and library, with the saloon between them. The other wing might contain a sitting-room, and superior offices for servants; the inferior offices being on the basement, or in a separate building in the kitchen-court. The principal part should be highly ornamented, and form a symmetrical whole. In the centre would be the porch of two stories, with its rich gable, small pillars, escutcheons, &c.; the wall on either side (broken into compartments by pilasters, or handsome buttresses, and proper string-courses) would contain large mullioned windows; the whole supporting a battlement or parapet, with its appropriate ornaments. The ends of the projecting windows would present each a bay window of two stories, square or semicircular in form, with balustrade or stone covering above; the gables of the wings corresponding with that of the porch. The high and steep roof should be varied by ornamental chimneys of different patterns, placed in their proper situations; and, rising above them, the tower, containing the grand staircase, appearing at a short distance behind the porch; its waving cupola roof terminating in a rich lantern, and supporting a weathercock or dwarf spire.

After giving his reasons for thinking that a country residence in the Elizabethan style should have a kind of rich framework of courts and gateways, balustraded terraces, and architectural gardens, the writer proceeds to describe the interior of his supposed edifice, beginning with the porch. This should be ascended by a flight of stone steps; it should be floored with stone; and the ceiling, the door, and the door-way, highly enriched.

The entrance-hall, which succeeds the porch, would vary in its character according to the size of the house. In the large old English mansions it was formerly the dining-room and place of rendezvous for the servants and retainers; but in a smaller house, such as might be termed a villa, and especially under the altered habits of English society, a smaller hall, and one more nearly resembling a mere entrance, would be fitting. An English hall admits of much picturesque embellishment, such as a carved oak roof or ceiling, either flat or semicircular, enriched with highly-wrought bosses or coats of arms; a music gallery across the end, supported by pillars or a carved screen; a chimney-piece reaching to the cornice of the roof; and a carved wainscot covering half the height of the walls.

Having entered the porch-door, and crossed the lower end of the hall, entrance would be gained to the gallery, a sort of an in-door promenade, between the hall and the staircase; having one door leading to the saloon, another to the billiard-room, and another to the domestic offices. “The staircase is an important convenience in every house; and it should always be a striking feature in a mansion of any elegance. The tower, which I suppose to contain the staircase, would be square, as high as the ceiling of the upper floor, where it would take a sort of octagon form; the roof coned, and ending in a lantern: in the centre of the lantern a boss would support a lamp. In the side, opposite to the arch by which you enter, would be a tall mullioned window filled with stained glass. Advancing a few steps, you would reach the first flight in the middle of the tower, and ascend to the first landing-place; you would find a flight of stairs on the right and left leading to the second landing, in the centre of which is the upper gallery door, immediately over the arch below. As the house is to be in the old English style, the stairs might be either of oak or stone; but the balusters must be of oak handsomely carved, and rather heavy. They might begin at the foot of the stairs with a richly-carved sort of pedestal, and the same at each corner as they ascend. In old staircases there was frequently an animal of some sort sculptured in wood, supporting the family arms, placed on these pedestals, especially at the foot of the stairs; or the animal had a substitute in a ball or pine-apple.”

The chief apartments on the ground floor are described as being the saloon, the drawing-room, the library, the dining-room, and the study. The saloon is generally a sort of vestibule to the dining-rooms; and, supposing it to be such in this case, and of a parallelogram form, its arrangement is thus sketched:—The entrance door is in the centre of the side next the gallery; in the centre of the end on the right hand would be the drawing-room door, and in the centre of the other end the library door. On the other side should be two windows, with a glass door between them opening to the terrace and garden. The drawing-room would be larger than the saloon. On entering from the saloon the opposite end would present a square or circular bay-window, commanding a view of the park and the distant country beyond it. On the right side would be the fire-place, and on the opposite side two windows looking over the terrace.

Crossing the saloon from the drawing-room we should arrive at the library. This would be about the same size as the drawing-room, and would, like it, have a bay window opposite the entrance, and two other windows opposite the fire-place. This room, it is supposed, would be the family sitting-room when there is no company in the house; and would be the forenoon resort of the gentlemen when guests are stopping at the house; and hence arises a very minute and curious detail of the manner in which the library should be fitted up, in order to answer this double purpose. These, however, we cannot enter upon; but the following will give an idea of the manner in which this imaginative house-builder fills up the rooms of his villa:—“As to the smaller ornaments to be placed around the room, they should be curious and interesting, and on no account frivolous. Handsome silver inkstands, a few curious fossils, or models of celebrated buildings; all sorts of writing-cases and implements, taper stands of silver, boxes of coins, old china in large jars, and anything of these kinds, with handsome books, might decorate the tables; and, as nothing gives a room a more dismal effect than an appearance of idleness, everything should be so arranged, both here and in the drawing-room, as if the persons using the rooms had been employed in some way or other. This effect would be produced by the daily papers, and some periodical works, and open letters received in the morning, on the principal tables; and, on other tables, some of the blotting-books might be open; the inkstands not thoroughly in order, with some unfinished writing and open books or portfolios, would give at least the appearance of industry. I do not recommend such foolish tricks, which are, I know, often used by idle people, who have sense enough to feel the bad taste of indolence; and in a sensible family, who spent their time rationally, this would be, in fact, the usual state of the room, at least during the morning.”

The dining-room of the beau-ideal villa is contiguous to the hall, whence entrance is obtained by double doors. The walls are covered with old oak wainscot. The fire-place should be very large, reaching nearly to the ceiling, and all the fittings and arrangements of a massive, solid, and handsome kind. The gentleman’s study, or business room, would be a smaller, plainer, and more strictly private room, on the same floor, and used for writing, reading, and transacting business.

Having disposed of the principal apartments, the writer proceeds to describe the rooms on the next floor above, occupied chiefly as bed-rooms. The grand staircase leads up to a second gallery, over the lower one; and in this gallery are the doors of all the best sleeping-rooms. The sitting and sleeping nurseries are also on this floor; as is likewise the governess’s sitting-room, “in a quiet part of the house.” The bed-rooms for the servants are on the upper floor, approached by the back staircase.

Then we descend to the basement of the house, where the various servants’ rooms are situated. The housekeeper’s room should be a spacious comfortable room, furnished as a respectable parlour; and so situated that the other offices may be overlooked by the housekeeper. A door in this room should open into the still-room, which is the common sitting-room of the under female servants, and where portions of the ordinary operations are carried on. A store-closet opens conveniently into the still-room, and has conveniences for arranging the stores and provisions as they are unpacked. The butler’s pantry, being the room in which the plate is lodged, should be placed in a part secluded from the back entrance to the house, and should have strong doors and window-shutters to prevent depredation. The servants’ hall would be near the back entrance to the house, and easy of access. Here all the under servants would dine, and it would be the common sitting-room for the males. The larders, if the house were large, would be four in number; the wet larder for undressed meat, the dry larder for cold meat, the game larder, and the pastry.

The kitchen, as being one of the most important rooms in a hospitable mansion, is treated with due importance. The writer describes the arrangements in the kitchen of a mansion in Warwickshire, as being fitted to serve as a model. “The kitchen, scullery, larder, &c., formed a range of building on one side of the kitchen-court, separate from the house, but there was a covered way between them. The building was of two stories, the kitchen occupying the centre. It was a large lofty room, of good proportions, as high as two stories of the building. You entered it at one end, by large folding-doors, from a passage through the building; at the opposite end was the fire-place, with the screen before it; on one side of which was the door to the scullery and bakehouse, on the other a range of set coppers of different sizes. On one side of the room were two rows of windows, and under the lower row a range of charcoal stoves and hot plates: the latter to keep things warm. The other side had only the upper row of windows, and against the wall was a dresser, above which the copper cooking utensils, &c., were ranged in a very ornamental way. A long table was in the centre of the room, and over the door a dial-clock. The ceiling had a very handsome cornice, and a boss in the centre, from which hung a brass lamp. Opposite the entrance door another door admitted you to a passage, on one side of which were the larders, on the other salting-rooms, &c.; and at the end a staircase led to the cook’s apartment over. There was a sort of turret in the centre of the roof, containing a capital clock, which struck upon the dinner bell. The other offices were in the basement of the house, and the kitchen was detached, to prevent the annoyance of the smell of cooking, which commonly ascends from a kitchen beneath the house. I thought the arrangement particularly convenient, and the kitchen was really an elegant apartment. As, in a large establishment, there is cooking going on through the whole day, it is of importance to the comfort of the family, to place the kitchen in such a situation that the smell of cooking, which is particularly offensive, may not be an annoyance to the principal apartments. A house with the kitchen in the basement story is generally subject to this inconvenience, and it is usually avoided by having the kitchen and offices in a separate building adjoining the house.”

The writer continues his remarks and descriptions in a similar manner, treating of all the various parts of the building in succession; then of the riding-house, the stable-yard, the coach-houses, the harness and saddle rooms, and the dog-kennel; then of the kitchen garden, the pleasure garden, the dairy, the farm buildings for a “gentleman farmer;” and, lastly, of the village and the village church, so far as regards the relation between them and the mansion. In short, this writer seems to have proposed to himself this question—“What are the excellencies to be desired and attained in the mansion of an English country gentleman?” and he appears to have solved it by putting together the scattered fragments of his experience in various quarters, and building up an ideal mansion therefrom.

CHAPTER XII.
FIRE-PROOF HOUSES.

The attempts which have been made to render houses fire-proof are so intimately connected with the construction of dwellings, that it will be proper to give a few brief details on the subject. There are many difficulties attending these attempts; for so long as wood forms the chief inner frame-work of a house, there will always be considerable liability to destruction by fire. Most of the proposed plans have had relation to the coating of the wood with some substance which should render it less inflammable, while others have been directed rather to the rejection of combustible substances from the list of those used in house-building.

So long back as 1775, Mr. Hartley made several trials in order to test the efficacy of a method invented by him for that purpose. Thin iron plates were nailed to the top of the joists; the edges of the sides and ends being lapped over, folded close, and hammered together. Partitions, stairs, and floors were proposed to be defended in the same manner. The plates were so thin as not to prevent the floor from being nailed on the joists in the same manner as if the iron were not used; and the plates were kept from rust by being painted or varnished with oil and turpentine. Mr. Hartley had a patent for this invention; and Parliament voted a sum of money towards defraying the expense of his numerous experiments. It does not, however, appear that the plan was permanently adopted.

About the same period, Lord Mahon, afterwards Earl Stanhope, a nobleman possessing a highly inventive tact in mechanical matters, brought forward another method having the same object in view. This method was of a three-fold character, comprising under-flooring, extra-lathing, and inter-securing.

The method of under-flooring is either single or double. In single under-flooring, a common strong lath of oak or fir, about one-fourth of an inch thick, should be nailed against each side of every joist, and of every main timber, supporting the floor which is to be secured. Other similar laths are then to be nailed along the whole length of the joists, with their ends butting against each other. The top of each of these laths or fillets ought to be at an inch and a half below the top of the joists or timbers against which they are nailed; and they will thus form a sort of small ledge on each side of all the joists. These fillets are to be well bedded in a rough plaster when they are nailed on, so that there may be no interval between them and the joists; and the same plaster ought to be spread with a trowel upon the tops of all the fillets, and along the sides of that part of the joists which is between the top of the fillets and the upper edge of the joints. In order to fill up the intervals between the joists that support the floor, short pieces of common laths, whose length is equal to the width of these intervals, should be laid in the contrary direction to the joists, and close together in a row, so as to touch one another; their ends must rest upon the fillets, and they ought to be well bedded in the rough plaster, but are not to be fastened with nails. They must then be covered with one thick coat of the rough plaster, which is to be spread over them to the level of the tops of the joists; and, in a day or two this plaster should be trowelled over, close to the sides of the joists, without covering the tops of the joists with it.

In the method of double-flooring, the fillets and short pieces of laths are applied in the same manner as here noticed; but the coat of rough plaster ought to be little more than half as thick as that in the former method. Whilst the rough plaster is being laid on, some more of the short pieces of laths must be laid in the intervals between the joists upon the first coat, and be dipped deep in it. They should be laid as close as possible to each other, and in the same direction with the first layer of short laths. Over this second layer of short laths there must be spread another coat of rough plaster, which should be trowelled level with the tops of the joists, without rising above them. The rough plaster may be made of coarse lime and hair; or, instead of hair, hay chopped to about three inches in length may be substituted with advantage. One measure of common rough sand, two measures of slaked lime, and three measures of chopped hay, will form in general a very good proportion, when sufficiently beaten up together in the manner of common mortar. The hay should be put in after the two other ingredients are well mixed up together with water. This plaster should be made stiff; and when the flooring boards are required to be laid down very soon, a fourth or fifth part of quicklime in powder, formed by dropping a small quantity of water on the limestone shortly before it is used, and well mixed with this rough plaster, will cause it to dry quickly. If any cracks appear in the rough plaster work near the joists, when it is thoroughly dry, they ought to be closed by washing them over with a brush wet with mortar wash: this wash may be prepared by putting two measures of quicklime and one of common sand into a vessel, and stirring the mixture with water till the water becomes of the consistence of a thin jelly.

Before the flooring boards are laid, a small quantity of very dry common sand should be strewed over the plaster work, and struck smooth with a hollow rule moved in the direction of the joists, so that it may lie rounding between each pair of joists. The plaster work and sand should be perfectly dry, before the boards are laid, for fear of the dry rot. The method of under-flooring may be applied to a wooden staircase, but no sand is to be laid upon the rough plaster work. The method of extra-lathing maybe applied to ceiling joists, to sloping roofs, and to wooden partitions. The third method, which is that of inter-securing, is very similar to that of under-flooring; but no sand is afterwards to be laid on. Inter-securing is applicable to the parts of a building as the method of extra-lathing.

Such is a general outline of the modes proposed by Lord Mahon for rendering houses fire-proof; in which it will be seen that the safeguard consists in the use of a non-combustible material, with, and among, and between the pieces of wood forming the frame-work of a house.

The more recent attempts to gain the same object by means somewhat similar have been very numerous; some of which we may here notice as examples of the whole.

An American patent was granted in 1837 to a Mr. Louis Pambœuf, for the invention of a fire-proof paint. The mode of preparing it is thus described. A quantity of the best quicklime is selected, and slacked with water in a covered vessel; when the slacking is complete, water, or skimmed milk, or a mixture of both, is added to the lime, and mixed up with it to the consistence of cream. When milk is not used a solution of rice paste is employed, obtained by boiling eight pounds of rice to every hundred gallons of paint. When the creamy liquor is prepared, alum, potash, and common salt are added, in the proportion of twenty pounds of alum, fifteen pounds of potash, and a bushel of salt, to every hundred gallons of the paint. If the paint is to be white, six pounds of prepared plaster of Paris and the same quantity of fine white clay are added to the above proportions of the other ingredients. All these ingredients being mingled, the mixture is strained through a fine sieve, and then ground in a colour-mill.

When roofs are to be covered, or when crumbling brick walls are to be coated, fine white sand is mixed with the paint, in the proportion of one pound to ten gallons of paint; this addition being made with a view to giving the ingredients a binding or petrifying quality. In applying this paint, except in very warm weather, it is prepared in a hot state; and in very cold weather precautions are necessary to prevent it from freezing. Three coats of this paint are deemed in most cases sufficient.

In another variety of this paint oil is the chief liquid ingredient. To prepare it forty gallons of boiled linseed oil are mixed with slacked lime to the consistence of a paint; and to this are added two pounds of alum, one pound of potash, and eight pounds of common salt; or good wood-ashes may be substituted for the potash. This paint is used in the same manner as other paint; and any colour may be obtained by adding the usual pigments to the composition.

The preparation of a kind of paint containing alkalies seems to have been a favourite measure among inventors of “fire-proof” composition; for many of the modern projects have had this for its basis. But in most cases there have not been means for determining the degree of efficacy possessed by these compositions. There were, however, a few years ago trials made of rather an interesting character, which were described in the public journals, and which were of the following nature.

In 1838, a company was formed for the sale and use of a composition of this kind, and an experiment was made in the Clapham Road to show its efficacy. The house, which was a small one, had been built in the usual way, with the intention of being fitted up in the ordinary style. While yet a mere shell, all the boards, timbers, floors, ceilings, stairs, and wood-work generally, were coated thickly with a greyish or slate-coloured composition, which dried to a state of great hardness.

On a particular day the upper floor was covered with shavings in great abundance, to which a number of deal planks were subsequently added. The first floor front room was fitted up as a chamber, with bed and furniture, chairs, tables, &c., as nearly as possible in the usual style. The shavings and wood on the upper floor were then kindled, as were also planks and shavings placed on the floor of the furnished room. The consequence of this was that the two rooms speedily exhibited a blaze of light: the whole of the furniture (purposely selected of an inexpensive kind) being ignited. The flames burst from the windows; but although the entire contents of the room were consumed, the fire did not communicate to the floor above, nor to that beneath, nor even to the other room on the same floor. Several small parcels of gunpowder were introduced between the ceiling of the burning room and the floor of the room above it; but they did not ignite; nor were the other parts of the house injured in any material degree.

Another trial took place at the White Conduit Gardens; where two close wooden buildings, of the size and shape of sentry boxes, were placed in the grounds. One of them was coated on the inside to the thickness of about an eighth of an inch with the composition, and was also partially covered on the outside; while the other was left in the plain wood state. A flooring was placed at about the centre of each of these, and through the holes in front shavings were put and then ignited. The box which was not coated with the composition was soon in flames; while the fire in the other went out without having had any effect upon the general structure. The building which was in flames was then placed contiguous to the partially-coated outside of the other, and although it was not materially injured, the exterior coating peeled off in some places, and the wood became charred; the interior, however, appeared perfectly uninjured by the flame.

If the results of these experiments were really such as the description would seem to imply, it might excite surprise how it happens that no practical results have followed. But there are always numerous reasons why an experiment, which succeeds under circumstances made for the occasion, should not be available in practice; and it is probable that some such discordance may exist here. Perhaps the mode in which we may more consistently look for the practical attainment of the object in view is by the adoption of some improved mode of building, in which either wood is not employed at all, or, where sparingly used, measures are taken to shield it from the action of fire. One such method is Leconte’s, described as follows.

This plan consists in the employment of iron frames to receive concrete matter for forming the walls. The basement story of the building is constructed according to the ordinary methods up to one foot or more above the ground. On the basement so constructed is to be erected the patent wall, formed of frames entirely of cast-iron, in one or more pieces, or a combination of cast-iron and wrought-iron plates. These frames are to be set one on the other until the required height is attained, the necessary stability being obtained by means of steady pins at the corners of one frame fitting into holes made in the corners of the frame which is opposed to it. Suitably-shaped frames are employed for the internal partition walls, and for doorways, window-frames, &c. The flues of the chimneys are formed of iron or other metal pipes, placed in the thickness of the walls. When the required elevation is obtained, a concrete of any suitable material is poured into the framing, and fills up the vacant space, giving firmness and solidity to the structure; the concrete being made of gravel and lime. To give steadiness, lead is to be introduced between the joinings of the iron-work. The doors and window-frames are to be fastened to the walls by any of the usual known methods. The main beams and cross beams of floors and roofs may be of cast-iron, or formed of iron and wood; or they maybe formed of one or more pieces of plate-iron, bent up into an oval form, and straightened by an iron or wooden bar passing through them lengthwise, the upper edges of the metal being turned over to increase the strength. In the interval between the beams there are to be iron rods running in various directions, and supporting a metallic wire-work, which forms the foundation for the ceiling. Similar wire-work is to be employed in lieu of laths for plaster surfaces. All the iron-work is to be painted over with some suitable composition to prevent oxidation.

A plan for the same purpose has been proposed by Mr. Varden as follows:—“It appears probable that common fir or oak joists with their lower edges chamfered, and coated over with a mixture of alum, black lead, clay, and lime, or some similar composition, would (if closely floored above with earthenware tiles, bedded all round into the plastering, the joists being made air-tight) resist the action of flames, at least for a considerable time. Fire could not descend through such a flooring so as to communicate with the rooms below, till the tiles used in it had become red-hot; neither could it ascend until the tiled floor above gave way, from the burning of the joists; which, if coated as proposed, would not take fire from below till the tiling over them acquired a sufficient heat to cause the distillation of the turpentine from the wood. In general, there is not furniture enough of a combustible nature in any room to do this. The battening against the outer walls might be of larch, as that wood burns less freely than most others; but if the walls were brick, or lined with brick, battening of any kind will be unnecessary. If this plan should be thought likely to answer the end proposed, houses built in the common manner might be altered at a moderate expense, by taking up the boarded floors, and substituting earthenware tiles.”

Another Plan, proposed by Mr. Frost, consists in forming the floors of rooms of hollow earthenware tubes embedded in cement, combined so as to form a sort of flag-stone, covering the whole floor. These hollow tubes are square in section, about an inch and a half on the side externally, with a tubular space of an inch and a quarter on the side internally; they are formed of brick earth, prepared in a superior manner, and pressed through moulds by machinery; and their length is about two feet. In forming a floor of these tubes, the centering, after being prepared and fixed in the usual manner, is first covered with a coating of cement of a quality sufficiently fine to form the ceiling of the apartment to be floored over; and if it is desired that there should be mouldings or ornaments in this ceiling or its cornices, moulds for them can be placed in the centering, so as to form a part of it. One or two coats of cement having I then been laid over the centering, a stratum of the square tubes laid side by side, and breaking joint, is next embedded in fine cement, and the interstices between them also filled in with that material. One thin coating of cement is then laid over the whole stratum; and in a week, when this is dry, another stratum of tubes is laid over the first in a contrary direction, bedded and filled in with cement as before, and finished by a coating of the same material. This, when dry, may have a second coating to serve as the floor of an upper apartment, or the covering of a roof, as the case might be.

Mr. Loudon gives descriptions of two methods, the one for building houses in general fire-proof, and the other for imparting that property to houses already built. He considers the two main points for consideration to be, to have staircases of iron or stone, or both combined, and to avoid having any hollow partitions or floors. A house having a stone or iron staircase, and having all the partitions either of four-inch brick-work, or of brick nogging, in whatever way it might be set on fire, could hardly be burned down, if ordinary exertions were made to extinguish the flames. 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 same material might be filled in between the joists, and where it was desired to render the roof fire-proof, the rafters might be made of iron, or the space between wooden rafters might be filled in with thin mortar. This mode of proceeding would lengthen the time required for the drying of a newly-built house, and would also add somewhat to the expense; but it is conceived that the increased safety would more than counterbalance these inconveniences.

In respect to the means of giving a fire-proof quality to a house already built, Mr. Loudon remarks:—“All the interstices between the floors, in the partitions, and in the roof, where there was a ceiling formed to the rafters, might perhaps be filled in with earthy matter in a state of powder. This powder might be clay or loam mixed with a small proportion of Roman cement; it might be injected into the vacuities, through small orifices, by some description of forcing-pump or bellows, which, while it forced in the powder, would permit the escape of the air; and, while this operation was going forward steam might be injected at the same time, so as to mix with the mortar and be condensed by it; by which means the whole mass would be solidified with a minimum of moisture. In short, in rendering houses fire-proof, the next important object to using fire-proof materials, is that of having all the walls and partitions, and even the steps of wooden staircases, filled in-with such materials as will render them in effect solid. On examining into the causes of the rapidity of the spread of the flames in London houses when on fire, it will almost invariably be found, that whatever may have occasioned the fire to break out, the rapidity of its progress has been in proportion to the greater or less extent of the lath and plaster partitions, the hollow wooden floors, and the wooden staircases. Were the occupiers of houses sufficiently aware of the danger from lath and plaster partitions, especially when inclosing staircases, they would never occupy such houses, or, if they did, they would not give such rents for them, as they would for houses with brick-nogging partitions. It appears to us to be the duty either of the general or local government or police to see that no houses whatever are built without stone or iron staircases; and that no partitions and floors are made hollow; or, if they are, that the materials should be iron and tiles, or slates, or stones, or cement, or other earthy composition.”

Chapter XIII.
MISCELLANEOUS PROCESSES.

The various processes and details which have occupied the preceding chapters, are for the most part necessary to the production of every house. There are, however, many articles of iron and a few of brass employed in the interior and exterior fittings; but were we to enter into details respecting the iron manufacture, in order to show the modes of producing these articles, it would be difficult to confine this volume within reasonable limits. A few miscellaneous processes and details may, however, be collected in this chapter.

The principal metallic articles employed in the construction or permanent fittings of a house, are nails and screws; hinges; locks and keys; stoves and grates; bells, and the mechanism for hanging them; iron railings and bars; brass handles, plates, and other decorations; latches and fastenings, &c.