German Renaissance
OnMahommedan Architecturethe student should read not only the section (Vol. 2, pp. 422–427) in the articleArchitecture, with eight illustrations, but the separate articles
On the more recent period, the 19th century, roughly, the student should supplement the last part of the articleArchitectureby reading the following articles
The sections of the articleArchitecturedealing with France and Germany in the last two generations may best be supplemented by a study of the articlesParis,Berlin,Vienna, andBudapest.
The following is a brief alphabetical list of architectural articles and topics in theBritannica, including topics for the builder and contractor.
The Builder’s Problems
The rapid increase in population, and especially in its density, the congestion in great cities, with the consequent building up of suburbs; and the equally rapid upward tendency in the scale of comfort, are factors of modern civilization which make the work of the builder and contractor increasingly complex. The good builder is probably much commoner than ever before, in spite of the popular impression that building materials are poorer and that construction work is more often “scamped” than they used to be. Increased transportation facilities make the builder much less dependent on local and often inadequate materials. And there has been a change in the theory and practice of government: the old easy-going policy has been abandoned, and new laws, strictly enforced, have resulted in such inspection and control of building operations as would have seemed tyranny to the builder of a generation ago and as make modern buildings, especially in cities, much safer than ever before. Insurance companies have done much to the same end.
There is a general prejudice against the modern builder on the part of the temperamental “praiser of the past.” Occasionally similar complaints are made even against the builders of the past. Kipling sings:
Who shall doubt the secret hidUnder Cheops’ pyramidWas that a contractor didCheops out of several millions?Or that Joseph’s sudden riseTo Comptroller of SuppliesWas a fraud of monstrous sizeOn King Pharaoh’s swart civilians?
Who shall doubt the secret hidUnder Cheops’ pyramidWas that a contractor didCheops out of several millions?Or that Joseph’s sudden riseTo Comptroller of SuppliesWas a fraud of monstrous sizeOn King Pharaoh’s swart civilians?
Who shall doubt the secret hidUnder Cheops’ pyramidWas that a contractor didCheops out of several millions?Or that Joseph’s sudden riseTo Comptroller of SuppliesWas a fraud of monstrous sizeOn King Pharaoh’s swart civilians?
Who shall doubt the secret hid
Under Cheops’ pyramid
Was that a contractor did
Cheops out of several millions?
Or that Joseph’s sudden rise
To Comptroller of Supplies
Was a fraud of monstrous size
On King Pharaoh’s swart civilians?
The mere duration of the pyramids, undamaged except by the hand of man, is an answer to such a charge; and in the Britannica articlePyramidthe reader will find (Vol. 22, p. 683) that even where the hidden material was rubbly or of mudbricks, “the casings were not a mere veneer, but were of massive blocks, usually greater in thickness than in height”—in other words, that the construction was of the best character.
But the builder must be a far better-informed man under present conditions than ever before. To give him the necessary information there is a large and growing literature ranging from builders’ and contractors’ pocket manuals to special periodicals. This literature is expensive, and like all special literature puts the intending purchaser in a difficult position, forif he buys it all, he must pay much more than the returns from his purchase warrant, and he will then have toread it alland use his own judgment in deciding what is best. If he does not buy all, he must be an expert, not merely in every branch of his business but in the bibliography of his business, to make a wise selection,—and if he is sufficiently expert for this he will probably need no such library. But he will find, to a remarkable degree, the best of all that there is in such special literature in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, with the strongest assurance of its being authoritative, and with the certainty that for an outlay, small in comparison with what he would make for such special information elsewhere, he will get the guidance that he needs for his work and also information as excellent on any other subject that he or any member of his family may wish to pursue.
The key or foundation article for the builder or contractor isBuilding(Vol. 4, p. 762), by James Bartlett, lecturer on construction, etc., King’s College, London, who has contributed other articles on related topics. The article deals with:
The relation of building to architecture and with building laws and special types of plans according to local governmental requirements
The conditions necessary for a successful building, namely—ease of access, good light, good service, pleasing environment and approaches, minimum cost with true economy, and, for office buildings, ease of arrangement to suit tenants
Construction, its general principles
Materials of construction, especially stone and brick
Particular objects of construction
Foundation walls
Footings to walls
General procedure for an intended building
Builder’s sphere
American building acts
Fire-resisting construction.
This general article is supplemented by the following articles:
Foundation, containing 13 diagrams and paragraphs on: load on foundation; trial boring; construction; types—concrete piers, pile foundations, concrete piles, plank foundations, caissons, well foundations, coffer dams, dock foundations, cantilever foundations, building on sand (at Cape Henlopen, Delaware)
Caisson
Masonry, with 18 diagrams, and with special treatment of tools, including hammers, mallets, saws, chisels, setting tools, hoisting appliances; of seasoning stone; of setting stones; of use of mortar; of bonding; slip joints; footings; walling; random; coursed rubble, ashlar, etc.; backing to stone work; pointing and stonewash. There is also a brief vocabulary of technical terms and a discussion of methods of facing; joints; cramps; dowels; joggles; stone arches; tracery and carving; and the articlesAshlar,Rag-stone,Random
Cement, with 3 figures; description and analysis of Pozzuolanic and Portland cement; mixing; loading of kilns; types of kilns; cement clinker; testing; hydrauliclime; Roman cement; natural cements; Passow cement; uses of hydraulic cement; calcium sulphate cements
Concrete, with 16 illustrations and paragraphs on constituents; proportions; mixing; moulds; depositing; strength; durability; convenience and appearance; resistance to fire; cost; artificial stones; steel concrete, including columns, piles, beams, floor slabs, etc.; concrete arches
Mortar, with sections on slaking; hardening; magnesia in mortar; strengths; adhesion, decay, effects of salt and frost; legal restrictions; limes and cements for mortar
Lime
Brick, with sections on brick-clays and brick-making
Brickwork, with 15 diagrams; sections on hollow walls; materials and labor; varieties of bricks; strength of brickwork; mortar; pointing; footing; binding; prevention of damp; arches and plates; chimneys and flues; brick paving
Basement
House, with 17 illustrations
Bungalow
Carpentry, with 36 diagrams showing joints, notching, cogging, dovetail, housing, halving, mortise, tenons, wedging, dowelling, turning-piece, lintel, floors, strutting, partition, half timber construction, braced frame; and descriptive text on these and other topics
Steel Construction, with 4 illustrations; sections on skeleton and steel-cage construction; local laws; protection from corrosion; columns; girders; floors; windbracing; materials; floor-filling; partitions; time and cost of construction
Stone, with sections on constitution, colour, testing, preservatives, natural bed, seasoning, varieties, artificial stone
Marble, a descriptive article, about 4000 words long
Granite, with descriptions and analyses of typical granites
Limestone, about 2500 words
Timber, with paragraphs on: felling timber, conversion of timber—with diagram of bastard and quarter sawing; seasoning; defects; decay; preservation of timber; varieties, with description of the principal coniferous and hard woods—and separate articles onPine,Fir,Larch,Cedar,Birch,Beech,Chestnut,Walnut,Elm,Teak,Mahogany,Maple, etc.
Half-timber Work
Chimney-piece
Scaffold, with 4 figures; sections on bricklayers’ and masons’ scaffolds, material, erection, gantries, derrick towers, cradles, chimney scaffolds, accidents
Shoring, with 8 figures; sections on raking shores; braces, horizontal or flying shores; needle, vertical and dead, shoring; rules and sizes for all shores
Staircase, divided into architecture and construction, the latter having 4 diagrams, description of dog-legged or newel stair, open newel stair, geometrical stair, circular stair, spiral stairs; a defining vocabulary of technical terms; concrete and stone; moving inclines; local building laws
Baluster
Balustrade
Elevator, with 3 illustrations; paragraphs on history; construction, essentials of design; safety devices; traveling staircases; freight elevators
Parquetry
Ceiling
Roofs, with 23 figures and two plates; with sections on forms of roof, trusses, open timber roofs, mansards; iron roofs, covering materials—felt corrugated iron, zinc, lead, copper, “tin,” slate, tiles, miscellaneous—weight of roofs, building laws; and separatearticles onSlate,Tile,Tin,Tin Plate, etc.
Plaster Work, with paragraphs on lathing, metal lathing, limes, hair, substitutes for hair, sand, external work, rough stucco, roughcast or pebble-dash, sgraffito, internal work, three coats, moulding, cracks, slabs, fibrous plaster.
Joinery, with 13 illustrations, and treating such topics as: tools and materials; joints, mitre, dovetail, etc.; warping; moulding; flooring, including wood block and parquet; skirting, dados; picture rails; windows, bay windows; shutters; shop-fronts; doors; church work; ironmongery, including hinges, locks, etc.
Door
Doorway
Casement
Windows
Glazing
Stained Glass
Wall Coverings, with sections on marble wall-lining, mosaic, tiles, metal sheeting, tapestry, wall-papers—and seeMural Decoration.
Painter-Work, dealing with paint bases, vehicles, thinners, driers, pigments, enamel, paints, woodwork paints, varnish, gums, French polishes, putty, tools, workmanship, graining, marbling, painting on plaster and on iron, repainting on old work, blistering and cracking, distemper, gilding, etc.
Sewerage
Lighting, with sections on oil, gas and electric lighting
Lightning Conductor
Heating, with sections on open fires, closed stoves, gas fires, electrical heating, oil stoves, low pressure hot water, high pressure hot water, steam heating, hot water supply, safety valves, geysers, incrustation, Lockport central steam supply
Ventilation, with sections on rate of air consumption, ventilation of buildings, with table; chimney draught; other outlets; inlets; window and door ventilation; arrangements in barracks, in public buildings, exhaust cowls; extraction of vitiated air; fans; water spray ventilation; extraction by hot-air shaft; measurement of air; systems in public buildings
Both the builder and contractor will find valuable information to govern their financial relations with their clients in the articleBuilding Societies, of which the American part is by Carroll D. Wright, late United States Commissioner of Labor.
The contractor will find the following articles of importance to him, in addition to those of more particular interest for the builder:
and the articleRailway, with the other articles on railway construction listed in the chapterFor Railroad Menin this Guide.
For an alphabetical list of the principal articles and topics of interest to builders and contractors, see the end of the chapterFor Architectsin this Guide.
CHAPTER XVIIFOR DECORATORS AND DESIGNERS
All the Arts in One
The decorator and designer is a specialist in his purposes rather than in his methods, and his taste and judgment must be based upon a wide range of information. His selection and combination of decorative factors call for a knowledge of architectural design, of painting, sculpture, furniture, textiles, pottery, enamels, embroideries, laces and all the other arts, crafts and products that contribute to the perfecting of “the house beautiful.” The variety of the materials at his command offers him infinite possibilities of successful achievement, and as many temptations to incoherence and exuberance. The highest success in decoration can be attained only when the designer possesses the resources of all these arts and crafts, and failure perhaps comes oftenest through too exclusive a use of one medium of expression because it is the one with which the designer feels he can most competently deal. The ideal should be not only to employ, but to enlarge, the scope of every contributory medium of form or colour, as Wagner found new possibilities in the use of every musical instrument in one orchestra. This practical usefulness of versatility is clearly indicated in one of the articles, characteristic of the Britannica, where one great expert writes about the work of another. William Morris and Walter Crane have been the leaders of the modern revival of artistic interest in the daily accessories of life; and Crane in the Britannica (Vol. 2, p. 701) says of Morris that his influence is to be attributed to his having “personally mastered the working details and handling of each craft he took up in turn, as well as to his power of inspiring his helpers and followers. He was painter, designer, scribe, illuminator, wood-engraver, dyer, weaver and, finally, printer and paper-maker; and, having effectively mastered these crafts he could effectively direct and criticize the work of others.” Obviously, few men can afford to devote forty years, as Morris did, to the close study and actual practice of all these pursuits, and still fewer could hope to develop so many manual dexterities. But any earnest student can become a competent critic in all these varied fields, and can retain an equal appreciation of all the materials and methods employed, if he will enlarge and refresh his knowledge by constant reading of the best authorities. The comprehensiveness of the Britannica makes it, for such purposes, invaluable to the designer and decorator, no matter how many technical books his working library may contain.
The Influence of Architecture
Since harmony of proportion, the essence of architecture, is also the primary law of interior decoration, the reader of the present chapter may well begin his reading with a number of the articles described in the chapterFor Architects, of which only those dwelling most upon the use of ornament and colour need be separately mentioned in this connection. The articleArchitecture(Vol. 2, p. 369) is by R. Phené Spiers, formerly master of the Architectural School of the English Royal Academy, with sections on special periods and schools of architecture by other famous authorities. Oriental architecture, with its elaboration of detail, is peculiarly suggestive to the decorator, who may be surprised to find, in the Britannica, treatises so highly specialized asIndian Architecture(Vol. 14, p.428), by Dr. James Burgess, editor of the standard book on the subject, theHistory of Indian Architecture; the architectural part ofChina,Art(Vol. 6, p. 214), by Lawrence Binyon, whose work in the great British Museum collection has made his reputation as one of the foremost modern critics; andJapan,Art(Vol. 15, p. 181), by Capt. Frank Brinkley, whose many years of study in Japan have given him an exceptional mastery of the subject. Among other articles dealing with the decorative aspects of architecture areOrder(Vol. 20, p. 176),Capital(Vol. 5, p. 275), andHouse(Vol. 13, p. 810), with its exquisite full page plates.