718

THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE.
Book II.
our province, except to notice them. With this subject is connected the varieties of
revolving nkiitters in iron, wood, or steel, and with or without machinery; and made to
lift up, or down, or to move sideways. A revolving safety shutter in one sheet of steel
is probably the last invention ;
it requires no machinery. Where the old method of
putting up shutters exists, Jennings's shop-shutter shots secure them as they are each put
up, without the necessity of any i^huttc^ bar.
22b'^q. Wrought iron u-ive bins, and new registered iron bins, adapted for small quan-
tities of wine, placed in a closet in a sitting or other room, and with or without doors,
will be found a useful addition in small houses.
ORNAMENTAL METAL WORK.
22bbh. The ornamental portion of smith's work has been largely introduced, of late
years especially, in wrought iron shaped by hand into various devices and patterns, more
especially according to the several periods of mediaeval architecture. The taite is chiefly
developed in gates, railings, altar and staircase standards, screens, grilles and gratings,
tombs, hinge fronts, the band finishing either in a flf'ur de lis or trident, reaching to
about three-fourths of the width of the door, and of gths iron
;
or in some scrollwork,
which curls and scrolls over the entire face of the dour; shutter hinges, common door
hinges; gable crosses, terminals, vanes, and hipknobs
;
ridge crestings; drop handles
with plates, closing rings and plates
;
lock plates and escutcheons, knockers, keys, latches
and bolts, bell pulls, levers and plate pulls
;
umbrella stands
;
scrapers
;
fenders and
fire-irons; dog-grates; lecterns and book rests; candlesticks, gas, lamp, and candle
pendants and brackets, desk lights, and standards; coronse lucis, lanterns, and pillars.
It is almost unnecessary to add that many of these articles are to be had in polished
brass, and that many of them are imitated in cast iron. Wrought and cast iron, as in
panelled work to gates, are sometimes employed together, the wrought parts enclosing
the panels.
2255/. As iron has now neither the tenacity nor the ductility whii-h it gained by the
old process of being repeatedly forged, the modern smith can scarcely hope to emulate
the tine works which were produced in mediaeval times, unless the iron be made for the
purpose. It is not easy to repeat the mediaeval operations of slotting a bar, so as to get the
eyes at equal distances, without a machine ; or of fastening hot (or, as in later times,
cold) clips
;
or of cutting slits into a bar from the edge, and then curling the splintered
parts; yet these were common work for the smith in the 12th century. It is equally
difficult to produce the twisted work which was easy to the mediaeval smith, whoso chief
care in the 13th and 14th centuries was bestowed in welding, stamping, and chiselling
;
the file was scarcely ever used. In welding he was careful to fire the two parts separately,
getting the upper one to a white heat, the lower part to a red heat, and hammering the
joint lightly at first, but harder as the iron grew colder. He disguised the uneven state
of the upper part by punching on it separate dots, or else close ones, forming a sort of
incised line.
2255J.
In very large specimens of ancient work, some parts are additions entirely
Welded, others are additions confined at the ends by bands, which are welded across the
groundwork. To imitate work of the 13th century, such as a grille, requires a drawing: at
full size, and a matrix for each leaf or bud. with an anvil cut to eacdi section which a bar
or a band is to assume ; this last se(-ms, with regard to the bar, to have been overlooked
by M. VioUet-le-Duc. Then, when a bar has been rounded (if needtul), and the end
stamped, the curl is given, and the smith Iws a stalk with a foot. Two of these must be
applied to the drawing to have the point of junction marked, and the feet are to be welded
together. If the sprigs then made are to be combined into br.inches, the larger stem is to
be prepared
;
and, if moulded on the face, this was passed between the hammer and the
cut anvil by a process equivalent to rolling the bar. After the sprigs are welded with the
branch, the poverty of the joint is perhaps to be masked
;
usually the mask was a moulded
band, to which an ornament, e.g. a cup of foliage, was sometimes added ; but frequently
the band was superseded by a stamped button. After the feet of the branches are welded
to the trunk or main stem, bands are laid over the junction, are welded, and are finished
with the chisel. The whole has to be riveted to the framework. The size and weight
of the pieces at the last times of welding were difficulties that were partly obviated after
1250 by omitting the welded bands.
2255^'. These operations were superseded by the introduction of sheet iron, in England
before 1300, in Germany before 1400, and in France soon afterwards, which was cut
and bossed to a remarkable extput, sometimes stamped, and frequently welded, but
later was riveted. In work of the 15th century the bars are neither stamped nor
cha::ed, and the sheets are riveted rnstead of being welded ; but later they are cither
planted or housed. Finally, the mediaeval smith re'urned to the slots, mortises, and