%66 NEW METHOD OF SLATING. 



VI. 



On a new Method of Slating, and constructing tlie Roofs of 

 Houses: by Mr. Lewin Tugwell*. 



Principles of ^ JL HE leading principles of Mr. Tugwell's plan are, to 

 method of* S save s * ate ancJ tmi ker, tn »s diminishing the expense of a 

 roofing. roof; and at the same time to render it secure against the 



admission of wind or water. The saving of slate is effected 

 by lowering the pitch of the roof. This likewise diminishes 

 the length of the rafters, which at the same time are placed 

 farther asunder than usual; and besides this the boarding, 

 usually placed under slates to keep out the wet, is dispensed 

 with entirely. An additional advantage he observes is con- 

 nected with his roof. It possesses such superior strength, 

 as to be capable of sustaining, if necessary, partitions, and 

 floors connected with them, even down to the ceilings of 

 the modern enlarged dining rooms, if they be appropriately 

 constructed and suspended from it; thus superseding the 

 necessity of the otherwise expensive and complicated con- 

 struction of spliced beams, ceiling joists, &c, saving tim- 

 ber and workmanship in these also ; and finally, by thus 

 combining in a frame the roof, partitions, and floors of a 

 building, of rendering the whole much more firm and com- 

 pact, than any mode hitherto used. 

 His ne\r mode The peculiarities of the mode, and as such necessary to 

 described. be pointed out, cannot be described, and consist in, 



1st. A diminution in its elevation, seen in the beam-raf- 

 ters A A, PI. VIII, fig. 1, giving an angle of only twelve 

 degrees from the horizon, whereby both its timbers and slates 

 will be lessened in quantity in a ratio generally as of three 

 to four. 



2c%. The increased distance of these rafters, as at B B, 

 fig. 2, one from another, i. e. to two feet. And as, in the 

 modes hitherto used, they are generally at not more than 15 

 inches asunder, a farther saving will therein be found of 



• Abridged from the Letters and Papers of the Bath and West of Eng- 

 land Society, vol. XI, 



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