2£0 



USE OF IRON FOR FURNITURE 



valuable piece of furniture, in removal, either by the care- 

 lessness of the people employed, or its unmanageable size, 

 is almost sure to be very much injured. 

 Other advan- Indeed there is great scope here for ingenuity and im- 

 ages \ pro^ement; it would give employ to vast numbers of men ; 



it would consume our own produce, that is iron ; we should 

 get an article that would endure for ages ; and we should in 

 part be independent of any other country, for the material 

 that forms a beautiful and useful ornament in our houses. 



Particularly for 'Consider the advantage a scarce and valuable library*, 

 libraries. . . 



fitted up with light iron shelves and doors, would have in 



case of fire. The iron pannels, as well as the doors, would 

 always tit tight, and never warp, as wood does; and if en- 

 veloped in flame, being almost if not quite air tight, it would 

 be next to impossible, that the books or valuable manu- 

 scripts should be burnt, or so destroyed, let the lire be ever 

 so intense, as to be lost. They might be blackened, and in 

 part reduced to a state almost like that of the papiri at Her- 

 culaneum, were the fire to continue a great length of time 

 without interruption ; but they would not be entirely lost ; 

 and labour and patience might restore them to the world. 

 Those valuable articles of antiquity, or indeed all valuable 

 documents, that in their wooden cases are ever in danger n£ 

 being lost to the world by fire, would be secure if preserved 

 in iron. Modern publications, indeed, can always be re- 

 stored to the sufferer, at a price ; but to save those, that 

 would be for ever lost to society, those that no money could 

 purchase, no power on Earth could restore, is surely an ob- 

 ject ardently to be desired. 

 Doors. Doors for halls, doors of all kinds, with light iron frames, 



and neatly pannclk'd, would be neither heavier, nor dearer, 

 I thinl:, than those now in u^e; and if they should be a little 

 heavier, custom would soon reconcile us to the use of them. 

 In case of fire, an iron door might perhaps save the contents 

 of a valuable room; instead of serving, as doors now do, to 

 conduct the devouring element to the next apartment. 

 Drawing-room doors, especially, and various other articles, 

 if expense were no object, might be made of more beautiful 

 and delicate workmanship, than it is possible to produce in 

 wood. For instance, all kinds of Gothic scrolls, might be 



made 



