AUGUST IT. 1899. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



283 



A. Ketterer, corresponding secretary; 

 H. Lundt, financial secretary. They 

 have sixty-five members, and meet at 

 1536 Third avenue the second and 

 fourth Tuesdays in the month. The 

 entire membership consists of garden- 

 ers employed in the department of 

 public parks. These men have accom- 

 plished a great deal of good toward 

 elevating the craft and wresting the 

 department from the whirlpools of 

 politics. They have raised the stand- 

 ard of wages to $65 a month, with no 

 loss of time, and are now suing for 

 a raise to $75 per month, with every 

 chance of success; there are only a 

 handful of what are called "scabs" in 

 the way of an unanimous voice in the 

 matter. IVERA. 



GLAZING. 



[From the Florists' Manual, by William Scott. J 



A most important part of green- 

 house construction. Poor putty, if the 

 glass is lapped and poorly laid, is a 

 source of constant annoyance, waste 

 of coal and injury to the plants. When 

 the glass is butted, unless the house is 

 well and truly built, it will be a botch 

 and failure and will bring censure on 

 this excellent method, which under 

 most circumstances is the way to glaze 

 a commercial house. Some critics may 

 say if good for the commercial man 

 why not for all glass structures? The 

 lapped method is more expensive, but 

 if well and properly laid is undoubted- 

 ly a good job, but the butted plan is 

 quicker to lay, easier to repair, much 

 less expensive, and if you ever want to 

 alter or move your houses or wish to 

 remove the glass you can do so with 

 perfect ease. As to tightness for mak- 

 ing a warm house both methods when 

 thoroughly done will do that, with a 

 preference toward the butted system. 



Lapped or Puttied. 



Where the modern iron frame houses 

 are built the bar used is usually very 

 light, but well supported by a num- 

 ber of purlins. On these houses the 

 glass is usually lapped and there are 

 only one or two points to observe. The 

 putty should be of good quality and to 

 it should be added one-fifth of white 

 lead. The glass should be pressed down 

 till the putty is spread out evenly and 

 over the entire surface of the shoul- 

 der of the bar; this will save much 

 labor when you take off the back put- 

 ty, as there will be no holes to fill up. 



In old style glazing you saw laps of 

 all sizes from a sixteenth of an inch to 

 one inch. The longer the lap the 

 more place for dust and dirt to lodge 

 with no means or chance to clean it 

 out, so you have a dark strip across at 

 the junction of every light. One-eighth 

 of an inch is the ideal length of a lap 

 for any size glass and it makes just as 

 warm a house as a lap of two inches. 



The best thing I have found to hold 

 the glass down as well as to hold it 

 from slipping down is the Van Reyper 

 ■ glazing point. It is a small double 

 staple which has a shoulder in the top 

 or end that both holds down the glass 



and at the same time prevents its slip- 

 ping. 



Houses that are glazed with putty 

 should have a coat of paint after the 

 glass is in, regardless of how many 

 coats the bars have had before they 

 were put up. One-eighth an inch is 

 usually allowed between the bars; this 

 allows only one-sixteenth of an inch 

 on each side between the glass and the 

 wood. 



Butted Glass. 



The unfavorable reports and con- 

 demnation of this system are largely 

 from two sources, mostly by men who 

 never tried in the right way, or per- 

 haps tried it on an old house that was 

 formerly glazed with putty, and the 

 other people whose houses were not 

 built correct enough and made straight 

 and true. Square cut glass will not fit 

 crooked plate and bars. 



In the first place you must use the 

 cypress cap and bar that is especially 

 made for the purpose and your bars 

 must be put on true and parallel. One- 

 sixteenth of an inch is all you want 

 for play between bars. It should be 

 just that and nothing more or less; 

 this is very particular. Some carpen- 

 ters mark out on the ridge and plate 

 the place for the bars, others will cut 

 a strip of hardwood, one to be used at 

 ridge and one at plate. If the strip is 

 one-sixteenth inch longer than width 

 of glass and the bar is nailed up to the 

 stick carefully every time, top and 

 bottom, you can't go very far wrong; 

 yet every ten bars or so you should 

 prove by a rod that you are keeping 

 the bar at top and bottom parallel. 

 You can make up any discrepancy with 

 putty. Putty, like charity, covers a 

 multitude of sins. With butted glass 

 you must be correct, and it is just as 

 easy to be so. 



Don't trust to any carpenter, how- 

 ever many houses he has built; prove 

 for yourself that he is right. When 

 the bar is nailed to the plate see that 

 the face of the bar on which the glass 

 rests and the slope of the plate are ex- 

 actly flush. If the bar is a trifle below 

 the plate it is difficult to remedy. If 

 it is a trifle above it can easily be 

 taken off with a chisel. The bar can 

 always be straightened on the purlin 

 when you lay the glass, or straightened 

 by a straight-edge and fastened in 

 place before you begin to lay the glass. 



The glass should not be lapped on 

 the plate more than half an inch; the 

 less glass there is resting on the wood 

 the less likelihood of breakage by ice. 

 The glass should always without fail 

 be laid with the rounding part up; all 

 glass is more or less convex and con- 

 cave. The thin edge of the glass (if 

 there is a choice) should always lead 

 up the bar. If you were to put the 

 thick edge up and it butted against a 

 thin one there would be a small space 

 for the water to lodge. The man who 

 lays the glass, if he has any brains at 

 all. will be able to see these points at 

 a glance and lay it about as quick as 

 a boy can hand it to him. Remember 

 that is all he has to do; there is no 

 putty and no brads, no squeezing and 



thumbing, no squinting and swearing, 

 it is only to lay the glass in, and so 

 you go on to the top. 



In laying out the length of the bar 

 we try to make it so that a certain 

 number of lights just fill up from 

 plate to ridge. If that is not conve- 

 nient you can always make it so that 

 a half light will finish at the top. 

 When you know exactly what sized 

 fraction of a light you need (if any) 

 you will have them all cut ready; it 

 is just as well to use the small piece 

 at the bottom. 



Before we lay any glass we drive in 

 two wire six-penny nails, half an inch 

 below edge of plate, but only drive 

 them in a small depth, just enough to 

 hold the lights while you are laying 

 them. This can be done before you be- 

 gin to glaze and by a man standing on 

 the ground. When the whole run of 

 glass is in and before you screw down 

 the cap the man nearest the bottom, 

 with the end of his chisel handle, gives 

 the glass a good push up, closing up 

 any space, however small, and then 

 drives in his bottom nails. They should 

 be driven close down to the glass or 

 they will impede snow and ice slipping 

 off. Now this effectually prevents the 

 glass from slipping, and if the bottom 

 light does not how can the others? 



One inch round-headed screws are 

 used to screw down the cap, the first 

 screw two inches from the bottom and 

 one exactly at every joint or butt. A 

 boy can get these caps ready because 

 you will have one cap as a pattern, and 

 with a ratchet drill the caps can be 

 ready with the screws already lightly 

 tapped in, and when the two men lay- 

 ing the glass call for the cap up it goes 

 and the men who have ratchet screw- 

 drivers soon have the screws down in 

 their place. Don't screw down too 

 tightly, just firm and solid is enough. 

 You will, of course, need one screw 

 within an inch or so of the ridge. 



Be sure to have the ventilators made 

 the same way with cap and bar, and to 

 take the same size glass. Have but 

 one size glass on the place if possible, 

 and as little cutting as possible. I do 

 not like to disparage any device that 

 is made and sent abroad in good faith 

 by a fellow florist, but in justice to 

 those who will follow my advice I 

 must candidly say the zinc strips that 

 are made to go between glass when 

 butted are a miserable failure and a 

 nuisance. You want nothing between 

 them or under them; simply the cap. 



Any size glass can be butted. We 

 have it on 12, 14 and 16 inch square 

 and always double thick. We prefer to 

 use glass that is square, that is, 14x14 

 or 16x16. Then you have the choice of 

 two edges, and if one is a little rough 

 you can use the other. If glass is laid 

 as described above it will save you 

 many dollars. It is a smooth, fine 

 roof, more air tight than lapped glass. 

 The drip is nothing, absolutely noth- 

 ing, if well and properly laid; if there 

 should be a trifle it is always at the 

 bottom, which in commercial houses 

 would fall in the path. And if a little 

 dust creeps in, and it will creep in 



