1869. ] TOBTABLE AND OONVEBTIBLE GLASS SCBEENS. 281 



with a fixing nut, — and the screen is finished. The ends are made to fit anywhere., 

 so that the screen may be shortened and lengthened at pleasure. In fact, it can 

 be adapted to any position, and erected or taken down almost as soon as this 

 description of its construction and dissolution can be read. 



Fig. 1 shows the glass screen secured to the wall by a hook or staple, and keyed 

 to the cast-iron base. The base, that is, the wall or ground plate, may be fastened 

 to a plank, or to plugs driven into the ground at intervals, or to brick pinning ; 

 in either case a proper level must be retained. Fig. 2 shows the screen con- 

 verted into an upright span vinery, or orchard house, by placing two lengths of 

 it back to back, and fastening them together. Fig. 3 shows the same screen con- 

 verted into a valuable span, or lean-to, by reversing the bars ; the short end being- 

 turned towards the base, and keyed with a pin. 



The thorough portability of Beard's screens may be said to be the parent of 

 their convertibility ; they are readily moved, and as readily converted to other uses 

 after being transposed. About the middle or end of May, for instance, they 

 might disappear from the face of our walls, since the fruit and trees will then 



grow, and finish both crop and wood, as well or better without them. Here 

 there is, say, a hundred feet run of glass relieved from active service. What shall 

 we do with it ? It may simply be reserved for future use, for it can be snugly 

 and safely stored in the smallest space, and kept again till the following February 

 or March. And this has mostly been the manner of treating wood or glass screens 

 that have possessed a sort of portability in the form of sashes ; and for such screens, 

 possibly, the storing-away method was as good as any, for they were pre-eminently 

 perishable. But these iron-bar screens are not only portable, but indestructible. 

 Who can wear out or rust out glass ? and iron coated with magnetic paint will last 

 for many long lives. Time will, indeed, rot felt, but enough for a screen can be 

 had ready for use for a few shillings. With such screens in our hands, it would 

 be a sheer waste of power, or a glaring improvidence of useful resources, not to 

 use them constantly. There is not a garden of any pretensions in the country 

 where 100 yards of such glass screens could not find constant and profitable 

 employment throughout the year. The moment they could be released from the 

 walls, they could be placed over vines, either on walls, on espaliers, or on the 



