of Building Houses, Streets, ^c. 99 



tiple of the cask, and the materials formed into girders or 

 Iwops resting on eaeh other, so as to render it impossible 

 either to force its walls in or out; and hence the greatest 

 strength with the least consumption of materials. 



That as hoops may be fonned of the materials to connect 

 the parts of a building with firmness, so, to apply the idea 

 of the cask further, staves may be framed of wood or other 

 materials (fig. 2.), to be connected by hoops or bolts, and 

 the opienings, except such as may be required for doors and 

 windows, may be pannelled, plastered, or bricked up. 



Thus, large structures of great strength, durability, and 

 lightness (and portable buildings), may be framed at the 

 least expense, for barns, manufactories, 8cc., while the face 

 of the country would be rendered extremely picturesque and 

 beautiful thereby, covered, as it were, with temples. 



That the natural form of covering or roof for a circular 

 building is the dome, which may also be constructed on the 

 principle of the cask to any extent, or of hoops or rings di- 

 minishing upwards and resting on each other, extremely 

 light, durable, and strong. 



That the dome is the best form of roof for rcsistino- all 

 kinds of weather, requiring no other sujjport than it has 

 intrinsicaHy ; and hence it is a hollow structure affording 

 space for rooms which in other roofs is occupied by timbers, 

 and therefore requires less materials, while the dome is ac- 

 knowledged to be both externally and internallv extremely 

 beautiful ; the only form of roof, perhaps, that is so; whence 

 other roofs have been purpo&ely hidden by the walls, giving 

 to edifices the appearance of mere inclosures. 



That the distribution of the timbers of the floors accordino" 



o 



to fig. 3. wov'dd save timber and give great stifiiiess and so- 

 lidity to the floors, as the shorter timbers would require a 

 proport4onably less diameter, and the divisions of the house 

 Into apartments may rest upon and support the timber*. 

 Or, if required, the Hoors may be more strongly and flaily 

 vaulted with masonry than in other forms of building, owing:; 

 to the power of supporting lateral pressure in walls built npoa 

 the principle I have suggested ; and the ceilings might be 

 G 2 Inrnicd 



