1839.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



361 



IMPROVEMENTS IN BUILDING. 



Our indefatigable friend and fellow labourer, Mr. Loudon, during 

 the last summer made a tour in the Midland Counties and collected 

 much valuable information, which he has published in the Gardener's 

 Jiiagazine. That part which more immediately relates to the objects 

 of our Journal, Mr. Loudon has kindly given us permission to publish, 

 accompanied by the mood engravings. 



Milford and Belper, a few miles from Derby, are two of the scenes 

 of the' extensive manufacturing operations of the Messrs. Strutt ; and 

 here we saw some contrivances, which we think, if more known, 

 would be extensively used. Among these the most important is, the 

 system of warming and ventilating invented by the late Mr. William 

 Strutt, and first used in these works, and described in Sylvester's 

 Philosop/iij 0/ Domestic Economy, 4to, Lond. 1821, and now in general 

 nse tliroughout Britain for large buildings ; but there are various 

 others, some of which we shall attempt to describe. 



Cottage Windom Staybar. — ^One of the most universally useful of 

 these is a window fastening, or staybar, as it is technically called, for 

 cottage windows, or the windows of manufactories, or, indeed, build- 

 ings of any kind where the windows are fixed, and do not slide in 

 grooves, or are not suspended by lines and weights. This contrivance 

 has the merit of being perfectly simple, very economical in its first 

 cost, and not liable to go out of order. The same principle is appli- 

 cable to the opening and shutting of doors and gates of almost every 

 kind, as well as to windows. To give an idea of the value of this 

 contrivance, it is necessary to observe that, in the latticed windows of 

 cottiges, there is very frequently either one entire frame, or a portion 

 in the centre of one, which opens, and is kept open, by an iron staybar 

 witli an eye at one end, which moves on a staple attached to the fixed 

 part of the sash, and a hook at the other which drops into an eye in 

 die part of the sash which is to be opened. Now, the objection to 

 tills hooked fastener is, that as there is only one eye for the hook to 

 drop into, the window can only be opened to the same width, whether 

 the ventilation required be little or much ; and, when the staybar is 

 not in use, it hangs down, and is 

 blown about, and very frequently 

 bleaks the glass. The new stay- 

 bar, on the other hand, opens the 

 window or door to which it may be 

 applied to various widths at plea- 

 sure, from an inch to the whole 

 width of the window or door, and 

 the staybar can never hang down, 

 or run the slightest risk of breaking 

 glass. The general appearance of 

 the new staybar, supposing the 

 window to be open to its full ex- 

 tent, is shown in Fig. 9.5, in which 

 a is the staybar, which turns on 

 the pivot b at one end, and slides 

 along a horizontal groove under 

 the guide bar c at the other. 



Fig. 96 is a view of the staybar apart from the window, showing 

 the eye d, the handle e, and the stud f, which drops into holes in the 

 horizontal groove, so as to keep the window open at any desired angle. 



d 



96 



Fig. 97 is a view of the groove and the guide-bar. g is the guide- 

 bar or small rod which is for the purpose of keeping the staybar in its 

 place in the grooved; 2 2 are two plates with holes, by which the 

 groove and guide-bar are riveted to the window ; k, vertical profile of 

 the groove, tlie guide-bar being removed, so as to show the holes into 

 which the stud of the staybar drops The groove is of cast-iron, and 

 the guiding iron is of wrought iron let, into it and riveted, and both 

 are bolted to the bar of the window by means of the plates i i, which 

 are of cast iron. 



Fig. 98 is a section across the groove, the guiding 

 rod /, and the bar of the window m, to which the 

 groove is bolted ; n is the handle of the guide-bar. 



The window is cast in two pieces ; the larger (Fig. 99,) being 2 ft. 

 10 in. high, by 2 ft. 1 in. broad, and the smaller (Fig. 100,) being 1 ft. 

 4 in. high, by 1 ft. broad, exclusive of the lead along the bottom and 

 sides, which forms the rebate, and covers the joint. In casting the 

 smaller window, it is essentially necessary that it be somewhat less in 

 dimensions than the space into which it is to shut, in order that it may 

 always move freely. The air is kept out from the room within, not 

 by the tight fitting of the sides of the small window to the sides of the 

 frame, but by the contact of the edges of the sides of the small window 

 with the beads forming the rebates attached to the inside of the 

 frame ; and also by means of the contact of the beads, or rebates, of 

 the small window with the edge of the sides of the large one, or frame 

 into which it shuts. In consequence of the sides never touching, the 

 window moves with the greatest ease, whether expanded by heat in 

 summer, or contracted by cold in winter, and weather-painted and 

 and smooth, or unpainted and rusty. 



a ^ 6 6 :ii> 12IK4 



Fig 101 is a horizontal section across the small window and the two 

 side bars, showing the outside beads ^tgg, and the inside beads at h It. 



101 



S 



Fig. 102 is a vertical section through the small window, 

 and the top and bottom bars of the fixed frame, showing 

 a weather fillet, or weather table, which projects half 

 an inch from the general face of the window at h, and 

 the staybar in the situation in which it rests when the 

 window is shut, and also the groove and guiding rod at /. 



The total weight of this window before being glazed 

 is about Gli lbs., and the prime cost in Derby is 12s. Aid. 

 thus : — 



02 



2 castings, GO lbs. at \hd. 



Ironwork, li lb. at Is. \d. 



Fitting up, 6 hours at 24s. per week 



Scurfing castings, 4 hours at 12s. per week 



Priming window ..... 



Paint , • 



p 



Prime Cost 12 44 



We consider this by far the cheapest and best cottage 

 window that has been hitherto invented ; it has been 

 used in a great variety of buildings for 10 years, and 

 when it is known, it can hardly fail to come into general 

 nse in cottage dwellings and manufactories. In London 

 it may be obtained of Messrs. Cottam and Hallen, Wins- 

 ley Street, Oxford Street, for 13s. M. for a single win- 

 dow, or where there are more than half a dozen, for 

 12s. Grf. each; at Messrs. Cubitt's, Gray's Inn Road; 

 and at Mr. Roe's in the Strand, manufacturer of zinc and of tinne<l 

 iron. 



2 E* 



