297 



SAW AND SAW-MILL. 



SAXON ARCHITECTURE. 



2 OS 



or cast steel The steel is cast in the form of a small slab, about an 

 inch and a half thick. This slab is extended, by rolling, to the re- 

 quired degree of tenuity, and then cut, by shears, into pieces of suit- 

 able form and size. The edges are next perfected by filing, and holding 

 tin- ti.it side of the plates against large grindstones, which process 

 prepares them for the cutting of the teeth. This operation is usually 

 performed by a die-cutter in a fly-press, the motion of the saw-plate 

 being duly regulated, so that the teeth shall be uniform ; the larger 

 teeth being cut one at a time ; and the smaller two, three, or more at 

 a time, according to circumstances. The wire edges left on the teeth 

 by the cutting-out press are removed by filing ; after which the plates 

 undergo the processes of hardening and tempering. They are heated 

 to a cherry-red and dipped into a fatty composition. When sufficiently 

 cooled therein to be handled, they are taken out, and are found to be 

 extremely hard and brittle. They are passed backwards and forwards 

 over a clear charcoal fire, so as to cause the unctuous matter to inflame, 

 or blaze off, as it i termed, which reduces the saws to the required 

 temper ; and, whilst the saw-plates remain hot, any warping they may 

 have acquired in the process is removed by smart blows from a 

 hammer. The next operation is planishing by hammers, to make 

 them more even and equally elastic : after which the saws are ground 

 on large grindstones. As the grinding impairs the elasticity, they are 

 submitted to a second hammering, and to heating over a coke fire until 

 they attain a fault straw-colour. The marks of the hammer are re- 

 moved by again passing the saws lightly over a grindstone ; after 

 which the final polish ia given by a fine hard stone, a glazing-wheel 

 covered with buff-leather and emery, or a wooden wheel, called the 

 hurd-liead. Any defects acquired during these processes are removed 

 by a few blows with a small polished hammer upon a post of hard 

 wood. The saws are " cleaned off" by women, by rubbing fine emery 

 over them lengthwise with a piece of cork-wood. The tetter lays each 

 alternate tooth over the edge of a small anvil, and strikes them so as 

 to bend each uniformly into a slight deviation from the plane of the 

 saw ; and then, turning the saw-plate, sets the remaining teeth in like 

 manner, but in the opposite direction. The degree of deviation from 

 the plane of the saw depends upon the kind of wood to be cut ; the 

 softest wood requiring the widest or rankat set. Sometimes an instru- 

 ment with a notched edge, called a taw-ierat, is used for setting the 

 teeth. After being set, the saw is placed, between two plates of lead, 

 in a vice, and the teeth are sharpened with a triangular file. The 

 handles are then fixed on by nuts and screws, and the saws cleaned off, 

 oiled, and packed in brown paper for sale. 



The teeth of carpenters' saws are so fornfed as to contain an angle 

 of 60*, and they are made to incline more or less forward according to 

 the intended use of the saw. Ripping-saws have the front of the teeth 

 perpendicular to a line ranging with their points. For very delicate 

 operations saws are frequently made of watch-spring. 



Saws for cutting stone are without teeth, although they are some- 

 times slightly notched upon the cutting edge. The saw-plate is tightly 

 stretched on a kind of rectangular frame, of which it forms the lower 

 side; and the frame, being suspended by ropes, is moved backwards 

 and forwards by one or two men. Coarse sharp sand is used for 

 cutting soft stones, and fine sand for those of harder quality. Sawing 

 stone is a very slow and laborious operation. As in saw-mills for 

 wood, any number of saws may be worked together, so adjusted as 

 to cut a block of stone into slabs of any required thickness. 



Sam Mill. The machinery used for the purpose of converting 

 wood from the log into squared lumber, or for subsequently cutting it 

 up into plank, or veneer stuff, is known in the arts under the generic 

 name of tax mill. It consists of a prime mover, setting in operation 

 either a circular plate with serrated edges, vertical saw blades fixed 

 rigidly in a frame, or a series of knife blades forming the segments of a 

 large circular plate bearing a sharp cutting edge ; and at the same time 

 motion is communicated by the prime mover to a ratchet-wheel, which 

 causes the frame to advance horizontally so as to keep the log of wood 

 to be operated upon in actual contact with the edge of the cutting-tool. 

 Hough logs and scantling stuff are cut by the circular saw ; and deals, 

 battens, and planks are dressed for the market by the same description 

 of machinery. Thin boards (between 1 4 inch and J of an inch in thick- 

 ness) are cut by the frame saw ; and veneers, or thin slices of the harder 

 and more precious woods, are cut by the plate saws with knife edges. 

 As many as 100 veneers are at times cut out of planks only 1 inch in 

 thickness. 



The prime motors of saw mills may be either water-wheels, wind 

 mills, or steam-engines, and even in some cases horse-power is used. 

 In mountainous districts, such as are usually covered with forests, 

 water-wheels can generally be economically established, and they are 

 rarely used for any other purpose than for squaring logs, or dressing 

 plank stuff. Windmills are largely used in such countries as the Fens 

 of East Anglia, and Midland, for both circular saws and framesaws; 

 whilst the application of steam power to this purpose is the system 

 almost universally adopted, in countries where fuel is cheap, for the 

 ordinary kind of saw mills, and it is the only motive power ever 

 employed for veneer cutting. Of late years, circular saws have been 

 used for the purpose of cutting the ends of iron rails, and they also 

 are invariably worked by steam power. The sizes of circular saws 

 vary from 4 J to 60 inches in diameter ; vertical saws are made of 

 cast steel of N'os. 13, 14, and 15 gauge, and from 4 to 8 inches wide by 



from 3i to 7 feet in length ; veneering saws vary from 4 to 10 or 12 

 feet in diameter. 



All the varieties of apparatus that have been described are for the 

 purpose of making straight cuts ; but it is sometimes desirable to pro- 

 duce curved forms by sawing, for which purpose there are several 

 ingenious contrivances. Mr. Trotter has invented a concave circular 

 saw, resembling a watch-glass in form, which ia mounted in a beach 

 like the common bench-saw, and to which the wood is directed by 

 curved guides. Many useful forms are cut by a saw consisting of a. 



cylinder of steel, toothed on the edge. Such saws are used for cutting- 

 circular pieces of wood to form the sheaves of blocks ; and, when of 

 larger dimensions, for cutting chair-backs, felloes of wheels, curved 

 brush-handles, &c. For these purposes they are sometimes used as 

 much as five feet in diameter. In another machine, an arrangement 

 resembling the common reciprocating saw-mill is applied to curvilinear 

 sawing, by causing the carriage on which the timber is supported to 

 deviate from the straight course, and follow the curvatures of a model 

 of the required form ; while the saws, being attached to the frame by 

 pivots, are capable of adapting their position to the curve. 



Among the recent inventions in saw-machinery is a beautiful appa- 

 ratus called the band-taic. It consists of a very long, narrow, and 

 thin saw, made of highly tempered steel, and so flexible as to be 

 wound round two rollers placed at such a distance apart as to keep 

 the saw always on the stretch. When the rollers rotate, the saw is 

 put in motion, and it thus becomes an endless saw, applicable to many 

 purposes in the finer kinds of carpentry and joinery. Messrs. Powis 

 and James's band-saw, patented in 1853, is an elegant example ot 

 this kind. 



SAXON ARCHITECTURE. Until recently, all those old EngfisE. 

 churches of which the doors and windows had semicircular arches* wero 

 usually termed Saxon. More careful study of our architectural, anti- 

 quities showed that these were for the most part of Norman d:-io ; and 

 it was then by many somewhat hastily assumed to be at least doubtful 

 whether there were any buildings remaining of Saxon construction. 

 That there are churches which were in part erected prior to the 

 Norman Conquest there is now, however, no longer any dispute. Their 

 number is indeed small, as might be expected ; for the condition, of 

 the people, the disturbed state of the country, and the ravages ofi 

 foreign invaders, would either prevent many churches, except of a 

 comparatively rude character, being erected, or account for their 

 destruction ; and it will be readily perceived how churches which 

 remained at the Conquest, would, one after another, with the progress 

 of refinement be removed to make way for others of a costlier character, 

 or more fashionable style of architecture ; and that consequently, 

 after the lapse of 800 years, but few fragments of such buildings 

 should be extant. 



Tet some vestiges, as we said, are left. Mr. Bloxam, who has paid 

 particular attention to the subject, gives in the last edition of his 

 ' Outhic Architecture ' (1859, p. 90) a list of more thaji 90 churches 

 (46 of which he has himself examined), which contain portions of 

 presumed Saxon architecture. Mr. Rickman believed he had verified 

 the existence of such remains in 120 churches. 



Saxon architecture would be best described as the earliest form 

 of Anglo-Romanesque. [ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE.] The.earliest 

 Anglo-Saxon architects made use of the materials of the Roman build- 

 ings, wherever they could obtain them, and imitated the Roman 

 workmanship. In the brick walls and semicircular arches of the oldest 

 Anglo-Saxon buildings, there are evident attempts to copy what is 

 called the herring-bone work of the debased Roman architecture which 

 prevailed in England. But the buildings were constructed by, or under 

 the direction of, ecclesiastics who had acquired on the continent the 

 current taste in ecclesiastical architecture ; and who carried out their 

 views as well as the skill of the workmen and the materials at their 

 command permitted. For the more important buildings and there 

 are accounts in the chronicles of the erection of cathedrals and monastic 

 edifices of considerable importance foreign workmen were brought 

 over. Accordingly, we find throughout the period a reference more or 

 less direct to continental models, and, as might be expected from the 

 connection of the court and the clergy, towards the latter part, a 

 growing approximation to the Norman taste. 



The style extends over a period of nearly four hundred years from. 

 the latter part of the 7th to the middle of the llth century. It ia 



