621 



CARNIVAL. 



CARPENTRY. 



obtained by the action of nitric acid upon the aqueous extract of 

 cloves. 



CARNIVAL, or CARNEVAL, from the Italian Carnemle, or Fare- 

 well to Flesh. It is properly a season of feasting, dancing, masque- 

 rading, and buffoonery, which begins on the Feast of the Epiphany, or 

 Twelfth Day, and ends on Ash- Wednesday, when it is succeeded by 

 the austerities of Lent. Some of the licence of the Saturnalia of the 

 ancient Romans is still detected in these long revels, which are now 

 confined to Roman Catholic countries, and seem to be declining even in 

 them. Milan, Rome, and Naples were celebrated for their carnivals, 

 but they were carried to their highest perfection at Venice, 



The pleasant place of all festivity, 

 The revel of the earth, the mask of Italy. 



In modern Rome, the masquerading in the streets and all the 

 out-of-door amusements are limited to eight days, during which people 

 pelt each other with sugar-plums, and are treated with horse-races, in 

 which horses run without any riders on their backs. After the races 

 of the eighth day, masquers go about with tapers in their hands, every 

 one trying to light his own at his neighbour's candle, and then blow 

 out his flame. This is the last of their frolics, and about as rational as 

 any part of a Roman carnival. Gbthe, in his ' Zweiter Romischer 

 Aufenthalt,' has given a vivid and pleasing description of the Roman 

 carnival. 



CAR'OL (CartHa, Ital.), a song of joy, and we use it in this sense when 

 we speak of the carolling of birds. Boccaccio seems to have con- 

 sidered the term as synonymous with baliata, which, according to the 

 dictionary Delia, Crutca, signified a song sung during a dance. In 

 England the term was formerly given to festal songs sung to celebrate 

 Christmas; but it is now exclusively applied to a religious song or 

 ballad in celebration of Christmas, still sung during the festive season 

 in many ports of the country, though in the present day seldom heard 

 in the metropolis. 



CAROTIN (C 10 H B ) the colouring matter of the common carrot, 

 Dauetu Carota. 



CARPENTRY is defined by Robison as " the art of framing timber 

 for the purposes of architecture, machinery, and in general for all con- 

 siderable structures." Considered as a branch of the art of building, 

 it embraces the construction of the framing of partitions, floors, and 

 roofs ; the neater woodwork of doors, window-frames, the planking of 

 floors, skirtings, and stairs, being the work of the joiner. [JOINERY.] 



As in the article BUILDING, our object here is rather to point out 

 and connect various articles in other parts of the Cyclopedia, than to 

 present even a complete outline of the theory and practice of car- 

 pentry ; seeing that such a subject would involve a knowledge of the 

 nature and properties of various descriptions of timber of the strength 

 of materials exposed to various kinds of strain of the mechanical 

 principles involved in the construction of trusses, roofs, and the various 

 framings which tend to bind the several parts of a building together, 

 or to sustain and distribute pressure and of the practical details 

 relating to the cutting up of timber, and the union of several pieces by 

 various kinds of joints and connections. 



Of the properties of timber an account is given under WOOD ; and 

 also, in connection with other matters relating to theoretical carpentry, 

 under MATERIALS, STRENGTH OF. Of the woods used in carpentry in 

 this country, oak is one of the most durable, though its comparatively 

 high price, and the difficulty of working it, restrict its use. It should 

 be borne in mind however, that the irregular direction of the fibres of 

 oak greatly impairs its strength when sawn into beams and planks, so 

 that a sawn beam of oak may be weaker than one of equal size of fir, 

 because in the Utter the fibres extend in almost perfectly straight 

 lines from end to end, while -in the former their course is so tortuous 

 that those which come near the surface are frequently cut through by 

 the saw. Hence arises the superiority, for some purposes, of split 

 over sawn timber. Fir, which is very easy to work, and is peculiarly 

 advantageous for house carpentry on account of its straightneas, is the 

 timber most extensively used by English carpenters. The supply is 

 chiefly from foreign countries, and the principal forms in which it is 

 brought are those of baulks, or large beams of various sizes, each of 

 which consists of a whole trunk roughly squared ; deal* and deal-ends 

 [Dc*.u], which are boards from 2& to 4 inches thick, and more than 

 7 inches wide ; and batten* and balten-endt [BATTENS], which are similar 

 to deals, but only 7 inches wide. Various technical terms are applied 

 to the smaller pieces of timber cut out of baulks, deals, and battens, 

 the transverse dimensions of which are frequently called their scantling. 

 By the drying up and evaporation of its vegetable juices, timber will 

 continue to shrink for a considerable time afler it is hewn, and in so 

 doing it frequently warps or winds, and splits, or becomes shakeij or 

 full of longitudinal cracks, which are usually in a radiating direction 

 as regards the centre or heart of the tree. The shrinkage alluded to is 

 almost entirely in a lateral direction, the length of a piece of timber, in 

 the direction of ita fibres, being affected only in a very trifling degree. 

 To prevent as far as possible the injurious effects of shrinking, warp- 

 ing, and flying or cracking, timber should be well seasoned by long 

 exposure to a current of air before it is used, an object which is 

 effected by various mode* of stacking and piling with interstitial 

 openings for the admission of air; but as no ordinary amount of 

 nooning will perfectly accomplish the desired object, precautions 



should be adopted to lessen the evil o subsequent shrinkage. Where 

 it is required to bend timbers they are softened by boiling or steaming, 

 or by the direct action of fire, then brought to the required shape, and 

 secured at the proper curvature until they become cold and dry, 

 when they will retain their new form with very little variation. For 

 the various modes of cutting timber see the articles SAW, SAW-MILL, 

 and WOOD-CUTTING MACHINERY; and for a notice of the principal 

 boring tools used by the carpenter, see BORING INSTRUMENTS. 



Of the employment of timber in immediate connection with bric^- 

 work, as in bond-timbers, wall-plates, camber beams over doorways and 

 windows, &c., a notice will be found under BUILDING; and in the 

 articles ROOF and FLOOR, will be found most of the information 

 required in a work of this character on carpentry, as connected with 

 building. In ROOF especially, and in the account of centering under 

 that head, an explanation is given of those elementary principles of 

 trussing, or combining several pieces of timber into a rigid framework 

 in which the strength of each of them is used to the greatest advan- 

 tage, which must be applied, with such modifications as circumstances 

 may dictate, to almost every construction in carpentry ; while under 

 TRUSSING, the application of the same principles to the support of 

 large beams or girders is explained. The construction of timber 

 partition-walls, or rather of the timber framing of such partition-walls, 

 as are covered with lath and plaster, though based on the same general 

 principles as are involved in the trusses of a roof, may be noticed here, 

 because, though a distinct branch of carpentry, it does not, like the 

 construction of floors, demand a separate article. 



Partitions formed of brick-noggmg, or of brickwork included within 

 the intermediate spaces of a timber framing, are noticed under BUILD- 

 rNG; and as, from their weight, they are inapplicable excepting in 

 cases where there is a solid bearing or foundation for the whole length 

 of the partition, as in basement partitions, or in such partitions of 

 upper rooms as are immediately over partition- walls rising from the 

 basement, they call for but little skill in the arrangement of the 

 timbers. In the construction of such partitions, or of ordinary lath 

 and plaster ones, which are sometimes called (from the use of small 

 timbers denominated quartering) quarter partitions, wherever they rest 

 upon a solid basis, it is sufficient to fill the rectangular framing which 

 bounds the partition at the sides, top, and bottom with a series of upright 

 rectangular bars, the greatest width or thickness of which is disposed 

 in a direction at right angles with the face of the partition. These 

 upright timbers, or quarterings, are placed at uniform distances from 

 each other, the intervening spaces being, in a brick-nogging partition, 

 either eighteen or twenty-seven inches, so as to receive either two or 

 three bricks in length, while iu other cases they are usually less, or 

 from twelve to fourteen inches, according to the strength of the laths 

 used upon them ; and the depth of the quarterings, which regulates 

 the thickness of the partition, is usually from three to five inches. 

 Those for brick-nogging, where the surface is to be covered with lath 

 and plaster, should somewhat exceed the thickness of the brick-work, 

 so as to allow for irregularities in the form of the laths. When, how- 

 ever, the floor upon which the partition rests is not solid, but is 

 unsupported in the centre, the whole stress should be borne by the 

 extremities of the lower edge of the partition, and this should be 

 constructed as nearly as possible like the trusses of a roof, and should 

 be capable of affording support to the floor above it, and also, if need- 

 ful, to that below it, on which it appears to rest. The siniplcst mode 

 of accomplishing this is to insert in the frame two inclined bars or 

 struts, resembling rafters, abutting upon the lower corners of the 

 partition, which struts of course must be firmly supported by the 

 timbers of the floor at the point where they rest upon the wall-plates, 

 or are otherwise immovably connected with the brickwork, and either 

 meet in the centre of the top of the partition, or be framed into the 

 head of a central upright timber resembling a king-post, which, like it, 



Framed king-post partition. 



may be made to asnist in supporting the middle portion of the bottom 

 of tho partition, and, if needful, the floor beneath it also. In either 



