Doors and Doorways 



93 



It is always better, on account of weight, to build bulkhead doors in two 



halves, unless the width be fairly narrow. The joint between the two halves 



should be broken by a weather strip to 



exclude moisture. 



A recent scheme, which is de- 

 signed to do away with the bulkhead, 



places the cellar entrance under a flight 



of inside stairs, in such a way that the 



necessary head room is obtained to 



allow of the outer door being made a 



vertical or ordinary door. This places 



the steps on the inside of the cellar 



wall. The idea is excellent, but can- 

 not always be adopted owing to the 



arrangement of the plan. 



Another method is to enclose 



the outside cellar steps with a small 



house. This often may be most 



effective as to looks, as it surely is in 



convenience, but it usually has the 



appearance of a huge and ugly dog 



house, unless carefully handled. 



Screen doors should not be of 



the usual stock pattern, as they will 



kill any design that was ever made. 



It is better to have the architect design 



them while 

 he is doing 



the house. They then stand a chance of being har- 

 monious. They should be light and simple, yet strong 

 enough to prevent the children from falling through 

 them. 



The ordinary panel door is usually two panels 

 high and two wide; this type is taken for conve- 

 nience, only (see Fig. n). Its flanking vertical members 

 are called "stiles," and the central vertical member is 

 called the "montant or centre stile." Often this 

 member is omitted, as in the case of horizontal pannel- 

 ling. The horizontal members are the "top rail," "mid- 

 dle" or "lock rail" and the "bottom rail." Early panel 

 doors were put together by cutting mortises through 

 the stiles and inserting the tenons cut in the ends of 

 the rails (see Fig. 12). They were kept in place by 

 wooden pins. Now as wood shrinks hardly at all in 



the direction of the grain, and considerably in other directions, it will be seen 



that the tenons and pins soon became much in evidence. This fact evidently 



Doorway of Hammond House, Annapolis Md. This little 

 gem is entirely pleasing and satisfactory 



Fig. 12. Old and new methods of 



door construction 



a. Rail b. Stile c. Mortise line 



d. Pins x. Wedge 



