1849."] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



153 



However, as it is most essential that the dn'ini? should not be too 

 quickly obtained, for fear eitlier of un])astini; or preventing a 

 thorough equal pasting, care must be taken that the steam which 

 arrives from the boiler in the two first cylinders K, K', which are 

 placed close to the pressing cylinders J, J', be not too hot, and that 

 the steam which reaches the last range of cylinders M, M', be the 

 hottest. It would be very easy, in case of need, to cause the same 

 steam to run successively' in like manner in a greater number of 

 cylinders, in order to obtain more surely in the meantime, by that 

 said operation, a perfect, smooth, even union, and a regular past- 

 ing and drying without any trouble or difficulty. 



It is understood tliat the sheets of veneer being united to the 

 cloth, passing thus from one to the other pair of cylinders, and 

 receiving successi\ely more and more heat, are dried gradually 

 without any chance of being over-heated by that process; when 

 they arrive at the last pair of heated cylinders, they are entirely 

 dry, and form one single and only sheet, whicli is rolled over the 

 drum P, to which a convenient rotary motion is given according 

 to the direction described by the arrow, as shown in the engraving. 



As that cylinder in receiving the united veneer and cloth be- 

 comes progressively larger, it is necessary to lessen the velocity of 

 its rotation in order to keep as much as possible rectilineal motion 

 of the united veneer and cloth. 



For that purpose, that cylinder P, is put in motion by means of 

 a pulley, and of a distender, which bearing more or less heavily, 

 and to the required degrees, on the strap of the pulley, causes this 

 last to be drawn with more or less velocity, and in order that the 

 united veneer and cloth should remain well distended over the cir- 

 cumference of the cylinder P, without being unpasted, a pressing 

 cylinder, the weight of which is evidently proportioned to the 

 velocity, is conveniently placed above it. 



To take aw;iy from the surface of the pressing and heating 

 cylinders the superabundant paste, which, by the pressure, egresses 

 through the sides of the united cloth and veneer, some moveable 

 scrapers or knives have been adapted; tliey are set on the axes of 

 those cylinders, and as they bear on them, care must be taken to 

 maintain them constantly at their proper position by means of 

 weights suspended to levers which are adjusted to those axes, and 

 on the outside of the machines. 



To vary also, in case of need, the distance between these pressing 

 and heating cylinders, their cast-iron frames have been so disposed 

 as to allow them to roll upon two parallel bands or rails. Thus, 

 at the feet of each of those frames are adjusted some cast-iron 

 small wheels or rollers, by means of which the position of the 

 cylinders can be easily changed, and consequently they can be 

 made to advance or recede as it is judged convenient. 



ON SIR BALTHAZAR GERBIER'S "COUNSEL AND 

 ADVICE TO ALL BUILDERS." 



On the Contents of a work by Sir Ba/thazar Gerbier, written in the 

 nth century, and entitled ^'Counsel and Advice to all Builders." By 

 Sydney Smirke, Esq. — (Read at the Royal Institute of British 

 Architects, March 19.) 



The small volume of which I am now about to give you some 

 account, possesses very slender claims to literary merit — nor has it 

 much intrinsic professional value; yet it has, I think, still, great 

 claims on our attention, as being among the very earliest of our 

 native literary productions exclusively on the subject of our art. 



The earliest edition of Sir Balthazar's Counsel and Advice is 

 1663. The early date, therefore, of this book gives it a value, — 

 and a stronger interest attaches to it in our eyes, as giving some 

 insight into the practice of architecture at the period of our great 

 master, Sir Cliristopher AV^ren. Sir Balthazar was born at Ant- 

 werp, in 1599, and was brought up as a miniature painter. He was 

 knighted by Charles I., and was employed by him, in conjunction 

 with Rubens, to negotiate a treaty with Spain; he also resided at 

 Brussels in a diplomatic character. He was subsequently em- 

 ployed as an architect by Lord Craven. 



The treatise commences by adverting to the author's previous 

 work, which he describes as a little " manual, concerning the 3 

 chief principles of magnificent building — viz. solidity, conveniency, 

 and ornament;" wherein he "notes the incongruities committed 

 by many undertakers of buildings." He points to the Grecians 

 and Romans as the best builders, and urges that men should not 

 be subject to fancies nor "inslaved by weather-cock-like spirits, 

 to make their buildings according unto things o la mode." He fur- 

 ther condemns the incongruity committed by surveyors, "who were 

 minded to show that they were skilled in describing columns 



Cornishes, and frontispieces, although, for the most part, placed as 

 the wilde Americans are wont to put their pendants at tlieir 

 nostrils." 



The author then proceeds to treat more particularly of his ad- 

 vice to all builders. "Whoever," he says, "is disposed to build, 

 ought, in the first place, to make choice of a skilful surveyor, from 

 whose directions the several master workmen may receive instruc- 

 tions by way of draughts, models, and frames." I should here say 

 that the author throughout uses the terms surveyor and architect 

 as perfect synonyms; there is no indication whatever of that dis- 

 tinction which is now, in England at least, universally received. 

 He then adverts to some of the requirements of architects, and 

 especially dwells on the knowledge of perspective as essential; 

 he teaches that the arcliitect should consider the ground whereon 

 the building is to be erected, and then govern himself as the 

 ground will gi\e him leave; or, as Pope has since more elegantly 

 expressed it, "consult the genius of the place." He must place 

 the front of a country house towards the east, "by which means 

 he may shelter his double lodging rooms from tlie north-west." 

 I cannot say that this piece of instruction is very intelligible. We 

 can hardly regard the north-west as the aspect most to be shunned. 

 The author here adds, what he quaintly calls a nota bene to builders 

 viz., "he must cause all the back of his stonework (which stands 

 within the brickwork), to be cut with a rebate 3 inches broader 

 than the breadth of his jambs and cornish, which will hinder the 

 rain from piercing into the inside of the wall, and through the 

 meeting of the brick and stone." He deems it necessary to make 

 a sort of apology for tliis advice, as implying that "surveyors and 

 master workmen in this refined age which abounds in books, with 

 the portractures of the out and inside of the best buildings, are to 

 seek the first points of their apprentiship; of whom I ask the 

 reason why modern buildings are so exceedingly defective; and 

 whether it is not because many of them have been but apprentices 

 lately, and too soon become journeymen; and that surveyors (who 

 either affect more the building to themselves a strong purse, or are 

 blind to the faults which their workmen commit), like careless 

 postillions, hasten with the packet maile to the post-office, be it 

 never so ill-girted, whereby it oft falls in the midway." 



The author then advises how to try the capacity of a surveyor. 

 "The readiest way to try him," he says, "is to put liim to draw a 

 ground plot in the builder's presence; to make him describe the 

 fittest place for a seat; the ordering of the rooms for summer or 

 winter; to contrive well the staircases, doors, windows, and chim- 

 neys, — doors and windows so placed that they may not be incon- 

 venient to the chimneys, — the bedstead place from the doors and 

 windows, and of a fit distance from chimneys." 



He then adverts to the "seelings of rooms," adapting their 

 height to the size, character, and use of the room. A bedchamber 

 of state may be 30 feet wide, 40 feet in length, and 16 or 18 feet 

 high; whereas a closet, 10 feet square, adjacent thereto, if made of 

 the same height, would be "preposterous, and like a barber's comb- 

 case." The dimensions here set down for a state bedchamber seem 

 somewhat extravagant; but it must be remembered tliat our au- 

 thor's advice is apparently addressed to royal or noble builders; 

 and in the 17th century business was transacted, and morning visi- 

 tors were received, usually in the bedchamber, a practice which, at 

 the present day, has not fallen altogether into desuetude on the 

 continent. 



The author then proceeds to the subject of exterior architecture. 

 He points out the necessity of cornices over doors and windows, to 

 prevent rain from falling on them, which he illustrates in his usual 

 quaint way, by comparing a "cornish" to "the broad brim of the 

 good hat of a traveller in a rainy day." 



"The good surveyor," he adds, "wiU order ornaments to the 

 front of a palace according unto its situation: shun too much 

 carved ornaments on the upright, whereat the southerly windes 

 raise much dust;" also "shun those spectacle-like cant windows 

 which are of glass on all sides, for it may be supposed that the in- 

 habitants of such houses and rooms with cant windows (exposed to 

 the north-west) may well imitate a merry Italian fisher, who in a 

 winter, windy, rainy day, had been stript to his skin, and having 

 nothing left to cover him save his bare net, wherein he was wrapt, 

 put his finger through one of the holes, asking of passengers what 

 weather it was out of doors." It is here to be observed, that at 

 the period when our author wrote, classical architecture, on its 

 revival, was still struggling with the Gothic forms that had pre- 

 \'ailed for so many centuries previously. These cant or bow win- 

 dows were peculiarly characteristic of the Tudor and Elizabethan 

 ages, and so firmly rooted were they in the domestic habits and 

 usages of the time, that the revivers of classical architecture were 

 driven to make many attempts to retain the old favourite form 



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