146 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AXD COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ August 22, 1872. 



planes, or steps, with pierced ventilation-plates between them. 

 Through the perforations in these plates the air passes into the 

 house, entering all over the roof surface, and circulating — in the 

 case of vineries — between the glass and the leaves of the plants. 

 Valvesare applied to the inside of the plates, so that the whole 

 or anyjpart of the house may be opened or closed at will. The 



planes between the pierced plates are formed of bars and glass, 

 each of the bars being made in two parts, triangular in section, 

 and grooved to act as small gutters. The half-bars are screwed 

 top and bottom to the ventilation-plates, and the glass is laid 

 upon them, the edges of the panes coming up to the small gutter 

 in each bar. The top parts of the bars are screwed down into 



Cranston's Gardener's Greenhouse 



the lower half -bars, closely upon the glass, with square-headed 

 galvanised screws, turned by a key. By this mode of glazing, 

 which is both wind and water-tight, putty is not required, and 

 an unskilled labourer can perform the glazing of a whole house 

 as well and as easily as the most expert glazier. The planes of 

 wood and glass, with the pierced ventilation-plates between 



them, are supported on laminated wood ' principals,' formed of 

 three thicknesses, and made to assume any canted or arched 

 contour that the width and height of the house may require. 

 By this mode of construction buildings of any width up to 

 SO or 60 feet may be erected ; and the cost of the widest house 

 would scarcely vary from a narrow one — of course allowing fo 



Kicnardson's Lean-to House. 



the area covered and its cubical contents. Under the 'princi- 

 pals ' of the houses stout wooden plates are placed, and these 

 rest upon dwarf brick walls ; or, when the buildings are in- 

 tended to be moveable, as tenants' fixtures, upon wooden blocks 

 let firmly into the ground. Between these bottom plates, which 

 are framed together with a space varying from 7 to 20 inches 

 between them, pierced boards are fixed, at the back of which 

 louvre ventilating shutters are made to open and close. 



" By the regular diffusion of the air as it enters the house, 



gaining admission as it does immediately under the glass, a 

 perfect and effective system of ventilation is maintained, and 

 this without moving lights of any kind ; all glass being fixed 

 and made quite independent of the ventilating apparatus. By 

 this means the breakage of glass in windy weather, or from 

 other causes so frequent where glazed sashes have to be opened 

 to admit air, is entirely avoided. 



"The glass in the roofs and other parts of these houses is 

 always in long lengths, and without ' laps.' So thoroughly 



