242 



IFIRE ON A NEW CONSTRUCTION. 



IVianner in 

 which the 

 parts were fit- 

 8 ad tcgether. 



with strong Welsh slates, capped where they meet on the 

 skeleton by large copper beading, which, with the slates, i> 

 fastened to the skeleton by copper bands and cramps. The 

 whole is well painted, and covered with sand, so as to imitate 

 stone. 



The skeleton. ^ "['he skeleton was formed of eight bars of iron, 45 feet 

 long, 2 inches and f broad, and J of an inch thick. These 

 dimensions were chosen because they are those of common 

 bars, that are sold by ironmongers. These bars are usually 

 14 or fifteen feet long, Qud I had them welded in a common 

 forge to the leugtli tha* was requisite. Eight of these were 

 disposed octagonally upon a base, fig. 3, about 9 feet in dia- 

 meter, which is nearly the diameter of the tower. It was 

 made of bar iron an inch square. 



Bffore the spire was put together in the tower, the parts 

 ■were previously fitted on the ground, not perpendicularl}^, 

 but lyiug sideways, 90 that each bar could be easily reached 

 by the workmen. With this view I took advantage of a saw- 

 pit, which permitted half the base to lie below the ground, 

 while the apex, or point of the spire, was supported by a 

 bench, on the surface of the ground. This enabled me to 

 assemble and fit the bars which were necessary for cross 

 braces, and to combine the bars accurately round the 

 spindle of the weathercock, and to secure them by a ring of 

 iron. 



The ba*. The base above mentioned, fig. 3, consisted of four bars of 



iron, flattened where they crossed each other, with a hole 

 through the middle of each, that received a bolt to bind 

 them together. The ends of each of these bars were so 

 formed, with cheeks, as to permit the bars, that composed 

 the spire, to lodge within them, and to be fastened to them 

 by screw bolts. Light flat bars </, d, d, held by the same 

 .=crew bolts, were placed between the bars of the spire, to 

 keep them at due distances from each other, thus forming 

 a species of diaphragm, fig. 3, where A represents the dia- 

 phragm resembling the rudiments of a spider's web, c c c^ 

 &c. the cheeks of each transverse bar^of the diaphragm, and 

 b b b the bolts, which connect them with the legs of the 

 spire. 



Angularbraccsl .Beside these diametrical supports there are four bars. 



