hinge-plates, which 
are merely “orna¬ 
ments’’ placed in 
proper juxtaposition 
to the active agent 
—the butt. This, 
w h i 1 e somewhat 
cheaper than the 
real thing, does not 
remedy the faults of 
the more modern ar¬ 
ticle. For minor 
doors this treatment 
may answer, but we would suggest for heavy 
doors that, if one can procure good specimens of 
the old iron surface hinge with but little trouble 
and expense, the local blacksmith can tinker the 
upper hinge, so as to offset the prying strain on the upper hinge- 
plate. If your blacksmith cannot do this, any reliable hardware 
manufacturer should. It is simply to incorporate a rabbet plate 
to keep the hinge in place while the door is open. 
Old hardware was at first put on with wrought nails, and the 
The old time brass surface 
lock was attached thus 
1 he foot scraper offers an 
opportunity for the crafts¬ 
man’s art 
form, as far as 
we know, was that 
of roughly 
wrought metal in 
which the grip- 
plates were leaf 
shaped ; later 
comes the contin¬ 
uous and more 
rectangular plate, 
of cast metal. 
The principle of 
the latch is too 
simple and well known to require description of 
its working parts, which, while direct, are not 
close working. The more ornamental side of the 
I lie surface lock often was 
covered with a wood box 
effect of the irregular heads was most interesting. 
Owing to the 
difficulty in removing them, they should be avoided by us for 
such purpose. As a substitute, a large, round-headed brass screw 
can be filed slightly to suggest irregular contour and flat hammer- 
planes, but care should be taken not to weaken the slot. This 
last can be filled with paint or 
destroying 
putty without 
efficiency. 
Sometimes red felt 
leather was used under 
nail-heads. With the 
its 
o r 
the 
un- 
A lever attached to a brass knob 
lifts the latch 
painted brass screw this 
might be very interesting, but 
it should be used only in the 
best rooms, and there 
throughout. Any color, not too 
dark, might replace the red. 
In order that the door may be fastened, it must be hung, and 
we will assume this task has been accomplished. Then to its 
fastening, a point which in the old days was variously treated. 
The latch-string has come down the years 
and stands to-day the emblem of friendly hospi¬ 
tality, but it has a real use; it suggests real latches 
of wood ; which of course would only apply to 
the early forms and batten doors. In later days 
they were used on some minor doors where the 
ever-thoughtful economy regulated household 
affairs, and we recall an elderly gentleman who 
remembers distinctly certain juvenile confine¬ 
ments in the ancestral attic, with the latch-string 
carefully withdrawn from his side of his door. 
Its under-secretary, the wooden button, was used extensively and 
is still used on rough work. Formerly it was very interesting as 
jack-knife handicraft ; they could use jack-knives in those days, 
too. It left us metal descendants which 
are very useful for small closet doors, 
but as they do but half the work, being 
operated from one side only, they are 
easily disposed of. The little oval knobs, 
however, with circular button plates of 
brass, are excellent in their way, and with 
the brass surface hinge make effective 
trimmings for the small door. 
An old surface hinge ft is the iron latch, however, that is 
in black iron of greater interest to us. Its earliest 
An inside latch lifted by an iron 
lever 
A 
common type of latch 
inside doors 
latch is naturally, from its workings, used on the 
side of the door opposite to the hinges. This consists of the 
handle and thumb-piece. The latch on the opposite side, with its 
simple working parts, is hardly less interesting. But here we 
must be honest; we hate to acknowledge it. but the latch has one 
grave defect. We went into an old house with a friend a short 
time ago to pick up some information, and the friend, glancing 
around, asked the old lady what she had done with the latches. 
“Well,” she answered, “yer know we had to take them all off— 
they tore our clothes so!” And when one comes to think of it, 
'tis so; look at the projection of the latch beyond the door and 
the hook of a handle that lifts 
it. Then, too, the wicked lit¬ 
tle latch-catch which is af¬ 
fixed to the door-post is a fur¬ 
ther, though lesser, agent of 
destruction; even in cheap 
modern latches there is some 
danger from the above men¬ 
tioned parts. These deficien¬ 
cies are such as would mostly 
annoy the female side of the 
establishment. A farmer who 
had a fine old latch on his front door volunteered the informa¬ 
tion that he was going to take it off because he could not “slam 
the door and hev it stay shet.” The latch was not calculated to 
provide for such undue haste. 
On the whole, it does not seem advisable to 
employ the early form of latch on much-used 
interior doors without some modification. With 
the better examples the lift was a straight bit 
of iron projecting but slightly beyond the door. 
In this the curved lift had generally been elim¬ 
inated. This was a rather insufficient grip, but 
on the other hand its aggressiveness was not 
serious, and the button attached to the latch 
served the purpose, where it existed. If you 
do not have these get brass ones put in by the general tinker; it’s 
but the matter of milling and heading. If you should wish to 
retain the curve of the lift, it should be continued until nearly 
striking the door, or better, in a 
somewhat special form. What¬ 
ever you do, leave no square 
edges — round them off. 
Later developments of the 
latch substituted the knob for 
the lift. In one form the knob 
was part of the latch, being cen¬ 
tered with the pivot on which it 
turned. Another form intro- 
(Continued on page 54) 
for 
fm 
I • ■ ' 
good pattern surface 
for heavy doors 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
July, 1912 
