January. 1912 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
33 
inside without their letting in rain during storms like ours in this 
country. 
There is no question but what the difficulty of rendering case¬ 
ment windows secure against storms beating rain through the 
joints is the great handicap to their popularity here, but it is not 
altogether a matter of su¬ 
periority in joinery that 
enables the French to ap¬ 
parently get better results 
with casement windows in 
this respect than we can. 
It is more a matter of less 
radical changes in the cli¬ 
mate. It may be both hot 
and cold there, but there 
are not the same extremes 
of moisture conditions. 
We can do as close join¬ 
ing in this country as can 
be done anywhere in the 
world, and can thorough¬ 
ly season lumber. The 
trouble is there are such 
radical extremes in both 
temperature and moisture 
conditions in the course 
of a year that doors and 
windows that have been 
hung and seasoned for 
six or eight years will still 
continue to swell and 
shrink. Because they do 
this it is essential to the 
free working of doors or 
windows that they be 
made loose enough so that 
when they swell from the 
moisture condition of* the 
air they will not be too 
tight to open and shut. 
Nevertheless the case¬ 
ment window is coming 
into more favor in this 
country. Two or three 
years ago it began receiv¬ 
ing more active attention 
than ever before, and it 
looked as though it would 
spring into immediate 
popularity. It did not at¬ 
tain the general popular¬ 
ity in a bound that it 
seemed it would, and per¬ 
haps the main reason is 
centered around two 
points of difficulty. One 
of these is the difficulty of 
properly screening a win¬ 
dow hung on the outside, 
the other the difficulty of 
hanging the window to 
swing on the inside so as 
to make it storm-proof. 
The easiest and simplest way to make a casement window com¬ 
paratively storm-proof is to hang it on the outside, so that it 
swings out. Then it is just about as easy to fit the window as it 
is to fit the regulation window, because there are stops on the in¬ 
side against which it swings, and these furnish the Same protection 
against storms as they furnish in the regular sliding sash. 
The trouble with this arrangement is that it swings the window 
out and it makes it difficult to screen and the screening is unsatis¬ 
factory, because it is always on the inside of the house. You can- 
n 01 put a permanent 
screen on the inside, but 
must put your screen 
frame full length and 
hinge it. Then open the 
screen inward every time 
you desire to open or close 
the window. This is often 
unsatisfactory, especially 
where one has interior 
woodwork that it is not 
desired to mar up by at¬ 
taching screen hinges to it. 
Where this plan is fol¬ 
lowed one should have the 
screen frames made of 
good material that will 
take a neat and attractive 
finish, preferably of hard¬ 
wood, and with copper 
wire for the screen. Then 
use as high a class of hard¬ 
ware for hanging them 
as one would for hanging 
the interior doors. This is 
a good idea to follow if 
you already have windows 
that are hung on the out¬ 
side, or if you feel, after 
studying over the matter, 
that this is the better way 
to hang them. It relieves 
the unsightliness of plain, 
cheap screens and frames 
and makes a much more 
improved appearance than 
one ordinarily gets with 
screening. 
More often the ideal 
plan is to hang the case¬ 
ment windows themselves 
to swing inward. The one 
objectionable feature to 
this is the difficulty of 
making them storm-proof, 
but there is a way to avoid 
this. There are some 
places where it is not im¬ 
portant that the window 
be absolutely storm-proof 
as in using them for en¬ 
closing sleeping porches 
and verandas. A little bit 
of moisture blowing 
through does not do the 
same damage that it 
would if blowing through 
into a bedroom or parlor. 
You are generally prepared for and expect some of this, for 
porches and verandas are kept open during the warm weather, 
and it is expected that a little rain will beat in. There is also a 
{Continued on page 54) 
When screens are used inside casement windows, there are many appliances which 
enable the sash to be opened and closed without interfering with the screen 
The casement window enables the entire window space to be open to light and 
air, and the hinged sash may often be used to direct air currents to the room 
