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ASPHALTUM.

A bituminous substance found in various places and used as a building material. See Book II. Chap. II. Sect. 12.

ASSEMBLAGE.

The joining or uniting several pieces together, or the union of them when so joined. Carpenters and joiners have many modes of accomplishing this, as by framing, mortise and tenon, dovetailing, &c. See PRACTICAL CARPENTRY AND JOINERY, p. 538, et seq.

ASSEMBLAGE OF THE ORDERS. The placing of columns upon one another in the several ranges. See ORDERS UPON ORDERS, Book III. Chap. I. Sect. 11.

ASTRAGAL. (Gr. Aσrpayaλos, a die, or huckle bone.) A small moulding of a semicircular profile. Some have said that the French call it talon, and the Italians tondino; but this is a mistake, for the term is properly applied only to the ring separating the capital from the column. The astragal is occasionally cut into representations of beads and berries. A similar sort of moulding, though not developed in its profile as is the astragal, is used to separate the faces of the architrave. ATLANTIDES. See CARYATIDES.

ATRIUM. In ancient Roman architecture, a court surrounded by porticoes in the interior part of Roman houses. According to Scaliger it is derived from the Greek alepios, exposed to the air. By some it has been considered the same apartment as the vestibule, and Aulus Gellius intimates that in his time the two words were confounded. See, however, more on this head in the section on Roman Architecture in the body of the work, p. 100. ATTIC, OF ATTIC ORDER. (Gr. ATTIKOS, Athenian; facetiously, we supposed, derived, in the seventh edit. of Encyc. Brit. art. ARCHITECTURE, from ǎTEIXov, without a wall, which, if true, would transform all objects into attic things if detached from a wall.) A low order of architecture, commonly used over a principal order, never with columns, but usually with antæ or small pilasters. It is employed to decorate the façade of a story of small height, terminating the upper part of a building; and it doubtless derives its name from its resemblance in proportional height and concealed roof to some of the buildings of Greece. Pliny thus describes it after speaking of the other orders: "Præter has sunt quæ vocantur Atticæ columnæ quaternis angulis pari laterum intervallo." We, however, find no examples of square pillars in the remains of ancient art, though almost all the triumphal arches exhihit specimens of pilastral attics, having no capitals save the cornice breaking round them. In modern architecture the proportions of the attic order have never been subject to fixed rules, and their good effect is entirely dependent on the taste and feeling of the architect.

ATTIC BASE. The base of a column consisting of an upper and lower torus, a scotia and fillets between them. It is thus described by Vitruvius, "it must be so subdivided that the upper part be one third of the thickness of the column, and that the remainder be assigned for the height of the plinth. Excluding the plinth, divide the height into four parts, one whereof is to be given to the upper torus; then divide the remaining three parts into two equal parts, one will be the height of the lower torus, and the other the height of the scotia with its fillets.

ATTIC STORY. A term frequently applied to the upper story of a house when the ceiling is square with the sides to distinguish it from garrets. See Book III. Chap. I.

Sect. 13.

ATTRIBUTES. In decorative architecture, are certain symbols given to figures, or disposed as ornaments on a building, to indicate a distinguishing character: as a lyre, bow, or arrow to Apollo; a club to Hercules; a trident to Neptune; a spear to Pallas, &c. AUGER. A carpenter's and joiner's tool for boring large holes. It consists of a wooden handle terminated at the bottom with steel. The more modern augers are pointed and sharpened like a centre bit, the extremity of one of the edges being made to cut the wood clean at the circumference, and the other to cut and take away the core, the whole length of the radius.

AVIARY. (Lat. Avis.) A house or apartment set apart for keeping and breeding birds. AVITUS, St. See ARCHITECTS, list of, 58.

AULA. (Lat.) In ancient Roman architecture, a court or hall.

AWNING. (Fr. Aulne.) Any covering intended as a screen from the sun or protection from the rain.

AXE. (Sax. eax.) A tool with a long wooden handle and a cutting edge situate in a plane passing longitudinally through the handle. It is used for hewing timber by cutting it vertically, the edge being employed in forming horizontal surfaces. The axe differs from the joiner's hatchet by being much larger, and by its being used with only one hand. Axes of various sizes, depending upon the quality of the material, are used by stone-cutters and bricklayers.

AXIS. The spindle or centre of any rotative motion. the centre is the axis.

In a sphere a line passing through

B.

BABYLONIAN ARCHITECTURE. See Book I. Chap. II. Sect. 3.

BACK. The side opposite to the face or breast of any piece of architecture.

In a recess upon a quadrangular plane, the face is that surface which has the two adjacent planes, called the sides, elbows, or gables. When a piece of timber is fixed in an horizontal or in an inclined position, the upper side is called the back, and the lower the breast. Thus the upper side of the handrail of a staircase is properly called the back. The same is to be understood with regard to the curved ribs of ceilings and the rafters of a roof, whose upper edges are always called the backs.

BACK OF A CHIMNEY. The recessed face of it towards the apartment, &c. See CHIMNEY. BACK OF A HAND-RAIL. The upper side of it.

BACK OF A HIP or other RAFTER. The upper side or sides of it in the sloping plane of the side of the roof.

BACK LINING OF A SASH FRAME.

on either side.

BACK SHUTTERS.

That parallel to the pulley piece and next to the jamb
See JOINERY, p. 563, et seq.

Those folds of a shutter which do not appear on the face being folded
See JOINERY, p. 570, et seq.

within the boxing.

BACK OF A STONE.
BACK OF A WALL.

BACK OF A WINDOW.

The side opposite to the face. It is generally rough.
The inner face of it.

The piece of wooden framing in the space between the lower part of the sash frame and the floor of the apartments, and bounded at its extremities right and left by the elbows of the window. The number of panels into which it is framed is dependent on what may be necessary for carrying out the design; it rarely, however, consists of more than one.

The

BACKING OF A RAFTER or RIB. The formation of the upper or outer surface of either in such a manner as to range with the edges of the rafters or ribs on either side of it. formation of the inner edges of the ribs for a lath and plaister ceiling is sometimes called backing, but improperly, since contrary to the true meaning of the word. BACKING OF A WALL. The filling in and building which forms the inner face of the work. In this sense it is opposed to facing, which is the outside of the wall. In stone walls the backing is unfortunately too often mere rubble, while the face is ashlar. BADIGEON. A mixture of plaster and freestone sifted and ground together, used by statuaries to repair defects in their work. The joiner applies this term to a mixture of sawdust and strong glue, with which he fills up the defects of the wood after it has been wrought. A mixture for the same purpose is made of whiting and glue, and sometimes with putty and chalk. When the first of these is used, it is allowed to remain until quite hard, after which it may be submitted to the operation of planing and smoothing. Without this precaution, it may shrink below the surface of the work.

BAGNIO. (It.) An Italian term for a bath, usually applied by the English to an establishment having conveniences for bathing, sweating, and otherwise cleansing the body. It is applied by the Turks to the prisons where their slaves are confined, in which it is customary to have baths.

BAGUETTE. (Fr.) A small moulding of the astragal species. It is occasionally cut with pearls, ribands, laurels, &c. According to M. Le Clerc, the baguette is called a chaplet when ornaments are cut on it.

BAILEY. See CASTLE.

BAKEHOUSE. An apartment provided with an oven and kneading troughs for baking.
BALANEIA. A Greek term for a bath.

BALCONY. (It. Balcone.) A projection from the external wall of a house, borne by columns or consoles, and usually placed before windows or openings, and protected on the extremity of the projection by a railing of balusters or ironwork. In the French theatre, the balcon is a circular row of seats projecting beyond the tier of boxes immediately above the pit.

BALDACHINO. (It.) An open building, supported by columns, and covered with a canopy, generally placed over an altar. Sometimes the baldachino is suspended from the roof, as in the church of St. Sulpice at Paris. It succeeded to the ancient ciborium, which was a cupola supported on four columns, still to be seen in many of the churches of Rome. The merit of its invention seems to belong to Bernini. That erected by him in St. Peter's is 128 feet high, and being of bronze weighs near 90 tons. It was built by order of the Pope Barberini, from the robbery of the Pantheon, and occasioned the bitter observation, " Quod non fecerunt Barbari fecerunt Barberini."

BALDWIN. See ARCHITECTS, list of, 104.

BALECTION OF BOLECTION MOULDINGS. Mouldings which project beyond the surface of a piece of framing. See p. 569,

BALKS OF BAULKS. (Dutch.) Sometimes called dram timber. They are pieces of whole

fir, being the trunks of small trees of that species, rough-squared for building purposes. In the metropolis the term is applied to short lengths, from eighteen to twenty-five feet, mostly under ten inches square, tapering considerably, and with the angles so left that the piece is not exactly square.

BALLIUM. In the architecture of the middle ages, the open space or court of a fortified castle. This has acquired in English the appellation Bailey; thus St. Peter's in the Bailey at Oxford, and the Old Bailey in London, are so named from their ancient connection with the sites of castles.

BALLOON. A round ball or globe placed on a column or pier, by way of crowning it. The same name is given to the balls on the tops of cathedrals, as at St. Peter's, which is 8 feet diameter, and at St. Paul's in London.

BALNEUM. (Lat.) A bath.

BALTEUS. (Lat. a girdle.) The wide step in theatres and amphitheatres, which afforded a passage round them without disturbance to the sitters. No one sat on it; it served merely as a landing-place. In the Greek and Roman theatres, every eighth step was a balteus. Vitruvius gives the rules for properly setting it out, in the third chapter of his fifth book. The term balteus is also used by Vitruvius to denote the strap which seems to bind up the coussinet or cushion of the Ionic capital.

BALUSTER. A species of small column belonging to a balustrade. See Book III. Chap. I. Sect. 16. This term is also used to denote the lateral part of the volute of the Ionic capital. Vitruvius calls it pulvinata, on account of its resemblance to a pillow. BALUSTRADE. A parapet or protecting fence formed of balusters, sometimes employed for real use, and sometimes merely for ornament. For the method of designing balustrades, and other particulars relating to them, see Book III. Chap. I. Sect. 16. BAND. (Fr. Bande.) A flat member or moulding, smaller than a fascia.

The face of a band is in a vertical plane, as is also that of the fascia; the word, however, is applied to narrow members somewhat wider than fillets; and the word fascia to broader members. The cinctures sometimes used round the shafts of rusticated columns are called bands. In this case the column is called a banded column.

BANDAGES.

A term applied to the rings or chains of iron inserted in the corners of a stone wall, or round the circumference of a tower, at the springing of a dome, &c., which act as a tie on the walls to keep them together.

BANDELET, or BANDLET. A small band encompassing a column like a ring.

BANISTER. A vulgar term for baluster, which see.

BANKER. A bench, on which masons prepare, cut, and square their work.

BANQUET. (Fr.) The footway of a bridge when raised above the carriage-way.

BAPTISMAL FONT. A vessel raised above the ground for containing the holy water used in the administration of baptism. Many of the fonts in Saxon churches are still in being. The plans and horizontal sections are commonly circles, octagons, or squares, and at a little later dates were elaborately decorated with mouldings and sculptures. BAPTISTERY. (Gr. Banтisw.) A building in the architecture of the middle ages, destined for administration of the rite of baptism. It has been contended by some that the baptistery was at first placed in the interior vestibules of the early churches, as are in many churches the baptismal fonts. This, however, was not the case. The baptistery was quite separate from the basilica, and even placed at some distance from it. Until the end of the sixth century, it was, beyond doubt, a distinct building; but after that period the font gradually found its way into the vestibule of the church, and the practice became general, except in a few churches, as at Florence, and in those of all the episcopal cities of Tuscany, Ravenna, of S. Giovanni Laterano at Rome, and some few other places. The last mentioned is perhaps the most ancient remaining. There was a baptistery at Constantinople, of such dimensions that, on one occasion, it held a very numerous council. That at Florence is nearly ninety feet in diameter, octagonal, and covered with a dome. It is enclosed by the celebrated bronze gates by Lorenzo Ghiberti, which Michel Angelo said were fit to be the gates of Paradise. The baptistery of Pisa, designed by Dioti Salvi, was finished about 1160. The plan is octagonal, about 129 feet in diameter and 179 feet high. See p. 118.

BAR. In a court of justice, an enclosure, three or four feet high, in which the counsel have their places to plead causes. The same name is given to the enclosure, or rather bar before it, at which prisoners are placed to take their trials for criminal offences. BAR. A piece of wood or iron used for fastening doors, window shutters, &c. BAR OF A SASH. The light pieces of wood or metal which divide a window sash into compartments for the glass. The angle bars of a sash are those standing at the intersection of two vertical planes.

BAR IRON is that made of the metal of sows and pigs, as it comes from the furnace. The sows and pigs, as they are technically termed, pass through the forges and chaufery, where, having undergone five successive heats, they are formed into bars. See Sect. 5.

Book II. Chap. II. For the weight of a foot of bar iron of different thicknesses, see p. 590.

BAR-POSTS. Posts driven into the ground for forming the sides of a field gate. They are mortised, to admit of horizontal bars being put in or taken out at pleasure. BARBACAN. A watch-tower for descrying an enemy: also the outer work or defence of a castle, or the fort at the entrance of a bridge. Apertures in the walls of a fortress, for firing through upon the enemy, are sometimes called by this name. The etymology of

the word has been variously assigned to French, Italian, Spanish, Saxon, and Arabian origin. See CASTLE.

BARGE BOARDS. The inclined projecting boards placed at the gable of a building, and hiding the horizontal timbers of a roof. They are frequently carved with trefoils, quatrefoils, flowers, and other ornaments and foliage.

BARGE COUPLES. (Sax. Bуngan, to bar.) Two beams mortised and tenoned together for the purpose of increasing the strength of a building.

BARGE COURSE. The part of the tiling which projects over the gable of a building, and which is made good below with mortar.

BARN. (Sax. Benn.) A covered farm-building for laying up grain, hay, straw, &c. The situation of a barn should be dry and elevated. It is usually placed on the north or north east side of a farm-yard. The barns, outhouses, and stables should not be far distant from each other. They are most frequently constructed with wooden framing of quarters, &c., and covered with weather boarding; sometimes, in superior farms, they are built of stone and brick. The roofs are usually thatched or tiled, as the materials for the purpose are at hand; but as the grain should of all things be kept dry, to prevent it from moulding, the gable ends should be constructed of brick, and apertures left in the walls for the free admission of air. The bays, as they are called, are formed by two pairs of folding doors, exactly opposite to each other, and, as well as for thrashing, afford the convenience of carrying in and out a cart or waggon load of corn in sheaves, or any sort of bulky produce. The doors in question must be of the same breadth as the threshing-floor, to afford light to the threshers, and air for winnowing the grain. It is a good practice to make an extensive penthouse over the great doors sufficiently large to cover a load of corn or hay, in case of the weather not permitting it to be immediately housed.

BAROZZI DA VIGNOLA. See ARCHITECTS, list of, 217.
BARRACKS. See Book III. Chap. III. Sect. 19.

BARREL DRAIN. One in the form of a hollow cylinder.

BARYCE OF BARYCEPHALE. (Gr. Bapus, low or flat, and Kepɑλŋ, head.) The Greek name for an aræostyle temple.

BASE. (Gr. Baois.) In geometry, the lower part of a figure or body. The base of a solid is the surface on which it rests.

BASE OF A COLUMN.

any to the order. on the orders.

BASE OF A ROOM.

The part between the shaft and the pavement or pedestal, if there be Each column has its particular base, for which see Sections 3 to 7. For the Attic base see under that word.

The lower projecting part. It consists of two parts, the lower whereof is a plain board adjoining the floor, called the plinth, and the upper of one or more mouldings, which, taken collectively, are called the base-mouldings. In better sort of work the plinth is tongued into a groove in the floor, by which means the diminution of breadth created by the shrinking never causes any aperture or chasm between its under edge and the floor, and the upper edge of the plinth is rebated upon the base. Bedrooms, lobbies, passages, and staircases are often finished without a dado and surbase, and indeed the fashion has extended the practice to rooms of the higher class, as drawingrooms, &c.

BASEMENT. The lower story of a building, whether above or below the ground. See Book III. Chap. I. Sect. 13.

BASIL Among carpenters and joiners the angle to which the edge of an iron tool is ground so as to bring it to a cutting edge. If the angle be very thin the tool will cut more freely, but the more obtuse it is the stronger and fitter it is for service. BASILICA. (Gr. Baσiλeus, a king.) Properly the palace of a king; but it afterwards came to signify an apartment usually provided in the houses of persons of importance, where assemblies were held for dispensing justice. Thus in the magnificent villa of the Gordian family on the Via Prenestina there were three basilica, each more than one hundred feet long. A basilica was generally attached to every forum, for the summary adjustment of the disputes that arose. It was surrounded in most cases with shops and other conveniences for traders. The difference between the Grecian and Roman basilica is given by Vitruvius in the fifth chapter of his first book. The rise and progress of the modern basilica is given, p. 109, et seq. The term basilica is also applied by Palladio to those buildings in the cities of Italy similar in use to our town halls.

BASIS.

See BASE,

BASKET. A term often applied to the vase of the Corinthian capital, with its foliage, &c. BASSE COUR. (Fr.) A court destined in a house of importance for the stables, coachhouses, and servants attached to that part of the establishment. In country houses it is often used to denote the yard appropriated to the cattle, fowls, &c.

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BASTARD STUCCo. See Sect. 9. Chap. III. Book II.

BAT. In bricklayer's work, a piece of a brick less than one half of its length.
BATH. (From the Saxon, Bad.) An apartment or series of apartments for bathing. Among
the ancients the public baths were of amazing extent and magnificence, and contained a
vast number of apartments. These extraordinary monuments of Roman magnificence
seem to have had their origin in many respects from the gymnasia of the Greeks, both
being instituted for the exercise and health of the public. The word therma (hot baths)
was by the Romans used to denominate the establishment, although it contained in the
same building both hot and cold baths. In later times a house was incomplete unless
provided with hot and cold baths; and, indeed, it was not till the time of Augustus that
public baths assumed the grandeur which their remains indicate. Different authors
reckon nearly eight hundred baths in Rome, whereof the most celebrated were those of
Agrippa, Antoninus, Caracalla, Diocletian, Domitian, Nero, and Titus. It appears
from good authority, that the baths of Diocletian could accommodate no less than eight
hundred bathers. These stupendous edifices are indicative of the magnificence, no less
than the luxury of the age in which they were erected. The pavements were mosaic,
the ceilings vaulted and richly decorated, and the walls encrusted with the rarest marbles.
From these edifices many of the most valuable examples of Greek sculpture have been
restored to the world; and it was from their recesses that the restorers of the art drew
their knowledge, and that Rafaelle learnt to decorate the walls of the Vatican.
p. 96.

BATERDEAU. (Fr.) The same as coffer dam, which see.
BATRACHUS. See ARCHITECTS, list of, 33.

See

BATTEN. (Probably from the Fr. Bâton, from its small width.) A scantling or piece of stuff from two to six inches broad, and from five eighths of an inch to two inches thick. Battens are used in the boarding of floors and also upon walls, in order to receive the laths upon which the plaister is laid. See BOARDED FLOOR.

BATTENING. The fixing of battens to walls for the reception of the laths on which the plaster is to be laid. It also signifies the battens in the state of being fixed for that purpose. The battens employed are usually about two inches broad and three fourths of an inch thick; the thicknesses, however, may be varied according to the distances that the several fixed points are from each other. Their distance in the clear is from eleven inches to one foot. Before battens are fixed, equidistant bond timbers should be built in the wall, or the wall should be plugged at equal distances, and cut off flush with its surface. In and about London plugs are generally placed at the distance of twelve or fourteen inches from centre to centre in the length of the batten. Battens upon

external walls, the ceiling and bridging joists of a naked floor, also the common joists for supporting the boarding of a floor, are fixed at the same distance, viz. from eleven to twelve inches in the clear. When battens are fixed against flues, iron holdfasts are of course employed instead of bond-timbers or plugs. When they are attached to a wall they are generally fixed in vertical lines, and when fixed to the surface of a stone or brick vault, whose intrados is generated by a plane revolving about an axis, they ought to be placed in planes tending to the axis; as in this position they have only to be fixed in straight lines, in case the intrados is straight towards the axis, which will be the case when it is a portion of a cone or cylinder; and when the intrados is curved towards the axis they will bend the easiest possible. Great care should be taken to regulate the fans of the battens, so as to be as nearly as possible equidistant from the intended surface of the plaster. Though battens are employed in floors, neither the act of laying them nor the floor afterwards formed of them is called battening; they are more commonly called boarding. Every piece of masonry or brickwork, if not thoroughly dry, should be battened for lath 'and plaster, particularly if executed in a wet season. When windows are boarded, and the walls of the room not sufficiently thick to contain the shutters, the surface of the plastering is brought out so as to give the architrave a proper projection, and quarterings are used for supporting the lath and plaster in lieu of battens. This is also practised when the breast of a chimney projects into the room, in order to cover the recesses and make the whole side flush, or all in the same surface with the breast.

BATTER (probably from the Fr. Battre). A term used by artificers to signify that a body does not stand upright, but inclines from a person standing before it; when, on the contrary, it leans towards a person, its inclination is described by saying it overhangs. BATTLEMENTS. Indentations on the top of a wall, parapet, or other building. They were first used in ancient fortifications, and subsequently applied to chambers and other build

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