British Manufacturing Industries: Pottery, Glass and Silicates, Furniture and Woodwork.Arnoux, Léon
History
British Manufacturing Industries: Pottery, Glass and Silicates, Furniture and Woodwork.
Arnoux, Léon
Manufacturing industries -- Great Britain
Much work, such as chair rails, table legs, balusters for little
galleries or on a large scale, is turned and cut in the steam lathe by
hand, using steam power only to turn it.
_Joinery._--The pieces of wood thus prepared are made up in many
different combinations. This is the work of the joiner. In the
joiners' shop of Messrs. Jackson and Graham, for instance, several
benches were shown to me occupied by lengths of wall-panelling in
ebony, some of the work being intended to cover the wall of a
staircase; it was therefore framed in sloping lines. Each panel was a
rhomboid, and none of the sides or mouldings were at right angles to
each other. The mouldings had several fine strings, ovaloes, &c., all
specially designed by the architect of the house--as the fittings of
well-furnished houses should be. For these, special cutters had been
made and fitted to the steam-moulding machine. To show the back of the
panelling, the workmen turned it over. Instead of each panel being
held in a groove provided in the stiles and rails, a rebate only has
been cut in the frame, and the panel fits into it from the back (as
the stretcher of a picture fits into a picture-frame), while iron
buttons screwed into the frame pieces hold the panels firmly in their
places. The object of this is to allow for the contraction of the wood
with the alterations of temperature. With some woods, however well
seasoned, this provision is requisite, and it is the more necessary,
when more than one material is employed. In using ebony over large
surfaces, it is found that the lengths required for the continuous
rails cannot be procured free from knots or faults; and particular
kinds of wood (pear and other material) are stained and prepared, to
supplement the ebony in these instances.
The joiners put together panelling, chairs, couches, frames of tables,
shelves, cupboards, and other complex pieces of furniture.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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