But first it may be mentioned here that the glass used throughout the
building is sheet, on an average about one-sixteenth of an inch thick, and
weighing one pound per foot superficial. This gives an aggregate weight of
about four hundred tons for the whole of the work, the greater part of
which was supplied by Messrs. Chance and Co., of Birmingham. Each square is
forty-nine inches long and ten wide, the greatest length of sheet glass
that has ever been made in this country. The manufacture of this kind of
glass is of comparatively recent introduction into England, though
practised for some time on the Continent; and the rapid progress made by
the manufacturers alluded to must be in a great measure attributed to the
wise removal of the fiscal burden on the article, made by the late Sir
Robert Peel. That lamented statesman, with his usual foresight, doubtless
contemplated that great social benefits would follow from that enactment;
and it is, perhaps, not too much to say that, but for Sir Robert's
enlightened measure, this "huge pile of transparency" would never have been
reared.
The Box Gutters.
It has been mentioned that the triple gutters deliver the water into main
gutters running in the transverse direction of the building; these are
formed of wood, with a bottom piece, into which are grooved two upright
sides, they are firmly bolted down upon the upper flange of the
roof-girders, and where these are quite horizontal the fall in the gutter
is given by a false bottom laid to a slope. Of these gutters there is a
length of about five-and-a-half miles in the building, which, added to the
aggregate length of the Paxton's gutters, makes a total of about
twenty-five-and-a-half miles of gutter.
Roof Girders.
These are of cast-iron, where not more than twenty-four feet long, and the
rest of wrought-iron. The cast-iron ones are precisely the same in
appearance as those used for the galleries, but lighter in metal; a
separate description of them is not, therefore, necessary. The weight of
each of these girders is twelve cwt., and each was proved to nine tons
previously to being used; but it is calculated that the greatest weight
they may have to bear will not exceed five tons: the total number required
was about 470.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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