"The foot of the ribs on one side was then passed over the tramway
sufficiently to allow the other side to clear the opposite truss; after
which the whole was hoisted to the full height, and rested on rollers of
hard wood placed between the sills attached to the framework and the
tramway, by means of which it was moved to its permanent position. There it
was again raised by another set of shears, while the sill and tramway were
removed from under it; and the ribs were then lowered into the sockets
prepared for them, formed by the continuation of the columns above the
level of the lead-flat."
"Each successive pair of ribs was fixed at a distance of twenty-four feet,
or one bay from the preceding one; and the purlins, &c., were fixed in the
intervening space without any scaffolding from the ground, by means of
jointed ladders, which were adjusted to the form of the roof."
The first pair of ribs was hoisted December 4th, and the eighth pair on
December 12th. The operation, which was one of great excitement and
considerable anxiety, was personally superintended by the contractors,
aided by their most able foremen and assistants; and a crowd of visitors,
including many of the illustrious promoters of the undertaking, watched
with intense interest the steady ascent of the apparently unwieldy piece of
construction, and every spectator seemed astonished at the mechanical
regularity with which the whole operation proceeded. It took about one hour
to raise a pair from the ground to the level of the lead-flat, and the
whole was done without any accident whatever. About sixty men were employed
in the hoisting, there being eleven men to each crab, and the remainder on
the lead-flats.
Glazing the Transept Roof.
The semicircular form of the transept roof rendered it necessary to adopt a
different mode of operation for glazing it to that used in the horizontal
portion. A stage, thirty-two feet long and about three feet wide, with a
protecting rail at the side, was constructed, so that it rested upon
rollers, travelling on the ridges. It was slung by ropes from the crown of
the arched roof, and could be raised and lowered at pleasure. It
accommodated eight workmen, with the necessary quantity of materials in
sash-bars and glass; and they thus performed, with ease and rapidity, an
operation which before the fitting-up of the stage appeared at least
extremely difficult, and to the uninitiated next to impossible.
[Illustration: STAGE FOR GLAZING THE ROOF OF TRANSEPT.]
The men commenced fixing the glass at the bottom or springing of the arch,
and as they completed their work the stage was raised at intervals by
labourers stationed on the lead-flat. A portion of the glazing at the crown
of the arch was effected by men working on a light scaffold, suspended
within from the temporary ties mentioned as having been attached to the
ribs; whilst those upon the stage worked upwards till they joined the
portion done from the top.
The Painting.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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