Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/676

 652 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. containing 6000 cubic feet of air at a comfortable temperature, during the most severe weather of an Edinburgh winter. The same excellent correspondent observes, that a convenient improvement in register grates with polished bars is, to have the fronts of the grates made to lift off", so as to allow them to be taken out of the room to be cleaned. Wlien several grates of the same pattern are in the same house, a spare front may be hooked on, when the blackened one is taken away ; and this, in its turn, when polished, may be used as a spare one in another room. As much of the light dust which lodges upon furniture arises from the stirring of the fire, this may be in a great measure prevented, in register grates, by having a horizontal slit, or row of holes made through the back plate, just under the grate bottom: as a current of air will always be flowing by such openings into the space between the back plate and the wall, the light dust which is separated by stirring the fire will be carried in by this current, insteac of partly eddying out into the room. 1 374. The Furniture for lite Living and Sleeping Rooms of a Farm House have nothing in them which is peculiar ; and therefore we refer our readers to what we have saio respecting the furniture of cottages, for farm houses of the smaller size; and to what we shall say of the furniture of villas, for those of a larger description. As all educated persons living in the country must necessarily derive a considerable portion of theii enjoyment from books, the parlour of the farmer ought always to be provided either with a large bookcase, or, for economy's sake, with one or more recesses in an interior 1246 wall or partition, fitted up with book- shelves. In either case, where glass, or glazed bookcase doors are considered too expensive, we would recommend a blind of canvass working in two grooves, as an equally efficacious protection for the books. This is the invention of a very ingenious architect, Charles Vokins, Esq., who has adopted it in his office bookcase. In the styles or sides of the frame of the shelves, fig. 1246, a a are the grooves, and 6 b the laths to which the canvass is attached, which work in them. The blind thus formed being pulled down by the knob c, and pulled up by the cord d, the last operating on a spring roller, enclosed in a tin case fixed in the top of the bookcase ; e is the scutcheon of a lock in the lath, for locking up the whole or any number of shelves. The book- shelves, where economy is the main object, may be fixed ; but where they are movable, and supported by pins, we would recommend another improvement, invented also by Mr. Vokins. This is, having the pins of metal broad and flat, so as to fit into grooves in the under sides • 129630123 of the shelves ; by which means two more '"•, , , , , , . F'. books are got upon each shelf than it would otherwise hold, without raising it the thickness of the pin above the height of the books, which would thus lose a space of an inch or more the whole length of the shelves. Two flush brass bolts in each shelf would effect the same object, but in a more expensive manner. 1375. Saul's Bookcase and Writing-desk Clock forms a curious and useful piece of furniture for the farm-house parlour. This clock, fig. 1247, Mr. Saul observes, " differs from any I have seen ; and may, at first sight, appear expensive : but this is by no means the case ; for there are few mouldings about it, beads looking equally well, and being much cheaper. Long before I made this piece of furniture, I always considered the common clockcases defective, from the room taken up by them, when compared with the very small space occupied by the works of the clock ; and I therefore endeavoured to make every part of use. In describing this clock, I may commence with the face. As my name has twelve letters in it, I have placed them on the clock face, instead of the figures which denote the hours ; the figures in the inner rim represent the hours also ; but those on the outer rim are on an entirely new plan. Those to the left of six o'clock, and twelve o'clock, representing how many minutes it is to such an hour, and those to