Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/490

 39G /Sloan's Architectural Review and Banders' Journal. [Dec, ing, I recommend a wall of common cheap brick to be prepared for weather- boards, (not frame,) with which the building is to be encased. A house thus built, the weather-boards being nailed on horizontally, will be found to be. the cheapest, the most com- fortable, and the most enduring of all others in this climate. Let any one ob- serve a house built of brick or stone, either painted or plastered ; and it will be seen, that after a drifting rain, the walls become saturated with moisture. And should the winter immediately succeed, this moisture will freeze into ice ; and the residents are, for the season, encased in ice and dampness. Lathing a house, on the inside, will certainly exclude some of this moisture ; but nothing except weather-boarding, will protect the walls from the ruinous effects of moisture and ice. By weather- boarding a brick or stone house, we effectually exclude cold, and heat, and wind, and moisture. As to the durability of wood, there can be no question, when it is painted, and when the boards are placed hori- zontally, and well lapped. In New England, New York, and the Southern States, wooden houses may be seen still, in good repair, which are more than a century old. Every architect has seen the studding and joists and jamb-casing, on the eastern sides of stone houses, greatly de- caj^ed, after but a few years of occu- pancy, the result due to the dampness of the stone. A brick house weather-boarded, will not require lathing on the inside of the walls. I have seen the ceiling of a room reeking with moisture, in damp weather, whilst the walls, which were plastered on brick, were dry. Before closing, I will draw attention to a frequent cause of dampness or sweating of walls, namely, that sand is in some instances used, in the last coat of plaster, which has been procured from the salt-water beaches of the lower Dela- ware. Sand, from thence, contains salt, which, in dry weather, may be dry, but in damp, sweaty weather, the salt de- liquescing, will forever cause clamp ceil- ings. After a time, not only will the plaster so composed become rotten, but also whatever wood-work is in contact with it. Hence, care should be taken to procure the sand from the upper Delaware. In a house of moderate size, the ceil- ings should not be higher than ten feet. High ceilings in winter are not easily warmed ; and, besides this objection, high ceilings entail difficult stairs. Where the ceilings are to be ornamented, every foot above ten feet in height will require a very large addition to the length of the room. For example, take into consideration a room, the ceiling of which is to be adorned with paintings, would it not be absurd, to have those ceilings of so great a height, in propor- tion to the length of the room, that the ornaments of the ceiling could only be seen by a painful elevation of the head ? Just taste requires, that the fresco or ornamental painting on a ceiling, may be seen without an effort; and this can only be done, when on high ceilings, in very large rooms. In walking through a suite of rooms, of pleasing proportions, the paintings on the ceilings as on the walls are enjoj^ed if viewed without fatigue* E. C. E. MAPS are generally supposed to be the embodiment of the results of care- ful surveys ; but. even in those countries longest civilized, much they contain is made up from the routes ( f travel, by course and distance. The various gov- ernmental surveys for different purposes, the explorations of mining regions, the prospecting and actual engineering of railroads, &c, provide fuller materials every year ; but it will be long before we really know the surface of the earth.