Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/963

 1869.] Geometrical Drawings and Models. 787 condescend to bestow the slightest at- tention upon them, unless it be for the showiness and beauty of their execution. It is to be hoped that the Architectural Magazine has done something towards removing a most extravagant prejudice "against the ground plans of buildings, namely, that, if there be any interest at all in such drawings, the tilings are quite incomprehensible ; whereas, so far from there being any mystery in them, a child of common capacity would be able to understand them, if properly, and of course, patiently, explained to liiin. Perhaps there is quite as much affectation or obstinacy in the case as any thing else ; for it will generally be found that the persons who pretend they can make nothing out of a plan, possess, like M. Jourdain in the Bourgeois Gon- tilhomme, a talent quite unknown to themselves. If they can make out, the meaning of a map, they understand what might reasonably be imagined by far the more unintelligible species of plan, be- cause such geographical plans less clearly denote what is intended to be expressed by them than architectural maps do. Or how happens it, that the same unfortunate persons, who are be- wildered at the sight of the ground plan of a house, are nevertheless gifted with such sagacity, that thejr are not at all puzzled by the plan of a city. Enlight- ened, perhaps, by some preternatural means, rather than informed by any natural exertion of intellect, they know, almost without having ever had occasion to be told it, that the dark parts indicate houses and other buildings, at least the ground upon which they stand. Yet show them the map of a house; inform them that the shaded parts indicate the walls, and show their thickness, while the blanks, interrupting the course of such lines or shadings, represent the doors and windows, and ten to one but they stare you very innocently in the face, and tell you they see nothing what- ever like walls, doors, and windows; and, after having occasioned you to swear sundry mental oaths at their stupidity, finish by exclaiming, " Well, it may be so, but I positively cannot see what it means; never beheld such odd-shaped doors and windows in all my life." " Were I to protest that there is not the slightest coloring of caricature in the above, I might not be exactly be- lieved ; still there is so very slight a tinge of it, that the matter is hardly ex- aggerated at all ; for, if you can get on so far as to make persons at length un- stand those particulars, there are a hun- dred others which you fruitlessly endea- vor to explain to them. They will tell you, for instance, that what you call stairs, are "all flat," and lying on the ground ; and, when informed that the dotted lines are intended to show the projection of cornices, and the compart- ments of the ceilings, ask how it is possible that the ceiling can be upon the floor. " These remarks, it must be owned, appear to have very little to do with the subject itself; nevertheless, they may possibly be of as much actual service as all the rest of my article put together, by leading persons to consider whether it would not be proper that children should be taught to understand the nature of architectural plans, as well as of other plans or maps. But to resume what I have thus interrupted by a long par parenth ese : a plan may be defined to be a horizontal section of a building, or of any particular floor of it ; and it is highly desirable that it should be made to show whatever can be expressed in it, without crowding it so much as to be confused. In this respect, many of the plans given in architectural works the older ones more especially, are sadly deficient ; and this is most felt in the case where they are not accompanied by sections. The projection of cornices, the compartments of ceilings, the groin- ings of vaulted roofs, domes, skylights, &c, should all be transferred to the plan, and indicated on it by fine dotted lines; also the shelving in libraries, and