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 up and spiked to the sill, and a temporary board nailed across their face on the inside. These common studs are the full height from sill to roof plate, and the second tier of floor joists are supported by notching a 1 in. × 7 in. board, called a false girt or ribbon, into their inside edge at the height to receive the floor joists. The ends of the joists are also placed against a stud and spiked. The tops of the studs are cut to a line, and a 2 in. × 4 in. plate is spiked on top, an additional 2 in. × 4 in. plate being placed on the top of the last breaking joint. Should the studs not be long enough to reach the plate, then short pieces are fished on with pieces of wood spiked on both sides. The diagram shows a portion of the framework of a two-storey house constructed in the manner described. In the balloon frame the timbers are held together entirely by nails and spikes, thus permitting them to be put up rapidly. The studs are doubled where windows or openings occur. In both these methods dwarf brick foundations should be built, upon which to rest the sill. For buildings of a superior kind a combination of the braced and balloon frames is sometimes adopted.



The sides of frame buildings are covered with siding, which is fastened to a sheathing of rough boards nailed to the studs. The siding may consist of matched boards placed diagonally, or of clapboards or weather boards—which are thin boards thicker at one edge than the other, and arranged horizontally with the thick edge downwards and overlapping the thin edge of the board below. Shingles or wooden tiles are also employed.



 CARPET, the name given to any kind of textile covering for the ground or the floor, the like of which has also been in use on couches and seats and sometimes even for wall or tent hangings or curtains. In modern times, however, carpet usually means a patterned fabric woven with a raised surface of tufts (either cut or looped), and used as a floor covering. Other floor coverings are and have been made also without such a tufted surface, and of these some are simple shuttle-woven materials plain or enriched with needlework or printed with patterns, others are woven after the manner of tapestry-weaving (see ) or in imitation of it, and a further class of carpets is made of felt (see ). This last material is entirely different from that of shuttle or tapestry weaving. Although carpet weaving by hand is, and for centuries has been, an Oriental industry, it has also been, and is still, pursued in many European countries. Carpet-weaving by steam-driven machinery is solely European in origin, and was not brought to the condition of meeting a widespread demand until the 19th century.

In connexion with the word “carpet” (Lat. carpita, rug; O. Fr. carpite) notice may be taken of the Gr.  and the Lat. tapetium, whence also comes the Fr. tapis (the present word for “carpet”) as well as our own word “tapestry.” This latter, though now more particularly descriptive

of hangings and curtains woven in a special way, was, in later medieval times, indiscriminately applied to them and to stuffs used as floor and seat coverings. From a very early period classical writers make mention of them. In ancient Egypt, for instance, floor and seat coverings were used in temples for religious ceremonies by the priests of Amen Ra; later on they