Kitchen grates. Skylights.

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often well placed behind the top architrave of the door so as to be invisible, though the love of bad air and stuffiness is so inveterate that you can never be secure against such openings being stuffed up, and the best way perhaps is to let the doors have a wide opening, or we may say, fit badly both at top and bottom in all bedrooms. I have seen pretences of ventilating rooms by some small holes in the cornice leading into a tube going somewhere, of which all that can be said is that they are a little better than nothing. I need hardly say that small rooms are harder to keep at a pleasant temperature and well ventilated than large ones. I advise everybody building a kitchen not to be persuaded to have only one chimney, in the belief that nothing but a close grate or kitchener' will ever be required. In time people will find out that they save nothing and that the smell of the kitchen cannot be kept out of all the house. I never saw one where it was. Then if you want an open grate afterwards and also a hot plate' stove for occasional cooking, you will be baffled by the architect not having provided any chimney for it.

Skylights are notoriously difficult to keep watertight, from several causes. If they have not a very steep slope the wind drives the rain under the overlap of the glass, and then it runs down inside. Consequently the panes should be as long as possible. Again if the putty has separated the least from the bars, the wet soaks in. And this is particularly liable to happen with iron bars, from their continual expansion and contraction, which often cracks the glass besides, especially if the panes are large. Setting windows in stone without any frames is still worse, for the same reason; I have seen a large window full of plate glass cracked all over in

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Painting outside.

that way by the frost. Then as soon as a drop of wet gets into iron frames rust begins and widens the breach, and wet settles there; and that freezes and cracks the glass still more. In this respect, I mean as to destruction by rust everywhere, wrought iron is always worse than cast. The only chance then of keeping skylights tight is to have the bars of wood, strong enough to bear snow without bending, and wide flanges for the glass to lie on, and well painted at first before puttying and after, and kept so constantly. Nothing is worse economy than saving outside painting: inside is of little consequence except for appearance. And that is no less true of oak than deal externally. It is remarkable too that an oak door painted oak colour looks much better than a deal one; and though imitation oak painting is specially denounced by architectural prigs, it is the most lasting kind of painting by reason of the varnish. But varnishing alone will not preserve unpainted oak exposed to the weather. This therefore is a case where the sham is actually better than the reality. I have already spoken of those larger skylights called lanterns. Glass tiles, either curved or flat, make a very sufficient skylight among tiles or slates where you do not require them to be perfectly watertight, as for various kinds of out buildings.

Windows. I have already spoken of windows in relation to the plan and masonry of a house, reserving further details of their construction. Dismissing French or Italian ones as a relapse into barbarism, for the reasons given at p. 149, at least for nine months of our year, except in the single case of wanting one to serve also for a door, I just mention two other kinds before considering the common up and down sashes, the most

Windows, construction of.

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usual and rational kind of window for ordinary use. One is sashes sliding sideways, which are sometimes convenient, as they require no weights, and are easier to manage when the window is low and wide. They are also very cheap, and in every way suitable for cottages or small upper rooms, but require a little care to prevent the rain driving it at the bottom, i.e. they required a proper bead and groove to run on and a channel to drain the water off. I have had no trouble with them, though I once lived three years in a room with them and have had them made since in houses of my own; but for some reason or other they have gone out of fashion and I have found architects unwilling to adopt them.

The other kind are common enough in very small windows, viz. sashes swinging on horizontal centres, or pivots; which however are invariably made wrong, and with the most persistent obstinacy, if you do not with equal obstinacy reject them until they are right. I have just seen a whole lot of them made wrong although I had specially ordered how they should be made. The architectural mind seems incapable of appreciating the mathematical fact that a window hung on centres in the same vertical plane as the centre of gravity when it is shut, i.e. in the middle plane of the window, is a mere pendulum offering no sensible resistance to any force tending to displace it only a little from the vertical position; i.e. the slightest puff of wind into the room, as from opening a door, will blow such a window a little open, because the lower part is longer than the upper. Consequently such windows will not keep shut without being either tied down inside or weighted outside. Whereas if the pivots are put inside the window,

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Window pulleys with oil holes.

as well as above the centre of gravity, its weight tends to keep it shut and will resist a moderate force tending to blow it open.

The modern passion for making window bars as thin as possible, even when cheapness is no object, is extremely foolish. The difference between the thinnest possible bar, and a fairly thick one is quite inappreciable in either light or weight, while there is a very great difference both in their actual and apparent strength. They should not be thinner than an inch (finished size, not a builder's inch, which is where the panes are as much as 16 inches wide, and for small ones of ordinary size. Old ones were undoubtedly too thick, especially for the small panes which only could be made then. For very large panes 1 is not at all too thick and looks well. All I need say about plate glass is to remind you that it has to be thicker and heavier the larger the panes are. Windows have increased enormously in weight since plate glass came into use for the whole of a sash or even half of it.

Sash-pulleys. Here I mention a small invention or improvement of my own in pulleys. Some new ones of superior make were brought to me to look at, with large cast-iron pivots running in cast-iron cheeks; for it is curious that cast iron works better on cast iron than any other metal. But it is also desirable to be able to oil them, especially for heavy plate-glass windows; and for that purpose I have had them made with a pair of ears behind the front, with two oblique holes leading from the pivots to the front plate, in which there are corresponding holes, down which a little oil will flow easily. You can make nothing of attempting to oil them in any other way. The man who brought me them without holes actually talked of taking the pulley out

to oil it: i.e. holding up the weights, or the window, unscrewing the four screws, oiling, and putting in again! It only proved that he knew they wanted oiling and did not know how to manage it.

And I don't know Another and rather

Another difficulty arising with heavy windows, or indeed with any tall ones (as all windows ought to be) is how to open the upper sash, which is much the best to open in bedrooms, and often in living rooms too, when it is not desired to leave the room exposed to visitors from outside. The simplest way is to have a ring fixed under the top bar of the upper sash, and to keep a rod in the room with a hook at the end to pull the window down or push it up. that there is any objection to it. easier plan is to fix a strong pulley above the window, with a kind of endless rope over it, i.e. with the two ends fixed to the same hook in the upper bar of the sash, the rope hanging down in a narrow festoon in the middle. This is particularly adapted for bedrooms, where there is generally a dressing table before the window, and the appearance of the rope hanging down is of no consequence, which it may be considered in drawing-room windows which have no middle upright bar. There is another patented plan on the same principle, but more complicated, and it involves a pair of ropes and handles hanging on each side of the window, and requires the use of two hands to work it. I prefer the single rope in the middle very much and have had it in use for many years in such of my windows as required it. I need hardly say that windows cannot be properly cleaned without a ladder unless the upper sash does open, and they are made to do so in all decent houses now, though I had to alter them all through a house in London thirty years ago. When you wish