FIR WROUGHT. That planed on the edges and sides.

FIR WROUGHT AND FRAMED. That which is both planed and framed.

FIR WROUGHT, FRAMED, AND REBATED. That which is planed, framed, and rebated.
FIR WROUGHT, FRAMED, REBATED, AND BEADED. The same as the preceding article, with
the addition of beading.

FIR FRAMED. Rough timber framed, but which has not undergone the action of planing.
FIR NO LABOUR. Rough timber employed in walls, without planing or framing.
FIRE-PLACE. See CHIMNEY.

FIRE-STONE. That which resists the action of the fire. A species of it is used in joinery
for rubbing away the ridges made by the cutting-edge of the plane.
FIRMER TOOL. A tool used by joiners. See p. 565.

FIRST COAT. In plastering, the laying the plaster on the laths, or the rendering, as it is called, on brickwork, when only two coats are used. When three are used, it is called pricking-up when upon laths, and roughing-in when upon bricks.

FISCHER, VON ERLACH. See ARCHITECTS, list of, 269.

FISCHER, CARL. See ARCHITECTS, list of, 313.

FISH. (Verb.) To secure a piece of wood by fastening another piece above or below it, and sometimes both, to strengthen it.

FISTUCA. (Lat.) A pile-driving instrument with two handles raised by pulleys, and guided in its descent to fall on the head of a pile so as to drive it into the ground, being what is by the workmen called a monkey.

FIXTURE. A term applied to all articles of a personal nature affixed to land. This annexation must be by the article being let into or united with the land, or with some substance previously connected therewith.

FLAGS. Thin stones used for paving, from one and a half to three inches thick, and of various lengths and breadths, according to the nature of the quarry.

FLAKE WHITE. In painting, lead corroded by the pressing of grapes, or a ceruse prepared by the acid of grapes. It is of Italian manufacture, and for the purity of its white far surpasses the white lead of this country.

FLANK. (Fr. Flanc.) That part of a return body which joins the front. In town houses the party-walls are the flank walls.

FLASHING. (Probably from Fr. Flaque, a splash.) Pieces of lead or other metal let into the joints of a wall so as to lap over the gutters or other conduit pieces, and prevent the splashing of rain injuring the interior works.

FLAT. That part of the covering of a house laid horizontal, and covered with lead or other material.

FLATTING. In house painting, a mode of painting in oil, in which the surface is left, when finished, without any gloss. The material or paint is prepared with a mixture of oil of turpentine, which secures the colours, and when used in the finishing, leaves the paint quite dead. The process is of use where it is desirous that the surface painted should retain the colour. It is only used for inside work and in the best apartments. Nut oil may be used for the purpose, so may be poppy oil, both whereof are good media for the colour.

FLEMISH BOND. See p. 516.

FLEMISH BRICKS. A species of bricks used for paving, whereof seventy-two will pave a square yard; they were originally imported from Flanders, are of a yellowish colour, and harder than common bricks.

FLEXIBILITY. (Lat. Flecto.) That property of bodies which admits of their bending. It is opposed to stiffness on the one hand, and brittleness on the other; stiff bodies being such as resist bending, and brittle those which cannot be bent without a disruption of their parts.

FLEXURE. The bending or curve of a line or surface. The point of contrary flexure is that point of a curve where the curvature alters from convex to concave, or the reverse, as respects the first direction of the curve.

FLIGHT OF STEPS. In a staircase is the series of steps from one landing place to another. Thus, the same staircase between one floor and another may consist of more than one flight of steps; the flight being reckoned from landing to landing.

FLINT. A material often used in inferior building. Common flints are nearly pure silica. They usually occur in irregular nodules in chalk. Their origin is still an unsolved geological problem.

FLOAT. In plastering, a long rule with a straight edge, by which the work is reduced to a plane surface.

FLOATED LATH AND PLASTER. Plastering of three coats, whereof the first is pricking-up, see Book II. Chap. III. Sect. 9.; the second, floating or floated work; and the last, of fine stuff.

FLOATED WORK. Plastering rendered perfectly plane by means of a FLOAT, which see.

FLOATING SCREEDS. (The etymon. of screeds, being probably schierato, ranged.) Strips of plaster previously set out on the work, at convenient intervals, for the range of the floating-rule or float.

FLOOR. (Sax. Flone.) The pavement or boarded lower horizontal surface of an apartment. It is constructed of earth, brick, stone, wood, or other materials. Carpenters include in the term the framed timber work on which the boarding is laid, as well as the boards themselves. In carpentry, it denotes the timbers which support the boarding, called also naked flooring (see p. 540.) and carcass flooring. The term floor is, moreover, applied to the stories of a building on the same level; thus, we have basement floor, ground floor, &c. When there is no sunk story, the ground story becomes the basement floor; the expressions, one pair, two pair, &c., implying a story above the first flight of stairs from the ground, and so on. The principal floor is that which contains the principal rooms; generally in country houses on the ground floor, but in those of the town mostly on the one pair floor.

FLOOR, FOLDING or FOLDed. One in which the floor boards are so laid that their joints do not appear continuous throughout the whole length of the floor, but in bays or folds of three, four, five, or more boards each.

FLOOR JOISTS are those which support the boards of the floor; but when the floor consists of binding and bridging joists, the bridgings are never called floor joists. For the better comprehension of the different sorts of floors in carpentry, see p. 540, et seq.

FLOOR STRAIGHT JOINT. That in which the floor boards are so laid that their joints or edges form a continued line throughout the direction of their length; in opposition to folding floor, wherein the joints end in folds.

FLOORS. See Book II. Chap. II. Sect. 4.

FLORID STYLE. In Gothic architecture. See Book I. Chap. III. Sect. 5.

FLUE. The long open tube of a chimney from the fire-place to the top of the shaft, for voidance of the smoke. See CHIMNEY.

FLUING. The same as SPLAYED, which see.

FLUSH. (Lat. Fluxus.) A term used by workmen to signify a continuity of surface in two bodies joined together. Thus, in joinery, the style, rails, and munnions are usually made flush; that is, the wood of one piece on one side of the joint does not project or recede from that on the other.

FLUSH. In masonry or brick-work, the aptitude of two brittle bodies to splinter at the joints when the stones or bricks come in contact when contiguous in a wall. FLUSH. (Verb.) A term to denote the complete bedding of masonry or brick-work, in the mortar or cement used for the connection of the stones or bricks, so as to leave no vacant space where the stones or bricks do not nicely fit in their places. FLUTES OF FLUTINGS. Upright channels on the shafts of columns, usually ending hemispherically at top and bottom. Their plan or horizontal section is sometimes circular or segmental, and sometimes, as in the Grecian examples, elliptical. The Doric column (see Book III. Chap. I. Sect. 4.) has twenty round its circumference; the Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite (see Sections 5, 6, and 7. of the same Chapter) have twentyfour. The Tuscan column is never fluted. Flutes are occasionally cabled. See CABLE. FLYERS. Steps in a flight of stairs that are parallel to each other. FLYING BUTTRESS. A buttress in the form of an arch, springing from a solid mass of masonry, and abutting against the springing of another arch which rises from the upper points of abutment of the first. It is employed in most of the cathedrals, and its office is to act as a counterpoise against the vaulting of the nave. If flying buttresses were built solid from the ground, it is obvious that they would interfere with the vista along the aisles of the church; hence the project of continuing a resistance by means of arches. Their stability depends on the resistance afforded by the weight of the vertical buttress, whence they spring. See ARC-BOUTANT and BUTTRESS.

Focus. In geometry and the conic sections, a point on the concave side of a curve, to which the rays are reflected from all points of such curve.

FODDER OF FOTHER. A weight among the plumbers of London of 191 cwt.

FONILIA. (Lat.) See GRANARY.

Foix, De. See ARCHITECTs, list of, 245.

FOLD OF A FLOOR.

See FLOOR.

FOLDED FLOOR. See FLOOR.

FOLDING DOORS. Such as are made to meet each other rom the opposite jambs to which they are hung; and when they are rebated together, their edges meet folding over each other, with a bead at the joint, to give the appearance of one entire door.

FOLDING JOINT. A.joint made like a rule-joint or the joint of a hinge.

FOLIAGE. A sculptured group of the leaves of plants and flowers, so arranged as to form architectural ornaments, as in friezes, panels, &c., and in the capitals of the Corinthian and Composite orders.

FONT.

A vessel, generally of stone or water, for containing the water of baptism in the

Christian church. Some of the early fonts are extremely beautiful, and wrought with extraordinary richness of decoration. The singular inscription frequently found on the walls of baptisteries occurs also occasionally on ancient fonts: NIVON ANOMHMATA MH MONAN OVIN, which, reading equally well both ways, admonishes the reader to cleanse himself from sin, not less than to use the outward ceremony of baptism. FONTANA, CARLO. See ARCHITECTS, list of, 266.

FONTANA, DOм. See ARCHITECTS, list of, 242.

Foor. (Germ. fuss.) A measure of length, but used also in a sense which expresses surface and solidity. Thus we say, a foot superficial and a foot cube. As this term is used in almost all languages as a linear measure, it has doubtless been derived from the length of the human foot. It seems in all other countries, as in England, to be divided into twelve equal parts, or inches.

The English standard foot (31 Edw. 1.) is 12 lineal English inches=36 barleycorns=16 digits=4 palms 3 hands = 5 nails = 1} spans 1.5151 Gunter's links= 938306 ft. of France 3047 met. of France. The foot is divided by geometricians into 10 digits, and each digit into 10 lines, &c. The French, as the English, divide the foot into 12 inches, and the inch into 12 lines. The foot square or superficial is a foot each way, and contains, therefore, 12 × 12=144 superficial inches=2·295684 square links. The glazier's foot in Scotland = 64 square Scotch inches.

The length of the foot varies in different countries. The Paris royal foot exceeds that of England by 9 lines. The ancient Roman foot of the Capitol consisted of 4 palms=117 English inches. The Rhinland or Leyden foot, used by the northern nations of Europe, is to the Roman foot as 950 to 1000. The following table exhibits the length of the foot in the principal places of the Continent, the English foot being divided into 1000 parts, or 12 inches:

Mr. Raper (Philos. Trans. vol. li.), from various authorities, determines the mean of the Roman foot to be nearly 968 parts of the London foot; and he considers that before the reign of Titus the Roman foot exceeded of the London foot, and afterwards, in

000

the reigns of Severus and Diocletian, it fell short of 965.

Cagnazzi, from examination of the monuments of antiquity in Herculaneum and Pompeii, determines the Roman foot at 29624 metre, which, the metre being 3.2808992 English feet, would make the old Roman foot 2 of the English foot.

T000

The Scotch is to the English foot as 1066 to 1.000, being, in fact, the French foot. See MEASURES.

FOOT OF THE EYE DIRECTOR. In perspective, that point in the directing line made by a vertical plane passing through the eye and the centre of the picture.

FOOT OF A VERTICAL LINE. In perspective, that point in the intersecting line which is made by a vertical plane passing through the eye and the centre of the picture. FOOT PACE or HALF PACE. That part of a staircase whereon, after the flight of a few steps, you arrive at a broad place on which you may take two or three paces before you come to another step. If it occur at the angle turns of the stairs, it is called a quarter pace. FOOTING BEAM. The name given, in some of the provinces, to the tie beam of a roof. FOOTINGS OF A WALL. Projecting courses of stone at the base of a wall or building to spread the base, and give it security.

FORCE. In mechanics, the course of motion in a body when it begins to move, or when it changes its direction from the course in which it was previously moving. While a body remains in the same state, whether of rest or of uniform and rectilinear motion, the cause of its so remaining is in the nature of the body, which principle has received the name of inertia. For the laws on the composition and resolution of forces, see p. 381, et seq. FORCE PUMP.

See p. 584.

FORCER. In mechanics, a solid piston applied to pumps for the purpose of producing a constant stream, or of raising water to a greater height than it can be raised by the pressure of the atmosphere.

FORE FRONT. The principal or entrance front of a building.

FORE PLANE. In carpentry and joinery, the first plane used after the saw or axe. FORESHORTEN. In perspective, the diminution which the representation of the side or part of a body has, in one of its dimensions, compared with the other, occasioned by the obliquity of the corresponding side or part of the original body to the plane of projection. FORM. The external appearance or disposition of the surfaces of a body, in which sense it is synonymous with FIGURE, which see.

FORMENT. See ARCHITECTS, list of, 221.

FORUM. (Lat.) In ancient architecture, a public market; also a place where the common courts were held, and law pleadings carried on. The fora of the Romans were large open squares surrounded by porticoes, parts whereof answered for market-places, other parts for public meetings of the inhabitants, and other parts for courts of justice; the forum was also occasionally used for shows of gladiators. There were in Rome seventeen; of these fourteen were for the sale of goods, provisions, and merchandise, and called Fora Venalia; the other three were for civil and judicial proceedings, and called Fora Civilia et Judicialia. Of the latter sort was the forum of Trajan, of which the Trajan column formed the principal ornament.

See

FOUNDATION. (Fr. Fondation.) The lower part of a wall on which an insistent wall is raised, than which, too, it is always much thicker. See Book II. Chap. III. Sect. 1. FOUNDRY. A building in which various metals are cast into moulds or shapes. Book II. Chap. III. Sect. 11. FOUNTAIN. (Lat. Fons.) Any natural or artificial apparatus by means whereof water springs up. In natural fountains the ascensional effect is produced by the hydrostatic pressure of the water itself; in artificial fountains, by the same sort of pressure, or by that of compressed air, and sometimes by machinery.

Fox TAIL WEDGING. A method of fixing a tenon in a mortise by splitting the end of the tenon and inserting a projecting wedge, then entering the tenon into the mortise, and driving it home. The bottom of the mortise resists the wedge, and forces it further into the tenon, which will expand in width, so as not only to fill the cavity at the bottom, but be firmly compressed by the sides of the mortise.

FRAME and FRAMING. (Sax. Fnamman, to form.) The rough timber work of a house, including floors, roofs, partitions, ceilings, and beams. Generally, any pieces of wood fitted together with mortises and tenons are said to be framed, as doors, sash-frames, sashes, &c. FRANKING. A term used by the makers of window-sashes, and applied to the mode of forming the joint when the cross-pieces of the frame intersect each other, no more wood being cut away than is sufficient to show a mitre.

FREE STONE. Any stone which works freely, such as Portland stone, Bath stone, the limestones generally, &c.

FREEZE. See FRIEZE.

FRENCH ARCHITECTURE. See Book I. Chap. II. Sect. 17.

FRENCH CASEMENTS. Windows turning upon two vertical edges attached to the jambs, which, when shut, lap together upon the other two parallel edges, and are fastened by

means of long bolts extending their whole height. French casements are made in the form of the old English window, the two meeting styles, which lap together, forming a munnion about 4 inches in breadth. The lower part only is moveable, the upper being fixed, and having a corresponding munnion: the lower rail of the fixed part and the upper rail of the moveable part forming a transom.

FRESCO PAINTING. (It. Fresco, fresh.) A method of painting by incorporating the colours with plaster before it is dry, by which it becomes as permanent as the wall itself. FRETTE OF FRET. A species of ornament consisting of one or more small fillets meeting

Fig. 1014.

in vertical and horizontal directions. (See fig. 1044.) The sections of the channels between the fillets is rectangular.

FRICTION. (Lat. Frico, I rub.) The resistance produced by the rubbing of the surfaces of two solid bodies against each other.

FRIEZE, FREEZE, or FRIZE. (Ital Fregio, adorned.) That member in the entablature of an order between the architrave and cornice. It is always plain in the Tuscan; ornamented with triglyphs and sculpture in the Doric; in the modern or Italian Ionic it is often swelled, in which case it is said to be pulvinated or cushioned; and in the Corinthian and Composite it is variously decorated, according to the taste of the architect. FRIEZE OF THE CAPITAL. The same as the HYPOTRACHELIUM, which see.

FRIEZE PANEL.
FRIEZE RAIL. The upper rail but one of a six-panelled door.

The upper panel of a six-panelled door.

FRIGIDARIUM. In ancient architecture, the apartment in which the cold bath was placed. The word is sometimes used to denote the cold bath itself.

FRIZE OF FRISE. See FRIEZE.

FRONT. (Lat. Frons.) Any side or face of a building, but more commonly used to denote the entrance side.

FRONTINUS. See ARCHITECTS, list of, 46.

FRONTISPIECE. (Lat. Frons and Inspicio.) The face or fore-front of a house, but the term is more usually applied to the decorated entrance of a building.

FRONTON. The French term for a pediment.

FROSTED. A species of rustic-work, imitative of ice, formed by irregular drops of water. FROWCESTER. See ARCHITECTS, list of, 150.

FROWEY TIMBER. Such as works freely to the plane without tearing, whose grain therefore is in the same direction.

FRUSTUM. (Lat.) In geometry, the part of a solid next the base, formed by cutting off the top, or it is the part of any solid, as a cone, a pyramid, &c., between two planes, which may be either parallel or inclined to each other.

See ARCHITECTS, list of 122.

FUGA. See ARCHITECTS, list of, 295.

FULCRUM. (Lat.) In mechanics, the fixed point about which a lever moves.

FUNNEL. (Lat. Infundibulum.) That part of a chimney contained between the fire-place and the summit of the shaft. See CHIMNEY.

FURNACE. (Lat. Fornax.) An apparatus wherein is formed a cavity to contain combustible matter, which in various ways is supplied with air, to facilitate its combustion. The two classes into which furnaces are divided are air or wind furnaces and blast furnaces. In the former, the air is conducted through the fire by the draught of a funnel or chimney communicating with it; in the latter, the action of bellows, or some other pneumatic apparatus, supplies the air. The word furnace has generally, however, a more circumscribed application, being applied usually to an apparatus for the fusion of metals, or to that used in a chemical laboratory.

FURNITURE. (Fr. Fournir, to furnish.) The visible brass work of locks, knobs to doors, window-shutters, and the like.

FURRING. (Fr. Fourrir, to thrust in.) The fixing of thin scantlings or laths upon the edges of any number of timbers in a range, when such timbers are out of the surface they were intended to form, either from their gravity, or in consequence of an original deficiency of the timbers in their depth. Thus the timbers of a floor, though level at first, oftentimes require to be furred; the same operation is frequently necessary in the reparation of old roofs, and the same work is required sometimes in new as well as old floors. FURRINGS. The pieces of timber employed in bringing any piece of work in carpentry to a regular surface when the work is uneven, either through the sagging of the timber or other causes. FUSAROLE. (It.) A member whose section is that of a semicircle carved into beads. It is