PREFACE. IN preparing the following pages, the author has been mainly desirous to place before the student a statement of the leading points connected with the employment of Timber, Lead, and Iron in the construction of buildings, in such a way that, while being to a large extent explanatory of the technical terms used in Building Construction, they would also convey a fair idea of the methods by which these various materials are used, and the forms and arrangements they assume in practice. An explanation of the natural peculiarities, and a description of the industrial characteristics and values of the materials, and of the principles upon which the structures in which they are used are based, forms no part of the scheme of the work. This is reserved for the volume on Building Construction, Advanced Course, in this series, to which, therefore, the student is referred. The plan of the work is based upon the Syllabus of the Government Science and Art Department, so that it may serve as a hand-book for those who design to pass the examinations in that department to which its pages refer. But while the syllabus in its general detail has been followed, a somewhat different arrangement has been aimed at, so as to permit of a wider range of subjects being given, and their more systematic treatment secured The limits, no less than the scope and scheme of the work, have prevented any attempt at giving it the peculiarities of a regular treatise on Building Construction, which would embrace notices of various modifications in practice, or of the numerous recent inventions connected with the art. The student desirous to become acquainted with these, must consult larger works recently published, as, for example, the author's work, The New Practical Guide to Masonry, Bricklaying, and Plastering, to which he may be here permitted to refer. BROOK HOUSE, September, 1873. R. S. B. |