CONSTRUCTION OF THE BUILDING.

75

glass, while the larger pass completely through the plank, and divide it into fourfinished sash-bars. In figs. 24 and 28 is represented the mode in which the sash-bars for the vertical lights are made, the hatched lines indicating the partsremoved ; and in fig. 27 the way is shown in which the sash-bars for the roofhave been cut. Modifications in the cutters affixed to the spindle A, fig. 26,produce the variation in form.

As delivered at the building, the sash-bars were cut approximately only to The sash bars—their length, and in order that it might not be necessary to execute any carpen- the ground,tering operation on the roof, it was requisite that they should be adjusted on theground, ready for fixing. An arrangement of circular saws, set at the anglesrequisite to cut the ends of the sash-bars to accord with the pitch at which theywould have to be presented for attachment to the ridges, served at once to cut alarge number passed between them to a perfectly uniform length, and to form thenecessary rebate for notching down upon the gutter edges.

To insure the gimlet-holes necessary for nailing down the sash-bars beingmade with perfect regularity, a row of five gouges were set in motion by a bandfrom an adjacent steam-engine, passing over a series of drums. The sash-bars,placed at a proper angle to them, were moved along by boys, in the mannershown in fig. 29, and presented to the points of the gouges, by the rapid revolu-tion of which the necessary nail-lioles were pierced.

Fig. 29.

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iiW ' 1

■MliH f

It yet remained to paint these sash-bars, and even for that purpose the ingc- Themacbin^unity of Messrs. Fox and Henderson provided mechanical assistance. A number sash-bars,of brushes were arranged in a frame, at right angles to one another, in such amanner that their bristles would just admit of the passage between them of a sash-bar. In a trough filled with colour a number of sash-bars were immersed, andone of them being lifted from it, loaded with colour, and presented to an apertureat one end of the series of brushes, it was passed through them to a correspondingaperture at the other end; by which process the whole of the superfluous paintwas removed, and the sash-bar drawn out as neatly painted as it could have beenby the workman s hand. This machine is represented in use in fig. 30.