R. G. HATFIELD, ARCHITECT,

MEM. AM. INST. OF ARCHITECTS.

SEVENTH EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED

WITH ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS,

NEW YORK:
JOHN WILEY & SON,

15 ASTOR PLACE.

KF14787

HARVAR

UN VERSITY

LIB ARY

694
436

11506.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by

R. G. HATFIELD,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York.

پیر

JHN F. TROW & SON, PRINTERS, 2013 EAST 12TH ST., NEW YORK,

PREFACE.

THIS book is intended for carpenters for masters, journeymen and apprentices. It has long been the complaint of this class that architectural books, intended for their instruction, are of a price so high as to be placed beyond their reach. This is owing, in a great measure, to the costliness of the plates with which they are illustrated: an unnecessary expense, as illustrations upon wood, printed on good paper, answer every useful purpose. Wood engravings, too, can be distributed among the letter-press; an advantage which plates but partially possess, and one of great importance to the reader.

Considerations of this kind induced the author to undertake the preparation of this volume. The subject matter has been gleaned from works of the first authority, and subjected to the most careful examination. The explanations have all been written out from the figures themselves, and not taken from any other work; and the figures have all been drawn expressly for this book. In doing this, the utmost care has been taken to make everything as plain as the nature of the case would admit.

The attention of the reader is particularly directed to the following new inventions, viz; an easy method of describing the curves of mouldings through three given

points; a rule to determine the projection of eave cor nices; a new method of proportioning a cornice to a larger given one; a way to determine the lengths and bevils of rafters for hip-roofs; a way to proportion the rise to the tread in stairs; to determine the true position of butt-joints in hand-rails; to find the bevils for splayed work; a general rule for scrolls, &c. Many problems in geometry, also, have been simplified, and new ones introduced. Much labour has been bestowed upon the section on stairs, in which the subject of hand-railing is presented, in many respects, in a new, and it is hoped, more practical form than in previous treatises on that subject.

The author has endeavoured to present a fund of useful information to the American house-carpenter that would enable him to excel in his vocation; how far he has been successful in that object, the book itself must determine.

New York, Oct. 15, 1844.

FIFTH EDITION.

SINCE the first edition of this work was published, I have received numerous testimonials of its excellent practical value, from the very best sources, viz. from the workmen themselves who have used it, and who have profited by it. As a convenient manual for reference in respect to every question rela ing either to the simpler operations of Carpentry or the more intricate and

abstruse problems of Geometry, those who have tried it assure me that they have been greatly assisted in using it. And, indeed, to the true workman, there is, in the study of the subjects of which this volume treats, a continual source of profitable and pleasurable interest. Gentlemen, in numerous instances, have placed it in the hands of their sons, who have manifested a taste for practical studies; and have also procured it for the use of the workmen upon their estates, as a guide in their mechanical operations. I was not, then, mistaken in my impressions, that a work of this kind was wanted; and this evidence of its usefulness rewards me in a 'measure for the pains taken in its preparation.

New York, Oct. 1, 1852.

SEVENTH EDITION.

Ir is now thirteen years since the first edition of the American House Carpenter was published. The attempt to furnish the recipients of this book with a fund of useful information in a compact and accessible form, has been so far successful that the sixth edition was exhausted nearly a year ago. At that time it was determined, before issuing another edition, to make a thorough revision of the work. The time occupied in this labour has been unexpectedly prolonged by at least six months, and this has resulted from various. causes, but more especially from the absorbing nature of my professional duties. A large portion of the work has been rewritten.