1. It is the business of the carpenter to cut out and frame large
pieces of timber, and then to join them together, or fit them to brick
or stone walls, to constitute them the outlines or skeleton of
buildings or parts of buildings.
2. The joiner executes the more minute parts of the wood-work of
edifices, comprehending, among other things, the floors,
window-frames, sashes, doors, mantels, &c. Carpentry and joinery,
however, are so nearly allied to each other, that they are commonly
practised by the same individuals; and, in this article, they will be
treated together.
3. Carpentry and joinery, as well as all other trades connected with
building, are subservient to the architect, when an individual of this
particular profession has been employed; but it most commonly
happens, that the master-carpenter acts in this capacity. This is
especially the case in the erection of common dwellings, and, in fact,
of other edifices where nothing very splendid is to be attempted. It
is to be regretted, however, that the professional architect has not
been oftener employed; for, had this been the case, a purer taste in
building would have generally prevailed.
4. Contracts for the erection of buildings are often made with the
carpenter, as master-builder or architect. In such cases, it is his
business to employ persons capable of executing every kind of work
required on the proposed edifice, from the bricklayer and stone-mason
to the painter and glazier. It not unfrequently happens, however, that
the person himself, who proposes to erect a building, chooses to
employ the workmen in the different branches.
5. The constituent parts of buildings having been explained in the
article on architecture, it is unnecessary to enter here into minute
details on this point; nor would a particular description of the
various operations of the carpenter and joiner be useful to the
general reader, since, in every place, means are at hand by which a
general view of this business may be obtained by actual inspection.
6. The carpenter and joiner are guided, in the performance of their
work, by well-defined rules, drawn chiefly from the science of
Geometry, and which they have learned from imitation and practice, as
well as, in many cases, from the valuable works which have been
published on these branches of the art of building.
7. The principal tools with which they operate are the axe, the adze,
the saw, the auger, the gauge, the square, the compasses, the hammer,
the mallet, the crow, the rule, the level, the maul, and the plane;
and of many of these there are several kinds.
8. The timbers most employed in building in the United States are
chiefly pine, oak, beech, black walnut, cypress, larch, white cedar,
and hemlock; but of these pine is in the greatest use. Oak and beech
are much used in constructing frames, in which great strength is
required. Of the pine, there are several species, of which the white
and yellow are the most valuable; the former of these grows in the
greatest abundance in the Northern, and the latter, in the Southern
states.
9. Vast quantities of timber are annually cut into boards in
saw-mills, and floated down the rivers from the interior, during the
time of high water in the spring and fall, and sometimes at other
seasons of the year. The boards, or, as they are frequently
denominated, planks, are placed in the water, one tier above another,
and fastened together with wooden pins. Several of such _rafts_ are
connected by means of withes to form one; and, at each end of this,
are placed one or two huge oars, with which it may be guided down the
stream. Upon these rafts, shingles and laths are also brought to
market.
10. Logs and scantling to be employed in the frames of buildings are
also conveyed down the rivers in the same manner. The business
connected with the production of shingles, laths, boards or planks,
and staves, is called lumbering; and it is carried on, more or less
extensively, in the regions near the sources of all the large rivers
in the United States, and in the British possessions in North America.
11. The trade in lumber has also given rise to another class of men,
called lumber merchants; these purchase the lumber from the original
proprietors, who bring it down the rivers, and, in their turn, sell it
to builders and others. The lumbering business employs a large
capital, and a numerous class of our citizens.
[Illustration: STONE-MASON.]
THE STONE-MASON, THE BRICKMAKER, &c.