SHINGLES. (Germ. Schindel.) Loose stones sifted from gravel for making concrete.

Also the small slab of oak bark or split pieces of wood, used instead of tiles in former times, and still usually so employed in the backwoods of America and other countries. They are about eight to twelve inches long, and about four inches broad, thicker on one edge than the other. The process of making a roof of this kind is called shingling. SHOE. The inclined piece at the bottom of a rain-water pipe for turning the course of the water, and discharging it from the wall of a building.

SHOOTING. Planing the edge of a board straight, and out of winding.

SHOOTING BOARDS. Two boards joined together, with their sides lapped upon each other, so as to form a rebate for making short joints.

SHORE, OF SHOAR. (Sax.) A prop or oblique timber acting as a brace on the side of a building, the upper end resting against that part of the wall upon which the floor is supported, and both ends received by plates or beams. A dead shore is an upright piece built up in a wall that has been cut or broken through for the purpose of making some alterations in the building. The terms "needle," "tossle," "joggle,” and “stud are used among workmen to denote the piece of wood inserted in a wall above the head of a raking shore. A "waling" is a piece of timber placed horizontally against the side of a trench and strutted across it; a "setting" is a rectangular frame holding all four sides of an excavation. 'Cleadings" used with "settings" serve the same purpose as poling boards" in connection with walings.

SHOULDER OF A TENON. The plane transverse to the length of a piece of timber from which the tenon projects. It should be at right angles to the length, though it does not always lie in the plane as here defined, but sometimes in different planes. SHOULDERING. In slating, a fillet of haired lime laid upon the upper edge of the smaller and thicker kinds of slates, to raise them and prevent their being open at the lap; it also makes the joint weathertight. Sometimes the whole surface under the heads of any sized slates is so done, to prevent the slates cracking when stepped on. SHREAD HEAD. The same as JERKIN HEAD.

SHREDDINGS OF FURRINGS. In old buildings, short slight pieces of timber fixed as bearers below the roof, forming a straight line with the upper side of the rafters. TILTING FILLET. SHRINE. (Sax. Senin.) A desk or cabinet; a case or box, particularly one in which sacred things are deposited: hence applied to a reliquary and to the tomb of a canonised person. The altar is sometimes called a shrine.

SHRINKING. The contraction of a piece of timber in its breadth by drying. The length does not change. Hence in unseasoned timber mitred together, such as the architraves of doors and windows, the mitres are always close on the outside and open to the door, forming a wedge-like hollow on each side of the frame. Narrow boards called battens are used in floors, as the shrinking, if any, is less.

SHUTTERS. The framed boards which shut up the aperture of a window, or of a light. SIDE POSTS. Truss posts placed in pairs, disposed at the same distance from the middle of the truss. Their use is not only to support the principal rafters, &c., but to suspend the tie beam below In extended roofs two or three pair of side posts are used. SIDE TIMBERS or SIDE WAVERS. The same as purlins, the first term being used in Somersetshire and the last in Lincolnshire.

SILICATE COTTON or SLAG WOOL. A pure mineral fibre made from blast furnace slag. It is white and like spun glass. It is extremely light, a cube foot weighs only from 16 to 18 lbs., and one ton covers about 1800 to 2,400 square feet one inch thick. It is a good non-conductor of heat and sound.

SIMILAR FIGURES. Those whose several angles are respectively equal, and the sides about the equal angles proportional.

SINE. A right line drawn from one end of an arch perpendicular upon the diameter, or it is half the chord of twice the arch. The sine of the complement of an arch is the sine of what the arch wants of ninety degrees. The versed sine is that part of the diameter comprehended between the arc and the sine.

SINGLE FRAME, SINGLE JOIST, and NAKED, FLOOR. One with only one tier of joists. SINGLE HUNG. An arrangement in a pair of window sashes, in which one only is movable. SINGLE MEASURE. A term applied to a door that is square on both sides. Double measure is when the door is moulded on both sides. When doors are moulded on one side, and are square on the other, they are accounted measure and a half. SINGLE SPAN CHURCH. A church having a very wide nave. Such is the church of the Dominicans at Ghent, 1240-75, with a nave of 53 feet between the piers slightly projecting from the wall, covered by a wooden vaulting on curves of 60 feet radius. (Ses par. 557.) The reader is referred to the Builder journal, for 1867, pp. 661, 687, 700 716, for many notices of such structures.

SITE. (Lat. Situs.) The situation of a building; the plot of ground on which it stands. SKEW. The sloping top of a buttress where it slants off into a wall, or the coping of a gable. SKEW BACK. In a straight or curved arch, that part of it which recedes beyond the springing from the vertical line of the opening.

SKEW CORBEL. See SUMMER STONE,

SKIFFLING. See KNOBBLING.

SKIRTING OF SKIRTING BOARD. The narrow board placed round the margin of a floor which, where there is a dado, forms a plinth for its base; otherwise, it is a plinth for the room itself. Skirting is either scribed close to the floor or let into it by a groove; in the former case a fillet is put at the back of the skirting to keep it firm.

SKIRTS. Several superficies in a plane, which would cover a body when turned up or down without overlapping.

SKIRTS OF A ROOF. The projection of the eaves.

SKREEN. See SCREEN.

SKYLIGHT. A frame consisting of one or more inclined planes of glass, placed in a roof to light passages or rooms below. See LANTERN LIGHT; LIGHTING.

SLAB. An outside plank or board sawed from the sides of a timber tree, and frequently of very unequal thickness. The word is also used to express a thin piece of marble, consisting of right angles and plane surfaces.

SLAB. The front hearth of a fireplace. The Metropolitan Buildings Act, 1855, requires that "There shall be laid, level with the floor of every story, before the opening of every chimney, a slab of stone, slate, or other incombustible substance, at the least twelve inches longer than the width of such opening, and at the least eighteen inches wide in front of the breast thereof:-That on every floor, except the lowest floor, such slab shall be laid wholly upon stone or iron bearers, or upon brick trimmers; but on the lowest floor it may be bedded on the solid ground:-and That the hearth or slab of every chimney shall be bedded wholly on brick, stone, or other incombustible substance, and shall be solid for a thickness of seven inches at the least beneath the upper surface of such hearth or slab." Such precautions are too frequently neglected in country houses, to their ultimate destruction by fire. No timbers should be placed under the hearths on any account. See TIMBERS.

SLATE. A species of argillaceous stone, an abundant and very useful material. It can be sawn to a very large size or split into thin plates, of any required thickness; being nonabsorbent it is used for roofing, and for water cisterns. There are varieties of blue, red, and green in colour.

SLATERS' WORK. Laying slates on roofs; forming water cisterns; and a few other matters connected therewith, constitute this artificer's work. See SHOULDERING. SLEEPERS. Horizontal timbers disposed in a building next to the ground transversely under walls, ground joists, or the boarding of a floor. When used on piles they are laid upon them, and planked over to support the superincumbent walls. Underground joists either lie upon the solid earth, or are supported at various parts by props of brickwork or stones. When in the former position, having no rows of timber below, these ground joists are themselves called sleepers. Old writers on practical architecture call those rafters lying in the valley of a roof, sleepers; but in this sense the word is now obsolete.

SLIDING RULE. One constructed with logarithmic lines, so that by means of another scale sliding on it, various arithmetical operations are performed merely by inspection. SLIT DEAL. See BOARD.

SLOPE OF A ROOF. See ROOFING; and PITCH. OF A ROAD, see GRADIENT. SLUICE. A stop against water for the drainage or supply with water of a place. It is hung with hinges from the top edge when used merely as a stop against the water of a river: but when made for supply as well, it moves vertically in the groove of its frame by means of a winch, and is then called a penstock.

SMITHERY. The art of uniting several lumps of iron into one lump or mass, and forming them into any desired shape. The Foundry is a branch of it.

SMOOTHING PLANE. The plane last used by the joiner to give the utmost degree of smoothness to the surface of the wood, and is chiefly for cleaning off finished work. It is 7 inches long, 3 inches broad, and 23 inches in breadth.

SNACKET. A provincial term for the hasp of a casement.

SNIPE'S BILL PLANE. One with a sharp arris for getting out the quirks of mouldings. SOCKET CHISEL. A strong tool used by carpenters for mortising, and worked with a mallet. SOCLE OF ZOCLE. (It.) A square member of less height than its horizontal dimension, serving to raise pedestals, or to support vases, &c. The socle is sometimes continued round a building, and is then called a continued socle. It has neither base nor cornice. SOFFITA, SOFFIT, or SOFITE. (Ital.) A ceiling; the lower surface of a vault or arch. term denoting the under horizontal face of the architrave between columns; the under surface of the corona of a cornice.

A

Sor. The same as ground and earth: it is also used to denote the deposit in a cesspool from a water-closet or privy.

SOILS. A provincial term, chiefly, however, used in the north, signifying the principal

rafters of a roof.

SOLAR, or SOLLAR. A mediæval term for an upper chamber: a loft.

SOLDER. A soft metallic composition used in joining together or soldering metals. See BRAZING and WELDING.

SOLID. (Lat.) In geometry, a body which has length, breadth, and thickness: that is, it is terminated or contained under one or more plane surfaces as a surface is under one or more lines. Regular solids are such as are terminated by equal and similar planes, so that the apex of their solid angles may be inscribed in a sphere.

SOLID ANGLES. An angle formed by three or more angles in a point, and of which the sum of all the plane angles is less than three hundred and sixty degrees otherwise they would constitute the plane of a circle and not of a solid.

SOUND-BOARD. The canopy or type fixed over a pulpit, to reverberate the voice of the speaker. SOUND-BOARDING. In floors, consists of short boards placed transversely between the joists, and supported by fillets fixed to the sides of the latter for holding pugging, which is any substance that will prevent the transmission of sound from one story to another, such as a mixture of mortar and chopped straw, or sawdust. The narrower the sound-boards the better; the fillets on which they rest may be three-quarters of an inch thick and about an inch wide, nailed to the joists at intervals of a foot. It has been suggested to put an india-rubber washer of about the same width as the joist, between the ceiling joist and the joist, having a thickness of half an inch when properly screwed up, to effect the same object. See BOARDING FOR PUGGING.

SOUSE, (Fr.) or SOURCE. A support or under prop.

SPALLS. Stone broken up into shapeless lumps. "Spawled masonry" in Ireland, consists of these lumps, about 6 to 14 inches, worked up in a wall, the joints of each stone matching those of the others around it; the faces of the stones are usually rough dressed with the hammer. It is the "uncoursed rubble work" of England. See SPAWLED, SEAN. An imaginary line across the opening of an arch or roof, by which its extent is measured. The width of a vault or arch between the springing.

SPAN CHURCH. See SINGLE SPAN CHURCH.

SPAN ROOF. One consisting of two inclined sides, in contradistinction to a shed or lean-to roof. It may be with simple rafters, with or without a collar beam, or when of increased span it may be trussed, the term only applying to the external part.

SPANDREL. The irregular triangular space between the outer curve or extrados of an arch, a horizontal line from its apex, and a perpendicular line from its springing. In medieval architecture they are often filled with figures, medallions, shields, as at York cathedral, or diaper work as at Westminster Abbey. In the Italian style, they are often filled with figures, or compositions relating to the purposes for which the building is erected.

SPANDREL BRACKETING. A cradling of brackets fixed between one or more curves, each in a vertical plane, and in the circumference of a circle whose plane is horizontal. SPANISH ARCHITECTURE. The styles adopted were those introduced by the ancient Romans, the Moors, by French and German medieval practitioners, and by the Italian masters brought into the country by the monarchs and others.

SPAR-PIECE. A name given in some places to the collar beam of a roof.
SPARS. The common rafters of a roof for the support of the tiling or slating.

SPAWLED. A block of stone after the chips or spawls have been knocked off. See SPALLS. SPECIFICATION. A description at length of the materials and workmanship to be used and employed in the erection of any building.

SPECIFIC GRAVITY. A gravity or weight of every solid or fluid compared with the weight of the same magnitude of rain water, which is chosen as the standard of comparison, on account of its being subject to less variation in different circumstances of time, place, &c., than any other solid or fluid. By a fortunate coincidence, at least to the English philosopher, it happens that a cubic foot of rain water weighs 1,000 ounces avoirdupois; consequently, assuming this as the specific gravity of rain water, and comparing all other bodies with this, the same numbers that express the specific gravity of bodies will at the same time express the weight of a cubic foot of each in avoirdupois ounces, which affords great facility to numerical computations. Hence are readily deduced the following laws of the specific gravity of bodies:

1. In bodies of equal magnitudes the specific gravities are directly as the weights or as their densities. 2. In bodies of the same specific gravities the weights will be as the magnitudes. 3. In bodies of equal weights the specific gravities are inversely as the magnitudes. 4. The weights of different bodies are to each other in the compound ratio of their magnitudes and specific gravities.

Thus, it is obvious, that if of the magnitude, weight, and specific gravity of a body any two be given, the third may be found; and we may thus arrive at the magnitude of bodies which are too irregular to admit of the common rules of mensuration; or, by knowing the specific gravity and magnitude, we may find the weight of bodies which are too ponderous to be submitted to the action of the balance or steel yard; or, lastly, the magnitude and weight being given, we may ascertain their specific gravities. SPECUS. (Lat.) In ancient architecture, the canal in which the water flowed in aqueducts raised above the surface of the ground, and constructed of hewn stones or bricks. It was covered with a vault to preserve the water from the sun, and from being mixed with rain water. The specus was sometimes covered with flat stones, laid horizontally, as in the Aqua Martia, part of the Aqua Claudia, and the aqueduct of Segovia. Sometimes the same arcade carried several of these canals one above the other. SPERONI. See ANTERIDES.

SPHERISTERIUM.

A building for the exercise of the ball; a tennis court. The ancier ts generally placed sphæristeria among the apartments of their baths and gymnasia. They were also placed in large villas, as in those of Pliny the younger. SPHERE. (Gr. Zpaipa.) A solid, whose surface is at every point equally distant from a certain point within the solid, which point is called the centre of the sphere. Every sphere is equal to two-thirds of its circumscribing cylinder, that is, it is equal to a cylinder whose ends are circles, equal to a great circle of the sphere, and whose height is equal to the diameter of the same.

SPHERICAL BRACKETING. That so formed that the surface of the plastering which it is to receive forms a spherical surface. SPHEROID. See CONOID.

SPHEROIDAL BRACKETING.
SPINA. See CIRCUS.

That formed to receive the plastering of a spheroid.

SPIRAL. A curve which makes one or more revolutions round a fixed point, and does not return to itself. See VOLute.

SPIRE. (Gr. Eraipa, a twisting.) In ancient architecture, the base of a column, and sometimes the astragal or torus. The termination of the tower of a church, generally diminishing, and either pyramidally or conically. See STEEPLE.

A spire which is octagonal, the sides facing the cardinal points being continued to the eaves which project over the lower work, and the diagonal faces being intercepted at the bottom by semipyramidal projections whose edges are carried from the angles of the tower upwards, terminating in points on the corresponding oblique faces of the spire, is called a broach (Fr. Broche, a spit).

The following table gives the heights of many of the chief Towers and Spires, but it is liable to correction, for it is very difficult to obtain accurate dimensions of any structure or parts of one.

SPLAY. A slanting or bevelling in the sides of an opening to a wall for a window or door, so that the outside profile of the window is larger than that of the inside; it is done for the purpose of facilitating the admission of light. It is a term applied to whatever has one side making an oblique angle with the other: thus, the heading joists of a boarded floor are frequently splayed in their thickness. The word fluing is sometimes applied to an aperture, in the same sense as splayed.

Spring Bevel of A RAIL. The angle made by the top of the plank, with a vertical plane touching the ends of the rail piece, which terminates the concave side.

SPRINGED OF SPRUNG. In boarding a roof, the setting the boards together with bevel joints, for the purpose of keeping out the rain. See BOARDING FOR SLATING. SPRINGER. The impost or place where the vertical support to an arch terminates, and the curve of the arch begins; the term is sometimes used for the rib of a groined roof. SPRINGING COURSE. The horizontal course of stones, from which an arch springs or rises; or that row of stones upon which the first arch stones are laid.

SPUDDS and RINGS. A method adopted in Ireland of securing the posts of a door, in a basement story, by a ring of iron into which the post is placed, with a projection or spud for insertion into a corresponding bole in the sill or step.

SPUR. Carved timberwork at the doorway of old houses, to support a projecting upper story; some fine examples of the fourteenth century exist in York and other old

towns.

SQUARE. (Lat. Quadra.) A figure of four equal sides, and as many equal angles. An area of such form surrounded by houses, and ornamented in the centre with a lawn, shrubs, trees, &c. In joinery, a work is said to be square framed, or framed square, when the framing has all the angles of its styles, rails, and muntins square without being moulded. The word is also applied to an instrument for setting out angles square. See CARPENTER'S SQUARE. It is also a measure used in building, of 100 superficial feet. SQUARE SHOOT. A wooden trough for discharging water from a building.

SQUARE STAFF. A piece of wood placed at the external angle of a projection in a room, to secure the angle, which if of plaster would be liable to be broken, and at the same time to allow a good finish for the papering.

SQUARING A HANDRAIL. The method of cutting a plank to the form of a rail for a staircase, so that all the vertical sections may be right angles.

SQUARING A PIECE OF STUFF. The act of trying it by the square, to make the angles right angles.

SQUINCH. A small arch, or set of arches, formed across an angle, as in a tower, to form a base for an octagon construction above it.

SQUINT. See HAGIOSCOPE.

STABLE. Lat.) A building for the accommodation of horses.

STACK OF CHIMNEYS. See CHIMNEY.

STADIUM. (Gr.) In ancient architecture, an open space wherein the athletæ or wrestlers exercised running, and in which they contested the prizes. It signifies also the place itself where the public games were celebrated, which often formed a part of the gymnasia. The word also denotes a measure of length among the Grecians, of 125 paces. STAFF BEAD. See ANGLE-BEAD; SQUARE STAFF.

STAGE. A floor or story. In a theatre, the floor on which the performers act. The stage of a buttress is, in ecclesiastical architecture, the part between one splayed projec tion and the next.

STAINED GLASS. Glass stained throughout its thickness during its manufacture is known as "pot metal" glass. White glass is sometimes coloured on the surface only, whence it is called "flashed" glass. Both sorts are used for decorating windows in patterns, as in churches. See PAINTed Glass.

STAIRCASE. That part or subdivision in a building containing the stairs, which enable persons to ascend or descend from one floor to another.

STAIRS. (Sax. Stægen, to step.) Stones, or other material forming steps, ranged one above and beyond another, by which a person can ascend a height. A series of steps or stairs for ascending from the lower to the upper part of a building, when enclosed, is called a staircase.

STALK. (Sax.) An ornament in the Corinthian capital, which is sometimes fluted, and resembles the stalk of a plant; from it spring the volutes and helices. STALL. (Sax.) A place or division in a stable wherein one horse is placed for feeding and sleeping. According to their number in a stable it is called a one-stall, two-stall, &c., stable. This word is also used to denote the elevated seats in the choir or chancel of a church appropriated to ecclesiastics. The precentor's stall is the first return stall on the left on entering the choir. The dean's stall is the first return stall on the right. STANCHION. (Fr. Estançon.) A prop or support. The upright iron bars of a window or open screen. Also a PUNCHEON.

STANDARDS. The upright pieces in a plate rack; or above a dresser to support the shelving. When the edges of standards are cut into mouldings, according to the widths of the shelves, and across the fibres of the wood, they are called cut standards. STAPLE. A small piece of iron pointed at each end, and bent round, so that the two ends may be parallel to each other, and of equal lengths, to be driven into wood or into a wall, thus forming a loop for fastening a hasp or bolt. STAR MOULDING. One of the usual decorations of a

surface in Norman architecture. Fig. 1440. STARLINGS or STERLINGS, sometimes called STILTS. An assemblage of piles driven round the piers of a bridge to give it support.

STATICS. See MECHANICS.

STATUARY MARBLE. The pure white marble, such as

Fig. 1440.

is obtained from Carrara, and used by sculptors and carvers for their best works. STATUMEN. A mortar of lime and sand used by the Romans for pavements, as stated by Vitruvius, vii. 1. See RUDERATION.

STAVES. Small upright cylinders, sometimes called rounds, for forming a rack to contain the hay in a stable for the supply of it to the horse.