The Practical Builder

The Classic 18th-Century Handbook

William Pain

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9780486320618
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: History of Architecture

This 1774 guidebook for English carpenters was one of the earliest "do-it-yourself" manuals ever published. The builders' manuals and pattern books of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries offered carpenters and other construction workers important resources for designs and techniques. Those unable to afford an architect's services could feel confident in the good taste of their residence by selecting designs from a pattern book. Employing elementary arithmetic and geometry, the guide's annotated and meticulously rendered engravings depict cross-sections of chimney-pieces, ceilings, cornices, and other architectural details.
William Pain's manual was one of the earliest such works published in the United States. Printed in Philadelphia in 1797, it helped standardize key aspects of Federal architecture and served as a model for construction at George Washington's Mount Vernon home. Reprinted from an original 1774 edition, this is the only available version of a splendid reference for architectural historians and those with an interest in classical architecture.

To face PLATE I.

Figure A and B are ribb’d NICHES for Plaistering.

THE Plan a is a Semi-Elipsis on the transverse Diameter, which is drawn with a Tramel as represented in the Plan, which is to be made with a Grove at Right Angles as in the Figure; two Pieces to be morticed to slip on the Rod, and one fixed at tile End for a Pencil, &c. fix one of the Pieces equal to half the Conjugate Diameter, and the other to half the Transverse Diameter, and moving the Rod with the Pins in the Groves, the Pencil will describe the Semi-Elipsis.

To draw the Elipsis c to any given Length and Breadth, take half the Conjugate Diameter a b and fet it on the Transverse Diameter d c divide c a into three equal Parts, and make c e equal to one of those Parts, and with the Radius e f bisect g g. So the Points e f and g g are the Centres for drawing the Elipsis to any Length and Breadth.

To draw the Elipsis d with a Line, take half the Transverse Diameter b a and set it from c on the Conjugate Diameter to d on the Transverse Diameter, and to e on ditto, then e d are the Points to be fixed for the Line to go round, which will describe the Elipsis with the Point f.

To glue the Head of a Nich as Figure e, cut the Arch Part of the Board or Stave to the Thickness of a Veneer, and bend it on a Templet, and back it to the Curve, it may be jointed the same as a Column, &c.

To describe a Polygon to a given Side from five to eight Sides, make a Radius of the given Side for the Pentagon, divide the Arch into five Parts, turn one down on the Line which is the Centre, to describe a Circle which will contain the Side five Times.

For a Hexagon, the Radius of the Side is the Centre

The Heptagon into seven Parts and turn one up.

The Octagon into four and turn one up.

To raise a Perpendicular at the End or Middle of a Line. Describe the Arch c d, and with the Radius a c make e f, which bisect at b, gives the Perpendicular to a.

To let fall a Perpendicular from a given Point to a Base Line. Figure G; let a be the Point given to fall to the Base Line b c, draw a right Line from a at pleasure to meet the Base Line as at c, more or lets; divide the Line c a into two Parts, and draw the Semi-Circle a b c, and where the Circle cuts the Base Line at b, which is at R...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Preface
• Contents
• 1 —— NICHES, Elipsis, raising Perpendiculars, use of the Tramel, and how to make ditto, &c.
• 2 —— Plan and Section of Groins, veneering Niches, &c.