GLAZING. The business of the glazier is confined to the mere fitting and setting of glass, even the cutting up of the plates into squares being generally an independent art, requiring a degree of skill and judgment not necessarily possessed by the building artificer.
The tools generally used by the glazier are the diamond for cutting, laths or straight edges, tee square, measuring rule, glazing knife, hacking knife and hammer, duster, sash tool, two-foot rule and a glazier's cradle for carrying the glass. Glazier's materials are glass, putty, priming or paint, sprigs, wash-leather or india rubber for door panels, size, black. The glass is supplied by the manufacturer and cut to the sizes required for the particular work to be executed. Putty is made of whiting and linseed oil, and is generally bought in iron kegs of z or 1 cwt. ; the putty should al ways be kept covered over, and when found to be getting hard in the keg a little oil should be put on it to keep it soft. Priming is a thin coat of paint with a small amount of red lead in it. In the majority of cases after the sashes for the windows are fitted they are sent to the glazier's and primed and glazed and then returned to the job and hung in their proper positions. When priming sashes it is important that the rebates be thoroughly primed, else the putty will not adhere. All wood that is to be painted requires be fore being primed to have the knots coated with knotting. When the priming is dry, the glass is cut and ted into its place; each pane should fit easily with about . in. play all round. The glazier runs the putty round the rebates with his hands, and then beds the glass in it, pushing it down tight, and then further secures it by knocking in small nails, called glaziers' sprigs, on the rebate side. He then trims up the edges of the protruding putty and bevels off the putty on the rebate or outside of the sash with a putty knife. The sash is then ready for painting. Large squares and plate glass are usually inserted when the sashes are hung to avoid risks of breakage. For inside work the panes of glass are generally secured with beads (not with putty), and in the best work these beads are fixed with brass screws and caps to allow of easy removal without ing the beads and damaging the paint, etc. In the case of glass in door panels where there is much vibration and slamming, the glass is bedded in wash-leather or india rubber and secured with beads as before mentioned. The most common glass and that generally used is clear sheet in varying thicknesses, ranging in weight from 5 to 3o oz. per sq. ft., i.e., from is to is in. thick.
Wired Glass.—Wired rolled plate or wired cast plate, usually yin. thick, has wire netting embedded in it to prevent the glass from falling in case of fire; its use is obligatory in London for all lantern- and sky-lights, and for screens and doors on the stair cases of public and warehouse buildings, in accordance with the London Building Act. It is also used for the decks of ships and for port and cabin lights, as it is much stronger than plain glass, and if fractured is held together by the wire. Patent prismatic rolled glass, or "refrax" (fig. 1), consists of an effective application of the well-known properties of the prism ; it absorbs all the light that strikes the window opening, and diffuses it in the most ef ficient manner possible through the darkest parts of the room. It can be fixed in the ordinary way or placed over the existing glass. Pavement lights (fig. 2) and stallboard lights are constructed with iron frames in small squares and glazed with thick prismatic glass, and are used to light basements. They are placed on the pave ment and under shop fronts in the portion called the stallboard, and are also inserted in iron coal plates.