These grilles are finished by plating with copper, bronze, nickel, or other metal, and can be given almost any desired tone.
While these grilles do not compare in appearance with wrought iron grilles, they are less expensive, and quickly made, and may be readily obtained of the manufacturers in a variety of stock patterns.
Fireproof Vaults. All banking and large commercial offices require a fireproof vault of some sort, for the preservation of valuable records as well as money.
These vaults in a build ing of ordinary construc tion are easily made of bricks and steel beams.
The vault, in principle, consists of a thick wall of bricks with proper air space and covering, en closing a space of greater or less extent, access to which is given by a double set of doors, sep arated by the widtTi of the wall, at least, and securely fastened from without. To withstand the effect of a conflagration, the walls should be built with an inner wall of eight inches of brick; then an air space of four inches and an outer wall of at least eight inches of brick, with both walls tied to gether across the air space, which should be ventilated top and bottom. This gives a wall twenty inches in thickness and allows a door to be made with the outer valve in one leaf and an inner door in two parts, these parts opening in a vestibule formed in the thickness of the wall. (Fig.
1S9.) The top must be covered with bricks laid on iron bars or beams, and must be at least twenty inches thick to withstand the heat and the falling of beams or masonry. (Fig. 190.) Vaults of this construction are fireproof but not burglar proof, the latter requisite being obtained by a lining of chilled steel or a separate burglar proof safe sct within the brick vault. Vaults have also been made burglar proof by constructing them of concrete, in which are embedded old iron or steel bars or rods, to an extent that it would require a long time to effect an entrance of sufficient size to extract any part of the contents. Copper wires are sometimes laid in concrete at intervals of three inches or less, connected with a battery which will ring an alarm hell if the wires are tampered with.
Store Windows. The modern desire to expose as much plate glass as possible in store windows has led to the development of a special construction for these win dows, with the object of reducing the necessary supports of the glass to a minimum. For ordinary store windows, where the lights are not more than 6 feet wide, the bars may be made of a common T-bar covered by a half round of nickel plated brass over a wooden form, A, Fig. 191, the glass being set from the inside, and held in by pins and putty or wooden stop-beads.
Sometimes a half-round bar is screwed to a web piece of iron, and the outside painted or covered with nickeled brass, as at B, Fig. 191. Another form giving greater strength of web is shown at C.
For larger lights, a special construction is required, giving greater strength; and this is often clone by means of a special casting exposed and ornamented on the front, but otherwise concealed in the wood finish, as at A, Fig. 192. These castings should be about 21 inches wide by 3 inches deep, depending upon the size of the glass, and the glass may be set either from the outside or the inside, and held in place by moulded stops which may be made of metal on the outside, if desired. If transoms are used, they may be of the same section as any of the bass, or a more ornamental form may be given, as B, Fig. 192.
The top of the Ivindow will usually have the same section as the sides, and the sill will depend upon the character of the show window and whether the sash comes to the floor or not. If a bulk head is required with cellar lights under it, a section similar to Fig. 193 is often employed. To pre vent the windows from becoming frosty in cold weather, ventilating openings, through which the con densation also may drain out, are provided, and a trough to connect with these openings. Basement sashes should be provided with wooden sills fitted over a lip in the iron or concrete of sidewalk, or bedded tight if the sidewalk is of stone or brick.