CARPENTRY, the art of employing timbers in the con struction of buildings.
The important and useful art to which the general name of carpentry is given, is so intimately connected with the comforts and requirements of man, in every stage of civilized society, that no apology can be necessary for the length to which our observations on it must necessarily extend. In a work especially devoted to architecture, it of course must occupy a prominent place; for carpentry may be considered of so great importance, that no man may pretend to be an architect who is not well acquainted with its principles and its practice. Carpentry may be divided into two grand branches—Carpentry and Joinery. The first includes the larger and rougher kinds of work, or that which is essential to construction and stability of an edifice : and, generally, all the work wherein timber is valued by the cubical foot.
1Joinery, (called by the French menuiscrie, from menu, small, and Lois, wood, or small wood employed in that art) includes all the interior tinishings and ornamental work, and is gene rally valued by the sui)erlicial foot.
Carpentry itself is properly divided into three branches, viz.. descriptive, constructive, and mechanical.
Descriptive carpentry shows the lines or methods for forming every species of work in piano, by the rules of geo metry. To this branch of the art, sometimes called "finding," the celebrated Monze gave the name of descriptive geometry.
Constructive carpentry shows the practice of reducing the wood into forms, and joining the parts, according to the intention or design of the architect, and thereby forming a complete whole.
Mechanical carpentry shows the relative strength of tim bers, and the strains to which they may be subjected by their arrangement and disposition.
In this article, after a few preliminary observations on what may be termed the " of carpentry, it is intended to give such definitions as may conduce to a com prehension of the theory and practice of the art, and then to show the progressive improvements made by the several English writers in carpentry ; the various rules for forming the timbers, and for the individual operations, being shown under their respective heads. See particularly CONSTRUCTIVE, DESCRIPTIVE, and MECHANICAL CARPENTRY.
History.—This art is of such general and important use, that there can be no doubt of its being of the highest antiquity.
Little of its history, however, has been transmitted to us from the ancients. Pliny and Vitruvius are almost the only authors whose writings on the subject have reached modern times ; but as their observations are merely confined to the and felling of timber, they are of no use as to the constructive part, and only demonstrate that such an art existed.
The practice of carpentry in its rudest form must of necessity have commenced in the very earliest ages ; for in the first attempts at the construction of the primitive build ings of those days, carpentry must have been brought into exercise. It is probable that the necessity of introducing the pediment roof, occasioned the first use of timber frames, and consequently the art of carpentry in building. The invention of' the pediment roof is justly attributed to the Greeks ; as the buildings of this description are to be found in their country ; they also appear to have used tim ber for other purposes, as in the framing of floors, and the construction of rustic buildings.
In warm countries, furnishing stone or marble, it is pro bable that the use of timber was not very frequent, and that it was confined to movable articles, where lightness was an essential quality ; we must, therefore, not look to these cli mates for any traces of the art.
The next great people, in succession of time, to the Greeks, were the Romans, who seem to have employed timber for all, or nearly all, the purposes that the moderns are ac quainted with. They not only constructed their roofs, but whole buildings, of timber : in Vitruvius we have a descrip tion of their manner of constructing the architraves of Tuscan temples, and of the foundation of arched ceilings and floors, in timber work. The Romans also used wooden cornices. The theatres and amphitheatres at Rome, and in different parts of Italy, were at first constructed of timber; as we read of the wooden theatre of Pompey, and the amphitheatre built of the same material, by Augustus, to exhibit the shows on account of the victory at Actium. The roofs of the Roman buildings were not always concealed ; the timbers were sometimes exposed, and in magnificent buildings they were gilt, as in the basilica of St. Peter, erected by Constantine; sometimes they were encrusted with bronze.