THE MANUFACTURE OF ROOFING-TILES ; THE GLAZING OF ROOFING-TILES.
THE word tile does not often occur in the Bible ; but that tiles were used in very ancient times, not only in buildings, but also for many purposes for which we employ paper, there is not the least doubt, and this is particularly true in regard to Assyria, in which country almost every transaction of a public or private character was first written upon thin tablets of clay, or tiles, and then baked.
The prophet Ezekiel, who was among the captives near the river Chebar in the land of the Chaldeans, is among the first to describe the use to which the tile was sometimes put for re ceiving drawings or portraying of plans.
In 595 B. C. Ezekiel was commanded to make use of this Assyrian practice at the time when the siege of Jerusalem was prefigured, the commandment being in the following language : " Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and portray upon it the city, even Jerusalem." Ezekiel iv. I.
The plan of the siege and all the details were fully explained, and the manner and period in which they were to be carried out were predicted.
From the profuseness with which the Assyrians employed colors in the decoration of bricks and many interior as well as exterior architectural positions, and in their most gorgeously dyed apparel and head-dresses, household furnishings, horse equipments, and in fact every position that it was possible to attract the eye or please the taste, it is not improbable that when tiles were used for roofing purposes they were also richly colored and ornamented in a great variety of designs, imparting to the roofs a highly ornate appearance.
Rome was originally roofed with shingles, which gave a gen eral invitation to the great destructive fires which so often oc curred ; and no effort seems to have been made to lessen the danger from this source until about the time of the war with Pyrrhus, at about which time tiles of burnt clay were intro duced.
In Knight's "Mechanical Dictionary" we find three good illustrations, with description of the tiles used by the Greeks and Romans, and modifications of the pantile. About the
time of Pausanias, 62o B. C., tiles of marble were largely em ployed in Greece ; the temple of Jupiter at Olympus, and of Athena at Athens (the Parthenon), were thus covered.
The ancient Greeks always clung to marble ; at no time did they show any great desire to employ burned clay in their ar chitectural constructions. Roof-tiles of bronze and gilt were used in some cases.
The lower edges of the joint tiles were protected and orna mented by frontons, and the edges of the flat tiles were turned up and covered by semi-cylindrical joint tiles, termed imbrices.
Fig. 229 shows two forms of marble tiles, a being the form employed by the Romans, and b the marble tiles sometimes used by the Greeks ; and which have both been imitated in clay.
In Roman architecture, both flat and round tiles were largely employed, roofs were not uncommonly covered with flat and curved tiles alternating.
The plain tiles now in general use in England weigh about from two to two and one-half pounds each, and expose about one-half their surface to the weather, four hundred of them covering one hundred superficial feet of roof surface ; they are sometimes hung upon the sheathing-board by two oak pins in serted through holes left by the moulder.
Plain tiles are also now made with grooves and fillets on the edges, so that they can be laid without overlapping the usual distance, the grooves leading the water. This may answer for some cheap constructions where lightness is also a considera tion ; but the plan is a bad one, as they will certainly leak in the driving rains and drifting snows, and they are also subject to injury by hard frost.
Pantiles were first used in Flanders, the wavy surface lapping under, and being overlapped by the adjacent tiles. The Eng lish pantiles weigh from five to five and one-quarter pounds, expose ten inches to the surface, and one hundred and seventy five of them cover a square, or one hundred superficial feet of roof surface.