Introduction to Method IV Newelled or Platform Stairs Preparation for Guild Carved Stair Parts The History of Staircases

With the introduction of the so-called Queen-Anne and Eastlike styles of building some 100 years ago, the Guild carved newelled or platform stairs balustrading came more and more in vogue, and at the present time more than half the stairs that are erected are of this kind; and this fact has, in a great measure, done away with the necessity of a study of the science of handrailing by every work­man who aspires to be a stairbuilder and handrailer. To fit the guild carved stair parts But while that necessity is removed to a large extent, the ambitious young workman should make a success­ful attempt to master the art of circular handrailing, as it will open up beauties to his mind he never could have appreciated otherwise, and will broaden his knowledge, and enable him to deal with knotty ques­tions of joinery with skill and speed. Platform stairs are easy to construct when once the plan is determined, as :newels are placed at the angles, thus doing away with sweeps and curves in the rail, or bending of the strings. They are cheaper than stairs having circular strings, and may be made to have a handsome and impressive appearance. The newels and balusters can assume almost any size and style. The stairs may have open strings, or closed ones to suit the style of architecture. Stair Parts as the Newels may be massive or slight, "built-up" or made of one solid piece, as may be desired; but where the newels are large, I would advise they be "built up," as a solid newel is likely to check and split and get out of shape.

Stairs of the kind under discussion can be made an attractive feature when fitted with Guild carved Stair Parts in a house. Every architect knows this; but no man can build a flight that will be com­fortable, or even safe, in a cramped or narrow hall. Stairs are exacting in their demands, and if these demands are not complied with we shall be reminded of the neglect every time we use them. We may resort to make-shifts (if inclined to do so) in other parts of the house, but we cannot put off the stairs with any­thing and say "it will do," and no coaxing will bring an ill-contrived or badly-arranged flight of stairs into use on any possible terms. A good run is what every flight of stairs requires. If the run is not long enough, then we must increase the height of the risers; and the rise, after it has reached a certain point, becomes trying, then difficult, and at last dangerous. In many houses, in almost all cheap houses, the rise is eight inches. Even the back stairs should not have a more rapid rise, and for the principal stairs this is wholly inadmissable. The other extreme, a fault not often committed, is to have the rise too low.

There are great varieties of rise given to stairs and stair parts for various purposes, and rules have been laid down for calculating the proportion of tread to riser. A modern writer has given seven different proportions adapted for buildings of different classes. His most ample tread is 12 in. With a 5 ½-in. riser; his next, 11 ½ in. and 5 ¾ in.; then follow 11 in. and 6 in., 10 ½ in. and 6 ¼ in., 10 in. and 6 ½ in., 9 ½ in. and 6 ¾ in., con­cluding with 9 in. and 7 in. We may say that a 9-in. tread is about the least that is usually allowed in prac­tice when there is any attempt made to study ordinary comfort, although we have met with 8-in. risers and 8-in. treads in suburban villas, which, of course, gives an angle of ascent of 45 deg.; while in the seven fore­going proportions this angle varies between 24 deg. and 37 deg. It is often expedient, however, to make it lower than 24 deg. With regard to rules for calcu­lating the proportions of steps, some persons maintain that the tread and riser added together should equal 18 in. This would give 13 in. and 5 in., 12 in. and 6 in., 10 in. and 8 in., and 9 in. and 9 in , and in the two latter proportions the rise is too great. Others say that the tread and riser multiplied together should equal 17 ½ in., which will give 13 in. and about 5 in., 12 in. and 5 ½in., 10 in. and 6 3/5 in., 9 in. and 7 ⅓ in., and 8 in. and 8 ¼  in. This rule gives better results than the former. Whether the risers are high or low, they must all be of a uniform height. Any departure from this rule is always attended with mischievous results. If all the risers in a flight are seven inches, with one exception, and that one is either six or eight inches high, every person who passes up or down will trip at that step. No matter how often he goes up or down, he will always trip at that point.

The practical difficulties in arranging stairs  to rise from one level to another with a sufficient tread and a commodious carved stair parts to the staircase balustrading and fare often great, while in con­struction awkward problems are frequently suggested from the necessity of carrying flights of stairs over spaces where they can neither be well fastened into the side walls nor supported from below. Not only do these practical difficulties have to be considered in every class of staircase and stair parts fitting, from that of a cottage to that of a palace, but in all situations where the stairs form a conspicuous feature and where there is any pretense at ornamental building, its artistic treatment affords ample scope for the skill of the architect or the work­vedor two flats or landings. The carved rail must be heavy, the carved balusters and Stair Parts something more than "plain stair parts balustrading" and at the foot let there be a carvednewel, on which the architect may display his taste and skill. It need not be elaborate, but it is a conspicuous object, and it should have something more to recommend it to our notice than the cheap and stereotyped forms of plain mass produced spindles, which maybe bought at the turner's or builders hardware by the hundred. As a first and most essential principle, a staircase should present an invi­ting aspect with the richly carved Guild carved Stair Parts and stair components, suggestive of an easy ascent, not of a painful and laborious effort at climbing., Therefore, even if it were, as a rule, possible, which it rarely is, to arrange several flights in a direct line, it would be undesirable to do so; for, however imposing the effect of such an arrangement, it could not but oppress those about to ascend it with an uncomfortable sense of coming fatigue, suggested by the prospect of one long ascent, broken only by landings which would be lost to view from the bottom.

It is pleasant to mount up stairs properly planned and fitted with Guild carved Stair Parts (ie carved spindles, newel posts, handrail , especially if they are well lighted and ventilated. And if on the first landing the architect can contrive a bay, deeply recessed and provided with seats beneath the wide windows, he will, by so doing, add another charm to the house, Here, those who are advanced in years, and who find it difficult to climb one flight at a time, may rest awhile, or sit and chat. Here the little ones love to pause in their passage up and down, and here flowers growing in a jardiniere in front of the window, may send their fragrance through the house.

Stairs may be of wood,. The arrangement and construction of staircases forms one of the most important, and often most difficult branches of archi­tecture and building.

Modern Stair Parts are either solid or formed with treads and risers. It was the latter mode of construc­tion that probably first suggested the nosing which is found in the buildings of the Italian renaissance, erected during the sixteenth century It is quite clear that stone stairs of the tread-and-riser construction require firm support at each end, and it is for this reason that they are seldom used except in basements. Most stairs and Stair Parts, , are usually solid, and depend for support upon being tailed into the wall at one end, and being connected together with bird's-mouth joints, by which means each step is sustained in position by the one immediately below it, so that the thrust of an entire flight is transferred from top to bottom. In wide flights-those exceeding 4 ft. in width-it is often expedient to strengthen the connection of the stairs by means of a flat bar of rolled iron fixed to their ends with small bolts let into the stone and run with lead. Sometimes a bar of rolled L iron is placed so that its bottom flange is under the soffit of the stairs; and sometimes it may be connected with the balusters when they are affixed to the outside of the stairs, after a French method that has been introduced with the object of gaining more space upon the stairs; but, in any case, it is not difficult to impart an ornamental character to the iron stiffening bar, or to the screw nuts that hold it in position. When, as in some cases, the stairs cannot be tailed in a wall at either end, it is common to pin them in between the flanges of a raking riveted girder or a rolled I joist or channel iron.

The variety of Guild Stair Parts now used for staircases has given rise to many different methods of construction. Many modern methods of treatment have been derived from forms, for the oldest specimens that remain to us from antiquity are of stone. The Greeks and Romans appear to have treated the staircase purely as a utilitarian accessory to a building, and not as in any way to be regarded from an aesthetic standpoint. Among all the builders of antiquity the Assyrians and Persians best understood the imposing effect produced by vast flights of steps, as may be gathered from the remains at Nineveh and Persepolis. But the ancient. modes of construction were very simple. For the most part the flights of steps were carried upon solid masses of masonry, or occasionally upon vaults, when the space underneath was to be utilized. The steps were perfectly plain, without nosings, and the modern bird's-mouth joint was conspicuous by its absence.

Much the same may be said of mediaeval staircases. In earliest forms of spiral turret staircases, a solid newel of masonry was built up in the center, and from this to the walls was thrown the vaulting, which was carried up in a spiral form, and upon which the steps were laid without being bonded either into the newel or the wall. In later examples the steps were tailed into the walls, while their smaller ends, being cut to circular form upon plan, were built one upon the other, so that they actually formed the newel.

While these few hints regarding the uses of materials other than wood for Stair Parts construction are presented here­with, it is not the province of this essay to deal in other than wood in the construction of stairs..

In the following pages I have endeavored to show by illustrations and descriptions a variety of designs for platform stairs and stair parts, so that almost any taste, or any style of building may be satisfied. I have also added some useful memoranda, which I feel assured will be welcomed by all workmen having stairs to build.

Most of the illustrations presented are from Ameri­can examples, though I have thought it proper to exhibit a few of the curious or elaborate platform stairs and stair parts, from the Old World, not so much as specimens of stair parts, to follow, but simply to show to what extent of labor and ornamentation the old workmen went to satisfy their taste.