Modern Stone-Cutting and Masonry by John S. Siebert and Frederic Child Biggin places special emphasis on making working drawings. John Wiley & Sons published this first edition, marked first thousand, in New York in 1896, with Chapman & Hall, Limited, named for London.
Stonework through the drawing office
The preface explains the authors’ wish to give students material directly applicable to engineering and architectural practice. They describe a need to move beyond older exercises dominated by elaborate church stonework and toward the kinds of masonry then encountered in ordinary professional work.
The book combines definitions and classifications with examples of stone-cutting and masonry. Its drawings are intended as models from which a student can make similar drawings, rather than as a substitute for understanding the individual problem.
This makes the volume useful to readers interested in the relationship between craft geometry and construction documentation. A stone must be represented clearly enough for its shape, position and relation to neighboring pieces to be understood before it is cut and set.
Tools, finishes and masonry terms
The first chapter introduces the names and definitions of stone-masons’ tools. It then classifies stones according to finish, defines parts of a structure and distinguishes classes of masonry. The preface also identifies general remarks on bond and dressing.
This vocabulary prepares the reader for the drawings that follow. A description of a dressed surface or a masonry course has a practical purpose: it helps distinguish the work required on one part from the work required on another.
For people researching historic specifications, the chapter offers a concise entry into period terminology. The illustrations and definitions should be compared together, because a familiar word can carry a more particular meaning in a stone-working context.
Arches, buttresses and intersections
The second chapter moves into stone-cutting and masonry examples. Its listed subjects include a Gothic buttress, arches and intersecting arches. The drawings address the geometry needed to represent individual pieces within a larger arrangement.
These problems are useful exercises in reading plans, elevations and related views. The shape apparent in one view may not reveal the complete surface that must be cut, so the drawing process connects several representations of the same object.
The authors do not attempt to cover every possible arch form. Their preface notes that skew or oblique arches are not treated as a full subject, although a simpler skew-faced example appears. This limit is helpful when deciding whether the book contains the problem a reader needs.
Culverts, bridges and architectural work
Arch culverts, railroad-bridge masonry, canal-lock masonry and architectural stonework broaden the examples. They connect geometric drawing with recognizable infrastructure and building forms, rather than presenting every construction as an isolated abstract solid.
The volume will interest readers studying how late nineteenth-century designers communicated masonry work. Its plates preserve both the chosen examples and the graphic conventions used to explain them. They can also support comparisons with surviving measured drawings or old construction documents.
These are historical examples, not current engineering designs. Dimensions, structural arrangements and working assumptions belong to their original context and should not be adopted as approval for a new bridge, culvert or building.
Using the book as a study reference
The preface asks students to execute drawings accurately, neatly and with strong lines, and to practice lettering. It also suggests measuring suitable existing structures as additional exercises. Those comments show that the book was intended to support active drawing work.
This free ebook suits architectural historians, stonecraft researchers and students interested in technical drawing. It is most useful when the explanatory text is read beside the relevant plate, with enough magnification to follow the lettered points and fine construction lines.
The PDF contains 85 digital pages, including blank and preliminary pages. It is an image-based scan that preserves the original diagrams and typography. Text searching is not available in this copy; browse visually and distinguish printed page and plate references from the digital page count.
Book details
- Author: John S. Siebert and Frederic Child Biggin
- Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, New York; Chapman & Hall, Limited, London
- Year: 1896
- Edition: First edition; first thousand
- Digital length: 85 PDF pages
- Language: English
- File size: 1.29 MB
