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Cruelty as Citizenship
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FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS
Cristina Beltrán
Cruelty as Citizenship: How Migrant Suffering
Sustains White Democracy
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Trans Care
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Kill the Overseer! The Gamification of Slave Resistance
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(Continued on page 127)
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10.
Cruelty as Citizenship
HowMigrant Suffering Sustains
White Democracy
Cristina Beltrán
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis
London
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11.
Copyright 2020 byCristina Beltrán
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, elec-
tronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the
prior written permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401-
2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Available as a Manifold edition at manifold.umn.edu
The University of Minnesota is an equal-
opportunity educator
and employer.
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12.
Contents
Introduction: Immigration, Latinos,and
the Politics of the White Racial Imaginary 1
1. Freedom on the Frontier: White Democracy
and America’s Revolutionary Spirit 33
2. A Desire for Land but Not People:
Herrenvolk Democracy and the Violent
Legacies of the Mexican-
American War 65
3. Authorized Violence: Migrant Suffering and
Participatory (White) Democracy 91
Conclusion: Migrant Futurity, Divided
Whiteness, and the Authoritarian Turn 111
Acknowledgments 125
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13.
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14.
Introduction: Immigration,
Latinos, andthe Politics of
the White Racial Imaginary
The anger was simmering long before Donald Trump. Before
his pledge to build a wall at the southern border, before his call for
a “deportation force” to round up unauthorized immigrants, be-
fore his proposals to deport Dreamers and defund sanctuary cities,
before his “zero-
tolerance” policy that put children in cages, na-
tivist animosity was there.1
Trump began characterizing migrants
as agents of contamination long before he dubbed the COVID-
19
pandemic “the Chinese virus”—
and then “kung flu”—
and exploit-
1. When referring to nativism, I am drawing on political scientist Cas
Mudde’s definition as “a xenophobic form of nationalism” that sees both
nonnative persons and their alleged ideas as a threat to the nation-
state’s
culture, security, and economic well-
being. See Mudde, The Far Right in
America (New York: Routledge, 2017), 89. Yet nativism is not merely preju-
dice. As Mudde illustrates, nativism reflects a set of beliefs regarding how
the state should be structured, with nativists often seeking “a congruence
of state and nation—
the political and the cultural unit.” See Uri Friedman,
“What Is a Nativist?,” Atlantic, April 11, 2017. As a form of boundary-
based
nationalism, nativism might initially appear to run counter to America’s
understanding of itself as a welcoming “nation of immigrants.” But as
scholars have long noted, nativist and right-
wing politics have a long history
in the United States. For example, particular definitions of whiteness have
long shaped America’s exclusionary immigration policies, with laws tar-
geting Chinese, Catholics, and Jews as well as a variety of other racialized
populations. See historian John Higham’s Strangers in the Land: Patterns of
American Nativism, 1860–
1925 (1955; repr., New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers
University Press, 2002). Today, nativism is a core feature of the radical
Right, with expressions of populism and authoritarianism tending to “pass
through a nativist filter.” See Friedman, “What Is a Nativist?”
1
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15.
cruelty as citizenship
2
edan obscure public health law to deny refugees the ability to ap-
ply for asylum.2
Indeed, such vitriolic and dehumanizing rhetoric against mi-
grants was already part of our national conversation. In calling
Mexicans and other immigrants diseased, rapists, and criminals,
Trump merely became the loudest voice with the ugliest, most un-
varnished rhetoric.3
Indeed, for anyone paying attention, America has long been
witness to a seemingly endless stream of xenophobic and racially
charged statements, proposals, and policies targeting migrants—
particularly Latinx migrants.4
More than a decade before Trump’s
2. See Julio Ricardo Varela, “As He Bungles This Crisis, Trump Turns
to a Familiar Scapegoat: Immigration,” Washington Post, March 23, 2020;
“Donald Trump Calls Covid-
19 ‘Kung Flu’ at Tulsa Rally,” Guardian, June
20, 2020; BBC News, “US–
Mexico Border: Thousands of Migrants Expelled
under Coronavirus Powers,” April 10, 2020; Maria Verza and Ben Fox, “US
Expels Thousands to Mexico after Largely Halting Asylum,” AP News,
April 9, 2020; Joel Rose, “Immigration Grinds to a Halt as President Trump
Shuts Borders,” NPR, March 18, 2020; Tal Axelrod, “Trump Threatens to
Withhold Visas for Countries That Don’t Quickly Repatriate Citizens,” Hill,
April 10, 2020; Adam Rogers, “Calling the Caravan’s Migrants ‘Diseased’ Is a
Classic Xenophobic Move,” Wired, October 31, 2018.
3. For more on the history of race, immigration, and public health, see
John Mckiernan-Gonzáles, Fevered Measures: Public Health and Race at
the Texas–
Mexico Border, 1848–
1942 (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press,
2012), and Nayan Shah, Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in San
Francisco’s Chinatown (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001).
4. In addition to using the national-
origin term Mexican in this work,
I also use the terms Latino and Latinx throughout. I use Latinx as the gen-
der neutral and nonbinary alternative to Latino. However, when referring
to Latinx subjects in plural terms, I will also use the term Latinos, as both
terms refer to the diverse group of individuals living in the United States
who trace their ancestry to the Spanish-
speaking regions of Latin America
and the Caribbean. For more on the political and theoretical possibilities
of these terms, see Cristina Beltrán, The Trouble with Unity: Latino Politics
and the Creation of Identity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010);
Ed Morales, Latinx: The New Force in American Politics and Culture (New
York: Verso, 2018); and Claudia Milian, LatinX (Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press, 2019).
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16.
Introduction 3
election, congressmanSteve King of Iowa suggested that the United
States build a concrete border wall topped with wire to keep out
migrants, stating, “We could also electrify this wire. . . . We do that
with livestock all the time.”5
Six years later, King gave a speech com-
paring immigrants to dogs.6
In 2010, Tennessee Republican Curry
Todd likened undocumented immigrants to “rats [who] multiply.”
The next year, Kansas state representative Virgil Peck suggested
that migrants be shot like “feral hogs” as a solution to America’s
“illegal immigration problem.”7
Echoing anti-immigrant politicians,
conservative pundits such as Lou Dobbs, Pat Buchanan, Alex Jones,
Rush Limbaugh, and Ann Coulter have built careers—and fostered
an entire industry—
based on attacking migrants, characterizing
immigration as an existential crisis and encouraging the United
States to pursue increasingly restrictive and punitive policies.8
Not only has immigration become increasingly partisan, di-
viding conservatives from liberals, but anti-
immigrant sentiment
has grown so intense that it fractures the American Right itself.
This divide—
between establishment conservatives who favor
neoliberal forms of free trade dependent on an exploitable pool
of immigrant labor and the more restrictive nativist wing—
was
on spectacular display at the 2018 Conservative Political Action
5. See Trip Gabriel, “A Timeline of Steve King’s Racist Remarks and
Divisive Action,” New York Times, January 15, 2019.
6. Comparing the selection of “good immigrants” to dog breed-
ing, King opined, “You want a good bird dog? . . . Pick the one that’s the
friskiest . . . not the one that’s over there sleeping in the corner.” See Glenn
Thrush, “Rep. King Compares Immigrants to Dogs,” Politico, May, 22, 2012;
Stephen Pitti, “Congressman King, Cantaloupe Calves and Drug Mules,”
Huffington Post Latino Voices, July 25, 2013; P. J. Brendese, “Borderline
Epidemics: Latino Immigration and Racial Biopolitics,” Politics, Groups, and
Identities 2, no. 2 (2014): 168–
87.
7. Kevin Murphy, “Kansas Lawmaker Suggests Immigrants Be Shot
Like Hogs,” Reuters, March 25, 2011.
8. See the Anti-
Defamation League Center on Extremism,
“Mainstreaming Hate: The Anti-
Immigrant Movement in the U.S.,”
November 2018.
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17.
cruelty as citizenship
4
Conference(CPAC), the annual gathering attended by conserva-
tive activists and elected officials from across the United States
and, increasingly, Europe.9
At the only 2018 CPAC panel dedicat-
ed to the topic of immigration, audience members “drown[ed] out
panelists’ presentation of the data about the benefits of immigra-
tion” with boos and jeers:
During a heated question and answer session during the immigra-
tion panel, a man from Four Corners, Virginia, went on an extended
diatribe about a Latino man who once crashed his car in front of his
house. “I had to go down to court to testify, and I was the only white
face in the crowd other than the lawyers being paid to translate for
these people,” he said. “You can go down to Four Corners Park and
see obvious illegal immigrants defecating in the woods, fornicating
in the woods, and on and on and on. These people are not the immi-
grants of the ’20s and ’30s. They will never be able to get good jobs
here and be good citizens. Is that in your study?” . . .
As David Bier, a policy analyst with the libertarian Cato Insti-
tute, attempted to lay out research proving that immigrants actually
have lower crime rates than native-
born Americans, contribute sig-
nificantly to the economy and are assimilating just as well or better
than past generations of immigrations, his fellow panelists derided
his statements as “nutty” and angry audience members shouted him
down. . . . Whenever Bier cited research to counter incorrect claims
from his fellow panelists and the audience that recent immigrants
are disproportionately criminal, are an economic drain on govern-
ment or take several generations to learn English, he was met with
vocal hostility.10
Insisting that today’s immigrants are demographically and racially
threatening (“I was the only white face”), disproportionately crim-
inal, “obviously” illegal, impossible to assimilate, and spectacularly
bestial (“defecating in the woods, fornicating in the woods”), it
9. As is widely known, the international movement of people has
become a political flashpoint, in both the United States and throughout
Europe. For the purposes of this book, my focus is on the U.S. and Latinx
populations, particularly Mexicans and Mexican Americans.
10. Alice Ollstein, “Data Clashes with Emotion as CPAC Immigration
Panel Goes off the Rails,” Talking Points Memo, February 23, 2018.
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18.
Introduction 5
became clearwhy CPAC organizers had elected to hold only one
panel on the issue of immigration: additional events would have
made the deep divide among conservatives even more conspic-
uous. Yet even at this single event, the split was as unmistakable
as it was ontological. Both attendees and even some panelists at
CPAC refused to accept not only the accuracy but the very reality
of the facts and data presented by the Cato Institute, a libertarian
think tank funded by the Charles Koch Foundation. In refusing to
grant legitimacy to information and statistics widely understood
to be accurate, participants embodied not only the disagreement
but the deep incommensurability between certain segments of the
GOP establishment and the nativist beliefs of the party’s electoral
base. Indeed, for a specific segment of politicians, pundits, activists,
and voters, immigrants seem to serve as a kind of affective trigger,
touching off paroxysms of rage and frustration regarding what they
see as an existential threat to the United States and its economic
future, sovereign integrity, and racial and cultural identity.
Given this dynamic, a number of questions come to the fore:
Why has immigration—
particularly from Mexico and Latin
America—
become such a potent and emotionally galvanizing is-
sue for the American Right? What is driving the upsurge in anti-
Latinx nativism at this historical moment? And why are Latinos
(particularly migrants but often native-
born Latinos as well) such
an affectively charged population for political conservatives?11
11. Throughout this work, I generally refer to migrants rather than
immigrants. The term immigrant generally refers to someone who has
moved from one country to another with plans to relocate permanent-
ly. Technically, immigrants in the United States generally refers to legal
permanent residents, those who hold visas, or those who have become U.S.
citizens. By contrast, migrant is a broader term that refers to anyone who
is in the process of relocating to another country as well someone who has
already moved. The term is inclusive of refugees and asylum seekers as well
as people who are still on the move or who have moved to a country but
wish to eventually return to their home country. Migrant also makes no ref-
erence to legal status. For more on the distinctions between the two terms,
see Adrian Vore, “‘Immigrant’ vs. ‘Migrant’: What’s the Difference?,” San
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Fig. 4.—Prevention ofWarping.
shrinkage. They may be secured either by nailing or screwing, or by
glued angle blocks.
The dovetail is a most important joint; its most usual forms are
illustrated in fig. 3. The mitre dovetail is used in the best work. It
will be seen that the dovetail is a tenon, shaped as a wedge, and it
is this distinguishing feature which gives it great strength
irrespective of glue or screws. It is invaluable in framing together
joiners’ fittings; its use in drawers especially provides a good
example of its purpose and structure.
Fig. 3.—Dovetails.
Warping in Wide Boards.—It
is necessary to prevent the
tendency to warp, twist and
split, which boards of great
width, or several boards glued
together edge to edge, naturally
possess. On the other hand,
swelling and shrinking due to
changes in the humidity of the
atmosphere must not be
checked, or the result will be
21.
disastrous. To effectthis end various simple devices are available.
The direction of the annular rings in alternate boards may be
reversed, and when the boards have been carefully jointed with
tongues or dowels and glued up, a hard-wood tapering key, dovetail
in section, may be let into a wide dovetail at the back (fig. 4). It
must be accurately fitted and driven tightly home, but, of course,
not glued. Battens of hard wood may be used for the same purpose,
fixed either with hard-wood buttons or by means of brass slots and
screws, the slots allowing for any slight movement that may take
place. With boards of a substantial thickness light iron rods may be
used, holes being bored through the thickness of the boards and
rods passed through; the edges are then glued up. This method is
very effective and neat in appearance, and is specially suitable when
a smooth surface is desired on both sides of the work.
Mouldings are used in joinery to relieve plain surfaces by the
contrasts of light and shade formed by their members, and to
ornament or accentuate those particular portions which the designer
may wish to bring into prominence. Great skill and discrimination are
required in designing and applying mouldings, but that matter falls
to the qualified designer and is perhaps outside the province of the
practical workman, whose work is to carry out in an accurate and
finished manner the ideas of the draughtsman. The character of a
moulding is greatly affected by the nature and appearance of the
wood in which it is worked. A section suitable for a hard regularly
grained wood, such as mahogany, would probably look insignificant
if worked in a softer wood with pronounced markings. Mouldings
worked on woods of the former type may consist of small and
delicate members; woods of the latter class require bold treatment.
The mouldings of joinery, as well as of all other moulded work
used in connexion with a building, are usually worked in accordance
with full-sized detail drawings prepared by the architect, and are
22.
Fig. 5.—Mouldings.
designed byhim to
conform with the style
and class of building.
There are, however, a
number of moulded forms
in common use which
have particular names;
sections are shown of
many of these in fig. 5.
Most of them occur in the
classic architecture of
both Greeks and Romans.
A striking distinction,
however, existed in the
mouldings of these two peoples; the curves of the Greek mouldings
were either derived from conic sections or drawn in freehand, while
in typical Roman work the curved components were segments of a
circle. Numerous examples of the use of these forms occur in
ordinary joinery work, and may be recognized on reference to the
illustrations, which will be easily understood without further
description.
Mouldings may be either stuck or planted on. A stuck moulding is
worked directly on to the framing it is used to ornament; a planted
moulding is separately worked and fixed in position with nails or
screws. Beads and other small mouldings should always be stuck;
larger ones are usually planted on. In the case of mouldings planted
on panelled work, the nails should be driven through the moulding
into the style or rail of the framing, and on no account into the
panel. By adopting the former method the panel is free to shrink—as
it undoubtedly will do—without altering the good appearance of the
work, but should the moulding be fixed to the panel it will, when the
23.
latter shrinks, bepulled out of place, leaving an unsightly gap
between it and the framing.
Flooring.—When the bricklayer, mason and carpenter have
prepared the carcase of a building for the joiner, one of the first
operations is that of laying the floor boards. They should have been
stacked under cover on the site for some considerable time, in order
to be thoroughly well seasoned when the time to use them arrives.
The work of laying should take place in warm dry weather. The
joints of flooring laid in winter time or during wet weather are sure
to open in the following summer, however tightly they may be
cramped up during the process of laying. An additional expense will
then be incurred by the necessity of filling in the opened joints with
wood slips glued and driven into place. Boards of narrow width are
better and more expensive than wide ones. They may be of various
woods, the kinds generally preferred, on account of their low
comparative cost and ease of working, being yellow deal and white
deal. White deal or spruce is an inferior wood, but is frequently used
with good results for the floors of less important apartments. A
better floor is obtained with yellow deal, which, when of good
quality and well seasoned, is lasting and wears well. For floors
where a fine appearance is desired, or which will be subjected to
heavy wear, some harder and tougher material, such as pitch pine,
oak, ash, maple or teak, should be laid. These woods are capable of
taking a fine polish and, finished in this way, form a beautiful as well
as a durable floor.
Many of the side joints illustrated in fig. 1 are applied to flooring
boards, which, however, are not usually glued up. The heart side of
the board should be placed downwards so that in drying the
tendency will be for the edges to press more tightly to the joists
instead of curling upwards. The square joint should be used only on
ground floors; if it is used for the upper rooms, dust and water will
24.
drop through thecrevices and damage the ceiling beneath.
Dowelled joints are open to the same objection. One of the best and
most economical methods is the ploughed and tongued joint. The
tongue may be of hard wood or iron, preferably the latter, which is
stronger and occupies very narrow grooves. The tongue should be
placed as near the bottom of the board as is practicable, leaving as
much wearing material as possible. Two varieties of secret joints are
shown in fig. 1.—the splayed, rebated, grooved and tongued, and
the rebated, grooved and tongued. Owing to the waste of material
in forming these joints and the extra labour involved in laying the
boards, they are costly and are only used when it is required that no
heads of nails or screws should appear on the surface. The heading
joints of flooring are often specified to be splayed or bevelled, but it
is far better to rebate them.
Wood block floors are much used, and are exceedingly solid. The
blocks are laid directly on a smoothed concrete bed or floor in a
damp-proof mastic having bitumen as its base; this fulfils the double
purpose of preventing the wood from rotting, and securing the
blocks in their places. To check any inclination to warp and rise,
however, the edges of the blocks in the better class of floors are
connected by dowels of wood or metal, or by a tongued joint. The
blocks may be from 1 to 3 in. thick, and are usually 9 or 12 in. long
by 3 in. wide.
Parquet floors are made of hard woods of various kinds, laid in
patterns on a deal sub-floor, and may be of any thickness from ¼ to
1¼ in. Great care should be taken in laying the sub-floor, especially
for the thinner parquet. The boards should be in narrow widths of
well-seasoned stuff and well nailed, for any movement in the sub-
floor due to warping or shrinking may have disastrous results on the
parquet which is laid upon it. Plated parquet consists of selected
hard woods firmly fixed on a framed deal backing. It is made in
25.
Fig. 6.—Built-
up Skirting
tonguedto
floor.
sections for easy transport, and these are fitted together in the
apartment for which they are intended. When secured to the joists
these form a perfect floor.
Skirtings.—In joinery, the skirting is a board
fixed around the base of internal walls to form
an ornamental base for the wall (see fig. 7). It
also covers the joint between the flooring and
the wall, and protects the base of the wall
from injury. Skirtings may be placed in two
classes—those formed from a plain board with
its upper edge either left square or moulded,
and those formed of two or more separate
members and termed a built-up skirting (fig.
6). Small angle fillets or mouldings are often
used as skirtings. The skirting should be
worked so as to allow it to be fixed with the heart side of the wood
outwards; any tendency to warp will then only serve to press the top
edge more closely to the wall. In good work a groove should be
formed in the floor and the skirting tongued into it so that an open
joint is avoided should shrinkage occur. The skirting should be nailed
only near the top to wood grounds fixed to wood plugs in the joints
of the brickwork. These grounds are about ¾ to 1 in. thick, i.e. the
same thickness as the plaster, and are generally splayed or grooved
on the edge to form a key for the plaster. A rough coat of plaster
should always be laid on the wall behind the skirting in order to
prevent the space becoming a harbourage for vermin.
27.
Fig. 7.
Dados.—A dado,like a skirting, is useful both in a decorative and
a protective sense. It is filled in to ornament and protect that portion
of the wall between the chair or dado rail and the skirting. It may be
of horizontal boards battened at the back and with cross tongued
and glued joints, presenting a perfectly smooth surface, or of
matched boarding fixed vertically, or of panelled framing. The last
method is of course the most ornate and admits of great variety of
design. The work is fixed to rough framed wood grounds which are
nailed to plugs driven into the joints of the brickwork. Fig. 7 shows
an example of a panelled dado with capping moulding and skirting.
A picture rail also is shown; it is a small moulding with the top edge
grooved to take the metal hooks from which pictures are hung.
Walls are sometimes entirely sheathed with panelling, and very
fine effects are obtained in this way. The fixing is effected to rough
grounds in a manner similar to that adopted in the case of dados. In
England the architects of the Tudor period made great use of oak
framing, panelled and richly carved, as a wall covering and
decoration, and many beautiful examples may be seen in the
remaining buildings of that period.
Windows.—The parts of a window sash are distinguished by the
same terms as are applied to similar portions of ordinary framing,
being formed of rails and styles, with sash bars rebated for glazing.
The upright sides are styles; the horizontal ones, which are tenoned
into the styles, are rails (fig. 7).
Sashes hung by one of their vertical edges are called casements
(fig. 8). They are really a kind of glazed door and sometimes indeed
are used as such, as for example French casements (fig. 9). They
may be made to open either outwards or inwards. It is very difficult
with the latter to form perfectly water-tight joints; with those
28.
opening outwards thetrouble does not exist to so great an extent.
This form of window, though almost superseded in England by the
case frame with hung sashes, is in almost universal use on the
Continent. Yorkshire sliding sashes move in a horizontal direction
upon grooved runners with the meeting styles vertical. They are
little used, and are apt to admit draughts and wet unless efficient
checks are worked upon the sashes and frames.
Fig. 8.—Casement window fitted with shutters.
Lights in a position difficult of access are often hung on centre
pivots. An example of this method is shown in fig. 8; metal pivots
are fixed to the frame and the sockets in which these pivots work
are screwed to the sash. Movement is effected by means of a cord
29.
fixed so thata slight pull opens or closes the window to the desired
extent, and the cord is then held by being tied to, or twisted round,
a small metal button or clip, or a geared fanlight opener may be
used. For the side sashes of lantern lights and for stables and
factories this form of window is in general use.
Fig. 9.—Details of French Casement to open inwards.
In the British Isles and in America the most usual form of window
is the cased frame with double hung sliding sashes. This style has
many advantages. It is efficient in excluding wet and draughts,
ventilation may be easily regulated and the sashes can be lowered
and raised with ease without interference with any blinds, curtains
or other fittings, that may be applied to the windows. In the
ordinary window of this style, however, difficulty is experienced in
cleaning the external glass without assuming a dangerous position
on the sill, but there are many excellent inventions now on the
market which obviate this difficulty by allowing—usually on the
removal of a small thumb-screw—the reversal of the sash on a pivot
or hinge. For a small extra cost these arrangements may be
provided; they will be greatly appreciated by those who clean the
windows. The cased frames are in the form of boxes to enclose the
iron or lead weights which balance the sashes (fig. 7), and consist of
a pulley style—which takes the wear of the sashes and is often of
hard wood on this account—an inside lining, and an outside lining;
these three members are continued to form the head of the frame.
30.
The sashes areconnected with the weights by flax lines working
over metal pulleys fixed in the pulley styles. For heavy sashes with
plate glass, chains are sometimes used instead of lines. Access to
the weights for the purpose of fitting new cords is obtained by
removing the pocket piece. A thin back lining is provided to the sides
only and is not required in the head. The sill is of oak weathered to
throw off the water. A parting bead separates the sashes, and the
inside bead keeps them in position. A parting slip hung from the
head inside the cased frame separates the balancing weights and
ensures their smooth working. The inside lining is usually grooved to
take the elbow and soffit linings, and the window board is fitted into
a groove formed in the sill. The example shown in fig. 7 has an
extra deep bottom rail and bead; this enables the lower sash to be
raised so as to permit of ventilation between the meeting rails
without causing a draught at the bottom of the sash. This is a
considerable improvement upon the ordinary form, and the cost of
constructing the sashes in this manner is scarcely greater.
Bay windows with cased frames and double hung sashes often
require the exercise of considerable ingenuity in their construction in
order that the mullions shall be so small as not to intercept more
light than necessary; at the same time the sashes must work easily
and the whole framing be stable and strong. The sills should be
mitred and tongued at the angles and secured by a hand-rail bolt.
Frequently it is not desired to hang all the sashes of a bay window,
the side lights being fixed. To enable smaller angle mullions to be
obtained, the cords of the front windows may be taken by means of
pulleys over the heads of the side lights and attached to counter-
balance weights working in casings at the junction of the window
with the wall. This enables solid angle mullions to be employed. If
all the lights are required to be hung the difficulty may be
surmounted by hanging two sashes to one weight. Lead weights
take up less space than iron, and are used for heavy sashes.
31.
In framing andfixing skylights and lantern lights also great care is
necessary to ensure the result being capable of resisting rough
weather and standing firm in high winds. Glue should not be used in
any of the joints, as it would attract moisture from the atmosphere
and set up decay. Provision must be made for the escape of the
water which condenses on and runs down the under side of the
glass, by means of a lead-lined channelled moulding, provided with
zinc or copper pipe outlets. The skylight stands on a curb raised at
least 6 in. to allow of the exclusion of rain by proper flashing. The
sashes of the lantern usually take the form of fixed or hung
casements fitted to solid mullions and angle posts which are framed
into and support a solid head. The glazed framing of the roof is
made up of moulded sash bars framed to hips and ridges of stronger
section, these rest on the head, projecting well beyond it in order to
throw off the water.
Shutters for domestic windows have practically fallen into disuse,
but a reference to the different forms they may take is perhaps
necessary. They may be divided into two classes—those fixed to the
outside of the window and those fixed inside. They may be
battened, panelled or formed with louvres, the latter form admitting
air and a little light. External shutters are generally hung by means
of hinges to the frame of the window: when the window is set in a
reveal these hinges are necessarily of special shape, being of large
projection to enable the shutters to fold back against the face of the
wall. Internally fixed shutters may be hinged or may slide either
vertically or horizontally. Hinged folding boxed shutters are shown in
the illustration of a casement window (fig. 8), where the method of
working is clearly indicated; they are usually held in position by
means of a hinged iron bar secured with a special catch. Lifting
shutters are usually fitted in a casing formed in the window back,
and the window board is hinged to lift up, to allow the shutters to be
raised by means of rings fixed in their upper edges. The shutters are
32.
balanced by weightsenclosed with casings in the manner described
for double hung sashes. The panels are of course filled in with wood
and not glazed. The shutters are fixed by means of a thumb-screw
through the meeting rails, the lower sash being supported on the
window board which is closed down when the sashes have been
lifted out. Shutters sliding horizontally are also used in some cases,
but they are not so convenient as the forms described above.
Shop-fronts.—The forming of shop-fronts may almost be
considered a separate branch of joiner’s work. The design and
construction are attended by many minor difficulties, and, the
requirements greatly varying with almost every trade, careful study
and close attention to detail are necessary. In the erection of shop-
fronts, in order to allow the maximum width of glass with the
minimum amount of obstruction, many special sections of sash bars
and stanchions are used, the former often being reinforced by cast
iron or steel of suitable form. For these reasons the construction of
shop-fronts and fittings has been specialized by makers having a
knowledge of the requirements of different trades and with facilities
for making the special wood and metal fittings and casings
necessary. Fig. 10 shows an example of a simple shop-front in
Spanish mahogany with rolling shutters and spring roller blind; it
indicates the typical construction of a front, and reference to it will
inform the reader on many points which need no further description.
The London Building Act. 1894 requires the following regulations to
be complied with in shop-fronts:—(1) In streets of a width not
greater than 30 ft. a shop-front may project 5 in. beyond the
external wall of the building to which it belongs, and the cornice
may project 13 in. (2) In streets of a width greater than 30 ft., the
projections of the shop-front may be 10 in. and of the cornice 18 in.
beyond the building line. No woodwork of any shop-front shall be
fixed higher than 25 ft. above the level of the public pavement. No
woodwork shall be fixed nearer than 4 in. to the centre of the party
33.
wall. The pierof brick or stone must project at least an inch in front
of the woodwork. These by-laws will be made clear on reference to
fig. 10, which is of a shop-front designed to face on to a road more
than 30 ft. wide.
Rolling shutters for shop-fronts are made by a number of firms,
and are usually the subject of a separate estimate, being fixed by
the makers themselves. The shutter consists of a number of narrow
strips of wood, connected with each other by steel bands hinged at
every joint, or it may be formed in iron or steel. This construction
allows it to be coiled upon a cylinder containing a strong spring and
usually fixed on strong brackets behind the fascia. The shutter is
guided into position by the edges working in metal grooves a little
under an inch wide. When the width of the opening to be closed
renders it necessary to divide the shutters into more than one
portion, grooved movable pilasters are used, and when the shutters
have to be lowered these are fixed in position with bolts, the shutter
working on the grooved edges of the pilasters. Spring roller canvas
blinds work on a similar principle. The wrought-iron blind arms are
capable, when the blind is extended, of being pushed up by means
of a sliding arrangement, and fixed with a pin at a level high enough
to allow foot passengers to pass along the pavement under them.
36.
Fig. 10.—Shop-front.
Doors.—External doorsare usually hung to solid frames placed in
the reveals of the brick or stone wall. The frames are rebated for the
door and ornamented by mouldings either stuck or planted on. The
jambs or posts are tenoned, wedged and glued to the head, and the
feet secured to the sill by stub tenons or dowels of iron. Solid
window frames are of similar construction and are used chiefly for
casements and sashes hung on centres as already described.
Internal doors are hung to jamb linings (fig. 7). They are usually
about 1½ in. thick and rebated for the door. When the width of
jamb allows it, panelling may be introduced as in the example
shown. The linings are nailed or screwed to rough framed grounds 1
in. in thickness plugged or nailed to the wall or partition. Architraves
are the borders or finishing mouldings fixed around a window or
door opening, and screwed or nailed to wood grounds. They are
variously moulded according to the fancy of the designer. The
ordinary form of architrave is shown in the illustration of a cased
window frame (fig. 8), and a variation appears in the combined
architrave and over door frieze and capping fitted around the six-
panelled door (fig. 7). The latter would need to be worked and
framed in the shop and fixed entire. Polished hard wood architraves
may be secretly fixed, i.e. without the heads of nails or screws
showing on the face, by putting screws into the grounds with their
heads slightly projecting, and hanging the moulding on them by
means of keyhole slots formed in the back.
Doors may be made in a variety of ways. The simplest form, the
common ledged door, consists of vertical boards with plain or
matched joints nailed to horizontal battens which correspond to the
rails in framed doors. For openings over 2 ft. 3 in. wide, the doors
should be furnished with braces. Ledged and braced doors are
37.
Fig. 11.—Forms of
Panelling.
similar,but have, in addition to the ledges at the back, oblique
braces which prevent any tendency of the door to drop. The upper
end of the brace is birdsmouthed into the under side of the rail near
the lock edge of the door and crosses the door in an oblique
direction to be birdsmouthed into the upper edge of the rail below,
near the hanging edge of the door. This is done between each pair
of rails. Framed ledged and braced doors are a further development
of this form of door. The framing consists of lock and hanging styles,
top, middle and bottom rails, with oblique braces between the rails.
These members are tenoned together and the door sheathed with
boarding. The top rail and styles are the full thickness of the door,
the braces and middle and bottom rails being less by the thickness
of the sheathing boards, which are tongued into the top rail and
styles and carried down over the other members to the bottom of
the door. The three forms of door described above are used mainly
for temporary purposes, and stables, farm buildings and outhouses
of all descriptions. They are usually hung by wrought-iron cross
garnet or strap hinges fixed with screws or through bolts and nuts.
The doors in dwelling-houses and other
buildings of a like character are commonly
framed and panelled in one of the many
ways possible. The framing consists of
styles, rails and muntins or mountings,
and these members are grooved to receive
and hold the panels, which are inserted
previously to the door being glued and
wedged up. The common forms are doors
in four or six rectangular panels, and
although they may be made with any form
and number of panels, the principles of
construction remain the same. The
example shown in fig. 7 is of a six-panel
38.
Fig. 12.—Joints.
door, withbolection moulded raised panels
on one side, and moulded and flat panels
on the other (fig. 11).
A clear idea of the method of jointing
the various members may be obtained
from fig. 12. The tongues of raised panels
should be of parallel thickness, the bevels
being stopped at the moulding. The
projecting ends or horns of the styles are
cut off after the door has been glued and
wedged, as they prevent the ends of the
styles being damaged by the wedging
process.
Where there is a great deal of traffic in
both directions swing doors, either single
or double, are used. To open them it is
necessary simply to push, the
inconvenience of turning a handle and
shutting the door after passing through
being avoided, as a spring causes the door
to return to its original position without
noise. They are usually glazed and should
be of substantial construction. The door is
hinged at the top on a steel pivot; the
bottom part fits into a metal shoe
connected with the spring, which is placed
in a box fixed below the floor.
For large entrances, notably for hotels and banks, a form of door
working on the turnstile principle is frequently adopted. It is formed
of four leaves fixed in the shape of a cross and working on top and
bottom central ball-bearing steel pivots, in a circular framing which
39.
forms a kindof vestibule. The leaves of the door are fitted with slips
of india-rubber at their edges which, fitting close to the circular
framing, prevent draughts.
When an elegant appearance is desired, and it is at the same time
necessary to keep the cost of production as low as possible, doors of
pine or other soft wood are sometimes covered with a veneer or thin
layer of hard wood, such as oak, mahogany or teak, giving the
appearance of a solid door of the better material. Made in the
ordinary way, however, the shrinkage or warping of the soft wood is
very liable to cause the veneer to buckle and peel off. Veneered
doors made on an improved method obviating this difficulty have
been placed on the market by a Canadian company. The core is
made up of strips of pine with the grain reversed, dried at a
temperature of 200° F., and glued up under pressure. Both the core
and the hard wood veneer are grooved over their surfaces, and a
special damp-resisting glue is applied; the two portions are then
welded together under hydraulic pressure. By reason of their
construction these doors possess the advantages of freedom from
shrinking, warping and splitting, defects which are all too common in
the ordinary veneered and solid hard wood doors.
The best glue for internal woodwork is that made in Scotland.
Ordinary animal glue should not be used in work exposed to the
weather as it absorbs damp and thus hastens decay; in its place a
compound termed beaumontique, composed of white lead, linseed
oil and litharge, should be employed.
Church Work.—Joinery work in connexion with the fitting up of
church interiors must be regarded as a separate branch of the
joiner’s art. Pitchpine is often used, but the best work is executed in
English oak; and when the screens, stalls and seating are well
designed and made in this material, a distinction and dignity of
effect are added to the interior of the church which cannot be
40.
obtained in anyother medium. The work is often of the richest
character, and frequently enriched with elaborate carving (fig. 13).
Many beautiful specimens of early work are to be seen in the English
Gothic cathedrals and churches; good work of a later date will be
found in many churches and public buildings erected in more recent
years. Fine examples of Old English joinery exist at Hampton Court
Palace, the Temple Church in London, the Chapel of Henry VII. in
Westminster Abbey, and Haddon Hall. Specimens of modern work
are to be seen in Beverley Minster in Yorkshire, the Church of St
Etheldreda in Ely Place, London, and the Wycliffe Hall Chapel at
Oxford. Other examples both ancient and modern abound in the
country.
Carving is a trade apart from ordinary joinery, and requires a
special ability and some artistic feeling for its successful execution.
But even in this work machinery has found a place, and carved
ornaments of all descriptions are rapidly wrought with its aid. Small
carved mouldings especially are evolved in this manner, and, being
incomparably cheaper than those worked by manual labour, are
used freely where a rich effect is desired. Elaborately carved panels
also are made by machines and a result almost equal to work done
entirely by hand is obtained if, after machinery has done all in its
power, the hand worker with his chisels and gouges puts the
finishing touches to the work.
Ironmongery.—In regard to the finishing of a building, no detail
calls for greater consideration than the selection and accurate fixing
of suitable ironmongery, which includes the hinges, bolts, locks, door
and window fittings, and the many varieties of metal finishings
required for the completion of a building. The task of the selection
belongs to the employer or the architect; the fixing is performed by
the joiner.
41.
Fig. 13.
Of hinges,the variety termed butts are in general use for hanging
doors, and are so called from being fitted to the butt edge of the
door. They should be of wrought iron, cast-iron butts being liable to
snap should they sustain a shock. Lifting butts are made with a
42.
removable pin toenable the door to be removed and replaced
without unscrewing. Rising butts have oblique joints which cause the
door to rise and clear a thick carpet and yet make a close joint with
the floor when shut. Hinges of brass or gun-metal are used in
special circumstances. Common forms of hinges used on ledged
doors are the cross garnet and the strap. There are many varieties
of spring hinges designed to bring the door automatically to a
desired position. With such hinges a rubber stop should be fixed on
the floor or other convenient place to prevent undue strain through
the door being forced back.
Among locks and fastenings the ordinary barrel or tower bolt
needs no description. The flush barrel is a bolt let in flush with the
face of a door. The espagnolette is a development of the tower bolt
and extends the whole height of the door; a handle at a convenient
height, when turned, shooting bolts at the top and bottom
simultaneously. Their chief use is for French casements. The padlock
is used to secure doors by means of a staple and eye. The stock lock
is a large rim lock with hard wood casing and is used for stables,
church doors, &c.; it is in the form of a dead lock opened only by a
key, and is often used in conjunction with a Norfolk latch. The metal
cased rim lock is a cheap form for domestic and general use. The
use of a rim lock obviates the necessity of forming a mortice in the
thickness of the door which is required when a mortice lock is used.
Finger plates add greatly to the good appearance of a door, and
protect the painted work. Sash fasteners are fixed at the meeting
rails of double hung sashes to prevent the window being opened
from the outside and serve also to clip the two sashes tightly
together. They should be of a pattern to resist the attack of a knife
inserted between the rails. Sash lifts and pulls of brass or bronze are
fitted to large sashes. Ornamental casement stays and fasteners in
many different metals are made in numerous designs and styles.
43.
Fanlight openers forsingle lights, or geared for a number of sashes,
may be designed to suit positions difficult of access.
The following are the principal books of reference on this subject:
J. Gwilt, Encyclopaedia of Architecture; Sutcliffe, Modern House
Construction; Rivington, Notes on Building Construction (3 vols.); H.
Adams, Building Construction; C. F. Mitchell, Building Construction;
Robinson, Carpentry and Joinery; J. P. Allen, Practical Building
Construction; J. Newlands, Carpenter and Joiner’s Assistant; Bury,
Ecclesiastical Woodwork; T. Tredgold and Young, Joinery; Peter
Nicholson, Carpenter and Joiner’s Assistant.
44.
(J )
JOINT (throughFr. from Lat. junctum, jungere, to join), that
which joins two parts together or the place where two parts are
joined. (See Joinery; Joints.) In law, the word is used adjectivally as a
term applied to obligations, estates, &c., implying that the rights in
question relate to the aggregate of the parties joined. Obligations to
which several are parties may be several, i.e. enforceable against
each independently of the others, or joint, i.e. enforceable only
against all of them taken together, or joint and several, i.e.
enforceable against each or all at the option of the claimant (see
Guarantee). So an interest or estate given to two or more persons for
their joint lives continues only so long as all the lives are in
existence. Joint-tenants are co-owners who take together at the
same time, by the same title, and without any difference in the
quality or extent of their respective interests; and when one of the
joint-tenants dies his share, instead of going to his own heirs, lapses
to his co-tenants by survivorship. This estate is therefore to be
carefully distinguished from tenancy in common, when the co-
tenants have each a separate interest which on death passes to the
heirs and not to the surviving tenants. When several take an estate
together any words or facts implying severance will prevent the
tenancy from being construed as joint.
46.
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