Tile.
1. A thin slab of baked clay.
It was used in great quantity in ancient Mesopotamia among that wonderful people that has passed utterly away, leaving mural remains indicating that it was the most densely populated region of antiquity.
In that country the common mode of keeping records of national and historical events was by stamping inscriptions upon tiles of clay, which were baked after the impression was made
Mr. Layard, in the course of his excavations at
Nineveh, found a large number of these records, some of which were written with such minute characters that a microscope was is required to decipher them.
He believed that they were read by a magnifying lens, one of which, made of rock crystal, he found among the ruins of the palace of Nimroud.
These tiles are stored away in such order that they were evidently records, but a commoner description of tile furnished the material for many of their structures, sometimes in conjunction or alternation with brick, from which it differed more in form and proportions than in any essential respect.
The tiles of Assyria and
China lead the way so far as the history of this art is concerned, for the
Egyptian system was not favorable to the existence of tiles, even in rainless
Upper Egypt.
While the bricks of
Babylon were some burnt and some adobes, the bricks of
Egypt were universally adobes, or merely sundried, and this does not suit a thin tile, however well it may answer for a thick brick.
The references to tiles in Holy Writ are not infrequent.
We read of tiles in
Ezekiel and in the Gospel of
Luke, where the sick man was let down through the tiles.
Tiles were also common in
Rome at that day.
The art of glazing tiles came from
China, and before the introduction west of this
Chinese art, neither bricks, tiles, nor earthenware was glazed, but in cases where it was necessary to render their earthen vessels water-proof, they were daubed with pitch, wax, tallow, or other resistant.
See pottery.
The vitreous glazes passed from
China to
India, and spread from thence after the conquest of the latter country by Mahmoud of Ghuzna, the bogy of the warrior episode, in
Moore's “Paradise and the
Peri.”
His conquest, wherein, as
Moore says, he
Choked up with the glittering wrecks
Of golden shrines the sacred waters,
occurred A. D. 1000, about the time that Gerbert of
Auvergne, the schoolmaster of
Rheims, was introducing the civilization of the
Spanish Saracens into
France and
Italy.
The passion for glazed tiles extended from
India and Ispahan to
Spain, from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries.
The palace of the Alhambra at
Granada, the residence of the
Moorish kings, was built in 1280, and many of the rooms are ornamented with glazed tiles.
The tomb of Sultan Mohammed Khoda-Bendeh, at Sultanich in
Persia, was also built in the thirteenth century, and is ornamented on the cupola and minarets with a green glazed tile, and on the architrave with a dark blue tile.
The painted mosque of
Gour, in
India, now in ruins, was built in 1475, and derives its name from the profusion of glazed tiles which adorned it.
In Ispahan, the domes and mosques are covered with
green and
blue tiles; and the caravanserai at
Mayar, near Ispahan, built in 1580 by the mother of Shah Abbas, is inlaid with green tiles.
The art of glazing tiles passed from
Spain to
Italy, which soon became celebrated for the taste and execution of its works in that line.
Raffaello himself made designs for the paintings in
terra invitriata.
The art spread to
Holland, and long abode there.
Delft was its headquarters; and the
Dutch tiles, which some of us can recollect as lining the capacious fireplaces of old mansions, have been studied by many thousands besides the excellent
Doddridge, who there learned Scripture history.
The glazing of delft-ware is given under pottery (which see). Under the same caption will also be found a description of the mode of making porcelain, which is closely allied to our present subject.
Rome was originally roofed with shingles; tiles of baked clay were introduced about the time of the war with
Pyrrhus.
Tiles of marble were used in
Greece about the time of
Pausanias, 620 B C. The temples of
Jupiter at
Olympias, of Athenae at
Athens (the Parthenon), were thus covered.
Tiles of bronze, gilt, were also used in some cases.
The lower edges of the joint tiles were protected and ornamented by
frontons. The edges of the flat tiles were turned up and covered by semi-cylindrical joint tiles, termed
imbrices.
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Roman tiles. |
The
Greek and
Roman tiles were made of marble, and have been imitated in clay.
Flat tiles with raised edges extend from rafter to rafter, the upper end having a rib that enters a groove formed on the under side of the tile placed above it. After these are laid, the joints above the rafters are covered with other tiles, each formed like the half of the frustum of a hollow cone, so that they are able to lap upon each other, their edges lying snugly to flat tiles of the roof.
The end of these ridgetiles was terminated by an ornament.
Tiles, both flat and curved, were in great demand in Roman architecture.
Roofs were covered with the flat and curved tiles alternating.
Tiles two feet square with a foot at each angle were used to line the thermae, so that an air space between them and the wall should prevent the absorption of the water by the latter.
Tiles, are extensively used in
Europe for various purposes, — roofs, gutters, pavements, drains, house siding, lining flues, and furnaces, etc. They assume many forms; some have a local character, others are made in imitation of the antique.
Plain tiles are usually made 5/8 inch in thickness, 10 1/2 inches long, 6 1/4 wide.
They weigh from 2 to 2 1/2 pounds each and expose about one half to the weather.
740 tiles cover 100 superficial feet.
They are hung upon the lath by two oak pins, inserted into holes made by the molder.
Plain tiles are now made with grooves and fillets on the edges, so that they are laid without overlapping very far, the grooves leading the water.
This is cconomical of tiles, and saves half of the weight, but is subject to leak in drifting rains, and to injury by hard frosts.
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Pan-tiles. |
Pan-tile. first used in
Flanders, have a wavy surface, lapping under and being overlapped by the adjacent tiles of the same rank.
They are made 14 1/2 × 10 1/2; expose 10 inches to the weather; weigh from 5 to 5 1/4 pounds each; 170 cover 100 superficial feet.
Crown, ridge, hip, and
valley tiles are semi-cylindrical, or segments of cylinders used for the purposes indicated.
A
gutter-tile has been introduced in
England, forming the lower course, being nailed to the lower sheathing board or lath.
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Ridge-tile. |
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Gutter-tiles. |
Siding-tiles are used as a substitute for weather boarding.
Holes are made in them when molding, and they are secured to the lath by flat-headed nails.
The
gage, or exposed face, is sometimes indented to represent courses of brick.
Fine mortar is introduced between them when they rest upon each other.
Siding-tiles are sometimes called
weather-tiles and
mathematical tiles: these names are derived from their exposure or markings.
They are variously formed, having curved or crenated edges, and various ornaments either raised or encaustic.
Modifications of the pan-tile are shown in the examples
a b (
Fig. 6436), the edges being turned up and down respectively.
c d e are modifications of the ridge-tile, in which the gutter and ridge are placed alternately.
f g show modes of securing.
The former is molded with a
[
2569]
lug, which catches above the lath of the roof to hold itself in position,
g shows a tile molded with two lugs, by which it engages the tiles of the courses above and below.
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Siding-tiles. |
h h′ h′ are elevation, section, and perspective views of a tile exposing a semicircular face to the weather.
The semicircular portion has a drop-flange which catches over the reenter-ing curves of the upper part, these curves having upturned flanges for that purpose.
The glazed tiles are interior to slate, as they imbibe about 1/7 their weight of water, and tend to rot the lath on which they are laid.
Good slate only imbibes 1/200 part of its weight, and is nearly water-proof.
The
tile is somewhat celebrated in an artistic sense, as forming the cover of the basket of keepsakes placed by a nurse upon the tomb of a Corinthian maiden.
Being placed over an acanthus root, the basket became inclosed by the foliage, which turned gracefully over when it met the tile, and suggested to
Callimachus the Corinthian capital.
Such is the story, and it is pretty enough to believe upon a moderate amount of evidence.
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Tiles. |
Encaustic tiles; ornamental tiles in which the colors are burned in See page 801.
Galvanized iron tiles have been introduced in
France.
They are shaped like pan tiles, so that each laps upon its neighbor in the course, as well as the lapping of each course upon the one beneath it.
The metal being thin, the tiles are easily cut to fit a sloping line of roof, corners, etc.; and they are fastened by a single nail of galvanized iron, with which is used a small leaden washer, to render the nail-hole perfectly tight.
2. (
Brass-founding.) The cover of a brass furnace.
Now made of iron, but formerly a flat tile.
See brass-casting.
3. (
Metallurgy.) A clay cover for a melting-pot.
