Revolutionary Changes Outdate Home Fittings More Rapidly Today

Chronicle (Levin), 5 November 1949, Page 4

Revolutionary Changes Outdate Home Fittings More Rapidly Today

So rapid are the changes in builders' hardware that the fittings in a modern house today stand a good chance of being outdated in a much shorter period than ever before. That is the opinion of Mr. J. Cooksley, of Levin, who has had 40 years in the trade. In that time there have been many revolutionary alterations in material and design, with the prospect of an even more interesting future, particularly in plastics and aluminium. In door furniture there has, for instance, been the wood age, bronze age, chrome age and coloured plastic age.

Chromium is at present the best seller, he says. When he first joined the trade, wooden door knobs were replacing the china ones. These were pear shaped in ebony and mahogany. The locks were made to fit .either the left side or right side of the door and this complicated matters in that purchasers had to explain which way they wished the door to open when buying locksets. The next period in the development of locksets saw the universal set, which could be fitted on either side. Bronze then replaced the

wood door knobs and with them came the long plates for interior doors. Bakelite was next and then the tendeney was to depart from the round knob and lever furniture made its appearance, chromium being the material used. Coloured Plastics In Vogue. The wai'; brought coloure'd plastics, but these still required a metal base for the best lines. They were used extensively for hospitals, said Mr. Cooksley, the new nurses' home in Wellington being equippe'd throughout with them and also the new' hospital at Invercargill. Its popularity for this type of building lay in its- easy cleaning, only a light dusting with a damp cloth being required. It was too expensive a line to attract general use in houses. Glass furniture for doors was also available", said Mr. Cooksley, and one firm in England had brought out a crystal door knob which "was very nice and very effective, but only for ithe wealthy." The mechanics of a lock itself had seen no great change in principle from the very early ones. Springs and levers were still the basic parts, with the best quality ones having more levers. The quantity of locks per house had, of course, been reduced in the mo'dern home. Where before every room in the house had its own key, now latches replaced them. Mr. Cooksley has in his possession a most interesting volume on locks and hardware printed in 1904, probably the only copy in New Zealand. It gives a most comprehensive survey of hardware throughout the ages. Windows, too, had kept pace

with the times, said Mr. Cooksley. The tendeney to depart from high ceilings had brought shorter windows of the casement type, thus dispensing with the double hung sashes operate'd by pulleys, cords ; and weights, which were invariably breaking. Various types of stays for the new windows had been experimented with, the latest being a telescopic variety which alloWfed the window to be pushed right out. It had no protruding parts for a house wife to injure herself on. New Look In Windows. Since the war aluminium? had come into its own in house construction and the latest aluminium window sashes, shipped out from England, were complete .to glazing. All that was required on arrival was the ad'dition of a wooden frame. It was lighter and did not twist or warp, and would help speed up building. Venetian blinds, which had gone out with the introduction of the casement window, were now coming back again. Coloured plastic for walls was another modern trend. This plastic wall board was shipped to New Zealand from England as a finished article. Much of it was burn proof and a lighted cigarette would not mark it. It did not scratch readily. Going even further, British manufacturers now produced hollow plastic interior walls, said Mr. Cooksley. There was a one inch space between the two layers, with cross members between to add strength. It ha'd. one colour on one side and another on the other, and could be used to effect be- 1 tween a bathroom and kitchenette. It was also a gre'at saying in floor space. Before the war plastics were used for table tops in restaurants, but they were now being used to a much wider extent in home building and the price was competitive, mainly because the prices of other ma.erials had forged ahead wlille the price of plastics, considered high before the war, had not.increased greatly. In the opinion of Mr. Cooksley, these new materials are here to stay, as they are being turned out oh a large scale by Britain's largest manufacturers.