Even Fifty Years Ago Our Parents or Grandparents W

Even fifty years ago our parents or grandparents were offered just several types of standardized wall
units, bedrooms or dining rooms. Now we can choose from hundreds of various looks, dozens of
materials and endless sizes to make homes of our dreams.
Previously all furniture was made from solid wood. Such furniture was not only unbelievably heavy and
gloomily looking, but also vulnerable to light and easily damaged. In attempts to make furniture lighter
and better looking, new materials like plastic or plywood have been created. Today quite often only
furniture front is made of wood with sides made of plywood. This furniture costs and weights less, but
looks really gorgeous. Designers don’t stop experimenting with materials, mixing various sorts of wood,
adding glass, steel and chrome. Many are worried about our ecology and global warming problems, so
recycled materials are widely used, especially in furniture designed for terraces and gardens. Also
furniture manufacturers widely apply composite materials to make furniture more durable and reliable.
Strengthened glass now can hold heavy plasma TVs, metal alloys used in outdoors furniture are
resistant to corrosion.
Modern furniture has a different look as well. Despite endless styles, new colors and textures, designers
work with shape and functionality. So called transformers can ease the life of the majority of people who
don’t live in huge houses or apartments. Due to sophisticated inner mechanisms your favorite sofa turns
to convenient bed and small dining table with just several moves is big enough for all your friends and
family members. Do you like watch TV sitting in your armchair? And how about pressing just one button
or a small lever and get your armchair transformed into a lounge? This "two-in-one" furniture is
incredibly popular today as it perfectly fits even small rooms.
Most probably, you won’t see new materials, new technologies or ideas in furniture when you buy it. You
will just notice your sofa,s upholstery looks good and it’s water and dirt resistant, your armchair is much
more convenient and your back doesn’t ache when you sit in it for hours or your lovely coffee table has
no scratches even though you use it almost every day. That’s the main aim of all designers and
manufacturers – to create the furniture that will satisfy you with its look and functionality not just for
several months, but for years.
The production process

A basic preliminary in all furniture production is the provision of working
drawings. In a firm of any size there is invariably a special department where
full-size drawings are prepared from small-scale drawings provided by the
designer. In some cases the designer may make his own full-size, detailed
drawings; but in a large firm it is more usual for a draftsman to work out the
practical details, though usually in consultation with the designer, who advises
on proportions and decorative details. The hand craftsman, in contrast,
usually does the whole thing himself. In the small-scale drawing the general
form and essential requirements are worked out; the full-size drawing shows
proportions and constructional details. A sample piece is made to check the
design and cutting problems. Cutting lists are prepared; the cost of materials,
fittings, finish, etc. figured; and an estimate of machining and assembly time
worked out. When the work is to be produced in quantity, costs are lowered
considerably because only one setting of the machine and only one set of
cutters are needed for the whole run of any particular part.
Selection of timber, already passed through the seasoning kiln and converted
to standard thicknesses, follows. The wood passes to the machine shop, where
it is sawed to size, planed, molded, grooved, or rebated as required. When a
number of parts must be cut exactly alike, they are clamped in forms having
the proper contour and are then brought in contact with high-speed rotating
knives that shape the part to proper size as the form rides against a guide on
hand or automatic shapers and routers. Intricately carved pieces such as legs
are roughly carved on multiple-spindle carving machines. These duplicate a
master leg by means of a follower point that is guided along the surface of the
model and imparts the same motions to as many as 32 high-speed rotating
knives as they whittle the leg blanks. After the rough carving, the pieces are
machine sanded and finished by a hand carver.
If veneering is required, this is now done. Jointing follows—tenoning,

dowelling, dovetailing, etc. Automatic machines often combine several
operations. Exposed parts are sanded on edge belt sanders, three-drum
travelling-bed sanders, or belt sanders. Rounded parts are sanded on soft
pneumatic drums, and carved parts are sanded on a buffer, a machine in
which shredded sandpaper is supported by brushes on a revolving wheel.
Finally the work passes to the assembly shop where door frames are put
together, drawers glued up, and carcasses assembled. After the glue has set,
the parts may be returned to the machine department for machining that
could not be performed before assembly, such as sanding the joints and
shaping the edges. Then it returns to the assembly department for final
assembly. Air-driven clamps are used when the design permits; otherwise the
piece is pressed by hand clamps. Unless electronically cured glues are used,
clamps must be applied long enough to ensure a good bond. The completed
article is cleaned to remove excess glue, inspected, and hand sanded. Finally,
staining and spray polishing is done and fittings added.
In individually crafted work there is always a great deal of fitting to be done—

doors trimmed and drawers made to run easily without slackness. In mass-
production work this problem would be serious. It is almost entirely avoided
by making drawers an easy rather than snug fit and by sanding the edges of
doors to templet size so that they automatically fit the carcasses, which in
their turn are made to standard size.
The art of chairmaking
Chairmaking has been a separate branch of furniture making since the mid-
17th century. One of the most intricate branches of woodwork, it involves odd
angles, compound shapes, and awkward joints and at the same time calls for
maximum strength, chairs being subjected to more strain than most other
furniture. There are three main types of chairs: the Windsor chair, made
largely from turned parts, with solid wood seat; the framed type of dining
chair with either loose or stuff-over seat; and the upholstered chair.
In Britain the Windsor chair belongs traditionally to the High
Wycombe District of Buckinghamshire where beech trees abound. Until
relatively recent times men worked in huts in the beech woods making turned
parts for chairs. They felled the trees, cut the trunks and larger branches into
suitable lengths, and split them into pieces of a section large enough to permit
chair legs and uprights to be turned and also to provide lighter members for
rails, etc. They turned the parts on a primitive pole lathe in which a cord was
attached to a treadle, taken around the wood to be turned and up to a springy
sapling anchored at the lower end to pegs outside the hut. The power was
supplied by treadle, the cord revolving the wood; then as the foot was raised
the spring of the sapling lifted the treadle and at the same time turned the
work backward. The turning gouge or chisel could be used on the downward
stroke of the foot only, but the economy of effort was amazing. A complete leg
could be rounded, the curves and beads formed, and the ends brought to the
required diameter in a matter of seconds. Of course, working in green timber
enabled the turning to be done much more easily and quickly than if the wood
were dry.
These bodgers, as they were called, made only the turned parts and delivered
them to chairmaking firms for assembling. They had no overhead expenses,
no power costs, and the only lighting they needed in winter was an oil lamp or
candles. They were long able to compete with powered workshops.
The manufacture of the Windsor chair of Victorian and Edwardian times was
a specialized trade. The seat, invariably of elm, was hollowed out (bottomed)
with a form of adze, and the holes for the legs were bored with a brace fitted
with a spoon bit held at the required angle solely by judgment. The better
chairs had a hooped back of yew. Today this hand work has been replaced by
boring machines that are fitted with a jig to maintain the correct angle. The
hollowing of the seat is machined to an extent, but the depth is only slight,
compared with the early hand work. Furthermore, traditional timbers—elm,
beech, and yew—are frequently replaced by imported timbers.
The quality of framed chairs of the dining type varies widely, but perhaps the
outstanding general feature of modern dining chairs is the wide use
of dowelled joints rather than mortise and tenon. In the late 19th century this
had already occurred to a large extent, the chairmaker’s kit of tools invariably
including a dowel plate with a series of holes through which the craftsman
hammered roughly squared pegs to form the dowels. Today machine-made
dowels are universal, with a glue-escape slot cut in. Dowelling is a far quicker
and consequently cheaper process than mortising and tenoning, especially in
shaped work where the curved part frequently must be joined at odd angles.
When a chair has compound curvature it becomes difficult and expensive to

make. A chair back may be shaped in both front and side elevation (and often
in plan as well). Taste and experience are indispensable in providing a
continuous curve that will be aesthetically satisfying from every angle. Over
the years, experience has been built up, especially on traditional models
following period lines; a chairmaker’s workshop invariably carries bundles of
templets in plywood for the various parts of chairs, with the fullness provided
(where necessary) for a good line.
Dining chairs may be made in sets of half-dozens or dozens, or more cheaply
in batches of 50 or 100, depending upon the capacity of the factory. In some
cases parts are standardized and interchangeable in different designs
of chairs.
The upholstering of dining chairs is a separate trade, though carried out in the

same factory, and may be of the loose seat, stuff-over, or plywood-covered
type. Traditional stuffing materials such as horsehair have largely been
replaced by foam rubber and synthetics.
Fully upholstered furniture

The manufacture of fully upholstered pieces is often a separate branch, though
large manufacturers often make both upholstered and nonupholstered types.
It remains to a great extent a handicraft, for the skill of trained and
experienced craftsmen is needed in turning out quality pieces. The standard
upholstery foundation consists of a system of coiled steel springs resting on a
webbing of burlap and tied to the furniture frame, which may be of wood,
fibreglass, or plywood. The springs are embedded in a filling material, such as
rubberized hair, foam rubber, palm fibre, or Spanish moss; and the spring
system is topped by a thick padding of cotton or foam rubber in sheet
form. Muslin is frequently employed as an inner covering for this assembly,
while a durable upholstery fabric is used as an outer and finishing cover.
Loose cushions are filled with special spring units in a bedding of foam rubber
or down; the springs are covered with layers of cotton, and the entire assembly
is encased in upholstery fabric.
Only a few mechanical aids have proved satisfactory in upholstering. Multiple

layers of fabric can be cut efficiently and economically by machines in
production-line operations, and staples are used instead of tacks on less
expensive pieces. But the mass production of such components as the basic
coiled-spring system and the mechanical handling of such materials as the
bedding, or filler, have not proved efficient and economical. Some useful
substitutes have been found, however, for the coiled-spring supporting unit;
they include the modern nonsagging springs that may be clipped to the frame
and the steel bands that are held to the frame by helical springs. Sponge
rubber may be molded to constitute a complete seat that is firm and
comfortable. Webbed seat frames also are used, and the natural resiliency of
wood is utilized in building springy plywood supporting structures.
Charles Harold Hayward
standardization
ARTICLE
 Introduction
FAST FACTS
ADDITIONAL INFO
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standardization
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BY The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica | View Edit History
Key People:
Charles Benjamin Dudley Fleeming Jenkin
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regulation industry technology
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standardization, in industry, the development and application of standards

that permit large production runs of component parts that can be readily
fitted to other parts without adjustment. Standardization allows for clear
communication between industry and its suppliers, relatively low cost, and
manufacture on the basis of interchangeable parts.
A standard is that which has been selected as a model to which objects or

actions may be compared. Standards for industry may be devices and
instruments used to regulate colour, size, weight, and other product attributes,
or they may be physical models. Standards may also be written mathematical
or symbolical descriptions, drawings, or formulas setting forth the important
features of objects to be produced or actions to be performed. Standards that
are applied in an industrial setting include engineering standards, such as
properties of materials, fits and tolerances, terminology, and drafting
practices; and product standards intended to describe attributes and
ingredients of manufactured items and embodied in drawings, formulas,
materials lists, descriptions, or models.
READ MORE ON THIS TOPIC
phytotherapy: Standardization
A commonly used but often poorly defined concept in phytotherapy is standardization,
which is the requirement of having...
Certain fundamental standards among firms are required to prevent conflict

and duplication of effort. The standards activities of governmental
departments, trade associations, and technical associations serve in part to
meet national standards needs, but one specialized standardizing organization
is needed to coordinate the diverse standardization activities of many different
types of organizations and promote general acceptance of basic standards. In
the United States the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) performs
this function. It does not initiate or write standards but provides the means by
which national engineering, safety, and industrial standards can be
coordinated. All interested groups may participate in the decision-making
process, and compliance with the national standard is voluntary. The
international body that serves this function is the International Organization
for Standardization (ISO). Developing an international standard presents the
greater challenge because of the breadth of representation and the diversity of
needs and viewpoints that must be reconciled.

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Even fifty years ago our parents or grandparents were offered just several types of standardized wall

The production process

If veneering is required, this is now done. Jointing follows—tenoning,

In individually crafted work there is always a great deal of fitting to be done—

When a chair has compound curvature it becomes difficult and expensive to

The upholstering of dining chairs is a separate trade, though carried out in the

Fully upholstered furniture

Only a few mechanical aids have proved satisfactory in upholstering. Multiple

BY The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica | View Edit History

Charles Benjamin Dudley Fleeming Jenkin

See all related content →

standardization, in industry, the development and application of standards

A standard is that which has been selected as a model to which objects or

Certain fundamental standards among firms are required to prevent conflict

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