Such imitations and cheap displays outrage the artist
by the attempt to produce in cast or rolled metal what properly belongs
to a stone front.
Bearing this distinction in mind, we are not presuming too much to
assert that architects have in cast iron, when properly employed under
certain restrictions, a material which might be turned to account in
narrow fronts where the use of brick or stone piers would encroach too
much upon the space for light. For warehouse fronts, we have evidence
for thinking that the employment of iron might be attended with
advantage, especially in combination with brickwork for the main
vertical piers. Plain classic mouldings, capitals and bases of the Doric
or Tuscan order, are well suited for cast-iron supports to lintels or
girders. In one attempt to make use of the structural features of the
latter, the fronts of the girders between the piers are divided into
panels, the flanges and stiffening pieces to the webs forming an
effective framework for cast or applied ornament to be introduced. The
iron framework thus constructed lends itself to the minor divisions of
the window openings, which can be of wood.
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