1.
Victorian era
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The Victorian era was the period of Queen Victorias reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities. Some scholars date the beginning of the period in terms of sensibilities, the era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian period. The later half of the Victorian age roughly coincided with the first part of the Belle Époque era of continental Europe, culturally there was a transition away from the rationalism of the Georgian period and toward romanticism and mysticism with regard to religion, social values, and arts. The end of the saw the Boer War. Domestically, the agenda was increasingly liberal with a number of shifts in the direction of political reform, industrial reform. Two especially important figures in period of British history are the prime ministers Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone. Disraeli, favoured by the queen, was a gregarious Conservative and his rival Gladstone, a Liberal distrusted by the Queen, served more terms and oversaw much of the overall legislative development of the era. The population of England and Wales almost doubled from 16.8 million in 1851 to 30.5 million in 1901, Scotlands population also rose rapidly, from 2.8 million in 1851 to 4.4 million in 1901. However, Irelands population decreased sharply, from 8.2 million in 1841 to less than 4.5 million in 1901, mostly due to the Great Famine. Between 1837 and 1901 about 15 million emigrants departed the UK permanently, in search of a life in the United States, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia. During the early part of the era, politics in the House of Commons involved battles between the two parties, the Whigs/Liberals and the Conservatives. These parties were led by such prominent statesmen as Lord Melbourne, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Derby, Lord Palmerston, Gladstone, Disraeli, Victoria became queen in 1837 at age 18. Her long reign until 1901 was mainly a time of peace, Britain reached the zenith of its economic, political, diplomatic and cultural power. The era saw the expansion of the second British Empire, Historians have characterised the mid-Victorian era as Britains Golden Years. There was prosperity, as the income per person grew by half. There was peace abroad, and social peace at home, opposition to the new order melted away, says Porter. The Chartist movement peaked as a movement among the working class in 1848, its leaders moved to other pursuits, such as trade unions
2.
Corset controversy
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The corset controversy concerns supporters and detractors arguments for and against wearing a corset. The controversy was contemporary with the time that corsets were popular in society, corsets, variously called a pair of bodys or stays, were worn by European women from the late 16th century onward, changing their form as fashions changed. For most of period, floor-length full skirts were the norm. The French court dress of the 18th century, with its extensive drapery supported by pannier, was an extreme, the English had their robe anglaise”. Irrespective of variation, a form of corset beneath the dress shaped the body, beginning in the 1790s, there was an abrupt break with tradition as the Empire silhouette became fashionable. Coinciding with the French Revolution, a revolution occurred in womens clothing, inspired by the tunics of classical antiquity, dresses were high-waisted and loose fitting, with a long flowing skirt. The corset was reduced to a form, primarily to support the bosom. Beginning in the mid-1820s, womens fashion returned to the skirts of the prior century. In a repudiation of the Empire silhouette, the waist became the focus of female dress. The corset assumed the dominant role it would hold for the rest of the 19th century, designed to emphasize the waist, it was pulled in as required to achieve the desired slenderness. Doctors and much of the press deplored the garment but were unable to override the dictates of fashion, wearing corsets has been subject to criticism since the era of tight lacing during the prior century. Jean-Jacques Rousseau denounced the practice in The Lancet while cartoons of the period satirized the practice, however, by the 19th century, women were writing letters to publications expressing their views directly and articulately. The one-sided denunciation of the past turned into a dialogue, Women made their voices heard, sharing their experiences and their opinions, some in favor of the corset and even tight lacing, and some in disfavor of the restrictive garment. Newspapers and popular journals became the media for the exchange of hundreds of letters, known as the corset controversy or simply the corset question, the controversy spilled over multiple publications, multiple decades, and multiple countries. Of particular concern was the issue of tight lacing, the flow of articles and letters waxed and waned over time, reaching a crescendo in the late 1860s, which may be taken to be the peak of the frenzy. However, the issue surfaced long before and continued long afterward, throughout this period, advertisements in the same publications promoted the sale of corsets with enthusiasm. English publications in which the controversy raged included The Times, Lancet, Queen, The Scotsman, Ladies Treasury, The Englishwomens Domestic Magazine, and All the Year Round. In the United States, the Chicago Tribune, looked across the Atlantic and commented, at moderate intervals the pros and cons of tight lacing are hotly discussed by our British brothers and sisters with very great fervor and very little common sense
3.
House
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Houses use a range of different roofing systems to keep precipitation such as rain from getting into the dwelling space. Houses may have doors or locks to secure the dwelling space, most conventional modern houses in Western cultures will contain one or more bedrooms and bathrooms, a kitchen or cooking area, and a living room. A house may have a dining room, or the eating area may be integrated into another room. Some large houses in North America have a recreation room, in traditional agriculture-oriented societies, domestic animals such as chickens or larger livestock may share part of the house with humans. The social unit that lives in a house is known as a household, most commonly, a household is a family unit of some kind, although households may also be other social groups, such as roommates or, in a rooming house, unconnected individuals. Some houses only have a space for one family or similar-sized group. A house may be accompanied by outbuildings, such as a garage for vehicles or a shed for gardening equipment, a house may have a backyard or frontyard, which serve as additional areas where inhabitants can relax or eat. The English word house derives directly from the Old English Hus meaning dwelling, shelter, home, house, the house itself gave rise to the letter B through an early Proto-Semitic hieroglyphic symbol depicting a house. The symbol was called bayt, bet or beth in various related languages, and became beta, ideally, architects of houses design rooms to meet the needs of the people who will live in the house. Such designing, known as design, has become a popular subject in universities. Feng shui can also mean the aura in or around a dwelling, making it comparable to the real-estate sales concept of indoor-outdoor flow, the square footage of a house in the United States reports the area of living space, excluding the garage and other non-living spaces. The square metres figure of a house in Europe reports the area of the enclosing the home. The number of floors or levels making up the house can affect the square footage of a home, many houses have several large rooms with specialized functions and several very small rooms for other various reasons. These may include an area, a sleeping area, and separate or combined washing. Some larger properties may also feature such as a spa room, indoor pool, indoor basketball court. In traditional agriculture-oriented societies, domestic animals such as chickens or larger livestock often share part of the house with human beings, most conventional modern houses will at least contain a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen or cooking area, and a living room. Little is known about the earliest origin of the house and its interior, roman architect Vitruvius theories have claimed the first form of architecture as a frame of timber branches finished in mud, also known as the primitive hut. Philip Tabor later states the contribution of 17th century Dutch houses as the foundation of houses today, as far as the idea of the home is concerned, the home of the home is the Netherlands
4.
Dining room
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A dining room is a room for consuming food. In modern times it is adjacent to the kitchen for convenience in serving. In the Middle Ages, upper class Britons and other European nobility in castles or large manor houses dined in the great hall and this was a large multi-function room capable of seating the bulk of the population of the house. The family would sit at the table on a raised dais. Tables in the hall would tend to be long trestle tables with benches. The sheer number of people in a Great Hall meant it would probably have had a busy, suggestions that it would also have been quite smelly and smoky are probably, by the standards of the time, unfounded. These rooms had large chimneys and high ceilings and there would have been a flow of air through the numerous door. In the first instance, the Black Death that ravaged Europe in the 14th Century caused a shortage of labour, also the religious persecutions following the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII made it unwise to talk freely in front of large numbers of people. Over time, the nobility took more of their meals in the parlour, and the parlour became, functionally and it also migrated farther from the Great Hall, often accessed via grand ceremonial staircases from the dais in the Great Hall. Eventually dining in the Great Hall became something that was primarily on special occasions. Toward the beginning of the 18th Century, a pattern emerged where the ladies of the house would withdraw after dinner from the room to the drawing room. The gentlemen would remain in the room having drinks. The dining room tended to take on a more masculine tenor as a result, a typical North American dining room will contain a table with chairs arranged along the sides and ends of the table, as well as other pieces of furniture, as space permits. Often tables in modern dining rooms will have a leaf to allow for the larger number of people present on those special occasions without taking up extra space when not in use. Although the typical family dining experience is at a table or some sort of kitchen area. In modern American and Canadian homes, the room is typically adjacent to the living room. Smaller houses and condos may have a breakfast bar instead, often of a different height than the kitchen counter. If a home lacks a dinette, breakfast nook, or breakfast bar and this was traditionally the case in Britain, where the dining room would for many families be used only on Sundays, other meals being eaten in the kitchen
5.
Hearth
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In historic and modern usage, a hearth /ˈhɑːrθ/ is a brick- or stone-lined fireplace, with or without an oven, used for heating and originally also used for cooking food. In a medieval hall, the hearth commonly stood in the middle of the hall, later, such hearths were moved to the side of the room and provided with a chimney. In fireplace design, the hearth is the part of the fireplace where the fire burns, usually consisting of masonry at floor level or higher, the word hearth derives from an Indo-European root, *ker-, referring to burning, heat, and fire. In archaeology, a hearth is a firepit or other feature of any period. Hearths are common features of many eras going back to prehistoric campsites and they were used for cooking, heating, and the processing of some stone, wood, faunal, and floral resources. Farming or excavation—deform or disperse hearth features, making difficult to identify without careful study. Lined hearths are easily identified by the presence of fire-cracked rock, often present are fragmented fish and animal bones, carbonized shell, charcoal, ash, and other waste products, all embedded in a sequence of soil that has been deposited atop the hearth. Unlined hearths, which are easily identified, may also include these materials. Because of the nature of most of these items, they can be used to pinpoint the date the hearth was last used via the process of radiocarbon dating. Although carbon dates can be affected if the users of the hearth burned old wood or coal. This was the most common way to cook, and to interior spaces in cool seasons. Kapnikon was a tax raised on households without exceptions for the poor, in England, a tax on hearths was introduced on 19 May 1662. Householders were required to pay a charge of two shillings per annum for each hearth, with half the payment due at Michaelmas and half at Lady Day. Exemptions to the tax were granted, to those in receipt of relief, those whose houses were worth less than 20 shillings a year. Also exempt were charitable institutions such as schools and almshouses, and industrial hearths with the exception of smiths forges, the returns were lodged with the Clerk of the Peace between 1662 and 1688. A revision of the Act in 1664 made the tax payable by all who had more than two chimneys The tax was abolished by William III in 1689 and the last collection was for Lady Day of that year and it was abolished in Scotland in 1690. Hearth tax records are important to historians as they provide an indication of the size of each assessed house at the time. The numbers of hearths are generally proportional to the size of the house, the assessments can be used to indicate the numbers and local distribution of larger and smaller houses
6.
Home cinema
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In the 1980s, home cinemas typically consisted of a movie pre-recorded on a LaserDisc or VHS tape, a LaserDisc or VHS player, and a heavy, bulky large-screen cathode ray tube TV set. Whether home cinema enthusiasts have a stereo set-up or a 5, in the 1950s, playing home movies became popular in the United States with middle class and upper-class families as Kodak 8 mm film projector equipment became more affordable. The development of audio systems and later LaserDisc in the 1980s created a new paradigm for home video, as it enabled movie enthusiasts to add better sound. In the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, a home cinema in the United States would have a LaserDisc or VHS player playing a movie. Some people used expensive front projectors in a viewing room. During the 1990s, watching movies on VHS at home became a leisure activity. In the 2010s, affordable large HDTV flatscreen TVs, high resolution video projectors, 3D television technology, in the 2000s, the term home cinema encompasses a range of systems meant for movie playback at home. 3D-TV-enabled home theaters make use of 3D TV sets/projectors and Blu-ray 3D players in which the viewers wear 3D-glasses, enabling them to see 3D content. Home theater designs and layouts are a choice and the type of home cinema a user can set up depends on her/his budget. Finally a set of speakers, at least two, are needed but more common are anywhere from six to eight with a subwoofer for bass or low-frequency effects. In the 2010s, many home cinema enthusiasts aim to replicate, to the degree that is possible, to do so, many home cinema buffs purchase higher quality components than used for everyday television viewing on a relatively small TV with only built-in speakers. As of 2016, home cinema enthusiasts using Smart Blu-ray players may also watch DVDs of TV shows, as well, with a Smart player, a user may be able to stream movies, TV shows and other content over the Internet. Many 2016-era DVD players and Blu-ray players also have inputs which allow users to view digital photos, video and audio input devices, One or more video/audio sources. High resolution movie media formats such as Blu-ray discs are normally preferred, some home theaters include a HTPC with a media center software application to act as the main library for video and music content using a 10-foot user interface and remote control. In 2016, some of the more-expensive Blu-ray players can stream movies, the user selects the input at this point before it is forwarded to the output stage. Some AV receivers enable the viewer to use a control to select which input device or source to use. Audio output, Systems consist of preamplifiers, power amplifiers and two or more loudspeakers mounted in speaker enclosures, the audio system requires at least a stereo power amplifier and two speakers, for stereo sound, most systems have multi-channel surround sound power amplifier and six or more speakers. Some users have 7.1 Surround Sound and it is possible to have up to 11 speakers with additional subwoofers
7.
Kitchen
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A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation in a dwelling or in a commercial establishment. Many households have an oven, a dishwasher and other electric appliances. The main function of a kitchen is serving as a location for storing, cooking and preparing food, commercial kitchens are found in restaurants, cafeterias, hotels, hospitals, educational and workplace facilities, army barracks, and similar establishments. These kitchens are generally larger and equipped with bigger and more heavy-duty equipment than a residential kitchen, for example, a large restaurant may have a huge walk-in refrigerator and a large commercial dishwasher machine. Commercial kitchens are generally subject to public health laws and they are inspected periodically by public-health officials, and forced to close if they do not meet hygienic requirements mandated by law. The evolution of the kitchen is linked to the invention of the range or stove. Food was cooked over an open fire, technical advances in heating food in the 18th and 19th centuries changed the architecture of the kitchen. Before the advent of modern pipes, water was brought from a source such as wells. The houses in Ancient Greece were commonly of the atrium-type, the rooms were arranged around a courtyard for women. In many such homes, a covered but otherwise open patio served as the kitchen, homes of the wealthy had the kitchen as a separate room, usually next to a bathroom, both rooms being accessible from the court. In such houses, there was often a small storage room in the back of the kitchen used for storing food. In the Roman Empire, common folk in cities often had no kitchen of their own, some had small mobile bronze stoves, on which a fire could be lit for cooking. Wealthy Romans had relatively well-equipped kitchens, the fireplace was typically on the floor, placed at a wall—sometimes raised a little bit—such that one had to kneel to cook. Early medieval European longhouses had a fire under the highest point of the building. The kitchen area was between the entrance and the fireplace, in wealthy homes there was typically more than one kitchen. In some homes there were upwards of three kitchens, the kitchens were divided based on the types of food prepared in them. In place of a chimney, these buildings had a hole in the roof through which some of the smoke could escape. Besides cooking, the fire served as a source of heat
8.
Shrine
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A shrine is a holy or sacred place, which is dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon, or similar figure of awe and respect, at which they are venerated or worshipped. Shrines often contain idols, relics, or other objects associated with the figure being venerated. A shrine at which offerings are made is called an altar. Shrines can be found in various settings, such as churches, temples, cemeteries, or in the home, a shrine may become a focus of a cult image. Many shrines are located buildings and in the temples designed specifically for worship, such as a church in Christianity. A shrine here is usually the centre of attention in the building, in such cases, adherents of the faith assemble within the building in order to venerate the deity at the shrine. In classical temple architecture, the shrine may be synonymous with the cella, historically, in Hinduism, Buddhism and Roman Catholicism, and also in modern faiths, such as Neopaganism, a shrine can commonly be found within the home or shop. This shrine is usually a structure or a setup of pictures and figurines dedicated to a deity that is part of the official religion. Small household shrines are common among the Chinese and people from South and Southeast Asia, whether Hindu. Usually a small lamp and small offerings are kept daily by the shrine, Buddhist household shrines must be on a shelf above the head, Chinese shrines must stand directly on the floor. Small outdoor yard shrines are found at the bottom of many gardens, following various religions, including historically. Shrines are found in most, though not all, religions, Shrines therefore attract the practice of pilgrimage. Shrines are found in many, though not all, forms of Christianity, Roman Catholicism, the largest denomination of Christianity, has many shrines, as do Orthodox Christianity and Anglicanism. For a shrine to be described as national, the approval of the Episcopal Conference is necessary, for it to be described as international, the approval of the Holy See is required. Another use of the shrine in colloquial Catholic terminology is a niche or alcove in most – especially larger – churches used by parishioners when praying privately in the church. They were also called Devotional Altars, since they could look like small Side Altars or bye-altars, Shrines were always centered on some image of Christ or a saint – for instance, a statue, painting, mural or mosaic, and may have had a reredos behind them. However, Mass would not be celebrated at them, they were used to aid or give a visual focus for prayers. Side altars, where Mass could actually be celebrated, were used in a way to shrines by parishioners
9.
Atrium (architecture)
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In architecture, an atrium is a large open air or skylight covered space surrounded by a building. Atria were a feature in Ancient Roman dwellings, providing light. Modern atria, as developed in the late 19th and 20th centuries, are several stories high and having a glazed roof or large windows. Atria are a design feature because they give their buildings a feeling of space. The atrium has become a key feature of buildings in recent years. Atria are popular with building users, building designers and building developers, users like atria because they create a dynamic and stimulating interior that provides shelter from the external environment while maintaining a visual link with that environment. Designers enjoy the opportunity to new types of spaces in buildings. Fire control is an important aspect of contemporary atrium design due to criticism that poorly designed atria could allow fire to spread to a buildings upper stories more quickly. The Latin word atrium referred to the central court from which enclosed rooms led off. The impluvium was a shallow pool sunken into the floor to catch rainwater from the roof, some surviving examples are beautifully decorated. The opening in the ceiling above the pool called for some means of support for the roof, as the centrepiece of the house, the atrium was the most lavishly-furnished room. Also, it contained the chapel to the ancestral spirits. The term was used for a variety of spaces in public and religious buildings, mostly forms of arcaded courtyards. Byzantine churches were often entered through such a space, the 19th century brought the industrial revolution with great advances in iron and glass manufacturing techniques. Courtyards could then have horizontal glazing overhead, eliminating some of the elements from the space. One of the public spaces at Federation Square, in Melbourne, Australia, is called The Atrium and is a street-like space, five storeys high with glazed walls. The structure and glazing pattern follow the system of fractals used to arrange the panels on the rest of the facades at Federation Square, as of 2016, the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai, has the worlds tallest atrium at 590 feet. The Luxor Hotel, in Las Vegas, Nevada, has the largest atrium in the world at 29 million cubic feet, cavaedium Courtyard Quadrangle Roth, Leland M. Understanding Architecture, Its Elements History and Meaning
10.
Balcony
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A balcony is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor. The traditional Maltese balcony is a closed balcony projecting from a wall. By contrast, a Juliet balcony does not protrude out of the building and it is usually part of an upper floor, with a balustrade only at the front, like a small Loggia. Modern Juliet balconies often involve a metal barrier placed in front of a window which can be opened. Sometimes balconies are adapted for ceremonial purposes, e. g. that of St. Peters Basilica at Rome, inside churches, balconies are sometimes provided for the singers, and in banqueting halls and the like for the musicians. A unit with a regular balcony will have doors that open up onto a patio with railings. A French balcony is actually a false balcony, with doors that open to a railing with a view of the courtyard or the surrounding scenery below. In theatres, the balcony was formerly a stage-box, but the name is now confined to the part of the auditorium above the dress circle. One of the most famous uses of a balcony is in traditional stagings of the scene that has come to be known as the scene in William Shakespeares tragedy, Romeo. Manufacturers names for their balcony designs often refer to the origin of the design, italian balcony, Spanish balcony, Mexican balcony, Ecuadorian balcony
11.
Deck (building)
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In architecture, a deck is a flat surface capable of supporting weight, similar to a floor, but typically constructed outdoors, often elevated from the ground, and usually connected to a building. The term is a generalization of decks as found on ships, wood or timber decking can be used in a number of ways, as part of garden landscaping, to extend living areas of houses, and as an alternative to stone based features such as patios. Decks are made from treated lumber, composite lumber, composite material, lumber may be Western red cedar, teak, mahogany, ipê and other hardwoods. Recycled planks may be high-density polyethylene, polystyrene and PET plastic as well as mixed plastics, artificial decking products are often called wood-plastic composites. These days, WPCs have more known by different brands like Trex, Azek. Historically, the used for decking were logged from old growth forests. These include Atlantic white cedar, redwood and Western red cedar, Atlantic City built the first coastal boardwalk in the United States, originally constructed of Atlantic white cedar. However, it was not long before the commercial logging of this tree, Atlantic City and New York City both switched to Western red cedar. By the 1960s, Western red cedar from the US was declining due to over-logging, more expensive Western red cedar was available from western Canada but by then, pressure treated pine had become available. But even with chemical treatments, pine decking is not as durable as cedars in an outdoor environment, thus, many municipalities and homeowners are turning to hardwoods. Decks are often built from pressure treated wood, pressure treated wood is long lasting and holds up to wet and icey weather conditions. Pressure treated wood however is treated with chemicals which have known to be toxic. Generally, hardwoods used for decking come from tropical forests, US tropical wood imports are rising, partly due to the demand for decking. Due to environmental and durability concerns, composite decking have appeared on the market, proponents of composite decking have touted this as a much needed development as this helps to curb logging of trees for new decks. However composite decking has been found to contain chemicals, cannot be refurbished. However newer more modern composites feature a cap or shell that prevents mold, residential decks may contain spaces for cooking, dining and seating. Cooking areas ideally should be situated near the door while out of the way from general foot traffic. Dining spaces will include patio tables, for a typical 6 person outdoor patio table building an area of 12 x 16 is ideal
12.
Elevator
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An elevator or lift is a type of vertical transportation that moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel, or other structure. Elevators are generally powered by electric motors that either drive traction cables or counterweight systems like a hoist, in agriculture and manufacturing, an elevator is any type of conveyor device used to lift materials in a continuous stream into bins or silos. Several types exist, such as the chain and bucket elevator, grain auger screw conveyor using the principle of Archimedes screw, or the chain, languages other than English may have loanwords based on either elevator or lift. Because of wheelchair access laws, elevators are often a requirement in new multistory buildings. The earliest known reference to an elevator is in the works of the Roman architect Vitruvius, some sources from later historical periods mention elevators as cabs on a hemp rope powered by hand or by animals. In 1000, the Book of Secrets by al-Muradi in Islamic Spain described the use of a lifting device. In the 17th century the prototypes of elevators were located in the buildings of England. Louis XV of France had a flying chair built for one of his mistresses at the Chateau de Versailles in 1743. Ancient and medieval elevators used drive systems based on hoists or winders, the invention of a system based on the screw drive was perhaps the most important step in elevator technology since ancient times, leading to the creation of modern passenger elevators. The first screw drive elevator was built by Ivan Kulibin and installed in Winter Palace in 1793, several years later another of Kulibins elevators was installed in Arkhangelskoye near Moscow. The development of elevators was led by the need for movement of raw materials including coal, the technology developed by these industries and the introduction of steel beam construction worked together to provide the passenger and freight elevators in use today. Starting in the mines, by the mid-19th century elevators were operated with steam power and were used for moving goods in bulk in mines and factories. It elevated paying customers to a height in the center of London. Early, crude steam-driven elevators were refined in the decade, – in 1835 an innovative elevator called the Teagle was developed by the company Frost. The elevator was belt-driven and used a counterweight for extra power, the hydraulic crane was invented by Sir William Armstrong in 1846, primarily for use at the Tyneside docks for loading cargo. These quickly supplanted the steam driven elevators, exploiting Pascals law. A water pump supplied a variable level of pressure to a plunger encased inside a vertical cylinder. Counterweights and balances were used to increase the lifting power of the apparatus
