into the places which are easily! changed.” . The

into the places which are easily! changed.” . The best things he said to look for are the style of nails and saw marks or lack of saw marks. Around the turn of the 19th century, he said, people start-; ed making nails with machines. Iron i plates would be rolled out and a! machine would cut the nails, which were very crude until 1840.

Mr. Owens explained that the: older a building, the more handwork; will be visible. In the 18th century,; everything was handmade, he said,; and that the earliest buildings tend to have the fanciest joinings. The joints got simpler as the years went by.

Heavier timber was used earlier! because it was so difficult to cut into, smaller pieces, said Mr. Owens. In the! 1800-1860’s, timber was nine inches; wide, and gradually got lighter. In* 1840 in a Shaker community, said! Mr. Owens, a woman suggested a round saw be used to cut the timber, which would eliminate a lot of the hard labor needed to cut it. So aftef 1840, jnuch of the wood would havd marks on it from a circular saw. After 1870 the saw blades were smaller, making the saw marks on the wood more curved. - ■ •

The next type of wood used in abundance, 2 x 4’s, allowed the construction of fancier houses rather than plain square and rectangular houses. Victorian houses became popular during the last 1800’s as q result of this.

One person from the audience asked Mr. Owens about early stone work. He said that red clay was used to pack between stones in the (earliest stone work, and admitted that stone'is very tricky to date.

Responding to a question about glass, he said that in the beginning of the 18th century, windows were small and had many panes. The glass, he said, was really thin, maybe about l/l6th of an inch thick. In the 1830’s many windows were very large — 4 foot by 8 foot, with six over six windows.