Title: The American Architect and Building News, Vol. 27, No. 733, January 11, 1890
Author: Various
Language: English
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THE AMERICAN ARCHITECT AND BUILDING NEWS.

VOL. XXVII. Copyright, 1890, by Ticknor & Company, Boston, Mass. No 733.

Entered at the Post-Office at Boston as second-class matter.



JANUARY 11, 1890.


[Illustration: CONTENTS]

SUMMARY:--

     Our International Edition and the Support it would receive Abroad
     and should receive Here.--The Influence of Architectural Journals
     on the Reputations of Architects.--Probable Irregularity in
     Publication.--Death of Mr. Charles Keely, Architect.--The Movement
     to abolish the Tariff on Works of Art.--The Borrowing of Fire
     Engines as it affects Insurance.--The Duke of Brunswick's Monument
     at Geneva.--An Opening for Architects in Spanish America. 17

CIVIL AND DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE.--I. 19

LETTER FROM PARIS. 21

LOSS OF POWER BY RADIATION OF HEAT. 22

THE COST OF A SMALL MUSEUM. 23

SANITARY ENTOMBMENT: THE IDEAL DISPOSITION OF THE DEAD. 24

THE VERPLANCK HOMESTEAD, FISHKILL, N.Y. 26

ELECTRICITY'S VICTIMS IN EUROPE. 27

ILLUSTRATIONS:--

     House of G.M. Smith, Esq., Providence, R.I.--The Cathedral of St.
     Machar, Aberdeen.--Monument in the South Transept of the Cathedral,
     Aberdeen, Scotland.--The Hotel de Soto, Savannah, Ga.--Memorial
     Church of the Angels, Los Angeles, Cal.--St. Augustine's Roman
     Catholic Church Buildings, Brooklyn, N.Y.--Château de Josselin,
     Morbihan, France: Façade on the Cour d'Honneur.--An Interior in the
     Château de Josselin, Morbihan, France.--Two Views of the House of
     Mrs. Consino, Santiago, Chili.--Design for Church of the Good
     Shepherd, Gospel Oak, London, N.W., Eng.--Butler's Wood,
     Chislehurst, Eng.--House at Pennsylvania, Exeter, Eng.--Design for
     Board Schools. 27

METHODS OF REDUCING THE FIRE LOSS. 28

SOCIETIES. 30

COMMUNICATIONS.--

     Agreement between Architect and Client.--Inspection of Buildings in
     New York.--A seeming Attempt to defraud an Architect.--Ventilating
     Wooden Columns.--Books on Water-color Painting. 30

NOTES AND CLIPPINGS. 31

TRADE SURVEYS. 32

       *       *       *       *       *

We wonder whether every one who receives these first issues of the
International Edition of the _American Architect_ comprehends the
significance of the step which we, with the kind support and
appreciation of our subscribers, have ventured to take. How many of
those who turn over our pages realize that this is by far the most
ambitious and costly architectural periodical in the world, and that it
has been reserved for America to try to present every week, with a due
proportion of the more valuable models from the past, an adequate view
of all the best architecture which modern civilization can show?
Strangely enough, in carrying out our plan of representing contemporary
architecture as it should be represented, it is to Americans that we
must most earnestly and urgently appeal for cooperation. We know where
we can get drawings, plans, photographs, descriptions and details of all
the best current work in North and South Germany, Italy, France and
England, and even in Russia, but to secure anything like a decent
representation of modern American architecture has hitherto been,
according to our experience, absolutely impossible. Not long ago a
discussion took place in England about architectural periodicals, and
one or two of the American journals were mentioned with commendation, on
account of the beautiful drawing and process-work in their
illustrations, as well as the value of their text. Not long afterwards,
a disparaging commentary on this discussion was made in one of the
English professional papers, to the effect that it was a great mistake
to value so highly the illustrations in the American journals, for the
reason that, although charmingly executed and fascinating, they rarely
represented architectural work of any importance. Our readers,
especially those faithful friends who have stood by us for years, will
understand that this was a sharp thrust, but it is, and not through our
fault, altogether too well deserved. While in all other countries where
architecture is practised, every important competition is regularly
illustrated from the competitive drawings themselves, which are, as a
matter of course, placed at the disposal of the professional journals;
and plans, elevations, sections and perspectives of all new buildings of
interest, and often photographs from the models for the sculptured
detail, and illustrations of the schemes for heating and ventilation are
gladly furnished by the architects, who understand perfectly that their
professional reputation depends in great part on the publicity which is
given to their work through the medium of the technical press: in this
country, on the contrary, the attitude toward technical journals of a
great many architects, and among them some who are constantly engaged
upon very important work, is one, apparently, of grave suspicion. The
most earnest appeals by letter on the part of the editors for permission
to publish plans or elevations of a successful building by one of them
meet with no response. Then the editor takes two or three days from his
abundant leisure, and calls personally upon the professional magnate.
The latter seems pleased to see him, shows him the drawings of the
building in question, appears to be gratified at his praises, and
readily agrees to allow the publication of the plan and perspective. The
editor lays these drawings aside, and proposes to take them with him,
but the architect politely insists that he cannot allow him to burden
himself, and promises that he will send them immediately by express. The
editor returns to his desk, and arranges space for the expected drawings
in the next issue, but they do not arrive. Two or three weeks go by, and
he then writes to the distinguished architect, to remind him of his
promise. The letter brings neither the drawings nor any other response,
and, after a final entreaty, as unsuccessful as the rest, he abandons
his efforts, to begin them again with a fresh subject, who proves as
slippery as the other.

       *       *       *       *       *

After a good many years of such struggles, we should be inclined to say
that we would trouble ourselves no further, and that American architects
who are capable of carrying out important work successfully, and do not
want other people to know it, may please themselves in the matter, were
it not that, in a journal which now intends to show what is done all
over the world, we most earnestly wish to have American, architecture
properly represented. We are sure that the best of it is equal to the
best anywhere, and we want to be able to prove it. The treatment of our
modern mercantile and business structures, particularly those ten or
twelve stories in height, is more successful than any other work of the
kind in the world; the planning of our office-buildings is unrivalled
anywhere, and some of our apartment-houses will bear comparison with the
best in Paris--which are the best anywhere--and are more interesting, on
account of the more complex character of the services which we must
provide for. Besides this, many details of American construction, such
as the encased iron framing-and isolated pier foundations of the Chicago
architects, and the heating and ventilating systems in use everywhere
here, are far in advance of foreign practice, and we want our foreign
readers to see this with their own eyes, and to give their American
brethren their proper rank in the profession. To do this we must have
the material, and we appeal once more to American architects who have it
to furnish it, and to those who do not have it themselves, but who know
where it is to be found, to get it for us, or to put us in the way of
getting it. Plans, elevations, perspectives, sketches, photographs,
negatives, descriptions, whatever is good, we want to show, for the
benefit and reputation of the profession in America far more than for
our own, for we know better than the profession how very valuable
publicity of the kind is to architects. The late Mr. Richardson, even to
a comparatively late period in his professional career, was afflicted
with the usual bashfulness about having his work published. We well
remember the solicitations, the refusals, the renewed appeals, and,
finally, the reluctant and conditional assent to have a single gelatine
print from one of his perspectives published. This was the drawing, we
think, of the Woburn Library, and was accompanied by a plan. Finding
that he had suffered no severe injury from this exposure of his design
to the gaze of the cold world, Mr. Richardson soon became one of our
kindest friends, and if reputation and employment are things to be
desired by an architect, we may say with all due modesty that what he
did for us was repaid to him a hundred-fold, for, great as was his
talent, it must, without the publicity given to his work through means
like ours, have had for years only a local influence. As it was,
however, every issue of ours with one of his designs was studied in a
thousand offices and imitated in hundreds; his name was in the mouths of
all architects throughout the Union; our plates were reproduced abroad;
the illustrated magazines, finding his reputation already made in the
profession, hastened to spread it among the public; and at his lamented
death, a few years later, he was the central figure of American
architecture. Now, although we do not say that all the architects who
send us their drawings will attain the fame of a Richardson, we do say
that Richardson would never have attained a fraction of his reputation
if he had not allowed his designs to be published, and we need hardly
say further that if any architect has done a good piece of work, and has
it published, more people will know about it than if he kept it to
himself; and the more people know about his good work, the more will
come to him to get some like it, the better will be his standing in the
profession here, and the more credit he will do his country abroad.

       *       *       *       *       *

It may be as well to disarm criticism and complaint by stating that
there will be throughout the year more or less of irregularity in the
appearance of the additional illustrations in the International Edition,
owing partly to steamer delays, and partly, perhaps, to misunderstanding
of our instructions on the part of our correspondents. It will not be
proper, therefore, to compare one issue with another, and assert that we
are falling short of our promises. When the end of the year is reached,
the subscribers to that edition will find, on review, that our promises
have been fully kept, and that the edition has been what it professed to
be. Naturally, defects and deficiencies will be more apparent at the
outset, when the complicated details of supply have not been definitely
adjusted.

       *       *       *       *       *

The profession in Brooklyn, N.Y., has to mourn the loss of Mr. Charles
Keely, son of Mr. Peter C. Keely, the architect of so many Catholic
churches all over the country, and associated with his father in
business. The practice of the office is enormous, fifty churches, it is
said, being sometimes in process of execution from the designs of the
father and son, and of the excellent work done there, no doubt much was
due to the younger man's talent. Mr. Keely was about thirty-five years
of age, active and popular. He died of pneumonia in Hartford, at the
house of the bishop, whom he was visiting on business.

       *       *       *       *       *

A deputation was presented to the Ways and Means Committee of Congress
the other day from the Free Art League, which urged the abolition of the
present duty on foreign works of art. The deputation consisted of Mr.
Carroll Beckwith and Mr. Kenyon Cox, with Mr. William A. Coffin, who,
after mentioning some of the obvious reasons for abolishing the tax,
stated that, in response to a circular sent out by the League, fourteen
hundred and thirty-five communications were received from artists,
teachers of art and others whose opinion would be of value. Of these,
thirteen hundred and forty-five desired the immediate abolition of the
duty, eighty-three favored a moderate duty, ten per cent being mentioned
by twenty-eight out of the number and seven wished the present impost
retained. The Ways and Means Committee, according to the newspapers,
listened politely to the artists for a time, and then turned their
attention to the duty on carbonate of soda. Whether, in the presence of
practical matters like carbonate of soda, they will ever, think again of
the tax on mere works of art, remains to be seen.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Fire and Water_ says, referring to some remarks of ours about the
policy of transferring the fire-extinguishing apparatus of small towns
to any neighboring large one in which a serious conflagration happens to
break out, that we were mistaken in "supposing" that the insurance
companies might refuse to pay losses in suburban towns occurring during
the temporary absence of the regular protective apparatus, and that as
the contract of insurance does not mention anything of the kind, the
companies would be compelled to pay losses, whatever happened to the
engines, so long as their policies remained uncancelled. Now, in the
first place, we did not "suppose" or "assert," as another paper says we
did, anything about the matter. We simply said we had been told that the
companies would not pay in such cases, which was true. We were told
that, and by an insurance agent, who ought to know something about it.
Moreover, this was not the first time we have heard the same thing. Not
long ago, in a discussion in the city government of a town near Boston,
one of the members protested against allowing the town engines to leave
the limits of the municipality, for the same reason, that the insurance
companies would not pay losses occurring while the engines were absent.
As to the contract in the policy, we have often seen clauses requiring
the insured to notify the company of any circumstances affecting the
risk, of which the absence of the town engines might be considered one,
so, in our ignorance, we, and, we imagine, a good many others, would be
glad to have an authoritative statement from the companies themselves on
the subject.

       *       *       *       *       *

According to the _Wiener Bauindustrie Zeitung_, the splendid Brunswick
monument at Geneva is on the point of falling down. Every one remembers
the history of this structure, which was erected in 1879, at a cost of
six hundred thousand dollars, to the memory of Charles the Second of
Brunswick, the "Diamond Duke," as he was called by the Germans, who,
after his expulsion from his principality by his subjects, on account of
his extravagance and general worthlessness, took up his residence in
Geneva, and, on his death, in 1873, bequeathed all his property, about
four million dollars, to the city. The municipality was grateful enough
to carry out in a very sumptuous manner the last wishes of its
benefactor, who desired to be commemorated by a monument in the style of
the later Scaliger tomb at Verona, and from the designs of Frauel was
erected the hexagonal Gothic pavilion, surmounted by an equestrian
statue of the Duke, which is so well known to architects. The Veronese
prototype of the monument is a tolerably insecure affair, but the modern
imitation is still larger and heavier, and two years after its
completion the substructure began to come to pieces. It was then clamped
with metal, but water got into the joints, and further repairs were soon
necessary. In 1883, the Carrara marble of which it was built had so far
decayed that the rebuilding of the whole with more durable stone was
seriously proposed; and now, examination, having shown that the whole
affair is likely to collapse at any moment, the city authorities have
asked for authority to raise eight thousand dollars, by loan, to put it
in secure condition. To tell the truth, it would not be an irreparable
loss to the world to have the structure go to ruin. An imitation of an
existing monument is not likely to be a very inspiring work of art, and
this was not extremely successful, even as an imitation; while the
historical fact which it immortalized, that the last representative of
one of the six great German princely families, whose ancestors had been
reigning sovereigns for a thousand years, had been obliged to set up the
images of his haughty forefathers in a community of Republicans, because
his own people despised and hated him so much that they could endure him
no longer, was not of a character to arouse noble thoughts in the mind
of the beholder.

       *       *       *       *       *

We have before called attention to the great and rapidly increasing
importance of the South American Republics, and, while there seems to be
no prospect that our proximity to them will be of any commercial
advantage to us, some of our young architects and skilled mechanics, who
speak Spanish, might perhaps find profitable employment there. At
present, the most prosperous city is Buenos Ayres, which, from one
hundred and sixty thousand inhabitants in 1870, increased to four
hundred and sixty thousand in 1888, and has gained very rapidly within
the last year. We must confess that our own ideas of Buenos Ayres still
retain a reminiscence of gauchos and lassoes and buffalo, but this grows
fainter as we find illustrations in the foreign papers of the newer
buildings going up in the city. The last we have seen is of an enormous
dry-goods store, after the model of the "Bon Marché" or the "Printemps"
in Paris, which is known as the "Bon Marché Argentin," and covers at
present ninety thousand square feet of land, while thirty-five thousand
feet adjoining have been secured, and are to be used for the enlargement
of the present building which will soon become necessary. There are said
to be a good many architects already in Buenos Ayres, but first-rate
mechanics are, or were not long ago, so scarce that the municipality
imported plumbers under contract from London to do work on public
buildings.



CIVIL AND DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE.--I.[1]


The term Civil and Domestic Architecture includes all public and private
edifices, that is to say: honorary monuments, such as triumphal arches
and tombs; buildings for the instruction of the public, such as museums,
libraries and schools; houses for public amusements, as theatres,
amphitheatres and circuses; structures for public service, as
city-halls, court-houses, prisons, hospitals, thermæ, markets,
warehouses, slaughter-houses, railway-stations, light-houses, bridges
and aqueducts; finally, private dwellings, as palaces, mansions, city
and country residences, châteaux and villas.

[Illustration: Memorial to the Heroes of the Franco Prussian War,
Berlin.]

The first care of all social organizations, at their inception, must
have been to provide shelter against inclement weather. In primitive
times society was composed of shepherds, or agriculturists, or hunters,
and it is presumable that each of these groups adopted a shelter suited
to its nomadic or sedentary tastes. For this reason to shepherds is
attributed the invention of the tent, a portable habitation which they
could take with them from valley to valley, wherever they led their
flocks to pasture; agriculturists fixed to the soil which they tilled,
dwelling in the plains and along the river banks, must have found the
hut better adapted to their wants, while the hunters, stealing through
the forests, ambushed in the mountains, or stationed on the seashore,
naturally took safety in caves, or dug holes for themselves in the
earth, or hollowed out grottos in the rocks.

An imitation of the tent is found later on in the form of the Chinese
and Japanese structures; the principle of the cave appears developed in
the subterranean dwellings of the people of India and Nubia; while the
hut is the point of departure for all Greek and Roman architecture.

As soon as man had contrived a shelter for himself, before considering
improvements that might be made in it, he turned his thoughts toward the
divine being of his worship, and the first steps in art were taken in
the monuments which he raised to his gods. Then, confounding kings with
deities, he reared palaces like unto temples. But civil architecture,
properly so called, came into existence only with an already advanced
state of civilization, when cities were forming and peoples were
organizing. After having satisfied the demands of the moral nature,
after having erected temples to their gods and palaces to their kings,
the people began to group together and surround themselves with
fortifications. Next the material needs of society made themselves felt;
aqueducts were constructed to supply water; bridges established
communication between the opposite banks of streams; dikes confined the
rivers within certain bounds; streets were laid out along which houses
were built in orderly fashion, public squares were marked off where the
products of industry could be exchanged, where justice was dispensed and
where the great affairs of State were treated; then came mental and
physical demands, a felt need for the training of body and mind, and out
of this want grew theatres, stadia, gymnasia and thermæ. In time we find
the history of a single people developing; and with this development a
necessity arising for lasting monuments to commemorate its various
stages; public services rendered by certain illustrious men called for
some enduring memorial; and relatives and friends, with whom one had
lived and whom the dread enemy had snatched away could not be left
without sepulture. Is there nothing after death? And so honorary
monuments, triumphal columns, statues and tombs sprang into being.
Again, with the growth of a people, wealth increases, and every new
victory assuring an added degree of ease introduces at the same time
extravagant tastes; a people after enduring suffering cries out for its
portion of pleasure; it was to satisfy this demand that circuses were
built, and amphitheatres where the eyes could feast on imposing
spectacles; private houses became more comfortable, they were improved
in arrangement, they were enlarged and embellished; at length an
extraordinary display of sumptuousness began to appear in the dwellings
of the great,--that luxury of decadence which marks the close of ancient
civilization.

With the advent of Christ came new ideas which caused new departures,
not only in religious and monastic architecture, but in civil
architecture, as well. Christianity, in proclaiming a new virtue, love,
created retreats for the unfortunate, asylums for their reception and
hospitals for their care. Monkish orders, in their efforts to prevent
the destruction of old manuscripts, spread knowledge around them, and
following the example set by them in their monasteries, outside colleges
were founded. With the dissemination of knowledge, cities roused out of
their long sleep; their independent spirit began to shake off the yoke
of their oppressors; they formed themselves into communes and various
privileges were granted them. Under certain conditions, and in
consideration of the discharge of certain obligations, the commune is
seen at length assuming the administration of its own affairs. From this
moment an assembling-place is needed where communal interests can be
discussed and where questions can be put to vote. The town-hall, with
its belfry from which could be proclaimed afar all immunities won,
supplied the want. Around this centre markets sprang up, and exchanges
where merchants could negotiate and transact business. Finally, the less
exclusive modern spirit made itself felt, and, soaring beyond the city
bounds, it projected works of a genuinely public nature, not for the
benefit of this or that city, but for the entire country. Political
centralization, governmental unity, later on, made it possible to run
canals through different provinces, to establish barracks for troops
over broad stretches of territory, to build court-houses and prisons, to
reconstruct hospitals on new plans, and to open more extensive
exchanges, markets, warehouses and slaughter-houses. Public instruction
also had its imperious demands, and States were forced to sprinkle their
lands with school-houses of every grade, from the simplest asylums and
primary and secondary schools to special government institutions;
libraries and museums were founded to satisfy still other claims of
education. Then with the ever-increasing wants of a civilization, eager
for progress, in the presence of the important discoveries of science,
before the invasions of finance and the extension of governmental
machinery, architectural designs are indefinitely multiplied to supply
suitable departmental buildings, banking-houses, houses of commerce,
quarters for public officers and public boards, railway-stations, inns,
custom-houses and toll-houses; to say nothing of private residences and
play-houses, bathing establishments, casinos and villas, whose designs
change from time to time with the manners and customs of the period or
people.

Civil architecture, in the proper sense of the term, originated with the
Greeks and was extended in a surprising degree among the Romans. All the
other peoples of antiquity devoted themselves to the rearing of
religious and sepulchral monuments, and to the construction of palaces
for their sovereigns. Their political organization did not lend itself
to development in other directions. So long as a people is not
considered as an individual there can be no thought of erecting for its
comfort or education structures of any considerable importance; so long
as it has no existence as a civil body there can be no call for the
building of edifices wherein to discuss its own affairs or the affairs
of State. Nevertheless, aside from temples and palaces, there are
certain works of public utility which are forced upon all civilizations,
and among all organized peoples a domestic architecture exists which
answers to their needs and which we cannot pass over in silence.

The sacred books of the Hindoos give us the plans on which their cities
were built. There were forty different kinds of cities, distinguished
one from the other by their extent and form. The streets crossed at
right angles. The centre of the city was reserved for sacred uses and
was inhabited by the Brahmins; around them dwelt the people, and the
angles were occupied by the exchanges, markets, colleges and other
public structures. The city was always walled, with a gate on each of
the four sides and one at each corner.

Private dwellings varied in height according to the rank of the owners.
Those of the inferior classes could have only one story above the
ground-floor, and in most cases they were limited to the ground-floor
itself. The door was never placed in the centre of the façade. Its
position, as well as its height and breadth, was fixed by rule; the same
was true of the windows. The streets were supplied with running water,
and adorned with avenues of trees; they were bordered by rich shops and
houses set close together, with no intervening spaces. The palaces,
which were composed of separate buildings, approached by porches, were
usually erected around small courts, and these courts were almost always
planted with trees. The roofs were flat, and the narrow, rude staircases
were made in the thickness of the walls. The Hindoos also constructed
huge reservoirs, and reared columns and square triumphal arches in honor
of their heroic victors; they are also known to have built bridges, the
piles of which, formed of enormous blocks, were connected by stones of a
single piece.

Passing into China we encounter a civilization whose antiquity rivals
that of India. However, there are no very ancient remains there. But
there is documentary evidence that the Chinese, several centuries before
the Christian era, built from the same designs that they use to-day.
Architecture being the expression of the needs, instincts, character and
traditions of a people, and the Chinese having in no way modified their
manner of living or their traditions, we can easily understand why their
architecture has undergone no modifications.

The Great Wall, running along the north of China proper, with a length
of fifteen hundred to eighteen hundred miles, is the only Chinese work
that can boast of its antiquity. It is attributed to the emperor Tsin
Hoang Ti [Che Hoang-te], who reigned in the third century before our
era, and who is said to have employed in its construction five or six
million men. The foundations are of hewn stone, the rest is of brick
faced with smoothly-joined stones. The wall is battlemented, flanked
with towers, and is provided at certain intervals with fortified gates.
It is broad enough for six horsemen to ride abreast on it.

Among the great works of the Chinese, mention is also made of the bridge
of Loyau at Sueno chou Fou; it is built over the point of an arm of the
sea and comprises two hundred and fifty piles made of material of
enormous bulk. The roadway is formed with single blocks of granite, and
is guarded on each side by a balustrade.

There are other bridges raised on vaulted arches. Others, still, are
decorated with triumphal arches, such as that of the Province of
Kiang-Nan; and again there are others built of wood, like the bridge of
King-Chou-Fou, with the flooring supported by iron chains fastened to
rocks.

The cities are generally laid out on a square plan with the angles
directed as far as possible toward the four cardinal points, and the
predominance of a single architectural type imparts a certain monotony
to the streets. The enclosing walls are flanked with towers and their
gates are surmounted by lofty structures which include an arsenal and a
guard-room. Besides the temples and commemorative monuments erected on
the same plan as the temples, at the entrance to certain streets and
before certain edifices monuments in the form of gates are to be seen.
These structures, called _pai léou_, are nothing else than triumphal
arches raised to the memory of emperors, generals, mandarins and all
those who have rendered important services to the country. The bases of
these arches are of stone, the rest is made of wood; they have a single
bay, or one principal bay with two smaller ones, and the top is in the
form of a Chinese roof.

The palaces present a succession of spacious courts surrounded by
buildings and are entered through gates in the form of triumphal arches.
Each separate portion of the structure is destined to a special use. The
women and children are usually relegated to the rear court.

The houses have one or two stories; their dimensions are regulated by
law, according to the rank and condition of the owner, and, as in all
Oriental dwellings, there are but few openings on the street.

While the Hindoos built with enduring materials, the Chinese generally
used brick and wood. The explanation of this fact is to be sought not so
much in their fear of the earthquakes with which they are constantly
threatened as in their narrow-mindedness and lack of ambition; they saw
no reason why an edifice should outlast the generation for which it was
constructed.

Judging from the ruins of Persepolis, the Medes and Persians must have
attained to a high degree of civilization in the time of Cyrus, but we
have no authentic records concerning their civil architecture. Their art
is derived from the Babylonians and Assyrians, from whom they must have
largely borrowed their customs.

The Assyrian palaces consisted of three wholly distinct groups of
buildings, three divisions which we find exactly reproduced to-day in
the seigneurial and princely dwellings of Persia, India and Turkey.
First, there was the seraglio, or the palace properly so-called, which
comprised the reception-halls and the men's apartments, and which is
known now throughout the East under the name of _selamlik_; then came
the harem containing the private rooms where the master saw his wives
and children with their guards of eunuchs and their throngs of
attendants; and lastly, there was the _khan_, a cluster of dependent
structures including servants' quarters and out-buildings. In princely
palaces each of these divisions included several courts, and the whole
was disposed around a principal court, the court of honor. The entire
assemblage of edifices was nothing more than one vast ground-floor. "The
design followed in the arrangement of these composite dwellings," it has
been said, is almost naive in its simplicity: the plan is merely divided
into as many right parallelograms as there are services to be provided
for, and these rectangles are so disposed as to touch along one side or
at one of the angles, but they never interfere with or command one
another; they are contiguous or adjacent but always independent. Thus
each of the three divisions (seraglio, harem and khan) presents a
rectangular figure, and each borders one side of the principal court,
which is neutral ground,--the common centre around which all are
grouped. The same principle of arrangement is applied to the
subdivisions of the great quarters; the latter are composed of smaller
rectangles distributed about an uncovered space, on which each apartment
opens, with no direct communication between adjoining rooms through
partition-walls. In this way all the sections of an edifice were
clustered together and at the same time isolated; and each of these
sections had its special use and its pre-assigned occupants.[2]

Drains were contrived under the palaces, and certain square rooms were
covered with dome-shaped vaults.

The houses, built of brick, were of two different types; some were
covered with hemispherical or parabolical calottes, others had flat
roofs with a tower in the fashion of a belvedere. They were generally
quite low, except in large cities like Babylon, where they were
sometimes three or four stories high.

The towns were regularly laid out; the streets ran at right-angles to
each other; quays were built along the streams, and bridges established
communication between their banks. The large cities were protected by a
fortified wall. The gates were arched and flanked each by two towers
which were separated by only the width of the entrance. Some of the
gates were ornamented, others were plain, but each one was in itself an
edifice of quite complicated structure.

The city gate played then, as it still does all through the East, an
important rôle in the life of the urban populations. It was an agora for
the Greeks, a forum for the Romans. The people gathered there to chat,
and learn the news, and there the old men acted as arbitrators in case
of quarrels. In the same way it was at the palace-gates, which were
always constructed on the model of the city-gates, that the court
attendants assembled, and that petitioners stood in waiting.

The Phoenician cities also were surrounded by fortified walls, and
dwellings were burrowed into the very body of the ramparts. In order not
to extend the limits of the city too much, the houses in the central
portions were built very high. In the chief quarters of Carthage some of
them had as many as six stories; they were covered with flat roofs, and,
as is the case of all warm countries, the streets were narrow. The
residences of the rich merchants were of a marked character and were
easily distinguished; they were all provided with cisterns; they had
inner courts adorned with porches, and with open galleries along the
upper stories. The streets, squares and courts were paved with broad
flags, probably for the purpose of saving every drop of water that fell.
There were also public cisterns, and ports for shipping. As their
country abounded in stone that could be easily cut, the Phoenicians used
no artificial building material: they are not known to have built of
brick before the Roman period.

In Judea, while enormous, rough blocks were used in huge structures, the
houses were made of unburned brick, with ceilings of palm or sycamore
beams covered with a layer of hard earth. In order that the variations
in temperature should not be felt in the interior, the outer walls and
the roof had to be quite thick. All the dwellings were covered with flat
roofs surrounded by a parapet, and here people passed the night in
certain seasons. Most houses had only a ground-floor; but the residences
of the wealthy sometimes boasted of an upper story, and certain windows,
doubtless those lighting the women's apartments, were provided with
lattices similar to the _moucharabiehs_ of the Arab houses of the
present day.

The villages were generally built on the hill-tops, and the more
important of them were surrounded with fortifications. Jerusalem was the
seat of royalty. It was there that David reared his palace, to which
Solomon added numerous edifices that occupied thirteen years in
construction. Other great works were undertaken by the Hebrews, with the
view of carrying to a distance the precious water of the springs; and
they were compelled to supplement their scant supply of water by digging
wells and making cisterns.

In Egypt, the attention of archæologists was so long riveted on the
temples and tombs that it is only recently that a study has been made of
private dwellings. To-day, however, something is known of these.

The streets of Egyptian cities were usually laid out regularly, but they
were so narrow that, except in the principal ones, two chariots could
scarcely pass. This narrowness of the streets, which is frequently
observed in the ancient Arab cities, and which has been so long
maintained in all hot countries, had the advantage of securing shade at
all times on one side of the street. The buildings along the street were
ordinarily separated from each other by alleys; they were rarely more
than two stories high, except in such large cities as Thebes, where they
sometimes reached four and even five stories. The houses were so
arranged as to meet the demands of the climate. A court often preceded
the apartments which were disposed along both sides of a long corridor.
In other cases the rooms occupied three sides of the court; or oftener
still the court was surrounded on all sides by the different structures.
The ground-floor was reserved for the stables; it was used also for
storing the corn, and it contained the kitchen and the cellar. The
family occupied the upper stories. Above the whole was a terrace where
they could enjoy the cool air and even pass the night, when the heat was
excessive. Sometimes the terrace was protected by a light roof supported
by slender wooden columns. There were but few windows, so as to keep the
sun out as far as possible, and such as there were were placed nearly at
the top of the rooms.

The houses were built of unburned brick, made from a heavy clay, mixed
with a little sand and chopped straw; this was shaped into oblong slabs
which were dried in the sun. Bricks of ordinary size measured 8-2/3 in.
x 4-1/3 in. x 5-1/2 in., the large ones were 15 in. x 7 in. x 5-1/2 in.
There were special marks to indicate where they were manufactured; some
came from the royal works, some from private shops. The foundations of
the buildings were not deep; the walls were whitewashed, or painted in
bright colors; the floors were of brick or flagging, or simply of
hardened earth; the roof was flat, with a framework of palm branches
covered with a coating of earth sufficiently thick to prevent the
infiltration of the rain. The dwellings of the wealthy lords were
usually erected in the centre of a garden, or of a cultivated court, and
occupied a considerable space. The entrance was announced by a colonaded
porch or a pylon, and the interior was like a small city,--the dwelling
in the background, with the granaries, stables, servants' quarters and
out-buildings disposed here and there about the enclosure.

In the more important palaces, the dwelling of the master stood in the
centre of a rectangular court, the sides of which, on the right and
left, were occupied by the storehouses.

Like all other peoples of antiquity, the Egyptians were obliged to
protect their towns from the incursions of enemies. The greater part of
their cities, and even the principal villages, were therefore walled.
Man will never cease to fortify his cities until these fortifications
have been proved unavailing before the power of new engines of
destruction.

In this rapid review of the civil architecture of the ancient peoples of
Asia and Egypt, we have discovered no traces of structures whose
destination indicated any care for the development of the lower classes
of society, no remains which implied their participation in any
municipal life whatever, no edifice erected for the purpose of national
education. Such institutions had no place under a theocractic government
which absorbed into itself the entire nation. When it had made provision
for the defence of its cities, erected temples to its gods, reared
palaces for the earthly abode of its monarchs and tombs for their future
life, when it had satisfied the simple material needs of the people,
what more could be asked?

[To be continued.]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: From the French of G. Guicestre, in "_Encyclopédie de
l'Architecture et de la Construction_."]

[Footnote 2: Perrot and Chipiez. "_Histoire de l'art dans
l'antiquité_."]

       *       *       *       *       *



[Illustration: PARIS]

THE PAVILIONS OF THE CITY OF PARIS.--DOMESTIC AND URBAN
SANITATION.--VIEWS OF OLD PARIS.--PALACES OF THE LIBERAL ARTS AND THE
FINE ARTS.--RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION OF LABOR.


The City of Paris desired to have in the Champ de Mars a serious and
useful exhibition, so it began by paying no sort of attention to the
decorative and architectural side of its two pavilions, placed in the
centre of the upper garden between the monumental fountain and the
central dome. It was not afraid, in spite of its surroundings, to
shelter itself within the simplest of buildings in plaster, with a
decoration meagre and accentuated by the needs of construction. In fact,
the large entrance doors, all of wood, were made afterwards and applied
to the plaster, and the same may be said of all the visible woodwork;
but this lack of ingenuousness in the construction is not to be too
severely blamed, since it is a question of pavilions which are to
disappear after an existence of six months. Economical reasons are
always worthy of respect, and the modesty of the Municipal Council on
this occasion ought to be praised. But what one has a right to criticise
is the unhappy idea which placed these pavilions in such a manner as to
completely obstruct the view of the exterior porticos of the palaces and
industrial sections when one stands before the central dome in the
centre of the garden. This criticism once made, there only remains to
give expression to praise of the exhibit made by the city of Paris. Very
well arranged inside, very well considered, it possesses enormous
interest principally from the point-of-view of hygiene and the
sanitation of the city. This is a question much studied for a long time
back, and is one which marches towards a solution which promises to be
perfectly satisfactory in view of the progress already made. Wide
streets have replaced narrow alleys, air circulates freely everywhere,
trees and enormous gardens have been planted on every side, and the
salubrity of the house is assured by a severe inspection, one which will
become yet more severe, it is to be hoped, in the case of those owners
who are inclined to despise regulations. It would be so simple in place
of continuing the ancient ways, whose inconveniences are so well
demonstrated in the large model of an unhealthy house exhibited in the
pavilion of the city of Paris, to adopt all the new systems of
sanitation which, on their part, are shown in application in the model
of a sanitarily perfect house which has been placed opposite to it. To
establish this comparison two very simple models of construction have
been selected, proving that healthfulness is not merely an attribute of
luxury, but that the most modest houses can present all possible
guaranties from this point of view. The healthfulness of houses, and
consequently of cities, depends amongst other multiple but relatively
simple causes on two preeminent conditions,--that of the removal of
excrement, and the purity of the water-supply. In a large degree the
first condition is subordinated to the second. "Everything to the sewer"
is recognized by the most competent hygienists as the best system, but
only on the condition that water shall be abundant and that no
stagnation of the material shall be allowed. These problems, which were
for a long time studied by M. Durand-Claye, and to which he devoted
himself until his premature death unfortunately took him from us, have
received the attention of his devoted successors, who have already
brought to fruition interesting solutions which prompt us to hope for a
completely satisfactory system in the near future.

Three glass reservoirs, containing water from the Seine, from the Ourcq
and the Vanne, allow us to perceive the difference of quality which
exists between these three sources of supply, the first of which, with
its yellow color, is anything but appetizing, and the second is not much
less doubtful, while the third, alone, presents the limpidity and
transparency which one has a right to demand in potable water.
Nevertheless, one should not believe, as many persons do, that the water
that we see in this reservoir, and which has been taken within the
limits of Paris, is the same that is distributed from time to time
through each quarter. The water there used is taken up-stream and before
it has been soiled by its passage through the suburbs and city.

In the same pavilion the Administration has exhibited the plans and the
comparative views of the city taken at different epochs since 1789 up to
the last months of 1889. We here see the march of progress in this
immense city, expanding without cessation like a drop of oil, and as it
enlarges crossed by great arteries which establish across its mass
conduits for aeration, and at the same time suppress the agglomerations
of former days.

For artists and archæologists and lovers of old Paris, whom these new
transformations displease and who regret the picturesque past, the
authorities have had the forethought to paint or photograph before
demolition the quarters which to-day have disappeared, or are on the
point of disappearing; and as a consolation such persons have very
pretty pictures by M. Pansyer, representing St. Julien le Pauvre, the
Rue Galande, the Place Maubert, the ruins of the Opéra Comique, the
flower-covered relics of the Cour de Comptes; and there has even been
evoked for them the manor-houses of Clichy and Monceau such as they were
in 1789, and also the quarter of the Bastile, which can thus be compared
with their present aspect. Not far from these antiquities the City of
Paris has exhibited some decorative paintings executed for its various
_mairies_, the "Abreuvoir" and the "Lavoir" of M. D. A. Baudoin, and for
the _Mairie_ d' Arcueil-cachan "L' Automne et l'Ete," by M. A. Séon;
"The Marriage," by M. Glaize, and a fine painting, "The Defense of Paris
in 1814," by M. Schommer. Other compositions are signed by Cormon,
Gervex and Boulanger.

Finally, to make an end of the important works which she has caused to
be executed, the City of Paris exhibits models, at a reduced scale, of
the new Sorbonne, of the Ecole de Medicine, and of the Ecole Pratique,
at present in course of construction, also plans and photographs of
buildings erected during the last ten years, such as schools, _maries_,
etc. The department of sidewalks and plantations is represented by a
reduced model of the Crematory at Père Lachaise, plans and views of the
new cemeteries at Pantin and Bagneux, as well as the future square of
Montmartre.

The second pavilion of the City of Paris is more especially consecrated
to instruction. After attending to the healthfulness of matter,
attention must be given to the healthfulness of the mind and moral
culture. By the side of the models of the school-rooms, where children
find school-furniture studied with painstaking care and proportioned to
their stature, have been placed the works executed by the
school-children themselves of every kind, primary, maternal and
professional. These works, in a general way, prove an average aptitude
for the industrial arts, and indicate a real taste for beautiful forms.
A hall is wholly set apart for the pupils of the special schools.
Finally, around the two pavilions are arranged the numerous statues,
purchased, or ordered by the City of Paris, archers, halberdiers,
officers of the watch of the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries,
and we recognize, as we pass, the "Sauveteur" of M. Mombur, the
"Science" of M. Blanchard, the "Art" of M. Marqueste, and especially the
proud "Porte-falot" of Fremiet, which decorates the lower part of the
staircase of the new Hôtel de Ville.

PALACES OF THE LIBERAL AND FINE ARTS.

The two Palaces of the Fine Arts and the Liberal Arts are of equal
dimensions and similar aspect. They cover an area of 21,000 square
metres. They are composed of a large central nave, measuring 209.31
metres in length by a width of fifty-three metres and one-half. The nave
is surrounded with galleries on the lower floor and first story. On the
garden under the porticos are restaurants. Each of these palaces is
connected with the Industrial section of the foreign countries by a
large vestibule thirty metres wide by 115 in length, one of which, that
of the Fine Arts, contains the exhibition of sculpture, and the other
contains a large part of the musical instruments. These two palaces are
entirely of iron, terra-cotta and ceramic work. The entrance is executed
by a large porch of three arches, and the wings on either side are
pierced by wide bays. Each is crowned with a dome fifty-five metres high
and thirty-two in width. These two palaces are striking examples of the
richness which can be introduced in a moment by the artistic employment
of terra-cotta and ceramic work, especially when the ceramic artists
bear such names as Müller, Loebnitz and Parvillée, to say nothing of MM.
Bréult, Boulanger and Mortreux, whose work we met in the ceramic
division, or which we shall meet in our walks through the foreign
pavilions. With M. Müller, who has given his name to a kind of brick
covered with enamel on one of its faces, ceramic work becomes a portion
of the very fabric itself as well as of its ornamentation. This
principle applied with rare talent to the covering of the two domes of
the palaces has given a very curious and interesting result. This
covering is composed of enamelled tiles of more than 600 varieties which
are not superposed one upon another, but butt together side by side, and
form a mosaic rather than a covering of tiles. Each dome contains about
50,000 pieces arranged in ninety rows and twelve divisions. The general
tone is blue. The principal ornamental motive consists of a cartouche
which bears in the centre two large letters "R.F." in gold. The
cartouche stands out on a background of cream-white, bordered with a
meander. The effect is very brilliant and chatoyant. At the base of each
dome twenty-four vases in pottery, three metres high, are arranged on
the consoles of the attic which supports the roof, and in which are
pierced bull's-eyes decorated in tones of blue and natural terra-cotta.
The domes of the pavilions at the angle of the palace on the side of the
Seine are in the same way covered with enamelled porcelain tiles. This
is a new product invented by M. Parvillée and has a great decorative
richness. Above each bay of the two palaces is repeated a terra-cotta
frieze two metres high, which bears children holding cartouches and
standing out from a golden background. Pillars between the bays are
encased in terra-cotta fluted panels with interlacements of laurel and
oak leaves. The ironwork of these pillars is exposed and encloses the
terra-cotta work like a Spanish net, with very original effect and very
interesting constructive frankness. Finally, the balustrade crowning
each palace is also of terra-cotta, and is formed of small pilasters and
between them is repeated a _motif_ of bucklers bearing lions' heads. The
balustrade is composed of 7,500 pieces and weighs 450,000 kilogrammes,
and covers a space of 2,000 square metres.

Independently of the exhibit indicated by its name and character, the
Palace of the Liberal Arts encloses one of the great curiosities of the
Exhibition of '89; that is the "retrospective history of labor and
anthropologic science." "The aim of this exhibit," said M. Jules Simon,
in a report which he made as the president of the Superior Commission,
June 15, 1888, "is to instruct the public in the history of the
processes of manual and mechanical labor, which in the passage of
centuries have resulted in the modern industrial utensils used in the
arts and trades." This exhibit has a particularly historical and
technical character. It is far from excluding objects of art, for in
several ages the utensils, those especially which were used in the
liberal arts, were veritable jewels, either from their elegance of form,
or from the richness of their material, or the grace of their details.
We find chefs-d'oeuvre, for instance on a geographical map, on the
handle of a chisel, on the barrel of a musket. Our ancestors were not
possessed with the same passion for speed and cheapness that possesses
us. Industry lost, perhaps, but the arts were the gainers. The aim of
the retrospective exhibition is well defined. It is to retrace with
broad strokes by means of the reproductions of diagrams and authentic
monuments the stages of human genius. To achieve this result it was
necessary to associate with the retrospective exhibition of labor that
of anthropologic science, in order to show in the outset what man was
when he left the hands of nature in the different physical forms of
different races. The exhibit of anthropological science and history of
labor comprises then five grand divisions--first, anthropologic and
ethnographic science; second, the liberal arts; third, arts and trades;
fourth, means of transportation; fifth, military arts.

The central nave of the Palace of the Liberal Arts is wholly occupied by
this exhibit. Grand porticos and galleries of woodwork with platforms in
the lower story, form four grand divisions with interior courts that
approach by monumental staircases opening under the dome upon each side
of the rotunda, which occupies the centre and shelters the theatrical
exhibit. All around the porticos and galleries full panels were reserved
upon which M. Charles Touché placed decorative compositions broadly
treated in aquarelle illustrating, so to say, the history of labor.

       *       *       *       *       *

AN INGENIOUS PLAN FOR STRAIGHTENING WALLS.--Yankees, as a rule, are
equal to any emergency; what the average Yankee mechanic fails to
conjure up at a time when his wits are most needed, leaves very little
room for foreign genius to think and work in. Yet it remained for M.
Molard, a French architect, to contrive an original and ingenious plan
for straightening the walls of the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers,
which threatened an absolute collapse owing to the extreme weight of the
roof. A series of strong iron bars were carried across the building from
wall to wall, passing through holes in the walls, and were secured by
nuts on the outside. In this state they would have been sufficient to
have prevented the further separation of the walls by the weight of the
roof, but it was desirable to restore the walls to their original state
by drawing them together. This was effected in the following manner:
Alternate bars were heated by lamps fixed beneath them. They expanded,
and consequently the nuts, which were previously in contact with the
walls, were no longer so. The nuts were then screwed up so as to be
again in close contact with the walls. The lamps were withdrawn and the
bars allowed to cool. In cooling they gradually contracted and resumed
their former dimensions; consequently the nuts, pressing against the
walls, drew them together through a space equal to that through which
they had been screwed up. Meanwhile the intermediate bars were heated
and expanded, and the nuts screwed up as before. The lamps being again
withdrawn, they contracted in cooling, and the walls were further drawn
together. This process was continually repeated, until at length the
walls were restored to their perpendicular position. The gallery may
still be seen with the bars extending across it, and binding together
its walls.--_Philadelphia Record and Guide_.



LOSS OF POWER BY RADIATION OF HEAT.[3]


[Illustration: The Martyrs Column, Naples, Italy.]

To him who holds the purse and pays for the coal consumed, it is of
importance that between the energy of the burning fuel and the power
developed by the engine there should be the least possible loss. Every
unit of heat radiated by boiler-pipe, cylinder or heater is absolute
loss, and must come out of that purse. In an electrical plant this
matter is of great importance. There is less opportunity to have results
obscured. There is, proportionally, a large possible loss between the
coal on the grate and the far end of the cylinder, and this loss should
be reduced to the minimum. Is it not always the best economy to throw
away as little as possible, to save from waste _all_ that can be saved?
Is not the very _reason far being_, of the architect, the mechanical
engineer, in fact of every man who is paid for his advice and direction,
just this: that he shall bring to bear upon the subject, and impart to
his client honest knowledge concerning the various matters about which
he is consulted? That he shall keep abreast of the tide of discovery and
improvement, and that upon these subjects he shall _know_, not trusting
to mere hearsay or to unintelligent prejudice for his impressions.

Some little time since a gentleman from a neighboring city called upon
me for information upon the subject of coverings in general and their
comparative values. Being an intelligent man he said frankly at the
outset that he knew very little on the subject. He had, however, in
common with all of us, heard the word "asbestos" used as a shibboleth
for years, but he desired definite knowledge, and after he had digested
the information he should act on his judgment. I devoted sufficient time
to him to put him in possession of the salient points of the subject.
His understanding was acute. He left me to seek elsewhere further light
upon this matter. After some few days he returned and directed that the
magnesia covering be applied to his work. In the course of conversation
he remarked that he had received great diversity of advice from those to
whom he had gone. One man, who had been years in the business of selling
steam plants, told him that the best thing for him to use was hair-felt,
even though the steam-pressure might run up to 125 pounds to the inch.
Now, as a matter-of-fact, the man who gave that advice simply showed
himself an unsafe guide; and from his inability to keep abreast with
modern knowledge, that he had no conception of the fire-hazard which his
advice was to thrust upon the innocent inquirer, and that his advice was
little short of being morally criminal.

The subject of the fire-hazard of organic coverings has been pretty
thoroughly investigated and can be pretty well-known, when there is any
inclination to get out of ruts which long years of travelling in has
deepened. How many fires (cause unknown?) have really originated from
the slow carbonizing of organic material on steam-pipes? It is but
recently that the hair-felt covering on the steam end of a Worthington
pumping-engine, within ten miles of us, not only burnt itself but
destroyed some thousands of dollars worth of walnut lagging. Cases of
the combustion of these organic coverings are numerous and are
well-known.

Few appreciate the great loss of heat from uncovered or imperfectly
covered pipes. Many have an indistinct impression that there may
possibly be some slight loss. But there is in many cases an absence of
knowledge upon this subject where it should be complete. The most
correct data available show that the radiation from uncovered two-inch
steam-pipe, with 60 pounds steam-pressure, is 391.83 kilo. centigrade
heat-units one foot one hour, or 21,739.78 kilos. of coal for 100 feet
per year of 300 days of 10 hours each; one kilo. equals 2,205 pounds.
Properly combining these figures we see that there are 23.97 tons of
coal lost by radiation from that uncovered pipe. If the coal costs $4
per ton, the radiation from this 100 feet of pipe will amount to $95.87.
From the same pipe covered with Wm. Berkefield's fossil meal
composition, 32/100-inch thick, the most powerful inorganic non-heat
conductor used as a covering at the time these investigations were made,
there was radiated 24,109 kilo. cent. heat-units one foot one hour, or
1,337.63 kilos. of coal for the year. This would be 1-474/1000 tons of
coal at $4 per ton, amounting to $5.89. Then $95.87 less $5.89 equals
$89.98, the saving effected by covering this pipe with William
Berkefield's fossil-meal composition 92/106 of an inch thick. Or, in
other words, the saving effected was over 93 per cent of the total
possible radiation, using a thickness of one inch this loss would be
reduced to $5.50.

From the same data we find (page 44) it stated that while the radiation
through 25 m.m. of Wm. Berkefield's fossil meal was 7.7 heat-units,
through 25 m.m. of carb. magnesia it was 6.7 heat-units, therefore the
proportions 7.7: 6.7 = $5.50: $4.80 gives us the coal value of heat lost
by radiation through the magnesia covering. To put this in another form:
From the running-foot of two-inch pipe uncovered the loss is 96 cents,
while, from the same pipe covered with the magnesia, the loss is less
than five cents; or a saving of over 91 cents per year. To accomplish
this saving the cost of the covering should be taken into account. This
was 27 cents. Therefore, the investment in the magnesia covering is paid
back in less than four months. The data which we have used were obtained
by the use of a calorimeter measuring the quantity of heat passing
through covering. The other possible method of arriving at this
knowledge would be to accurately measure the condensation of the steam.
In these experiments, owing to several reasons, it was not deemed
advisable to rely upon the second method. Recently, however, I have seen
in the _American Engineer_ of June 12, a report of the proceedings of
the Michigan Engineering Society containing a paper by Professor Cooley,
of Ann Arbor, Mich., in which he says:

"The benefits of covering steam-pipes to prevent radiation are
strikingly illustrated by the following example: The Thomson-Houston
electric-light plant in Ann Arbor has about 60 feet of seven-inch pipe
connecting the boilers with the engines and two large steam-drums above
the boilers: in March, 1887, the steam at the far end of this pipe was
tested to determine the amount of entrained water, the pipes and drums
at the time being uncovered. An average of nine experiments gave 31.01
per cent moisture. In June of the same year, after the pipes were
covered with magnesia sectional-coverings, the quality of the steam was
again tested, the average of five experiments giving 3.61 per cent
moisture; the tests were made by the same men from the same connections,
and in the same manner. The pipes and steam-drums in March were
subjected to a draught, which, of course, aided the condensation. Enough
water passed into the cylinders to retard the engines, producing a
disagreeable noise. In June the weather was warmer and the pipes and
steam-drums were well protected. The quality of steam at the boilers was
tested in June, and showed about three per cent moisture. Assuming that
100 incandescent horse-power were being developed at the time, and that
each horse-power required 30 pounds of steam; if the steam is assumed to
have 25 per cent entrained water due to condensation in the pipes and
connections, then 4,000 pounds steam will need be produced in the
boilers, or 1,000 pounds more than necessary. To produce this steam will
require about 125 pounds of good coal per hour, or 1,000 pounds per day
of eight hours. One-half ton per day at $3 per ton for 300 days, $450.
The actual cost of the covering put on complete probably did not exceed
$150."

An interesting verification of the remarkable non-heat condensing
quality of the magnesia covering occurred at Lynn, Mass. In the heart of
the district in that city, recently the scene of the disastrous
conflagration, there was located the machine-shop of Messrs. Rollins &
Glozier. A two-inch steam-pipe there was covered with this material. The
heat of the fire at this place has been curiously determined to have
been between the minimum extreme of 2,756° Fah. and the maximum extreme
of 2,950° Fah., in this way: Cast-iron melts at 2,756° Fah.;
wrought-iron at 2,950° Fah. A portion of the cast-iron bed of a lathe
was fused into an irregular mass, and on it, partly imbedded, was a
wrought-iron nut not melted. The steam-pipe spoken of fell a distance of
20 feet, and some of the magnesia covering was broken by the fall, but
so effective was its heat-resisting and non-heat-conducting power that
the pipe was found to be uninjured, and it is being used again in the
building which is being erected to take the place of the one burned.
That the magnesia should have endured the ordeal successfully was not
unexpected, for we know that it is used by the Herreshoff Manufacturing
Company as a lining to the shells of its coil boilers, and it is there
subjected to a very intense heat resulting from the forced draught used
in this type of boiler. Instances could be multiplied indefinitely, but
I refrain from occupying further time with them, citing, however, one
recent pertinent case.

The trial trip of the new cruiser "_Baltimore_" took place in the middle
of September. It is reported to have been in many ways eminently
satisfactory. The report goes on to state: "Another noteworthy fact was
the comfortable condition of the fire and engine rooms. A duplicate crew
had been provided with the expectation of relieving the firemen in
two-hour turns; but after the first two hours of the run the first watch
refused to quit work and insisted in running the ship throughout the
entire four hours' trial." Boilers and all steam-surfaces were covered
with the magnesia covering.

So it appears that not alone is the man who pays for the coal interested
in this question of most perfect insulation, but also the men who
operate the plant as well. In time, those architects, those mechanical
engineers, those engine-builders and those other advisers, who are paid
to advise soundly and correctly, and who are represented by our figure
with the re-entering angles, will, of necessity, change their form and
begin to assimilate these new facts, or ossification will so spread
throughout the whole figure that they will be relegated to the shelf for
curiosities as showing what strange geometrical forms the intellectual
life of man may take.

       *       *       *       *       *



THE COST OF A SMALL MUSEUM.


[Illustration: Mr. A.A. Carey's
Cambridge, Mass.
_Sturgis & Brigham Archts._]

More than once we have endeavored to impress upon our readers the
importance of collections of casts and other art reproductions as
factors in popular education. It is only through these that the body of
our people can ever hope to become familiar with the great masterpieces
of European galleries, which have had so much effect upon the taste of
the people among whom they exist, and might do a similar good work in
this country were they only brought within reach. Doubtless there are
many who join us in the wish that not only every large, but every small
city might have its gallery of reproductions as well as its public
library--a gallery in which children could grow up familiar with the
noblest productions of Greece and Italy, in which the laborer could pass
some of his holiday hours, and in which the mechanic could find the
stimulus to make his own work beautiful as well as good. But the
principal reason why such collections are not more numerous is probably
that people have an exaggerated idea of their cost, and, among those who
might best afford this, there are doubts as to whether an undertaking of
the kind would be appreciated in any but the large cities.

Thanks to the liberality of Mr. W.A. Slater, the experiment has been
tried in Norwich, Conn., and the results of the first year of the Slater
Memorial Museum in attracting and holding popular interest have far
exceeded the anticipations of its founder and his advisers. As it has
been Mr. Slater's desire that the museum established by him should serve
not only to educate his townsmen, but also to stimulate others who had
the means to follow his example in other parts of the country, he has
given us permission to make public the cost of his collections, which,
we doubt not, will be a revelation to many. In August of last year we
gave a long description of the Slater Memorial Museum, not then quite
completed, from which it was evident that within the lines laid down by
Mr. Slater, by which it was determined that the collection should
contain only reproductions, and no original works, there were no
restrictions as to expense. The works selected were to be the best of
their kind, and were to be set up and arranged in the most effective
manner possible. The number of objects was to be limited only by the
size of the building.

The useful little catalogue of the casts in the Museum, prepared by Mr.
H.W. Kent, the curator, to whom we are indebted for the figures which we
shall quote, shows 124 numbers in the Greek and Roman section, and 103
in that of the Renaissance. Among these are some of the largest casts
made, such as the selection from the Pergamon reliefs, the Nike of
Samothrace and the Font of Siena. They were all made expressly for the
Museum, and imported from London, Paris, Berlin, Munich, Florence, Rome,
Naples and Athens. In addition to these, there is a complete collection
of the British Museum electrotypes of Greek coins, handsomely mounted,
and the nucleus of a collection of photographs, about 600, including the
best plates of Braun, Naya, Brogi and other celebrated photographers.
Most of the statues are mounted on revolving pedestals; two hundred and
fifty of the photographs are exhibited in individual frames, the backs
of which are movable, that the exhibition may be varied as often as
desired; and, owing to the lack of wall-space, draperies have been hung
extensively throughout the hall, the material of which is heavy raw
silk. We mention these facts only to show that economy was not a
consideration in the execution of the Museum, and believe that our
readers will be the more surprised to learn that its _gross_ cost to Mr.
Slater--excluding, of course, the building itself--was exactly
$27,112.97. Is there any city or college in the Union in which this sum
could not be raised for a similar purpose?

The cost of the building we do not give, because it would be useful as
showing how much, rather than how little, could be put into such an
edifice. It contains, besides the museum proper, the floor-space of
which amounts to about 10,000 square feet, a lecture-hall with a
seating-capacity of about 1,200, a library and four large class-rooms,
which, if the intentions of the founder are fully carried out, will be
used for practical instruction in the fine arts. Desirable as all these
rooms are in a building of the kind, the only one which seems to us
absolutely necessary is the lecture-hall. To open a gallery like this to
the public, and then leave people to float about in it aimlessly,
without a notion of its meaning or its purposes, is to do but half the
work. Either regular courses of instruction or occasional lectures upon
topics connected with the theory or history of art are necessary in
order to make the Museum anything more than a collection of curiosities
to the uninitiated, and such lectures are given during the winter at the
Slater Museum.

Of the amount just quoted, the principal item was naturally for casts.
The cost of these, including packing and transportation, but not
setting-up in the Museum, was $13,968.68, making an average of a trifle
less than $62 for each number in the catalogue. We ought to say here,
however, that an average is a dangerous guide in a matter of this kind,
owing to the enormous difference in the size and price of casts, as well
as in the distance from which they come. Obviously, too, the cost of
packing and importing a few casts would be proportionately much greater
than in a large order.

The casts once received, they must be put together, sometimes repaired
and finally set up. Pedestals must be built for the statues, wall-spaces
prepared for the reliefs. Therefore, a small force of skilled
plaster-workers and carpenters is necessary. In Norwich most of the
plaster-work was done by two men, a third being added occasionally, and
the aggregate of this item in the expenses was $1,626.75. With regard to
the carpentry, more work of this kind than would usually be necessary
was required by the fact that a number of changes had to be made in
order to adapt the hall to its use as a museum of art, its destination
not having been determined when the building itself was completed.
Consequently, some of the $4,690 paid for material and labor in this
department would form a part of the building expenses in a structure
designed especially for the purpose.

These were the principal expenses in the preparation of the Slater
Museum. On photographs about $800 have been spent thus far, the
electrotype coins cost something less than $750, and the balance of the
total quoted was made up by such incidentals as the draperies and
upholstering, photograph frames, the designer's commission and petty
expenses.

Turning now for a moment to the other side of the balance-sheet, we
shall try to answer the question, "Does it pay" to undertake a work of
this kind, except in our large and central cities? If to the founder or
founders of such an institution it be sufficient recompense for their
liberality to see their gift used, appreciated and enjoyed by people of
all classes, the brief experience of the Slater Memorial Museum answers
the question with a strong affirmative. The Museum was dedicated on
November 22 of last year. Since then it has been open regularly ten
hours a week, divided among three days, and at other times to students
and visitors from a distance. It is always free. There being no
automatic machine for registering the admissions, Mr. Kent has requested
visitors to write their names in a book provided for the purpose. The
number who do so is naturally considerably less than the total number of
visitors, particularly when the Museum is crowded, yet up to date the
books show more than 10,000 names. The average attendance per week thus
recorded, from the time of opening to July 1, was 283, the best month
being December, in which 2,163 names were entered, the poorest June,
with a total of 483. Especially gratifying has been the attendance on
holidays, which shows that the interest in the Museum is by no means
confined to those who have plenty of leisure. On Thanksgiving Day 800
names were registered, Christmas 932, New Year's 732, Decoration Day
850. For the benefit of the mill-operatives and other laborers who form
the largest portion of the population of Norwich and the adjoining
towns, to whom the Museum might do a world of good, we sincerely hope
the day is not far distant when the building may be open at least a
couple of hours each Sunday. The experience of the Boston Museum of Fine
Arts in Sunday opening has been an unqualified success, and we wish that
Norwich, as well as our own city, might profit by it. In Boston, we are
told, the average number of admissions during the Sunday hours has
reached as high as 1,000 per hour, and of these probably four-fifths are
common workmen with their families.

These facts and figures regarding the Slater Memorial Museum are
valuable only so far as they go. They show that the first problem of a
museum--to interest the public at large--has there been solved
successfully. More than that is not to be looked for yet. The ultimate
good which the institution will accomplish can be but imperfectly
manifested in one generation. It is from the children now growing up,
from their children and their children's children, that the deeper
results are to be expected. As the beginning has been made, we can
afford to wait for the rest, which will come in good time. The lesson to
be learned from it now is, that such collections are needed, that they
are appreciated not by a few but by many, and that, so far as the cost
is concerned, they are within the reach of every well-settled
community.--_New York Evening Post._

       *       *       *       *       *



SANITARY ENTOMBMENT: THE IDEAL DISPOSITION OF THE DEAD.[4]


[Illustration]

In this country, partly because there were few places of large
population, and partly because it was an early and general tendency to
use cemeteries rather than churches, and the grounds adjacent to them,
the evils of earth-burial did not manifest themselves so soon or in so
marked a manner as in the Old World. But there were instances enough to
convince the most incredulous that a radical change must be made. Dr.
Ackerly, writing in 1822, thus describes the condition of the
burial-ground connected with Trinity Church, New York, forty years
before: "During the Revolutionary War this ground emitted pestilential
vapors, the recollection of which is not obliterated from the memory of
a number of living witnesses." In the same year, the _Commercial
Advertiser_ published an article in reference to the present evils of
earth-burial at the same place, in which it was said: "It will be
remembered that the graveyard, being above the streets on the west, and
encompassed by a massive stone wall, and the east side being on a level
with Broadway, it results that this body of earth, the surface of which
has no declivity to carry off the rain, thus becomes a great reservoir
of contaminating fluids suspended above the adjacent streets. In proof
of this, it is stated that, in a house in Thames Street, springs of
water pouring in from that ground occasioned the removal of the tenants
on account of their exceeding fetidness." At a later date, Dr. Elisha
Harris brought this telling indictment against the same place of
interment: "Trinity churchyard has been the centre of a very fatal
prevalence of cholera whenever the disease has occurred as an endemic
near or within a quarter of a mile of it. Trinity Place, west of it,
Rector Street, on its border, the streets west of Rector and the
occupants of the neighboring offices and commercial houses have suffered
severely at each visitation of the pest from 1832 to 1854." It seems
hardly necessary to add that the foregoing statements are not intended
to make the impression that there was a worse condition at the
churchyard named than at any other....

It may now be said: "Yes, this is all true, but we have changed all
that! We no longer inter our dead in churchyards or burial-grounds
within the limits of cities. We have provided cemeteries at great
distances from our cities and large centres of population, and there the
dead can do no harm."

To this the reply is easy and convincing: "that, if the dead endanger
the living when the population is dense, they certainly also endanger
them when the population is sparse. The danger is only diluted. It still
exists, and it ought to alarm us just as truly when a few are imperilled
as when many are." ...

Not to attempt to tell all that has been ascertained, it will be
sufficiently convincing to quote from Sir Henry Thompson's utterance in
the _Nineteenth Century_ in 1880: "I state, as a fact of the highest
importance, that, by burial in earth, we effectively provide--whatever
sanitary precautions are taken by ventilation and drainage, whatever
disinfection is applied after contagion has occurred--that the
pestilential germs, which have destroyed the body in question, are thus
so treasured and protected as to propagate and multiply, ready to
reappear and work like ruin hereafter for others.... Beside anthrax or
splenic fever, spores from which are notoriously brought to the surface
from buried animals below, and become fatal to the herds feeding there,
it is now almost certain that malarial diseases, notably Roman fever and
even tetanus, are due to bacteria which flourish in the soil itself. The
poisons of scarlet fever, enteric fever (typhoid), small-pox, diphtheria
and malignant cholera are undoubtedly transmissible through earth from
the buried body." That the burial of a body that contains the seeds of
zymotic disease is simply storing them for future reproduction and
destruction is amply proved by the researches of Darwin and Pasteur, of
whom the former has shown that the mould, or fertile upper layer of
superficial soil, has largely acquired its character by its passage
through the digestive tract of earth-worms; and the latter that this
mould, when brought by this agency to the surface from subjacent soil
that has been used as a grave, contains the specific germ of the disease
that has destroyed its tenant.

It may now be asked: "Granting that these evils are inseparable from the
burial of the dead in the earth or in tombs, what is the remedy? What
else can be done?"

To this question not many answers can be given, because the modes of
disposing of the dead have always been and must always be few.

Plainly, no such novel mode as casting the dead into the sea will be
generally adopted. Plainly, also, the mode of the Parsees, grounded as
it is in ancient, if not original use--to give the dead to beasts and
birds--will not become universal. And, plainly also, cremation will not
be welcome to the many, free as it is from objection on the score of
public health, if a method equally sanitary, and at the same time
satisfactory to a reverent and tender sentiment, can be devised.

The inquiry, then, has reached its limit; for, apart from the modes that
have just been named, there are no others but earth-burial and
entombment, and earth-burial, as we have seen, cannot be made sanitary
under common conditions. Therefore, if the demands of affection and
sanitation are both to be met, entombment is to do it, or it cannot be
done.

Happily, better than any other method of disposing of the dead that has
ever been devised, entombment has met the demand of affection. Never has
any other mode so commended itself to men as this. There may have been
at times a general adoption of cremation, and there may have been a
general prevalence of earth-burial, but the one has not long satisfied
the sorrowing survivors, and the other has owed its beginning and
continuance to the apparent absence of alternative. Wherever the living
have been able, and the dead have been dearly loved or highly esteemed,
the tendency to entomb and not to bury has been constantly manifested.

To call attention to this tendency is enough to prove it, so easily
accessible is the evidence and so familiar is its operation in the human
heart. The most natural reference will be, first, to the mausoleum, the
tomb of Mausolus, that was erected by his sorrowing Queen, Artemisia, at
Halicarnassus, upon the Ægean's eastern shore, and that became at once
one of the few great wonders of the ancient world. This was intended to
do honor to the loved and illustrious dead, and this it did as no grave
or pyre could do. This was also intended to protect the lifeless form
from ruthless robbery and reckless profanation, and it performed this
task so well that for near two thousand years no human eye beheld the
mortal part of Mausolus, and no human hand disturbed its rest. At a far
earlier time, Abraham, the Father of the Faithful, while he illustrated
this tendency to entomb the dead, also offered an influential example to
all who would do him reverence, as, in the hour of his great sorrow, he
sought the seclusion and the security of Machpelah's cave for the last
earthly resting-place of his beloved wife. There he buried Sarah; there
he and his son and his son's son and their wives were all laid to rest,
and the place of their repose hath not been violated even at this
distant day. To this constant tendency constant testimony is borne by
the massive and magnificent tombs in which India abounds, the tombs and
pyramids that make marvellous the land of the Nile, the tombs that stood
thick upon the Appian Way, and that rose superb upon the Tiber's shore,
the modern use to which the Pantheon is put, the Panthéon at Paris and
the Crypt of the Invalides, the Abbey of Westminster, matchless in
memorials, the sepulchres within the hills that gird Jerusalem, and the
sepulchre in which the Nazarene was gently laid when His agony was
ended.

It remains to be considered whether entombment can be made sanitary. If
it can be the problem is solved, for entombment has ever been the best
that the living could do for their dead, and, with the added advantage
of promoting, or ceasing to be prejudicial to, the public health
entombment will be the choice of all whom cost or caprice does not
deter.

That entombment can be made sanitary is evident from the fact that in
countless instances, in many lands and through long periods of time, it
has been made sanitary by the ingenuity of man or by unassisted nature;
and it is also evident from the fact that decomposition and disease
germs are the dangers to be guarded against, and that against these both
ancient and modern science have been able to guard. Not to enumerate all
the modes that have been chanced upon or that have been devised by men,
there are two that have been notable and are available for modern
use--embalming and desiccation.

It is a delusion to imagine that embalming is a lost art; that, like
some other marvels of the ancient time, this is a secret process that
perished with the people who employed it. Did we desire it, we could
embalm our princes and our priests, and retain their shrunken
similitudes for distant coming times to gaze and gape upon, as skilfully
as they who practised this art in Egypt's palmiest days. Nay, it is
doubtless far within the truth to claim that better than they did we
could do; and we are actually apprised of better methods and results
than they employed or could attain, and it is not unlikely that we
shall hear of better methods still. But Egypt's method, or its modern
counterpart, will hardly now be popular. It involves too much mutilation
and too much transformation. When it has done its work little is left
but bone and muscular tissue, and these are so transfused with foreign
substances that a form moulded from plastic matter or sculptured from
stone could almost as truly be considered that of the lamented dead as
this. Moreover, indefinite preservation of the dead is not desirable,
and is not desired. The uses to which the Egyptian Pharaohs and their
humbler subjects have been put in these days of indelicacy and
unscrupulousness in the pursuit of science or sordid gain are not such
as to make many eager to be preserved for a similar disposition when the
present shall have become a similarly distant past.

Desiccation, in striking contrast with embalming, is the process of
nature rather than of art, and involves no mutilation and no
substitution of foreign substances for human flesh, and does not by
unnatural means preserve the semblance of the human form so long that a
susceptible sentiment is shocked and a due return of material humanity
to the elements that gave it birth prevented. Desiccation is so far a
natural process that it seems not to have been thought of until nature
had done the work and shown the product, and through many centuries, and
upon an extensive scale, nature had employed the process before it
occurred to man to copy her and adopt her method for the disposition of
his dead.

Wherever the air that enwrapped the lifeless form of man or beast was
dry, desiccation anticipated and prevented decomposition. In deserts,
upon elevated plains, upon the slopes of lofty mountain ranges, to which
the winds that passed their summits bore no moisture, the dead have not
decayed, but have dried undecomposed. In the morgue attached to the
Hospice of St. Bernard, the dead, lifted too late from their shroud of
snow, and borne thither to await the recognition of their friends, dry,
and do not decay. In the "Catacombs" of the monastery of the Capuchins
at Palermo, and in the "Bleikeller" at Bremen, the same phenomenon has
appeared. Even Egypt is a confirmation of these statements, for it is
probable that, had much less care been taken to preserve the dead, they
would not there have yielded to decay as in other lands; and that
moisture is so far absent from the atmosphere that the dead would have
been preserved from decay by desiccation had not embalming been resorted
to. Upon the elevated Western plains of this continent, the bodies of
beasts and men by thousands have been preserved from decomposition by
desiccation. To take one instance out of many that might be cited: A
cave was not long ago discovered high up among the Sierra Madre
Mountains, within which were found, where they had rested undisturbed
for many years, the lifeless figures of a little aboriginal household,
dried and undecayed. Father, mother, son and daughter, one by one, as
death had overtaken them, had been brought thither, bound so as to keep
in death the attitude that had marked them when at their rest in life,
and there they bore their silent but impressive witness to the
beneficent action of the unmoist air that had stayed decay and kept them
innocuous to the living that survived them. In Peru, instances of this
simple, wholesome process abound on almost every side; upon the elevated
plains and heights, as also beside the sea, the dead of Inca lineage,
with the lowliest of their subjects, are found in uncounted numbers,
testifying that in their death they did not injure the living, because
desiccation saved them from decomposition; and a recent traveller has
vividly described the scene that a battlefield of the late war presents,
and that illustrates the same process, where, though years have passed
since the last harsh sound of strife was heard, the fierce and bitter
combatants still seem eager to rush to conflict or to sink reluctant
into the embrace of death. And all these instances furnish conclusive
proof that decomposition can be controlled, and that its loathsome and
unwholesome transformations can be prevented, if only the simple
conditions are secured that have already so extensively effected this
result. That these conditions can be secured no one can doubt, for,
every-day, in almost every clime, by processes familiar and available to
man, the atmosphere has moisture added to it or taken from it; and the
extraction of the moisture from a portion of the atmosphere is all that
is required to introduce the process of Peruvian desiccation into the
sepulchres of Chicago or New York.

It will naturally be further asked: "Is this all that has been done to
demonstrate the efficiency and availability of desiccation for the
dead?" To this the answer would be sufficient that the evidence that has
been adduced is ample, and that, at once, in perfect confidence as to
the result, mausoleums might be erected, with provision for the
withdrawal of the moisture from the atmosphere, and for the passage of
the desiccated air through the sepulchres in which the dead should rest.
So little is involved, and so much has been accomplished without the
application of any human skill, that it seems inevitable that, as soon
as the resources of modern architecture and sanitary science are drawn
upon, the desired result will be at once attained. But, to make
assurance doubly sure, several carefully-conducted experiments have been
made, under the supervision of the directors of the New Mausoleum
movement, that prove that the conditions of desiccation can be
controlled and that decomposition can be prevented, that where it has
begun it can be stayed, and that prolonged preservation, with a fair
approximation to the appearance in life, can be made sure for the
recognition of absent friends, for transportation or the furtherance of
the ends of justice.

When, now, it is added that desiccation has been ascertained to be an
efficient agent in the destruction of disease germs, as proved by the
experiments of Dr. Sternberg, of the Hoagland Laboratory, and by the
investigations of other experts, enough seems to have been said to
establish the truth of the assertion that entombment can be made
sanitary, and that, therefore, entombment offers the satisfactory
solution of the problem how to dispose of the dead so as to do no
violence to a reverent and tender sentiment, and at the same time not to
imperil the public health.

The proposition, then, soon to be submitted for public approval is this:
to erect in the suburbs of our large towns and cities, perhaps even in
their most thickly-populated parts, extensive and handsome edifices that
will provide sanitary Sepulchres for the dead. To be comparatively
inexpensive, they will have to be comparatively plain, and it seems not
too much to hope that our cities will soon adopt this mode of disposing
of the dead that depend upon the public care for burial, and that the
horrors of a "Potter's Field," of which it cannot be divested, even in a
fair and sea-girt isle, may be forevermore unknown of men....

Within there would be, as the unit of construction, each sepulchre so
constructed that anhydrous air could enter, or could be made to enter
and withdraw, laden with moisture and morbific matter, which it would
convey to a separate structure, where a furnace would complete the
sanitary work that the anhydrous air had begun, and return to the
external atmosphere nothing that would be noxious. Each sepulchre, in
itself and its surroundings, would appear to provide a place of repose,
and would have electrical appliances attached to it for the instant
indication of the return of consciousness to any who had been
prematurely entombed, and would promise and provide the most perfect and
permanent protection against intrusion or theft that can be found on
earth. In arrangement these sepulchres would have to conform to the
price paid and the taste of the purchaser. Many would be like the single
graves that thickly ridge portions of our cemeteries; many more would be
grouped together after the semblance of a family-tomb; but in the
general impression, in the surroundings and suggestions, the resemblance
to the provisions of a cemetery would go no farther. For here there
could be no burning sun, no chilling cold, no inclement storm; for the
living, as they should pay the last sad honor to the dead, or in any
subsequent tribute of affection, there could be no exposure, and for the
dead there would be only the constant semblance of the comfort and the
quiet of the best-ordered and most tranquil home. Thus, in providing the
utmost that exacting affection and sanitary science can require, and in
taxing to the utmost the resources of art, in architecture, in sculpture
and in the use of subdued and according hues and forms for appropriate
decoration, these "Campo Santos," or "Mausoleums," or "Mansions of the
Dead," will seem to have realized the ideal disposition of the mortal
remains of those who depart this life.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 3: Extracts from a paper read before the Boston Electric Club,
December 23, 1889, by F.C. Child.]

[Footnote 4: Extracts from an address by Rev. Charles R. Treat before
the American Public Health Association at Brooklyn, N.Y., October
23, 1889.]

       *       *       *       *       *



THE VEKPLANCK HOMESTEAD, FISHKILL, N.Y.


[Illustration: The Old Verplanck Homestead at Fishkill, Hudson River, in
which the Society of the Cincinnati originated.]

The Verplanck homestead stands on the lands granted by the Wappinger
Indians, in 1683, to Gulian Verplanck and Francis Rombout, under a
license given by Governor Thomas Dongan Commander-in-Chief of the
Province of New York, and confirmed, in 1685, by letters patent from
King-James the II. The purchase included "all that Tract or Parcell of
land Scituate on the East side of Hudson's river, beginning from the
South side of a Creek called the fresh Kill and by the Indians
Matteawan, and from thence Northward along said Hudson's river five
hundred Rodd beyond the Great Wappin's Kill, and from thence into the
woods fouer Houres goeing"; or, in our speech, easterly sixteen English
miles. There were eighty-five thousand acres in this grant, and the
"Schedull or Perticuler" of money and goods given to the natives, in
exchange, by ffrancis Rumbout and Gulyne Ver Planke sounds oddly to-day:

  One hundred Royalls,
  One hundred Pound Powder,
  Two hundred fathom of white Wampum,
  One hundred Barrs of lead,
  One hundred fathom of black Wampum,
  Thirty tobacco boxes, ten holl adzes,
  Thirty Gunns, twenty Blankets,
  Forty fathom of Duffils,
  Twenty fathom of stroudwater Cloth,
  Thirty Kittles, forty Hatchets,
  Forty Hornes, forty Shirts,
  Forty pair stockins,
  Twelve coates of B.C.,
  Ten drawing Knives,
  Forty earthen Juggs,
  Forty Bottles, Fouer ankers Rum,
  Forty Knives, ten halfe Vatts Beere,
  Two hundred tobacco pipes,
  Eighty pound tobacco.

The purchasers were also to pay Governor Dongan six bushels of good and
merchantable winter wheat every year. The deed is recorded at Albany in
Vol. 5 of the Book of Patents.

Before 1685 Gulian Verplanck died, leaving minor children, and
settlements on his portion of the land were thus postponed. Divisions of
the estate were made in 1708, in 1722, and again in 1740. It is not
accurately known when the Homestead, the present low Dutch farm-house
was built, but we know that it stood where it now stands, before the
Revolutionary War, and the date commonly assigned to the building is a
little before 1740.

The house stands on a bluff overlooking the Hudson, about a mile and
one-half north of Fishkill Landing. It is one-story and one-half high,
of stone, plastered. The gambrel roof is shingled, descends low and has
dormer windows. The house has always been occupied and is in excellent
preservation. Baron Steuben chose it for his headquarters, no doubt for
its nearness to Washington's headquarters across the river, and for the
beauty and charm of the situation. It is made still further famous by
the fact that under its roof was organized in 1783 the Society of the
Cincinnati. The room then used is on the right of the hall, and is
carefully preserved. In fancy we can picture the assembly of officers
grouped about Washington, in that west room overlooking the river,
pledging themselves to preserve the memories of the years during which
they had struggled for their country's being.

The whole neighborhood, especially the village of Fishkill which was the
principal settlement in the county at that date, has many revolutionary
associations. The interior army route to Boston passed through the
village; this was a depot of army stores, and workshops and hospitals
were established. Here was forged the sword of Washington, now in the
keeping of the United States Government, and exhibited in the late
Centennial collection. It is marked with the maker's name, J. Bailey,
Fishkill.

The New York Legislature, retiring before the approach of the British,
after the evacuation of the city, came at last to Fishkill, and here the
constitution of the State was printed, in 1777, on the press of Samuel
Loundon, the first book, Lossing says, ever printed in the State.

Some years after peace was restored, the Verplanck family appear to have
occupied the Homestead from time to time. Philip Verplanck, a grandson
of Gulian the original grantee, was a native of the patent, but his
public life was spent elsewhere. He was an engineer and surveyor, and an
able man. Verplanck's Point in Westchester County, where Fort Lafayette
stood during the Revolution, was named for him, and he represented that
Manor in the Colonial Assembly from 1734 to 1768. Finally, Daniel
Crommelin Verplanck with his large family--one of his sons being the
well-known Gulian C. Verplanck, born here in 1786--came to live in the
old home permanently. He had led an active life in New York, served in
Congress and on the bench, and now retired to the quiet of the country.
It was he who planted the fine old trees which now shade the lawn; among
them the coffee-tree so much admired. About 1810 the north end, built of
wood, was added to the old house. Architects were not numerous,
apparently, in those days, so the Dutch type was lost in making this
large addition, though the interior is quaint, dignified and
interesting. It was from under its roof that Daniel C. Verplanck was
carried to his last resting-place as his father before him, and
generations after him lived and still live in the old Homestead.

For the above description, prepared with no little painstaking, of an
interesting house and demesne, as well as for the loan of the photograph
from which I made my pen-and-ink sketch of it, I am wholly indebted to a
member of the Verplanck family and a mutual friend.

A.J. BLOOR.

       *       *       *       *       *

ROCK UPHEAVAL CAUSED BY HYDRAULIC PRESSURE.--There was a remarkable
occurrence at the mills of the Combined Locks Paper Company at Combined
Locks, Wis., on Saturday. From some unknown cause there was an upheaval
of rock upon which the mills are located, throwing the mill walls out of
place, cracking a great wall of stone and cement twenty feet thick and
making a saddle-back several hundred feet long and six inches high in
the bed rock beneath the mill. An artesian well two hundred feet away on
the bluff has dried up. The damage to the mill and machinery will
probably amount to several thousand dollars. The upheaval is supposed to
have resulted from some hydraulic pressure between the seams of rock
beneath. A panic occurred among the mill operatives at the time of the
shake-up, but nobody was hurt in the stampede from the mill.--_Boston
Transcript_, _September_ 10.



ELECTRICITY'S VICTIMS IN EUROPE.


[Illustration: Monument to Minine and Pojarsky, Russia.]

Although the greatest number of deaths from electricity have occurred in
this country--more than one hundred--of which twenty-two occurred in
this city, yet other countries have not been without such "accidents,"
as has been erroneously stated by experts in the employ of the companies
interested in the deadly high-voltage currents, and as the subjoined
list, compiled by C.F. Heinrichs, the electrical expert, shows. The list
is by no means exhaustive. Many European newspapers contain articles
advising stringent measures to stop the causes of those accidents and
the use of currents of electricity above six hundred volts.

Following is a list of victims of electricity in Europe:

In February, 1880, Mr. Bruno, the euphonium player at the Holte Theatre
in Ashton, near Birmingham, touched the conductors of a two-light
electric plant and received a shock which rendered him insensible, and
he died within forty minutes.

In October, 1880, the stoker of the yacht Livadia, which was lying in
the Thames, near London, was ordered to adjust one of the Jablochkoff
candles. He accidently touched the terminals of the lamp, and instantly
fell down dead. The difference of potential at the lamp terminals was
only fifty volts, but it was admitted at the time that the wires must
have been in contact with the iron plate upon which the stoker stood,
and that alternating currents of higher voltages from the main source
caused the death, because with fifty volts an electrical energy of only
.05 Watts would have been expended on the resistances of the skin and
the vital organs of the victim.

In 1880, a workman touched a wire of a Brush installation at the
Hatfield House, the residence of the Marquis of Salisbury, and fell down
dead. The current was under eight hundred volts.

In July, 1882, on the occasion of a fire in Brighton, England, a fireman
took hold of a fire-escape which was in contact with the wire of a Brush
machine. He received a shock which doubled him up and disabled him for a
long time.

August, 1883, an official of the Hungarian railway in Pesth was killed
on touching a wire of a "Ganz" alternating-current generator.

August, 1884, Emile Martin and Joseph Kenarec were killed in Paris on
attempting to climb over the fence of the garden of the Tuileries. Both
victims came in contact with the wires of a Siemen twelve-light
alternating-current generator. The difference of potential between the
place of the accident and the ground was 250 volts. The current which
would pass that way caused the deaths, and burns upon the hands, cheek
and ear of the victims.

September, 1884, Henry Pink, an attendant at the Health exhibition in
London, was killed on touching a Hochhausen dynamo of 1,000-volt
capacity. At that time all electricians agreed that no currents over 600
volts should be allowed.

November, 1884, an engine-driver, William Moore, was instantly killed on
touching the wire of an arc-light plant, at Messrs. Bolcknow, Vaughan &
Co.'s, works, at Middleborough, England. The fatality was admitted to be
due to the high-voltage current and bad insulation.

January, 1887, Richard Grove noted that his employer's store, in Regent
Street, London, was set on fire by electric-light wires. He rushed up on
the roof of the building to cut the wires. He received a shock and fell
off the roof, dead. Secondary currents of Goulard & Gibb's converters
(Westinghouse system) were held responsible for the fatality by
electricians.

December, 1887, James Williams was killed by an electric-light shock at
the Pontyminister tin-plate works at Bisca, in Wales.

June, 1888, in Terri, Italy, a tinner was killed on the roof of a
building on touching an alternating-current circuit.

October. 1888, in Spain, at the Valladolid electric-light station a
carpenter took hold of a wire of an alternating-current generator and
could not let go. An attendant tried to pull the man off the wire and
both were killed by the currents.

November, 1888, E.A. Richardson, employed at the Consett iron works, in
the county of Durnham, England, received a shock from an arc-light
plant, from the effects of which he died two hours later.

December, 1888, in Turin, Italy, an employé of an electric-light company
was killed by alternating currents.

June, 1889, John Connelly, an employé of the Siemens Electric-Light
Company, near London, was killed by an alternating current of 1,000
volts.

Speaking of recent cases here, Mr. Heinrichs said:

"It is to be regretted that some of our electrical experts of so-called
standing, not only assist in keeping the facts from the public, but tell
when under oath only half the truth, as was said a short time ago in a
conservative electrical publication in London. One of these experts had
to admit in the Kemmler investigations that all of his knowledge as to
the harmless nature of the Westinghouse current was obtained by him from
observations made upon himself and friends receiving alternating
currents from an electro-medical apparatus. And the various
susceptibilities of the different living organisms to electric
influences he judged from the manner in which some of his friends
dropped the metal handles. Had this expert made any calculations of the
electrical energy expended in these trivial experiments he would have
found that the whole electrical energy expended upon the living organism
of any of his friends was below one-fifty thousandth of an electrical
horse-power per second, and the difference of susceptibilities of any of
his friends was infinitesimal, and the difference of the electrical
energy between the minimum and maximum charges less than one-two hundred
thousandths of an electrical horse-power. It is a well-established fact
that alternating currents of an electrical energy of one-four-thousandth
part of an electrical horse-power per second, if expended upon the vital
organs, the nerves and muscles, of any human being, will cause
instantaneous death in every case."--_New York Commercial Advertiser_.

       *       *       *       *       *



[Illustration: THE ILLUSTRATIONS]


[_Contributors are requested to send with their drawings full and
adequate descriptions of the buildings, including a statement of cost_.]


HOUSE OF G.M. SMITH, ESQ., PROVIDENCE, R.I. MESSRS. STOKE, CARPENTER &
WILLSON, ARCHITECTS, PROVIDENCE, R.I.

[Gelatine Print issued only with the Imperial and International
Editions.]


THE CATHEDRAL OF ST. MACHAR, ABERDEEN.[5]

"In the bustling manufacturing town which has lately become, and is
likely for some time to remain, the extreme northern point of our great
system of railway communication, a venerable cathedral, surrounded by
tree, with a pleasant river sweeping past it, is scarcely an expected
sight. But the two divisions of Aberdeen the old and the new town--are
as unlike each other as Canterbury and Manchester. The old town, or
'Alton,' as it is locally termed, is not the most ancient part of a city
of different periods, around which its modern streets and squares have
ramified. It is a distinct hamlet or village, at some distance from the
city, and edged away in privacy apart from the great thoroughfares
connecting the manufacturing centre with other districts of the country.
Its houses are venerable, standing generally in ancient gardens; and
save that the beauty and tranquillity of the spot have led to the
erection of a few pleasant modern villas, dotting it here and there,
whoever treads the one echoing street of the Alton for the first time,
feels that two centuries must have brought very little external change
to the objects by which he is surrounded. In this pristine place, the
short-spiked steeples, and the broad-slated roof of the old cathedral of
St. Machar may be seen rising over a cluster of fine old trees which top
the sloping bank of the winding Don, from the opposite shore of which
the whole scene--comprehending the river, the sloping banks, the trees,
and the gray old church--makes a very perfect landscape, rather English
than Scottish in its aspect.

"A near approach develops something very peculiar in the character of
this edifice. It bears throughout unmistakable marks of age, but none of
decay. It is gray with the weather-wearing of centuries, but it displays
none of the mouldering vestiges of Time's decaying fingers; nor yet has
it that prim air of good keeping which shows, in treasured antiquities,
that careful hands have sedulously restored each feature that age may
have injured. It is clear that the completeness of detail--the clean
outlines, the hard, unworn surfaces--are characteristics of innate
strength, and connect themselves with the causes of a certain northern
sternness and rigidity in the general architectural designs.

"The secret of all these peculiarities is to be found in the nature of
the material, which is granite--the same that has handed down to us,
through thousands of years, the cold, stony eyes of the sphynx,
precisely as the chisel last touched them--and retains, to the wonder
of the Londoners, the glittering lustre of the polished cheeks of
Rameses. The stern nature of the primitive rock--obdurate alike to the
chisel and to time--has entirely governed the character of the
architecture; and, while it has precluded lightness and decoration, has
given opportunities for a certain gloomy dignity. About the porch, one
or two niches and other small details, have been decorated; but as if
the artist had abandoned the task of chiselling his obdurate materials
as a vain one, ornament goes no farther, and all the architectural
effects are the fruit of bold design. Such, for instance, is the great
west window--not mullioned, but divided by long massive stone shafts
into seven arched compartments; such, too, is the low-browed doorway
beneath, with its heavy semicircular arch. The upper tier of
windows--here called _storm_ windows, perhaps as a corruption of
_dormer_--are the plain, unmoulded arch, such as one sometimes sees it
in unadorned buildings of the earlier Norman period. Indeed, though the
building dates from the second age of the Pointed style, it associates
itself in some of its features, very closely with the relics of the
Norman age, especially in the short, massive round pillars which support
the clerestory. The roof, with its carving, gilding, and bright heraldic
colors, is in thorough contrast with the rest of the architecture, and
the eye gratefully relieves itself from the gloom below, by wandering
over its quaint devices and gaudy hues. It is divided into three
longitudinal departments, panelled with richly-carved oak; and at each
intersection of the divisions of the compartments with the cross-beams,
there is emblazoned a shield armorial, with an inscription.

"It is an uncommon thing to find, as in this instance we do, the nave
only of a church remaining, for the chancel was generally the part first
erected, and sometimes the only part. The remains of the central and
eastern portions of St. Machar's tell how the western compartment braved
the causes of destruction which to them had been fatal: they were built
of freestone. Incrusted, as it were, in the eastern wall, are the
clustered freestone pillars, with richly-flowered capitals, which of old
supported the central square tower; and on either side are the vestiges
of the transept, with the remains of the richly-sculptured tombs,
represented in the accompanying plate, embedded in the wall. In
Slezer's, and some other representations of this building in the
seventeenth century, the tower--a simple square mass, with a
roof--appears to have been still standing, but the choir had
disappeared."


MONUMENT IN THE SOUTH TRANSEPT OF THE CATHEDRAL, ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND.


THE HOTEL DE SOTO, SAVANNAH, GA. MR. WM. GIBBONS PRESTON, ARCHITECT,
BOSTON, MASS.

This hotel, which has just been completed, occupies a whole square in
the heart of the city, and has a frontage of 300 feet on Liberty Street
and 200 feet on Bull Street. It forms two sides of the square, the
two-story kitchen and servants' wing forming the third side. The climate
renders it desirable to have it freely open and exposed to the cool
southeast winds which blow refreshingly up from the bay, and, as a
winter resort, a southeast exposure of nearly half the rooms makes them
sunny and dry. The building is four, five and six stories in height, and
a flat roof, 50 x 70 on the highest portion, gives a fine view down the
bay. A "solarium" is erected on this roof, to contain a tropical garden
or to be used for dancing. The "parade" or garden, upon which all the
southeast windows look, has been beautifully laid out, and there is not
a dark room or a "back room" in the building.

A "rotunda" with glass roof at the rear of hall, first story, is
intended as a lounging-room for ladies and gentlemen, and a veranda 35
feet in width in front opens upon Bull Street. Many of the rooms open
upon covered verandas on the second, third and fourth stories. The
dining-room is 50 x 120 feet, open to the air on three sides. The
materials are local brick for the lower portions, and buff Perth Amboy
brick and terra-cotta above. It contains about 300 rooms, and will cost,
completed, about half a million. It is, except the Ponce de Leon, the
largest hotel in the South. Special arrangements have been made for
introducing large volumes of warmed or cooled air into the halls and
corridors. The contractors are Mr. T. Lewman & Co. The Whittier Machine
Co. did the elevator, heating and laundry work. The Brush system of
electric lighting has been introduced throughout. L. Haberstroh & Son
have decorated the walls and ceilings, making a special feature of the
dining-room. Ground was broken just a year ago, and the house was opened
for guests on New Year's day.


MEMORIAL CHURCH OF THE ANGELS, LOS ANGELES, CAL. MR. ERNEST A. COXHEAD,
ARCHITECT, LOS ANGELES, CAL.

This church which has lately been finished has cost about $25,000. The
inside walls are finished in brick and stone.


ST. AUGUSTINE'S ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH BUILDINGS, BROOKLYN, N.Y. MESSRS.
PARFITT BROS., ARCHITECTS, BROOKLYN, N.Y.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Additional Illustrations in the International Edition.]


CHATEAU DE JOSSELIN, MORBIHAN, FRANCE.--FACADE ON THE COUR D'HONNEUR.

[Gelatine Plate.]


AN INTERIOR IN THE CHATEAU DE JOSSELIN, MORBIHAN, FRANCE.

[Gelatine Plate.]


TWO VIEWS OF THE HOUSE OF MRS. CONSINO, SANTIAGO, CHILI.


DESIGN FOR CHURCH OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD, GOSPEL OAK, LONDON, N.W., ENG.
MR. F. PHILLIPS FIGGIS, ARCHITECT.


BUTLER'S WOOD, CHISLEHURST, ENG. MR. ERNEST NEWTON, ARCHITECT.


HOUSE AT PENNSYLVANIA, EXETER, ENG. MR. JAMES CROCKER, F.R.I.B.A.,
ARCHITECT, EXETER, ENG.

This house has recently been completed for Mr. E.C. Philp, and stands in
one of the best suburbs of the city. The materials employed are
Wellington red brick for the facings above plinth, with Broseley tiles
for the roofs, the few stone dressings being of Ham Hill. The walling up
to the plinth level is of Westleigh limestone, as are also the piers
surrounding the site, with wrought-iron railing between same. The
principal chimney-pieces in the house have been made to special design,
and are chiefly executed in American walnut and pitch-pine. The
dining-room is panelled the full height up to a richly-modelled frieze
in plaster, all to design, and the ceiling of this apartment is also
panelled.


DESIGN FOR BOARD SCHOOLS. MR. GEORGE W. WEBB, A.R.I.B.A., ARCHITECT,
READING, ENG.

This design was prepared in competition for schools near London, but,
owing to a mistake in the date for sending in designs, it was too late
for the competition. The plan is on the central hall system for boys and
girls, the hall being 110 feet by 54 feet, and top-lighted. Fourteen
class-rooms, each 30 feet by 20 feet, are provided, each divided from
the central hall by movable glass screens. The infants' school, lodge,
etc., form detached buildings. The total cost was estimated at £16,000.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 5: It should always be kept in mind that these illustrations
from the "_Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland_," by
R.W. Billings, are republished very largely for the sake of giving
instruction in one manner of the rendering of architectural drawings.]

       *       *       *       *       *



METHODS OF REDUCING THE FIRE LOSS.[6]


[Illustration: OLD DOORWAY AT NEWPORT R.I.]

The liability to injury by fire is a hazard inherent to all buildings,
and this danger is a constant menace whose threatening destruction of
values imposes upon the owner a persistent consideration, which endures
as long as the building stands.

As every method of construction, the various mechanical processes and
the stock in each stage of manufacture bears some relation to the
fire-hazard as a supporter or possible originator of combustion, the
engineer whose duties pertain to these matters must necessarily also
consider the question of the fire-hazard in the important phase of
prevention, as well as the direct application of those engineering
problems required in the design and installation of fire apparatus.

The fire-loss is a most oppressive tax, much of which can be abated by
the application of well-established means of prevention. In a practical
sense, certain fires are to be considered as unpreventable, being caused
by exposure to fires in other burning buildings, but there are very few
fires whose destructive results might not have been prevented by the
exercise of precautions entirely feasible in their nature.

These several topics will be considered in reference to the reduction of
the fire-loss on isolated manufacturing property, because the exercise
of every possible precaution may not avail anything if the property is
liable to be imperilled by fires originating in adjacent buildings.


SUPERVISION.

The prevention of fires must in greater measure proceed from the
efficiency of the supervision exercised over the property in the order
of the buildings, heed to probable causes of fire, and attention to the
fire-apparatus.

In a manufactory there is a wide distinction to be made between to-day's
dirt and yesterday's dirt; valuable results may be obtained by an
inspection of the whole property made on Saturday afternoon by two men,
such as foremen or overseers of rooms, who may be appointed to serve
four weeks, their assignment terminating on alternate fortnights. The
report should be made on a sheet of paper, divided so as to include all
features of order and fire-apparatus in every room.

As property should be watched during the day Sunday, as well as at
night, it is under the care of watchmen about five-eighths of the time,
and the measure of this responsibility should be clearly understood.

The patrol should be recorded on a watchman's clock, not merely to show
that he was not unfaithful, but also to prove that he was faithful.

Especially in districts liable to disorder and lawlessness, it is
desirable to have a district-messenger signal-box in the works, visited
once an hour, with the understanding that if the call is not made within
fifteen minutes of the appointed time, it will be assumed that there is
trouble and help sent at once.

Safety requires that the lanterns should be securely guarded; that the
handle and sustaining parts of the lantern be connected together by
rivets or by locking the metals together without relying on soldered
joints; and thirdly, that the lamp should be put in from above, and
never from the bottom.


CONSTRUCTION.

In its design, a mill for any standard line of manufacture is not a
building whose arrangements and proportions are fixed upon at the whim
of the owner, but it must conform to certain conditions of dimensions,
stability, light and application of power to satisfy the requirements
essential for furnishing every advantage necessary for producing the
desired results at the lowest cost.

The destructive consequences attending fire in such buildings, whose
iron and masonry construction is called fireproof, show that some other
form of construction is necessary to obtain the desired results of
minimizing the annual cost of the maintenance of the invested capital,
as represented by insurance, depreciation, interest and taxation. There
is little incentive for entering into unusual expenses in the
construction of a manufacturing building for the purpose of increasing
its resistance to fire, unless the additional interest on such increase
in the investment is to be met by a corresponding reduction in the
annual cost of the fire-hazard. In addition to these questions,
involving the annual maintenance of the plant, the increase in the
expense of the building above a certain point may prove poor management,
by locking up capital for too long a time, and may tend to prevent the
improvements in arrangement and construction which are necessary for the
most advantageous manufacturing.

The method of mill building known as slow-burning construction combines
the advantages of low initial cost and great resistance to destruction
by fire, the final result being that the manufacturing is housed at the
minimum annual cost. The fundamental principle of such construction is
to mass the material in such a way that there shall not be any concealed
spaces about the structure, and that the number of projections of
timbers, which are more easily ignited than the flat surfaces, shall be
reduced as far as possible; that iron portions of the structure shall
not be exposed to the heat of any fire in the contents of the building,
and furthermore, that the isolation of the various portions, both in
respect to that of one building to another and of the various rooms and
stories of the same building, shall be as complete as is feasible.

The most important feature is that of the mill floors, which should be
laid on beams, generally of Southern pine, 12 x 14 inches, or two inches
larger when required by unusual loads or longer span than twenty-two
feet. These beams are placed from eight to ten feet apart between
centres.

At the columns, beams rest on cast-iron caps.

The support from one column to the next should be made by cast-iron
pintles, preferably those whose section is in the form of a Greek cross,
as that presents advantages in the way of securely joining them to the
timber beams. At the top of the pintle, a cast-iron plate should support
the base of the column above.

Timber columns are preferred to those of iron, unless the load is
greater than can be sustained by timber.

The floor planks for this type of floor are generally made of spruce
plank from three to four inches in thickness, grooved on both edges and
joined together by hardwood splines. These floor-planks should be two
bays in length, breaking joints at least every four feet.

Above this the top floor, of 1-1/4 or 1-1/2 inch hardwood, is laid, and
in some instances the resistance of the floor to fire is greatly
increased by laying a coat of plaster on the floor-plank before the top
flooring is built. But the general method of increasing the resistance
of the floor to fire is by covering the floor and beams on the under
side with plaster laid on wire-lathing.

Such a mill floor and columns, while possessing in a very high degree
features which offer resistance to the fire, being weakened by the
temperature only to a slight extent as they are slowly burned away under
the exposure to a very severe fire, also possess the merit of great
economy, both as regards the low price of construction, and in that the
floor is thinner in comparison with joisted floors of equal strength,
saving in this respect, for every floor in a building, about ten inches
in height of wall, stairs, belting, steam-pipes, and all vertical
connections reaching from floor to floor, a saving which amounts to
considerable in the total cost of a building.

The division of mills into various portions by means of fire-walls is
frequently not so efficient as assumed, by reason of the lack of
fire-doors to satisfactorily fulfil the purpose of resisting fire. The
best form of fire-door is that made of two thicknesses of matched
boards, placed at right angles to each other and nailed together, being
covered on the outside with tin, securely locked together and held to
the door by numerous hanging-strips. The door should be secured to the
hangers by means of bolts, and not screws, and the rail upon which it
runs strongly bolted to the wall. When closed, such a door should fit
into a jamb and be securely held in this manner against the wall. Such
doors are frequently hung upon an inclined track, and, by some
application of highly fusible solder at the catch, are so arranged that
they will be closed by the heat of a fire, if not closed by hand.

In this treatment of the arrangement of buildings to resist fire,
consideration has not been given to the cost of land, which is, of
itself, an important factor in determining what arrangement will be the
most expedient for an establishment. Where land is expensive, or there
are limitations in the space suitable for building, it is frequently
necessary to build mills and shops higher than would be warranted by
good judgment under other conditions; but where circumstances will
permit it, the one-story mill has been very successful, not merely in
immunity from fire, and very low cost per square foot of floor, but also
in the advantages of manufacturing, particularly in regard to cost of
supervision and movement of the stock in process of manufacture. These
are questions which must be determined, not merely in regard to the
various processes of manufacture, but the individual needs of each
concern; the position of the fire-risk in the matter being that the
hazard of a building increases very rapidly with its height, and to some
extent with its area.

The extension of one-story buildings over too large an area will not be
commended, and certainly, as regards the question of fire, it has a
tendency to place too large a property in direct exposure to a very wide
hazard.

Some textile mills have been built in the form of the block letter U,
this form having been decided upon as giving the conditions of lowest
resultant cost. One wing, two stories in height, contains weaving; the
other wing, three stories in height, contains carding and spinning,
while the engine is placed in the connecting building. The pickers and
the boilers are in outside buildings, so placed that they will not
interfere with future extensions of the building into the form of the
block letter H.


FIRE APPARATUS.

All methods for the prevention of fires fall so far short of the ideal
of immunity that there is a necessity for fire-apparatus. The principle
of the defence of a manufactory against fire is that of self-protection,
by making the installation and management of the fire-apparatus equal to
the progress of any fire which can possibly occur.

Fire-apparatus should be kept in service as well as in order. It is no
exception to any other machinery, in that practice is essential to
obtain any efficient results.

The practical results of private fire-organizations, where fire has
occurred, have been very marked; and systematic and skilful work has
been the rule, in place of the needless confusion and liability to
breakage of the apparatus, which almost inevitably occurs in the lack of
such organization.

The details differ with the arrangements and administration of every
mill; but the general policy of definitely assigning persons to the
positions for which they are best adapted, and where it is presumed they
could be most useful, and to practice them in such work, is a rule which
is common to all.

A great deal of fire-apparatus is destroyed by freezing water during the
winter months, and therefore a special inspection of all such apparatus
should be made late in the autumn, when the water should be drained from
all portions of the system where there is liability of freezing, and all
hydrants and valves should be well oiled, preferably with mineral oil.
The hazard from a hydrant or other portion of the apparatus broken by
frost, does not lie so much in the probability that disadvantage may
result from the disuse of one element of the plant, as in the liability
that such a breakage may interfere with the whole system and render it
inoperative.

Buckets of water are the most effective fire-apparatus. They should be
kept full, and distributed in liberal profusion in the various rooms of
a mill, being placed on shelves or hung on hooks, as circumstances may
require. In order to assist in keeping them for fire purposes only, they
should be unlike other pails used about the premises, and in some
instances each pail and the wall or column behind its position bears the
same number.

Automatic-sprinklers have proved to be a most valuable form of
fire-apparatus in operating with great efficiency at fires where their
action was unaided by other fire-apparatus, particularly at night. In
mill fires the average loss for an experience of twelve years shows that
in those fires where automatic-sprinklers formed a part of the apparatus
operating upon the fire, the average loss amounted to only
one-nineteenth of the average of all other losses. If the difference
between these two averages represents the amount saved by the operation
of automatic-sprinklers, then the total damage from the number of fires
to which automatic-sprinklers are accredited, as forming a portion of
the apparatus, has been reduced six and a quarter million dollars by the
operation of this valuable device.

Although there have been numerous patents granted to inventors of
automatic-sprinklers since the early part of the present century, yet
their practical use and introduction has been subsequent to the
invention of the sealed automatic-sprinkler by Henry S. Parmelee of New
Haven, Ct., about twelve years ago. This device being the first, and for
many years the only automatic-sprinkler manufactured and sold, and
actually performing service over accidental fires, to him belongs the
distinction of being the pioneer, and practically the originator, of the
vast work done by automatic-sprinklers in reducing destruction of
property by fire.

Although nearly or quite 200,000 Parmelee automatic-sprinklers have been
installed, their manufacture has been supplanted by other forms; and the
total number of automatic-sprinklers in position at the present time
must be about 2,000,000.

When automatic-sprinklers were first introduced there were many
apprehensions that leakage, and also excessive water discharged upon
small fires, would be sources of damage. In England this opinion found
expression in increased insurance rates in buildings where
automatic-sprinklers were installed.

The logic of figures shows that this liability to damage is merely
nominal in the case of well-constructed sprinklers. An association of
underwriters who have given careful attention to the subject obtained
the facts that from the automatic-sprinklers installed in some
$500,000,000 worth of property insured by them, the average damage from
all causes, except fire, was $2.56 per plant per annum.

Although automatic-sprinklers have proved to be so reliable and
effective, yet, in order to provide for all possible contingencies,
their introduction should not displace other forms of fire-apparatus,
particularly stand-pipes in the stairway towers, with hydrants at each
story. The hose at these hydrants should be festooned on a row of pins,
or doubled on some of the reels made especially for such purposes.
Stand-pipes are not recommended to be placed in rooms or on
fire-escapes; and inside hydrants should not be attached to the vertical
pipes supplying automatic-sprinklers.

Fire-pumps are generally too small for the work required of them, 500
gallons per minute being the minimum capacity recommended. For a
five-story mill there should be an allowance of 250 gallons per minute
for an effective stream through a 1-1/8-inch nozzle, and for lower
buildings the estimate should rarely be less than 200 gallons for each
stream.

Contrary to the general assumption, a ring nozzle is not so efficient as
a smooth nozzle, the relative amount of discharge of ring and smooth
nozzles of the same diameter being as three is to four. For stand-pipes
7/8-inch nozzles are recommended, but for yard hydrant service the
diameter should never be less than one inch, and 1-1/8 inches generally
fulfils the conditions of best service.

The yard hydrants should be placed at a distance of fifty feet from
buildings, and covered with a house which should also contain hose,
axes, bars, nozzles and spanners.

Water-mains about a mill-yard should be of ample capacity not to cause
an excessive loss by friction, their diameter being based upon a limit
of velocity of ten feet per second for the maximum delivery.


RESULTS.

These methods of supervision, building and equipment do not refer to any
ideality, but to measures which have been widely carried into effect for
the purpose of reducing the fire-loss; the result of such action being
to diminish the cost of insuring industrial property engaged in such
normally hazardous processes as textile manufacture and other
industries, down to a yearly cost of less than one-fifth of one per
cent. This has been accomplished by the consideration of sources of
danger and their abatement, and by a course which has been in line with
sound engineering principles, and also practical methods of manufacture;
and it has thus been proved that it is cheaper to prevent a fire than to
sustain a loss.

There has been no attempt made to credit individuals with their share in
these features of mill development. They have been the outgrowth of a
continual profiting by experience, adopting some features and modifying
others. The concurrent action of the large number of minds engaged on
the same problem has led to duplication of methods; but the whole
progress has been a matter of slow, steady growth, advancing by hairs'
breadths, as the result of persistent efforts to adapt means to ends in
the endeavor to reduce the cost of manufacture.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 6: Abstract of a paper by Mr. C.J.H. Woodbury, read before the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers.]

       *       *       *       *       *



[Illustration: SOCIETIES]

THE NEWARK ARCHITECTURAL SKETCH-CLUB.


After a preliminary meeting held for permanent organization December 14,
1889, a constitution and by-laws were adopted, and the following
officers elected: _President_, W. Frank Bowers; _Vice-President_, J.C.
Swinnerton; _Secretary_, H.A. Hickok; _Treasurer_, W.C. Hudson. _The
Executive Committee_ consists of F.S. Sutton, A.E. Hudson, W.G. Smith,
L.A. Virtue and E.K. Taylor, together with the officers. It is intended,
in addition to the usual monthly competitions, to make a special feature
of regular class-work throughout the year, this will consist of courses
in constructional work, free-hand drawing, water-color work, plumbing,
architectural history, etc. The courses will be under the direction of
specialists in the various branches who are club-members. Applications
for membership will be received by the Secretary, whose address is 762
Broad Street, Newark. The Club expect to have permanent quarters soon,
which will be open every evening to members.

       *       *       *       *       *



[Illustration: COMMUNICATIONS]

[_The editors cannot pay attention to demands of correspondents who
forget to give their names and addresses as guaranty of good faith; nor
do they hold themselves responsible for opinions expressed by their
correspondents_.]

AGREEMENT BETWEEN ARCHITECT AND CLIENT.


ALBANY, N.Y., December 26, 1889.

TO THE EDITORS OF THE AMERICAN ARCHITECT:

_Dear Sirs_,--As the services which an architect is supposed to render
his client and the compensation for same have been the subject of
considerable loss to us through misunderstanding, we have prepared for
use the enclosed proposition, which covers most cases in our general
practice. In work of such a nature as can't be covered by this
proposition, we prepare one specially suited to the occasion, but in all
cases insist on a written agreement which we consider is fair to both
parties. Should you see in this proposition anything of benefit to the
profession, you are at liberty to use same.

Yours truly, FULLER & WHEELER.

OFFICE OF FULLER & WHEELER, ARCHITECTS,
No. 86 STATE STREET, ALBANY, N.Y., ---- 189 .


PROPOSITION.

Mr.----

We will prepare for you the Preliminary Sketches, General Drawings,
Details and Specifications for proposed----

to be erected at----

for 3-1/2 per cent on the actual cost of same, which is to be determined
by the amount of Mason, Carpenter, Roofer, Plumber, Stone-cutting,
Heating, Ventilating, Iron-workers, Mantel and Elevator Contracts,
including all extras and deductions. In connection with Heating,
Ventilating and Elevator, we will either select the apparatus and
approve the specifications as submitted by the dealers, or prepare plans
and specifications for contractors to estimate on, according to the
character of the work in contemplation, and as in our judgment will
secure the best advantage to you. The cost of hardware, mantel facings,
hearths, back linings, metal bands, electric work and decorations are
also to be included in the total cost of said building, but we are not
required to perform more than our customary work in connection with the
last mentioned items, which is either to select them from manufacturers'
stock or have submitted to us samples, sketches and specifications from
which a selection is made. Any other work, not mentioned above, that we
may be called upon to perform will be charged for at the same rates.


SUPERVISION.

We agree to professionally supervise work constructed from our plans,
for an additional 1-1/2 per cent, or 5 per cent in all, where the work
is in the city, and inspect work out of city at the same rate per cent,
visits not to exceed 2 per month. In any case where a Clerk-of-Works is
required, either on account of the magnitude of the job, or the
inefficiency or carelessness of the contractors, the cost of same is to
be paid by you in addition to our compensation for supervision or
inspection, and said Clerk is to be approved by us.

We do not agree to be responsible for the acts of the Clerk-of-Works, or
for the negligence or violations of contracts by the contractors any
further than we can reasonably detect at the time of our visits of
supervision or inspection; but such negligence or violations of
contracts, as we detect, we will have corrected, so far as the power
vested in us will permit and as speedily as possible.

You are at all times to consult with us about desired changes or
additions to the work; to order all such changes through us; and to
notify us in regard to any work done or material used that you consider
is a violation of the contract.

No allowance from our percentage will be made for drawings contracted
for and not furnished, except upon a refusal by us to furnish such as
may be necessary.

The supervision and inspection contemplated by this agreement, is such
as is calculated to and ordinarily will secure the furnishing of
materials of the kind and quality required by the contract, and the
performance of the work in accordance with the plans and specifications,
and in a good, workmanlike and substantial manner.


CERTIFICATES.

Where the work is under our supervision, or inspection, we will issue
certificates of indebtedness to the contractors, as per terms of
contract. The final certificate being an adjustment of the contract and
extras, and also an expression of judgment on our part that the work has
been carried out according to the general drawings and specifications
and contracts by the contractors, but is not to form a legal obligation
on our part.

If the building is not erected from said plans, the charges, instead of
being based on the actual cost, will be based on the approximate cost,
which is hereby estimated at $----, although the last-mentioned sum is
not guaranteed to be the actual cost of said building. Should the actual
cost exceed the approximate cost, we will make the necessary changes in
the plans, so as to reduce the cost, should you so desire, without extra
charge. Changes made in plans from other causes, charged for according
to time consumed.

Travelling expenses and other necessary disbursements in addition to
fee for services.


PAYMENTS.

Payments shall be made as follows: Upon completion of the preliminary
sketches, 1 per cent of estimated cost; upon completion of the general
drawings and specifications, an additional 1-1/2 per cent of estimated
cost; upon completion of details an additional 1 per cent of estimated
cost; and upon completion of the work, the charge for supervision or
inspection. At that time, also, any differences between the percentage
upon the estimated and actual cost is to be settled, and any deficiency
is to be paid or excess credited.

Travelling expenses and other necessary disbursements are payable when
incurred.

In case contracts are not entered into for the work within six months
after the drawings are ready for contractors to estimate, payment shall
be made for the work done at the rates herein before specified, computed
upon the estimated cost. Provided, however, that if at any subsequent
time the plans and specifications prepared by us, are used and the
actual cost exceeds the estimated cost, compensation upon such excesses,
shall be made at the rates aforesaid.


REMARKS.

Respectfully yours,

Accepted, ---- 189

       *       *       *       *       *


INSPECTION OF BUILDINGS IN NEW YORK.

NEW YORK, N.Y., December 22, 1889.

TO THE EDITORS OF THE AMERICAN ARCHITECT:--

_Dear Sirs_,--In your issue of the 21st. I note an editorial setting
forth how the New York City Health Department trapped an ingenious
builder, who piped his sewerage into his back-yard, and I, and, I think
I can safely say, many other architects of New York, would ask why you
omit, when publishing such facts, to mention that such work was so put
in and is continually put in, in as bad or in a very unworkmanlike and
insanitary manner, under the supervision of the same department, and
thus shows how the paid officials and inspectors whose business it is to
pass upon and approve the plans and specifications and to give continual
inspection--to see, examine and test every length of pipe and every
joint; who have the might of the law to strike down the offender who
shall make bold to violate their mandates, fail to give protection to
the innocent owners and purchasers of property, or curb the avaricious
hands of unscrupulous builders and careless workmen.

I should like further, to ask you to publish to the New York City
public, the fact that the "Department", the "Health Department", with
its Bureau of Plumbing and Light and Ventilation, and the Building
Bureau of the Fire Department, are unable to protect property owners and
purchasers from errors in sanitation and construction as they are
supposed by too many to do. Owners frequently think that unless they
want "fancy" drawings and fronts, an architect is superfluous. The
"speculator" finds it no advantage, but rather the opposite, to have an
impartial judge between owner and Contractor, or a close inspection over
his subs; as he gains little by the fact of his having employed a
thorough architect, when he comes to fell, and loses by the bill for
services and the legitimate price he pays for honest work.

The bulk of speculative work done in New York is after the most trivial
plans made by some mere draughtsman or carpenter, and the
"superintendence" is under the "keen" eye of the builder and owner--who
is usually one and the same individual and who has made a definite
failure at all the branches of the trade and frequently many others, and
now holds position as owner of the property by virtue of his having
paid, entirely in mortgage, for the same. In the large majority of cases
that have been under my observation, they are entirely incapable of
passing an intelligent opinion on any of the materials and work that
make up a building, or at least on very little, and the gross
impositions practiced upon them by their sub-contractors is startling.
Their work is covered-in and is so left, I doubt not, in the majority of
cases, as the inspection furnished by the "Department" is entirely
inadequate for proper protection. The confidence of the public is
continually bolstered up by such descriptions as the editorial above
mentioned.

A NEW YORK ARCHITECT.

       *       *       *       *       *


A SEEMING ATTEMPT TO DEFRAUD AN ARCHITECT.

PITTSBURGH, PA., December 30, 1889.

TO THE EDITORS OF THE AMERICAN ARCHITECT:

_Dear Sirs_,--Please answer through the columns of your valuable journal
the following:

I will designate A as the party for whom I drew plans, etc., B as the
owner of property adjoining, and C as the contractor for A. I drew up
plans and specifications for a 60' 0" front by 60' 0" deep building for
A, including party-wall for A and B who has 35' 0" front by 60' 0" deep
lot. I was employed to render full services, such as to draw up plans,
specifications, details and superintend the construction of said
building for A.

A wrote to me asking me whether I would allow B to use my plans and
specifications to be copied. I answered, emphatically, that not under
any circumstances would I allow it without compensation, as the plans,
etc., were my property, and were only designed for A.

A let the contract for erection and completion of the building to C, I
having made the articles of agreement for same.

In the meantime I was notified that B and C were taking sub-bids for
the erection of the 35' 0" building, all with my plans and
specifications. They were taking the sub-bids from the same parties that
were to do the work for C on the building for A. B let C build the 35'
0" building.

I notified B and C that I will collect my commission on the construction
and completion of their building, to which notices I have no reply.

The 35' 0" building was commenced at the same time as the building for
A; my plans, specifications and details were used for the building by
the same sub-contractors, etc.

The buildings are now nearly complete, and the building for B or the 85'
0" building is a portion of the building designed for A with slight
variations made by C.

I think the above to be very explicit; and now, gentlemen, I would like
to ask you for your opinion as to my compensation, and to what extent I
am entitled to it.

Yours very respectfully,

F.C. SAUER.

[We think that you are entitled to the full commission of five per cent
on the cost of the 35-foot building, and believe that you can collect
it.--EDS. AMERICAN ARCHITECT.]

       *       *       *       *       *


VENTILATING WOODEN COLUMNS.

ZANESVILLE, O., December 23,1889.

TO THE EDITORS OF THE AMERICAN ARCHITECT:

_Dear Sirs_,--We notice that in buildings in the East for factory
purposes, all wood columns have a hole bored through the centre for
ventilation. What size should the hole be for 12" x 12", 10" x 10" and
8" x 8" posts. Also size of cross holes for the purpose of communicating
with vertical hole, and how far from ends.

Respectfully yours,

A.E. PILING CO., LTD.

[We have referred this to Mr. C.J.H. Woodbury who replies that the
method followed by the best mill-builders is to bore a hole along the
axis one and three-fourth to two inches in diameter. The method formerly
used was to bore the hole in half-way from each end after the column was
finished, but as the auger would follow the grain of the wood, the holes
would not always meet, and running out nearer the side of the column
would produce structural weakness which has been revealed in tests of
columns whenever destructive tests of such columns have been made. The
better way is to arrange a lathe with a hollow headstock and a guide
which will carry a pod-auger boring in from one end. This will define
the axis of the column whether it is to be turned or left square. Near
each end, say five inches, a couple of transverse holes generally
five-eighth of an inch in diameter are bored. This arrangement is to
reduce and in some cases prevent checking in the same way as has been
used, time immemorial, for getting out hubs for wagon wheels.--EDS.
AMERICAN ARCHITECT.]

       *       *       *       *       *


BOOKS IN WATER-COLOR PAINTING.

SPOKANE FALLS, WASH., December 11, 1889.

TO THE EDITORS OF THE AMERICAN ARCHITECT:

_Dear Sirs_,--Will you kindly advise, through the columns of your paper,
what is the best self-instructing work on architectural water-coloring,
and oblige.

INQUIRER.

[The best drill for the eye and hand that we know of can be obtained in
the shortest time by getting Buskin's "_Elements of Drawing_," and doing
faithfully and exactly all the exercises which he prescribes, including
both those in black-and-white and color. Many people, however, do not
care for this drill, but prefer to make a few bad imitations of simple
chromos, and consider that equipment enough for architectural work. For
those, Penley's large work, the "_System of Water-Color Painting_" is
the best for copying from; or the aspirant may get some of the little
Winsor and Newton "_Handbooks on Sketching in Water-Colors_," to show
him how to choose and mix his pigments, and use as models to copy from
some of the colored prints of architectural subjects which are to be
picked up in the stores. There is a good deal of choice among these. We
have ourselves published one or two, from originals by Mr. Botch, which
will answer as well as anything we know, being admirable in color and
architectural feeling, and just sketchy enough. Pains should generally
be taken _not_ to make an elaborate picture of an architectural sketch,
and the processes preliminary to making a highly-finished water-color
painting, such as laying a ground-color of neutral orange, and sponging
it partly out, cutting out foreground lights with a knife, and so on,
are best dispensed with. Chinese white, also, should be used very
sparingly, and only where the scale is so small that it appears in the
form of dots. A good lesson on the importance of keeping color subdued,
for the sake of heightening architectural effect, can be derived from
any of Front's works, which, by the way, might with great advantage be
used to copy from. These will show the value of what most students
consider beneath their notice--work in two tints and give the best
models possible of artistic distribution of light and shade.--EDS.
AMERICAN ARCHITECT.]

       *       *       *       *       *



[Illustration: NOTES AND CLIPPINGS]


THE DUTY ON GLASS AS IT AFFECTS CONSUMERS.--In a letter to the _New York
Times_, Mr. J.S. Moore writes: As I am on the subject of glass, and as
the members of the Pan-American Congress are inspecting our magnificent
metropolis, I wish to call their attention to two subjects. First, our
dirty streets, and second, our splendid windows. Dickens has
immortalized the "Golden Dustman." In this city we have the "Dirty
Ringman," or we may say "Ringmen." There have been millions in New
York's dirty streets. The most honest and persevering Mayors and other
high officials have got stuck in New York street mud and were never
heard of again. Our aristocratic home mud has flourished without any
protection, and the pauper mud of Europe or any other mud could never
beat our home product. Here our amiable and friendly Commissioners of
the Pan-American Congress can see it demonstrated that our mud industry
can flourish without protection. I will now call the attention of our
Pan-American friends to the windows in New York houses. They are
invariably of plate-glass, and there is not a city in the world that can
beat New York in handsome windows. Now, then, it is an actual fact that
the tax or duty on plate-glass is as follows: Plate-glass, 10 by 15
inches, 3 cents per foot, or 13.60 per cent; plate-glass, 16 by 24
inches, 5 cents per foot, or 19.78 per cent; plate-glass, 24 by 30
inches, 8 cents per foot, or 27.46 per cent. Now, we must admit that
this is a moderate tax. The above glass goes into the houses of the
rich. Of course, it will not do to tax influential and rich citizens.
But now let me show how we tax that class of people who build
three-hundred-dollar houses, or the hundreds of thousands of farmers who
live in the far West. Those houses are glazed by what is known as common
green window glass. Let me show to what extent we have taxed that class
of people in 1888:


IMPORTS OF COMMON WINDOW GLASS IN 1888.

                                          Duty
                                        Collected,     Per
                             Value.     Ad valorem.    Cent.

Sizes not exceeding 10x15   $288,927     $190,815       66
Sizes 16 x 24                265,919      305,357      114.83
Sizes 24 x 30                346,486      440,685      127.15
All above that               477,132      626,740      131.35
                                       ----------
Total                                  $1,563,497

We have squeezed out of the neediest, most hard-working of our
population $1,563,000 taxes on their "daylight" or window tax, which has
gone into the Treasury; but we have squeezed at least $5,000,000 more
and put it into the pockets of people who made similar glass. Our
Pan-American guests may reflect on the above statistics and come to the
conclusion that having flourishing window-glass industries may, after
all, not be the highest blessing.

I beg to assure Mr. Carnegie that I am "not" a grumbler, as I don't want
to run the risk of having the door of heaven shut in my face when he
succeeds St. Peter in office.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE NATURAL-GAS SUPPLY.--At the recent meeting in New York of the
American Geological Society, Prof. Edward Orton, State Geologist of
Ohio, and a professor in the State University, in his paper answered
those who claim that the great natural gas fields of the country are
practically inexhaustible, and that nature is manufacturing the gas by
chemical combination in the subterranean cavities as rapidly as it is
consumed by man at the surface. He claimed that the supply of natural
gas in those States was not only limited, but was being exhausted very
rapidly and would be drained in less than nine years. The gas, he said,
is now being used as the basis of a varied line of manufactures, the
annual products of which aggregate many millions of dollars, and it is
driving, besides the iron and steel mills of Pittsburgh, potteries and
brick works, over forty glass furnaces and a long list of factories in
which cheap power is a desideratum. The gas is the product of ages,
which has been accumulated in the porous limestone of Ohio and Indiana.
It has been produced so slowly that when once exhausted it will take
many thousands of years for it to again accumulate in sufficient
quantities to be used, even if the elements necessary for its production
were preserved, which he thought was not at all probable. The pressure
which forces the gas out with such tremendous power that it sometimes
reaches 1,000 pounds pressure per square inch, is not due to the
pressure of the gas itself, but to the hydrostatic pressure brought to
bear by the column of salt water that enters the porous stratum of rock
containing the gas at the sea-level, and which by its weight tends to
force the gas out. To the explanation and elucidation of this
phenomenon, Professor Orton's paper was more especially devoted. The men
who are engaged in the practical development of gas and oil fields, said
he, made great account of rock-pressure. It is the first fact they
inquire after in a new gas-field. They appreciate its importance,
knowing that the distance of the markets they care to reach and the size
of the pipes they can employ are entirely dependent upon this element.
He defined the term "rock-pressure", and showed the decrease of its rate
westward. He said four hundred thousand people in Northwestern Ohio and
Central Indiana alone depended upon natural-gas for fuel and
illumination.

       *       *       *       *       *


STATUE GIVING A DOUBLE IMAGE.--At the Italian exhibition in the Champ de
Mars there was a statue that attracted much attention from the visitors.
It represented Goethe's Marguerite standing before a mirror. This latter
gave by reflection the image of Faust. The artifice was well concealed
by the sculptor. In reality, it was not a double statue, but the figure
of Faust was skilfully obtained by means of the folds of Marguerite's
robe.

Marguerite holds her arms in front of her, and these same arms form
those of Faust, who holds them crossed behind his back. Faust's face is
carved in Marguerite's back hair, and the man's figure is obtained, as
before stated, by means of the folds of the woman's robe. This curious
object might inspire some of our sculptors with an analogous idea. We do
not know the name of the author of the statue, but we can say that it
was exhibited by Mr. Francesco Toso, a Venetian manufacturer of mirrors.
The statue was of wood, and of nearly life-size.--_La Nature_.

       *       *       *       *       *

SITE FOE THE KAISER'S MONUMENT.--Three or four Berlin banks have secured
the preemption of all the buildings in Schlossfreiheitstrasse, with a
view to pulling them down and fulfilling the Emperor's wish to have his
grandfather's monument erected there. Only a few days ago three of the
most eminent Berlin architects declared that the place was absolutely
unsuited for that purpose. The banks are said to have agreed to pay
5,000,000 marks for the houses, and an equal amount as compensation,
and intend to form a lottery of 40,000,000 marks, with prizes to the
amount of 30,000,000.--_The London Standard_.

       *       *       *       *       *



[Illustration: TRADE SURVEYS]


The salient features of the business situation this week afford every
encouragement to the promoters of new schemes and the pioneers in
industry. Among the additional factors which will stimulate trade and
business during 1890 are the following: The construction of fifty per
cent more railway mileage than was built last year; a very great
increase in lake tonnage; a large increase in inland water-way tonnage;
a very great increase in rolling-stock; a greater increase in locomotive
capacity than has been made during any one year in our history; greater
activity in house-building, and greater activity in the building of
shops and factories. Several other interesting features also deserve
mention, among them the very strong probability of the establishment of
a larger number of banks daring 1890 than were established during 1889
or any previous year; the more rapid expansion of the building and loan
association system, particularly in the newer States; the increase in
the output of the gold and silver mines of the West and Southwest; the
opening-up of valuable coal-beds in many localities, which will tend to
the establishment of little industries; a great increase in the area of
land devoted to agriculture. Speaking generally, the agricultural
interests will be stimulated. Speaking prophetically, it is very
probable that prices will continue to advance, but by infinitesimal
degrees. Speaking conservatively and in the light of recent experience,
it is safe to assume and assert that production will be evenly gauged to
consumptive requirements. Those who have kept a close eye upon the
operations of manufacturers in all the leading channels recognize one
very gratifying feature, and that is, that they are protecting
themselves against unwarranted and unexpected advances in the cost of
their raw material by making purchases for future requirements, ranging
from three to six months. Users of cotton and wool are largely doing
this; so are users of iron ore and iron and steel, as well as users of
lumber, stone, cement and building material generally. This general
policy of providing for legitimate future requirements is one of those
instincts which safely guide the commercial world out of danger into
safety. One fruitful source of panics in former periods of activity was
the failure of consuming interests to supply themselves with raw
material to complete their contracts. The business world has learned
wisdom from its experience, and is now quietly turning a corner and
wheeling into line safely early in 1890. The tanning interests of the
United States have pursued this course in their limited field. The boot
and shoe manufacturers, if they have not bought largely of raw material,
have, at least, taken such steps as will guarantee them against a sudden
advance. The clothing manufacturers have wisely purchased for their
future wants; in fact, in almost every avenue of activity this policy
has been pursued. The users of Lake ore have already bought five and
one-half millions of the seven or eight million tons of ore they will
want this year. The users of steel blooms and billets have bought so far
ahead that manufacturers are now declining to make further contracts,
excepting for very strong reasons. The Southern pig-iron makers are
debating with themselves whether they will accept orders for pig-iron to
be delivered next summer or wait a few months. Scores of illustrations
of this sort could be enumerated. In many quarters this policy is
believed to be an unwise one. Experience has shown it to be a safe one.

The iron industry, as a whole, is on a very permanent foundation.
Manufacturers are hurrying to complete new works; lumber manufacturers,
especially throughout the South, are stimulated to the greatest exertion
by two new causes: First, a strong demand throughout the North for the
superior lumber-mill products of the South; and second, a wonderful
expansion of local demand in the South arising from the new industries
there. The makers of nearly all kinds of machinery are busy with new
work, fully one-half of which is for delivery in the new Southern or
Western States. The manufacturers of steam-pumps, the manufacturers of
appliances for new fuel-gas processes, the builders of heavy machinery
for steam and electrical purposes, the manufacturers of
hoisting-machinery and of machinery for mining purposes, as well as of
machinery for general shop-use, have been booking more business since
the 1st of October than their present shop-capacity will allow them to
execute. Consequently, a general system of enlargement is in progress.
Contracts have been lately given out for the construction of machinery
to make machines of larger than usual dimensions. Our industries are
being reorganized, and instead of engines of five, ten or fifty
horse-power, engines of fifty to five hundred horse-power are now
common. Agricultural operations are conducted by the aid of machinery
upon a larger scale, and within the past six months a score or more of
establishments for the manufacture of agricultural implements have been
equipped with machinery, and facilities in the Western States, that
indicate more clearly than anything else can do the magnitude and scope
of our agricultural interests. Last year the rolling stock of the
railroads was increased by some 54,000 freight cars, but it is probable
that the additional orders this year will reach 100,000. The managers of
several of the Western railroad systems have decided to erect
repair-shops along their various systems, by which repair work and new
work can be more expeditiously and economically done. The springing up
of so many little industries along these new lines is creating local
markets for farm-products. Last year the opening of coal mines, to the
number of about sixty, promises a sufficient supply of coal to these new
communities at a low cost. These encouragements are stimulating the
outflow of population from the older States, and it is this outflow,
coupled with the better conditions for living in the West through the
development of industries, that is equalizing in such a healthy and
natural way the great manufacturing and agricultural forces. By this
growth of little industries, mechanical, mining and railroad, the
decline in the value of farm-products is checked, or possibly altogether
prevented; or, at least, the demand arising from this cause enables the
farmer to obtain the very best possible price for what he has to sell.
It is not out of place, at the opening of the year, to briefly direct
attention to these forces acting beneath the surface. The manufacturer
and merchant have nothing to fear from hidden destructive agencies.
During the past two or three years several threatening commercial evils
have arisen only to disappear by a self-correcting agency which seems to
develop itself at the right time. The merchants and manufacturers of the
New England and Middle States will find, this year, a much more valuable
market west of the Mississippi than last year. The increasing demand for
all kinds of raw material there during the past few months is a sure
indication of the growth of a great market for the shop-products.

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S.J. PARKHILL. & CO., Printers, Boston.

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*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The American Architect and Building News, Vol. 27, No. 733, January 11, 1890" ***

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