Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1851-05-17

dUu Tue COTTeClueSS Ol tHeU COIlpu'a'lo'S'-
! Nevertheless it was one great merit in Mr..
! Paxton's original details of measurement,
! that they were contrived TO faciltete calcu-
lation Everything in the great building is
a dividend or multiple Of twenty four. The
internal colums are placed twenty four
feet apart while external ones have no
more than eight feet Ia third Of twenty four)
Of separation while the distance between
each Of the transopt columns is three times
! twenty-four, or seventy-two feet. This also
is the width of the middle aisle of the build
| ing, the side aises are forty-eight feet wide
and the galleries and corridors twenty-four.
Twenty-four feet is also the distance be-
! tween each of the transverse cutters under
the roof hence, the intervening bars,
which are at once rafters and cutters, are
necessarily, twenty-iour feet long.
There was little time for consideration or
| for setting right single mistake, were ii
ever so disastrous. On the prescribed day
| the tender was presented, with whatever
| imperfections it might have had, duly and
irredecmably sealed. But after checkngs
have devulged no material error The re-
suit was that Messrs. Fox and Henderson's
offer for erecting the Paxton edifice, proved
10 be the lowest practicable tender that
was submitted 10 the Building Commit
| tee
The public have long known what fol-
! lowed Mr. PaXton's Glazed Palace was
eventually chosen unanimously not only
by the Building Committee, but by the
/ Royal Commission. Some notifications
were, however adopted. 1t was decided
/ that the most revered OF the trees were TO
be admitted into the Industrial building !;
and the central transept-the apex Of whose
curviInear roof is one hundred and twelve
! feet from the ground-was contrived by Mr..
! Paxton for their enclosure. In August the
| space ia Hyde Park was boarded in, and the
| first castings for the iron columns were de-
| ivered on the fourteenth Of Septembcr.-
| Yet, when these pages meet the readers
eye, the cheapest, most gigantic, and most
substantial structure ever dreampt Of, will
| Ue HcdIll Icdul LOT utCOTdtIuH'
If for nothing else, this tremendous pile OF
| transparency is astounding-fOr It's cheap
ness.
1t is actually less costly than an agricultu-
al barn or an Irish cabin A division Of lis
suPerdcies, in cubic feet, by the sums to be
paid for it, brings out the astonishing quo
lieut of little more than one half penny
! (nlne.sxieents Of a penny per cubic foot ;
supposiug il to be taken down and returned
! to the contractors when the exhibition is
over. Or, if it remain fixture, the rate Of
cost will be rather legs than 4 penny and
oue-tweIith of penny per cubic foot. The
ordinary expense Of a barn is more than
twice as much, or two pence half penny per
foot. Here are the figures The entire ed
ifice contains thriy-three millions of cubic
feet If borrowed and taken down, the
sum to be paid is sevenly.nine thousand
eight hundred pounds il bought, 10 become
a winter garden, one hundred and fifty
thousand pounds.
The smaInes5 of cos, is dae 10 the princi-
pie we have previously explained, of each
compcheh, of the building being endowed
with more than one purpose, The six rows
Of columns are, as had been already said,
no, only props but drains. They are hollow
and into them the glass roof will deliver its
collection Cf water, In the base of each
column is inserted horizontal iron pipe to
conduct the drainage into the sewers
/ These strong tubes serve also as foundation
they are links that connect The whole of the
three thousand three hundred upushls toge-
lher. At the top, each column is fastened
to lis associate by girder, Iun up by means
of pole and pully in a few minutes, and,
once fastened, no other scaholding is reqni-
site for the roof which it supports. Thus, by
the means Of the iron pipes below, and the
iron gurders above, the eighteen acres OF
structure is held from end 10 end so compact
and fast that il becomes an enormous hollow
cube, as immovable as if ii were, instead,
solid cube dropped down beside Rotten
Row by gang Of Titans.
The roof-of which there are five, one to
/ eaCn aisle OF NOI'biOis 'AC HlIutob III Allt
middle--play many parts. They are win,
dows, light and heat adjuslors, rain conduc.
tors outside, and condensed mo!sture ducts
within, They are mteTminabIo rows o.
roofing, so placed as to form in the aggrc
gate a plane in other words, they are par
allcl rows of the letter V done in glass, il
endless ridges "long drawn out" The apeA
of each ''rdaen is wooded sash bar, with
notches on either side for holding the so
ping lalhes in which are fitted the edges ol
the glass.
The bottom or furrow bar-o;herwise a
rafler--is followed in the middle, to form 4
gutter an dinto which every drop OF rain
glides down from the glass and passes
through the transvers CUTTERS into the hollow
: columns. These longitudinal cutters art
formed at the tops OF the grders for th'
roof is self supporting, This is not all ii
converting a conservatory fer plants into ;