Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1885-09-03
apauamaker's.
Pnn.AprLrInA, August 81, isl

intendent Mcpherson will give
you a pass to go all over it,
wherever your personal safety
permits. Let's have a minutes
confab on one Of the thousand
points of interest there-the
corner stairways. One is fin
ished and open, the corner
opposite our western door,
There is to be a similar stair
way in every corner. The
one in the southwest corner
is now building.
In the southwest tower of
St. Paul's Cathedral, London,
is a similar stairway, called
in. the Guide Books the geo
metrical staircase" tbs spiral.
Every step is separate stone.
As you go up, the lower near
corner OF every successive
stone is sustained by the upper
far corner of the stone below
it. The Guide will tell you
the whole stair rests on the
bottom single stone; rising
circle on circle more than a
hundred steps of ponderous
stone. 1t has been the won
der of travellers for two-hun-
dred years-a humorous
stroke in the masterpiece Of
Sir Christopher Wren.
The City Hall stairway is
much the greater wonder. 1t
is called the hanging stair
way" here. The stones of
which it is built seem to hang
from the walls of the tower
nothing under thcm-nothing
to hinder thcir tumbling. That
stairway Of more than a hun
dred-and-fifty granite steps
must weigh by a rough calcu-
lation between four and five
hundred tons. 1t literally
hangs from the walls of the
tower.
1t isn't true, as the Guide
Book says, that the weight Of
every step is wholly borne by
the step below. An incident
in the building here proves
that it isn't true. A stone
was broken, Time was re-
quired to replace it. The stair
way didn't wait. The stone
was skipped and slipped in
afterwards. Now the wonder
is bigger than ever. That
stairway is worth journey to
see.
There's a still greater won
der in it. twenty long wide
landings are interspcrsed be
tween misunderstanding
six steps. The landings are
single stones As The steps are
single stones. The landing
stones are more thah twenty
feet long and ten feet wide.
The steps are a trillc; ilep
may be hung from the wall;
but how is that broad stone
pavement hung from the
wall?
You will not solve the puz-
zle by looking. 1t is miracle
to look at. The architects
function is supposed to call
for a double skill: to make
his structure strong; and to
give it that semblance OF
strength that chcats us into
unconsciously trusting its
strength. But here he re-
verses the latter principle. He
gives this stairway such SEEM
ing weakness that you scarcely
dare to stand below and look
up at it. Another leaning
Tower of Pisa Too much
OF a puzzle to tell OF here and
leave un5olvcd.
Within, the tower is octa-
gonal. The stones of the
steps and landings arc set far
into the wall-singly set into
the wall. Not altogether sim
gly. The steps do bear some
weight on the stones be-
low-enough to give them a
certain onencss--enough to
prevent a breaking strain on
any single stone. The steps
are rectangular; they rest on
one another, and the bottom
one Of a flight rests on the
landing below. But the land
lngs are cut at the ends at
such an angle that the thrust
OF the flight Of steps. above
ut there is any thrust is di-
rected against the octaeonal
wall. And, strange as il may
seem, that landing rests so far
upon the wall around two
angles that it wouldn't stir if
the steps below it we're taken
away and the weight of the
wall above were taken away.
The landings are firm on the
wall as well as in the wall. The
steps are firm in the wall and
rest on the landings besides.
It a. = .