Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-01-04
THOUSANDS OF VISITORS.
The Increasing Popularity Of the Wash.
fngtOn Monument.

The Increasing Popularity Of the WASH
tngtOn Monument.
THREE-MoSTHs' REcoRD-REcENr CHANGES
| AND IMPRovRMENTs-coMFoRr OF VISITORS
PROTECTION FROM vANDAIIsM-oUrTINa AND
| SETTING THE MEMORIAL STONES.
The Washington monument continues to
draw. The past week was heavy tax upon its
accommodating capacities, but it closed the
year with a big rush of business, and achieved
| the wonderful feat of having been assembled by
short dozen over $4,000 people since it
was opened to the public on the 9th of last
| October. This is an average of over
10000 month. This period covers ~ week
| days. During this time the monument was
closed two days for slight repairs, thus leaving
| 20 days on which folks climbed to the top.
This number, divided into 30,0i1, the whole
number of visitors up to the new year, ac-
cording to Custodian Thomas books.
gives daily average of nearly 429
people. In October 1882 persons were
carried up by the elevator and 1854 walked up
the stairs; in November 7.135 we're elevated
| and 1884 walked. and in December the car car
| ried $3.50 and the stairs accommodated 1876,
| making total of 81 ,5S7 taken up by the ele-
vator and s.424 who walked Holiday week
was the busiest time since the starting, over
| 5000 making the ascent. Besides the great
number of visitors in the city many residents
| took advantage Of their half days and whole
! days OF freedom to make the trip. On Friday
| the largest number of visitors for the year was
| recorded. 1.5O0 viewing the scene from the top.
| On Saturday !, 400 folks assembled
CHANGES.
A number of small changes have recently
been made in and about the shaft for the COM
| fort of visitors. A pair of storm-doors have
been fitted in the doorway at the bottom to
| keep out the air that came sweeping in and
whirling up the great chimney, to the extreme
| discomfort of shivering visitors waiting
| around the elevator cage for the tardy coming
of the car. No matter from which direction
| the wind is blowing the draft through the shaft
is terrific, but the building of the storm doors
| has effectually prevented it. Then steam pipes
have been led into the space around the elevator
! cage from the engine room, supplying number
| of coils with live steam, which keeps this wait
ing-room at a comfortable temperature. Settles
| have been placed around the walls. The ele-
vator, however, continues to jog along at its
/ usual nine or ten-minute gait, frequently max
! ing twelve-minute record. to the disgust of
| those passengers who are in hurry but to the
relief of timid ones, who find comfort in the
| slow. steady motion of the car. Two sets of
| friction wheels have been placed in the car,
! one at the top and the other at the bottom. to
| prevent the hand cable from wearing as it
passes through the framework The two lift
! ing cables, says the elevator conductor. look
| even better than they did when the elevator
] was started, there not being any kind of a flaw
| to be detected in any part of them, a very COM
| forting assurance to those with weak nerves.
| AT THE TOP
there are improvements, too. At each of the
eight aperatures in the roof glass window
has been fitted. to be shut whenever the wind.
rain or snow shows tendency to beat in They
| are let down by double hinges into a box
| hal he edo wi Is ta1 wifi
At night the glass windows are taken down
| and locked into their cases. and the great mar
BILE shutters are swung around into the OPEN
| ing, and all is snug for darkness. The glass
| windows are not raised unless the wind is
strong, and then only on the side where it
| blows in.
| VANDALISM.
The vandal is beginning to leave his mark
on the shaft. His name is written ON the
wooden window frames at the top, in sundry
corners, on the inner face of the shaft, Oh the
memorial tablets, and on the base outside.
| There have been several arrests, and many
would-be offenders, caught just as they were
| preparing to write their names, have been
| given warning and elected from the monument
| As yet no damage has been done since the
opening of the shaft to the public beyond the
! scribbliDg of some pencil marks that can be
rubbed off. but there has been a continual
| tendency to attempt to deface the monument
| on the part OF large NUMBER OF visitors. 1t Is
quite evident that larger force of watchmen,
both at the top and.in the interior OF the shaft,
is needed to take proper care of the structure
CARRYING THE STEAM.
Some trouble experienced at the start
with the pipe carrying the steam from the boil
ers on the river bank to the engine at the base
| of the shaft. This pipe runs through tunnel
| and is carefully wrapped to prevent condensa-
ton. The intense heat tends to expand the
| iron, and the length of pipe is so great that
| the expansion on the whole amounts to a very
considerable item, which has been very difficult
to dispose of. Atfirst hinge expansion joint was
| used; the great steam-pipe gradually bending
the hinge as it heightened. But it was found
that there was considerable escape
| system had to be introduced
| This plant has been in operation now some
time, and gives entire satisfaction. 1t is very
ingenious arrangement of three upright iron
| pipes, the first one connected at the bottom
| with the feed-pipe to the engine, and the last
| one at the top with the pipe from the boiler. As
| the long pipe expands each of these three pipes
| bend slightly, acting as fattened spiral
/ spring. The expansion of the great pipe
amounts to nearly foot.
THE MEMORIAL STONES.
The work of cutting and setting the memo
| rial stones that were stored in the old wooden
| building is under progress and will be finished
IL is tnOuSnt, IN ABOUT a month. Ihe stones are
| almost all very thick, from two to three-and-a-
half feet, and it is necessary to slab them down
| to thickness of from four-and-a-half to eight
| inches, according to the character of the cary
ing. If it is in high relief the stone is cut thin;
| if it is sunk thick slab is produced. In order
| to cut these stones the contractor has rugged a
| temporary saving frame in the grounds that
gnaws away at the marbles from morning until
| night. A small traction engine furnishes the
power, running very slowly, with just enough
| pressure on to keep the piston rod in motion.
| A belt runs to a set of wheels a few feet away
where the motion is transferred to a horizontal
| arm working back and forth at the rate of one
| hundred round-trips minute. This bar con-
| meets with the saving frame, about four feet
| distant. This is really great bucksaw, hung
| from a rude derrick twelve or fifteen feet high
| by means of two strong ropes. The block Of
| marble is placed in position under the derrick
| and the saw raised so that the blade, merely a
| strip of steel several feet long, three or four
inches wide, and an eighth of an inch thick
| rests on the marble at the right place so as to
| give the slab the proper thickness. gas
! pipe, perforated at regular intervals with
small holes, runs alongside the blade, connected
with water tank. Then the engine is started
and the strip of steel begins to move back and
| forth over the hard surface. The sawyer
climbs up on the stone and dashes handfus of
hard sand around the moving blade, while the
water drps from the holes in the gas nine