The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-11-07
VIBRATIONS OF HIGH BUILDINGS
Subject to Considerable o. cilIation
When Wind is In Certain Directions.

When Wind is In Certain Directions.
IL you stand on the roof of one of the
new sky scraping Office buildings n
lower Broadway in windy day, and find
an eyrie from which you can look down
to the street, the chances are at least ten
to one that your nervous system VIII ex-
perience such a shock as il has not felt
since the last time you were very sick at
sea.
Your hair will stand on end and your
heart mount into your throat You will
be ready to swear that the building is
about TO toppie over and spill into the
street.
1t will do nothing OF the kind. But
your shattered nerves have told you the
truth to this extent:-The building is
swaying in the wind, vibrating to ana fro
like an inverted pedulum. II is no fancy
OF disovdered brain, but fact.
Those who dared to mount to the top
sta ge OF the Eiffel tower is 1889 learned,
at even greater cost to their nerves, thst
that huge needle-like structure bent before
the wind until its summit described an
arc measuring more than ten feet.
The new office buildings are built very
much on the same plan as was he Eiffel
tower. That il, their steel frames from a
homogeneous mass. through which the
weight of the structure IL evenly divid-
ed. new problem in architectural en-
OF these frames TO resist the wind. This
has been reduced to an exact science.
The new buildings have been subjected
TO all manner OF wind tests, and with
stood them. But they still sway before
the wind, and the fuctustion in the up
por stories is easily pereptible.
EFFECT ON THE CLOCKS
Another class of artificers besides the
architects has had to reckon in this affect
of the wind, These are the clock makers,
whose services are called into requisition
In all modern office buildings TO equip
them from basement to roof with time
pieces. The vibrations which occur in
the upper sorry of q high building, and
which often amount to several feet,
| would seriously disconcert an old fash.
Toned clock, II not destory it's usefulness
| altogether.
In Chicago whore the "sky scraper',
may be said TO have had its beginning,
this problem has fairly baflled the clock
makers. A trade journal published i'm
| that city declare I in n recent issue that
| 1t had been found impossible 10 regu-
late the clocks in he Masonic Temple.
the Security and other high Offices build
ings in Chicago.
USING ELECTRICITY NOW.
asked the manager OF a clock NAL ing
/ firm In Maiden lane, whose clocks are
| found in most of the high buildings
down town, IL he had experienced any
such difficulty.
"Yes, he said "but we lave already
overcome II, and in the simplest way nos
sible, by the use OF electricity. We now
| put what we call a master clock In tho
| gound tioor, where there ts no percepti-
| Die vlbratiou, and that controls he
I other clocks la the upper stories.
But would tn. vibrati ons in the upp,r
stories disconcert an ordinary clock2'i
They certainly would. 10 meet the
| difficulty we have generaiy substituted
| the gravity escapement for the old
dead beat escirement.n
HERALD CLOCK ALWAYS RIGHT.
"1his, OF cours,. applies to clocks hay.