The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-12-12
BUSTING A S~KY-SCRAPER.
wR. WooDBURY's SCHEME FoH DO
mo IT INTERCHANGEABLE.

ne Arrnruea This Cotton Cloth BaE. In tire
VIue. % Ti,nt All the AR Pn"aihE ThrouEh
,hn rBuiid,nE ny Way or tho SentiintorS or
rIerters q. s~lrtea-Tests Thnt show lts worth
The person who has his ofiico on one OF the
uppcr floors Of n modern sky-scraper finds many
advantages there over an office Mt the ordinary
beirhts above the earth. Among these arc ro-
lief from annoyance by tho noises OF tho street,
the moro open views and FREQ air, and particu.
Iarly a freedom from house flies. The fly belt OF
the air, Il il asserted, Is as clearly defined a.
tho timber or snow belt on q mountain side, ana
Il docs not extend to tho higher floors OF tail
buildings. These advantages were set forth
in n pnper read last week before tho American
Society of Mechanical Engipeors by Q, j. Wood
bury Of Boston.
At the same time Mr.. Woodbury. called attcnr
tion to n decided disadvantage which tho tom
ants in high buildings had discovered. This IN
dust. The usual method Of heating and ventilate
ing these great structurs Is by drawing n greap
quantity Of air down a 'uo from tho roof
warming this air IN tho basement, and sending
1t forth through fans or blowers, to circulate
through tho rooms and passages OF the building.
Frequently as much as four times tho volume
in tho entire building is thus circulated through
it every hour. This keeps the air of the build
ing sweet, but since even the upper atmosphere
from which this air Is drawn Is often filled with
great quantities of fine dust, It carries this dust
| into the offices and leaves much Of 1t there. In
| cities whcre bituminous coal is used In quanti.
ty this dust contains. much fine carbon, and
when this Is I'd deposited 1t ruins books, drawinEs,
! upholstery, and hangings, and many other deli
Mr.. Woodbury. was called upon as an en-
gincer to cure this trouble In q building OF near
" 100000 cubic feet capacity. Through this
building, he says, there, was usually blown 28,.
feet an hour. This air was drawn down q fue
of about six feet square; ann moved AT me rae
scribes the manner in which he siftcd the fine
dust out of this air:
fine rectangular openings. was, placed at tho
top of tho fuc, and. under each opening was
RE,s E E to q iishi wood SiSsn frame Saamso M slisstly !G larger wrS than AN
entering the flue must Pass pass, d9 owl, va ro int these Sc
enaSied the bags to be raised and Lowered By. a
Of the bags we're made open. and closed with a
drawing string, and hoops kept the lower por-
tending along the sides from end to end facili-
tated turning inside out and back again when
'asrhesc bags were square at the top, where
their combined area eqnalled that OF a flue. but
soon diminished st to a cyi ~ tTn section .hrs o sflnpy
ing ample clearance for the exit of the air pass
ing through the fabric, The area of the J., FIVE ,e
the air passed down the fiue at a velocity of
700 feet per minute, it passed th1ro'Tgh the . fabric tn G
peck per month of fine dust was gathered from
the bags.
THE efficiency of the device was tested by
placing freshly painted boards at the bottom of
the fue before the installation of the apparatus.
and then giving another coat of paint after the
apparatus was in service. In the first instance
the fresh paint collected fine dust until it rc.
sembled fine sandpaper, and in the second the
paint dried with a smooth surface.
lin several of the offices split laps of absor-
bent cotton were placed in various parts of the
building before and after the bags were In ser.
vice. and one set was covered with fine particles
and the other was free. The change was not n
notable one at first, owing to the large amount
of dust in the fues. but much of this was re.
moved by running the blower mt n worry high
rate of speed, and afterward removing the regis.
tiers and washing them and the flues as far az
could be reached"