The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-01-12
How Sky scrapers src Built.
New YORK, Dec. %. 1897.


building of ten or fifteen years ago.
| If for no other reason the vast
amount Of money locked up in the
construction Of one Of these great
buildings makes it imneratively neces-
sary that they be finished and rented
in the shortest space of time-thcrc.
fore every possible mechanical means
is utilized to hasten their completion.
The slowcst progress always seems to
be made with the foundations, and
once they arc finished the structure
goes up like magic. Great dcrricks,
each with its own hosting engine, are
placed :. such distances apart that
their booms when swung toward each
other will touch. and, as the steel
frame of each story is completed, the
derricks are raised, the firc-proof
flooring is put in place, and often the
skeleton frame, with brick floors com
pletcd, towers eight or ten stories
above the highest point Of the slow
following stone walls. And way up
in the air, always on top, stand the
great derricks, forever reaching down
to the street for some great beam or
pillar. The enormous weights raised
by these dcrricks have made necessary
the use Of steel wire rope, instead of
the hemp or MANILA ordinarily used
and when the buildings have attained
a height Of three hundred feet or over
these ropes appear very thread-likc.
aud altogether too slight to raise the
weights we constantly see hanging
from them.
These great dcrricks also seem to do
their work without human direction.
You can stand as long as you please
before one of these great buildings
and watch piece after piece of mate
rial as it is hoistcd into place without
having seen man wave his hand. or
| shout, or, so far as you can see, give
! any directions regarding the work,
and yet the boom Of the derrick is
raised or lowered, and swung to the
right or to the left, and the great
hooked block at the end Of the falls"
is lowered or raised. or stopped at ex-
, actly the right moment. You know
the engineer who runs the hosting en-
gine is way down in the cellar, where
he can see nothing Of what is going
on, and if you look very carefully you
will find man standing quietly where
he can see everything, and if you
could be quite near him you would
find that he held in his hand little
springObutton, connecting by electric
wires with bell placed near the engi-
neer, and the pressure of finger at
the top of the building instantly gives
she signal to start, stop, or rreverse the
engine in the basement, and so all day
long the great derricks reach down
into the street and pick up fresh ma
terial for the great building. If for
any reason it has not been placed un-
der the poreiea of the building where
it is required, it is passed along from
one derrick to another till it reaches
its proper place. never look at these
long, 1.-the arms reaching down to the
earth for more material without being
reminded Of the tentacles, shown in
Wells's story of the ssWar of the
Worlds as being used by the Mar
tians in their fighting machines.
One is constantly surprised by see
ing new things going up through the
air on the end of these arms. Not
long ago l saw one Of them take
load of several thousand feet of two
inch boards from truck and put it
into the sixteenth-story window of
building on lower Broadway, and yes
terday great truck. loaded with terra
Gotta tiles, was driven in front of the
new twenty. nine story building on
Park Row, the horses unlocked and
led away, and the truck, just as it
stood, hoisted to the top of the build
ing, where it was unloaded. In about
fifteen minutes the truck was placed
on the street again, the horses hitched
OH and driven away.
The brick used r.,the encasing
walls is dumped from tho wagons into
the cellar, where gang Of men put
them into hods and place the hods on
an endless chain elevator, which takes
them to whatever floor they are re-
,luired on, then another gang Of men.
carry the full hods to the masons, and
replace empty ones on the carriers to
be taken back to, the cellar.
The mortar is made by machinery by
a large company, and sent in wagon
loads to the building ready for immc-
i diafe s,ise This is durnned into fha