Evening star., 1899-03-18
THE STEAM HEATING
Trouble With the Plant in the City
Post Office.
CONTRACTOR WOODS STORY
Blames the Blunders on the Super
vising Architect.
MATTER WITH REFEREES

MATTER WITH REFEREES
Another chapter of the old, old story of
defective plans for the new city post office
is being written in the official records of
| the Treasury Department. This chapter re-
| lates solely to steam heating and referees
have been appointed by Secretary Gage
and are now at work deciding the relative
| merits Of controversy between Mr.. James
Knox Taylor, supervising architect, and Mr..
Charles F. Wood, representing the Phila-
delphia Steam Heating Company, which is
installing the steam heating plant of the
city post office building. The referees ap-
pointed by Mr.. Gage for this purpose are
Capt. John W.. Collins, chief engineer of
the United States revenue service, and
Capt. A. B. Carnegie. chief engineer, bu-
| reau Of steam engineering of the Navy De-
partment.
The appointment Of these referees is the
| elimination of a contention that has long
been in progress between the supervising
architect and the contractor, and that late
| ly resulted In an "eight-day notice" to the
contractor that his contract would be nulli-
| fled and the work completed by the depart
ment at his expense, or the expense of his
bondsmen, because of a refusal to comply
with their demands. which the contractor
Claimed they had no right to make.
The Original Contract.
The original contract for putting in
steam heating plant in the new city post
office building was for Sill 900, and with
additions that have since been made this
| total has been increased to exceed S123, 900.
Today there remains of these amounts, un-
paid to the contractor, $4,000. 1t is this
icin H.,
ened to withhold to pay for completing the
contract by the government, and in .he
event that this amount is not sufficient it is
| threatened to hold the bondsmen of the
contractor for the balance.
1.-The 'eight-day notice was served on
me- said Mr.. Wood, the contractor, on
whom Star reporter called today, be
cause refused to comply with demands
unlawful and unjust. They have exacted
conditions from me which they had no
right to exact and they have endeavored
to conceal their own shortcomings and de-
fects in their designs by misstatements and
Misrepresentation. forced the issue with
them by refusing to comply with their de-
mandS III order to get my case removed
from packed jury, which renders it's de-
cfsions before the testimony has been heard,
| and before fair tribunal. 1 am satisfied
that Capts. Collins and Carnegie, who rep
resent the Treasury Department in settling
our differences, will be just, and that I can
have not been able to secure from the
supervising architects office. 1 am satis-
fed that the Secretary of the Treasury will
deal fairly with me- | bore the abuse of
the superintendent of the building, repre-
senting the supervising architects, and the
decisions of the supervising architect. until
my patience has become exhausted and I
propose now to fight for my rights openly
and fairly. 1 only want the facts to be
known, but should personally prefer wait
ing until the board appointed to represent
the Treasury Department have made their
report"
The Chief Differences.
Asked to state the chief differences be-
tween the supervising architect and him.
self which resulted lin calling forth the
eight day notice, Mr.. Wood replied:
The principal difference is in relation to
the boiler setting. The boiler setting was
completed in accordance with the plans
and specifications. and that was certified
in writing under date of December / by
the heating and ventilatng engineer of the
department. Some of the boiler settings
are going to pieces and are in a dangerous
condition by reason of defects which ex-
listed in the plans, the work having been
carried out exactly in accordance with
these plans. The repairs necessary to cor
| rect these defects will involve an expendi-
ture of several thousand dollars, and
have refused to do it.
Another demand made on me is for re-
placing remaking a number of galvan-
lied iron boxes which are placed under the
radiators. There are about 360 of these
| boxes in the building. The dimension of
every one of them is given on the plans.
have had them built of prescribed sizes
sirce March. 1S'S. ] am now ready to set
the radiators, and 257 of the boxes are
| longer than the radiators they are to go
under. If the radiator which they specified
/ in my contract had been used there would
| BE- more than that number Of wrong size,
| blunder was rendered less injurious.
Repairing of Cornices.
'I have also had to cut into plaster cor
nices in order to put in some galvanized
| iron sleeves demanded by them. and which
| I did under protest. They demanded that
1 repair these cornices, the cutting of
which was unavoidable. Ths risers, with
which this work is connected, were placed
| in the building in the spring of 1897, at
which time there plaster work in
| the building. nor any cornice, and the plans
which are part of my contract, and which
| 1 used, did not show such cornice any
where. The details of the plan show spe-
| officially that there is no cornice. 1 have
| f, sed to repair this cornice.
Another item is lot of steam pipes in
the basement with leaky joints. The speci-
! fcations call for certain kind of copper
jacket. The heating and ventilating en-
gineer furnished sample of these jackets
and purchased according to that sample
and put them in place. Shortly thereafter
| they began 20 leak.
Il have repaired them twice, so that
| three times since the plant has been rum
ming the joints have been tight. But under
/ the conditions they will not stay tight, and
| 1t is absolutely impossible to make them
! stay tight. The material they specified is
worthless, and the same trouble with 1t has
been experienced in the appraisers ware
house in New York on the contract which
was completed last year, and they have
| had to remove all that material for the
| same causes that exist here. In the pipe
system in the basement of this building
/ there are no expansion joints, yet / think
every one knows that iron and brass will
contract and expand under cold and heat.
The Joints Are Leaky.
1.-THE joints there are leaky. They make
good sprinklers. Within the last two or
| three weeks they have torn the compound
electric light engine to pieces, in order to