Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-12-27
OUR GREATEST EDiEiCE.
Philadelphia Monstrous City Hall Is
Appro aching Completion.

Along with the announcement that af
Ter 81 years of work the largest Building
n America is nearing completion comes
mother to the effect that the big pile is
80 over-crowded that its 400 tenants are
beginning to call for the addition of an
3ther story. This. despite the fact thar
The structure. Philadelphia's City Hall,
las IS rooms with Il total floor space
IF lis acres. The building has - ele-
rators. INT they cannot begin to ac-
commudate the people who want to use
hem.
What can we do?'' Mr. Bunker. the
buildings Superintendent. asks. ''We'N =
put in and put in elevators until we've no
place to install another But something
sill have to he done soon to relieve Tn"
am. The only vacant rooms now at our
ommand are the eight in the tower, the
highest in the world, but they are 50
poorly lighted ANA ventilated that they
IRE Of no use except as store rooms.
If another story is ever added to the
City Hall it will be only one of the
hundreds of queer things that have be
'ome a part of the buildings history.
The leading queer thing to Philadelphia
taxpayers is how the City Hall, even
ern Hemisphere and the worlds largest
municipal building, the Parliament builu
ng excepted, ever came to take So, 100000
rom their pocketbooks.
\ recent report. in endeaVoring to eX-
plain this expenditure. reveals some in
terestinS facts. 1t states that $5l1.O30
has, been paid to the architect and his
assistants in salaries since 1871, when
the building was begun; SOL 1870 for paint
md painting; $5.51Oot@ for l. i6f 900 cIIbi,,
Yards Of marble for marble work; 4,pDo00
or hitting up rooms; Sl.33,p1 for watch
men ana cleaners; $4,000 for electric in
stalati0n. ana 50 on.
The electricians had to chiseI through
n the stone walls for the wires ut an
Expense of thousands of dollars, and it
.ook them the better part of five years
n. ia wi h. l.fIll III.
Now. however, the hall has a plant
apahlc Of furnishing all the light Il
city Of 30,NU or 1900 inhabitants could
possible use
The dynamo room is one of 80 in the
buildings basement, which runs not
,niy under the hall. but the piazza in the
entire as well These basement rooms
-eem with surprises. For one thing,
capacity of 101,000 gallons of water am,
The employees and thousands of strangers
who daily tread the corridors, manage
practically T. consume this amount.
thousands OF gallons are carried to their
homes by the employees. for the water
furnished the Philadelphia householder is,
about the worst on earth and will be UNI
I'll the city gets its big filter beds in
working order.
Like the lowest portion the highest
part of the building, the tower, is an in
tercstng and curious place. 1t contains
the largest stone in the building "a blocI,
rect wide, - feet long and inches thick
The towers walls are - feet thick
Inc second highest elevator in the
world is in the tower. 1t runs from the
seventh floor, Us feet above the ground
to the base of the Penn statue an up
ward course of 372 feet > inches. The
AR cushions alone cost $4,000. one of the
100 telephones in the building is located
in the tower, at the base of the statue
Then there is the great clock and tie
lttle clock That governs ii. Compressed
air is the motive power.
The Gials OF the great clock are Sc,
rect above the earth, and the diameter
Of each is q feet. The long minute
and hour hands are II and II feet re.
Spectiveiy. and their weights 10 and Ia
pounds. The weight of the dial frames
with glass IS five and one-half tons and
the total weight of the clock is 80 tons
The little or master clock, the clock
that really runs, is l43 feet below the
try folks for miles around regulate their
watches Two years Were spent in build
ing it, and its mechanism is as delica e
as lnat of the finest watch.
Ii rests in metallic case on a plat
form built into a wall so no vibr: ton
can AFFECT it. Quite unlike the IN.
cicck, which for years collected three
tons Of dirt, the case keeps il free from
dust.
once every minute this clock. which *
regulated from Washington. opens tnt
valve which admits compressed air to
the tubes connected with the gears The
air moves the hands of the clock up i'm
the tower, which. after all, is Just a
dummy clock. for it has only four faces
ana lets the little clock down below a.,
all the actual work.