The Savannah morning news., 1903-05-31
MARVEL OF ITS KIND.
Governments New Printing Ohic'
in Washington the Greatest IL

Governments New Printing Once
in Warrington the Greatest in
World.
w. E. Curtis in Chicago Record-Her-
aid.
The new government printing office
will have a floor space of $3.50
square feet, which is equivalent to
about fourteen acres, or four ordinary
city blocks, which is divided into sew
en- floors almost without partitions.
Printers need a good deal of light,
and it is provided for them by 1880
windows. One-third of all the wall
space is glass. and, in order that this
light may not be lost, the walls of the
rooms are lined with white enameled
bricks which can be washed like a
bath tub or the marble steps of the
houses in Philadelphia. The building is
absolutely ireproof, or as near fire.
proof as any building can be. 1t IS also
as substantial as possible, and its walls
are built like those of the fortress be-
cause type is heavy and printing
presses cause considerable vibration,
and 1T would be unfortunate to have
the roof and the walls cave in and
bury 1851 American citizens under
material and machinery that is in
tended only for the dissemination of
intelligence.
The engineers provided for floors to
sustain a load of $1,000. 900 pounds. If
anyone can comprehend what that
means. and it is of course very much
IN excess OF any weight that could
possibly be placed upon it. The outside
walls are three feet thick. and to con-
strnct them 10000 900 brick were re-
CURED. Inclosed within them is steel
framework weighing about 1900. 900
pounds, which is heavier perhaps than
the frame of any other building in the
country. Every care was taken to Sc
cure the greatest possible solidity of
coIlstructlon The columns, beams
girders' channels and plates were not
Ihaoe OF ordinary stock steel, but were
Iorged TO order and the steel work is
SO protected that in case of heat he
ing generated by the burning of any
material that might be placed in the
pudding, It's strength will not be af-
fected by warping.
mere is no shafting. All the ma
chlnery is run by electric mower and
three of the largest Croker Wheeler
oyhamcs in the country, each of 800
morse power, will run the 300 presses,
eleven elevators, 1000 incandescent
hghts and system of ventiIating
1ans are placed in a loft, and will
draw the air from the floors through
I shatts and expel it through the roof
with such force that there will be an
entire change of atmosphere in the
Dullolng every seven minutes, and
each employe will have 5000 cubic
feet OF pure fresh air per hour. An
other novelty will be seventy-five
drinking fountains placed at conven-
lent locations, fed from pumps in the
basement, and the water passes
through an ammonia freezing plant.
winch reduces 1T to a temperature of
40 degrees in all parts of the building.
A complete system of telephones has
been installed, so that the foreman of
every department can communicate
with the chiefs of his division, and by
lifting receicer to his ear MIR. Pal
mer may know instantly what is going
on IN any part of his establishment.
In order to provide for all this several
miles of wire have been used, enough.
they tell, to go twice around the city
of Washington. Vaults have been
constructed at convenient places on
different floors for the storage of
standing type, stereotype plates and
printed documents of a secret and con-
fidential character, such as messages
OF the President reports of congress
sional committees and other docu-
ments, until it is time to give them to
the public.
There are enormous storerooms for
the stock of material kept on hand,
which probably is greater in amount
than can be found in any similar es-
Establishment in the world In the reg
ular course of business the printers
use about fifteen tons of paper a day,
and in the cases are more than 2,000,-
900 pounds of ordinary type.
There are 1857 employees upon the
pay roll of the government printing of
fee, distributed about the establish
ment as follows: