The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1903-01-10
THE LARGEST BUILDING.

Along with the announcement that
after thirty-one years of work the
largest building in America is near
ing completion comes another to the
effect that the big pile is SO over
crowded that its a, 500 tenants are
beginning to call for the addition of
another story, says the New York
Sun. This despite the fact that the
structure, Philadelphia's city hall,
has 682 rooms with a total floor space
of II8 acres.
If another story is ever added to
the city hall it will be only one of
hundreds of queer things that have
become a part of the buildings his
tory. The leading queer thing to
Philadelphia taxpayers, is how the
city hall, even if it is the largest
structure in the Western Hemisphere
and the worlds largest municipal
building, ever came to take SIS, ,ooo,-
900 from their pocketbooks.
A recent report, in endeavoring to
explain this expenditure, reveals
some interesting facts. 1t states that
$317,o has been paid to the archi-
tect and his assistants in salary since
1871, when the building was begun
$35I,4oo for paint and painting S.
500, 900 for 1,464 cubic yards of mar
BILE for marble work So, 900, 900 for
fitting up rooms; $I,343,ooo for
watchmen and cleaners 1896, 900 for
electric installation and so on.
The installation of electricity fur
nished an interesting incident in the
halls history. When the walls were
erected electric lighting was unheard
monstrated the now extinct public
buildings commission ordered electric
equipment.
The electricians had to chisel
through in the stone walls for the
wires at an expense of thousands of
dollars, and it took them the better
part of FIVE years of steady work to
wire the building. Now, however,
the hall has plant capable of fur
nishing all the light city of 10000
or 40, 900 inhabitants could possibly
use.
The dynamo room is one Of the
ffty-nine in the buildings basement,
which runs not only under the hall,
but the plaza in the centre as we'll.
These basement rooms TEEN with sur
prises. For one thing there is
sand bed filter with a daily capacity
of 900, 900 gallons of water, and the
employees and thousands of strangers
who daily tread the corridors. man
age practically to consume this
amount. Thousands of gallons are
carried to their homes by the en-
ployes, for the water furnished the
Philadelphia householder is about the
worst on earth and will be until the
city gets its big filter beds in working
order.
Like the lowest portion, the high
est part of the building, the tower, is
an interesting and curious place. 1t
contains t he largest stone i n the
building a block of granite weighing
thirty tons. 1t is IL feet wide, 23
feet long and 8 inches thick.
The tower walls are 22 feet thick.
The second highest elevator in the
world is in the tower. 1t runs from
the seventh floor, 1873 feet above
ground, to the base of the Penn statue
an upward course of 372 feet 9 inches.
The air cushion alone cost $25, 900.
One of the 400 telephones in the
building is located in the tower at the
base of the statue.
Then there is the great clock and
the little clock that governs it. Com
pressed air is the motive power.
The dials of the great clock are
361 feet above the earth, and the di-
ameter Of each is twenty-six feet.
The long minute and hour hands are
fifteen and twelve feet respectively
and their weights 225 and IT'S pounds.
The weight of the dial frames, with
glass, is FIVE and one half tons, and
the total weight of the clock is fifty
| tons.
The little or master clock, the
clock that really runs, is I43 feet be-
low the great clock by which the
city and country folks for miles around
regulate their watches. Two years
were spent building it, and its me-
chanism is as delicate as that of the
finest watch.
1t rests in metallic case on plat.
form built into wall SO no vibration
can effect it. Quite unlike the big
clock, which in four years collected
three tons of dirt, the case keeps i
free from dust.
Once every minute this clock
which is regulated from Washington
opens the valve which admits com
pressed air in the tubes, connected
with the gears. The air moves th'
hands of the clock up in the tower
which, after all, is just DUNN,
clock, for it has only four faces ant
lets the little clock down below do al
the actual work.
| Another peculiar thing about tn
tower is that in the course of da
contraction and expansion, due to tn
| cur,s rave make If lean fhree-ot1arter