Evening star., 1903-07-16
CAPITOL AND GROUNDS
Superintendent Woods An
nual Report.
ITS STATS TICALVALUE
MINOR REPAIRS MADE DURING
THE LAST FISCAL YEAR.
New Roof Over Portion of the Build
ing-Renovating Statue of Free
dom-Other Work.

donl-Other Work.
The annual report of Mr.. Elliot Woods,
superintendent of the Capitol building and
grounds. was submitted to the Secretary Of
the Interior today. Mr.. Woods also has
charge of the disbursing of funds appro-
priated for the maintenance and repair of
the city hall and the United States botanic
gardens and his report contains a full acs
count of all the work done in these places
under authority from Congress during the
last fiscal year This Is the first report that
Mr.. Woods has submitted as superintendent
of the Capitol grounds and buildings and
for its statistical value is considered very
interesting. The statements as to just what
the superintendent of the building and
grounds is supposed to look after shows
that the Capitol contains 43o rooms now
devoted to office, committee and storage
rooms; 679 windows. $50 doorways, 40 fire
places 80 toilets. 261 wash basins, IA bath
tubs 10 ventilating fans and IS motors.
2,04S horse power of boilers for heating and
| lighting steam pumps for boiler and fire
service. The lighting service is equivalent to
2,.uoo incandescent lamps of sixteen candle
| power each and there are l45lS square feet
of SkylightS formed of iron and glass.
Details Requiring Constant Care.
|
those that enter into and operated in
the daily domestic life of the Capitol. They
are the details that require constant care
and attention. To state that 4G5 minor re-
| pairs to various of these features have been
made during the past fiscal year indicates
the amount of care and attention that is
required to keep that domestic life running
smoothly along with the Caily business life
of the occupants of the building. The heat
ing, lighting and ventilating departments
of the Capitol. so seldom seen or inspected
| by the average visitor, are the vital parts
of our organization and have received every
attention required to produce satisfactory
| operation during the year. The ventilation
of the House of Representatives, which has
| hitherto caused much complaint, has been
| so much bettered by the new system that
not single complaint has been entered
| against it during the past year. The re-
| PAIRS to the system of elevators and motors,
to the boilers and engines and to the vari-
Gus parts of the cola teral and intricate sys-
| TEN have been largely made by the forces
| employed in the three departments, and all
of which has been done with marked fidelity
and interest on the part of the employees.
Experiments Of various kinds. tending to
the betterment of conditions throughout the
building, have been carried on In the lab
I oratory connected with this office To this
work l have given my personal attention
/ and direction. In some cases l have been
assisted through the kindness of the United
States marine hospital service, especially
{
supplied to the interior of the Capitol by
! ventilating systems.
System of Lighting.
| With regard to the lighting Of the build
| ing and grounds Mr.. Woods states that the
! system has given excellent service during
| the past year, but the condition of the wiz
| ing In the grounds. after years of service.
! is bad and arrangements have been made
to supply new wiring and repair the con-
duits. The Capitol grounds have presented
a better appearance during the past year
than for some time past, Mr.. Woods de-
! clares The lawns surrounding the terraces
! have reached a healthy growth, and the
| lawns at the west have been much i'm
! proved. The artificial stone pavement in
! the grounds has been repaired to the ex-
| tent of approximately 1OUO yards. and the
/ Maryland avenue entrance to the grounds
| has been entirely renewed to conform to
, the new street pavement put in by the Dis
| trict-
| Mr. Woods then devotes considerable
! SPACE to a recitation of the repairs to the
| Capitol building during the past year IN
Guiding the putting in of the new root over
| the new committee rooms. the old library
space and the Supreme Court and the mt
ting out of the Senate and House libraries.
With regard to the work of rejuvenating
the statue of Freedom. which adorns the
/ dome of the building Mr.. Woods states:
| 1T is considered desirable that works of
| art in bronze shall possess that peculiar
/ shade of green which appears a l suit
| of age and exposure. 1t seems, however,
| that in the early treatment of the statue
| of Freedom, whether 1t was due TO the
! character of the bronze used or the action
/ of the acid used in artificial aging that the
resulting tone was anything but agreeable.
| 1t has been found that the surface Of the
statue instead of possessing that beauty of
| color which is found In old bronZes. was
| covered with coating almost white. 1t
was also found that beneath this rough
| coating, which could easily be removed. the
| real and desired verdigriS remained. The
! cleaning of the statue carried only so
| far as to remove this white eXcrcScence.
| The results of this work much improve the
! appearance of the statue, and 1t is hoped
that future and natural aging will only
| tend to add to Its present appearance. AT
various points on the statue placed
called lightning points, intended to receive
! bolts which frequently strike the dome.
| When the statue cleaned 1t found
that four of these points which consist or
| gold-plated bronze, tipped with heavy plat-
J mum, brought to the fine point We're entire
! ly destroyed One of the feathers of the
headdress showed the effect of very heavy
and severe discharges of lightning The de-
| stroyed points were replaced by new
| pieces
New Sewerage System.
Mr. Woods states further that entire
new sewerage system and system of sur
face plumbing has been installed In the
House stables, the stalls have been recon-
! In them. AT the Senate stables also many
! repairs of an important character have
| been made
In the Botanical Gardens the main con-
servatory heating apparatus
| hauled during the year, cleaned and re-
paired and new CRATE bars put in. The
roofs of the east and west ogtagon and
parallelogram wings of the main conservs-
tory We're thoroughly scraped and given
two coats of white lead the outside
Necessary glazing was done at the same
time.
Extensive repairs were made during the
year to the roof of the city hall building
and number of minor repairs were made
to the interior The report closes with "a