The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-03-18
From the London Mail.

From the London Mail.
~ ONDON.-It would hardly occur
~ to the king, perhaps. when he
- entered the house of parliament
, by the Victoria Tower this week, that
this tower, so conspicuous among the
glories of the capital has a place of its
own among the wonders of the world.
From its dizzy height floats an emblem
of British power, which. whether London
believes it or not, would hide a two-sto-
ried house from view. The great flag
which floated here on Tuesday, hauled
to its great height by machinery, looks
like an ordinary piece of bunting from
Westminster bridge, but it took 400 yards
of bunting to make 1t; 1t stretches when
the breeze opens its folds, to a length of
sixty and a breadth of forty-f1ve feet and
1t is kept in its place by flagstaff which
has certainly no rival in England and
probably none in the world. The mast,
rising from its base to a height of 10
feet, firmly fixed on it's foundation with
diameter of three fee, is made of many
sheets of iron, bolted together with hum
dreds of bolts, and it would weigh, If we
sixteen tons.
They who would reach the height from
which London locks like some dim city of
the mist must wind around and around
the longest spiral staircase in the world.
At the low iron door which brings you
to its foot the staircase appears to be one
amending iron thread, reaching up into
darkness, and it Is not until the visitor
has gazed at it a while that there breaks
at the top, $50 feet above him, blue light
| no bigger than a mans hand.
If the distant ray of light. losing itself
in utter darkness a little way down the
tower, does not unnerve him, the climber
winds around the spiral staircase a dozen
times and finds himself, almost tired on
the first floor. He is in room over fifty
feet square, and in this grand apartment
he will pause to reflect upon the splen-
doris OF the Victoria Tower.
The tower has weight of 10000 tons,
and it helps us to realize It's grandeur
and strength if we reflect that its build
ing was in progress for ali but twenty
years. The Londoner who went abroad
for year in the forties or the fifties
came nome TO Inu tlat the new tower
Lad risen not quite eight yards in his alb
sence, and so. at the rate of twenty-three
feet a year the Victoria Tower grew from
1912 until it was completed
1t has within it over 40 separate rooms,
each one fireproof, each containing the
precious state papers which tell the story
of England and its kings. Divided into
rooms, the tower is a miracle of construc-
ton. How little the Londoner who gazes
at this splendid pile imagines that at the
top OF it, on the eleventh floor. works
powerful steam enginel It is its work to
haul up through the well of the spiral
staircase the bundles of state papers, de-
livering them on the floor where they may
be required, and it is a wonderful sight
to see this huge narrow passage throb,
as ii were, with busy life. 1t is won
derful sight, indeed when the engine Is
not at work The spiral staircase stretch
ing from the ground to the top apparent
ly without a single support, and looking
like one long thin line of ironwork which.
the least overwhelming would bring cat-
tering down, is one of the engineering
n.arvels of our day. In reality it is held
| in its place by wroughtiron rods hanging
but the rods are not readily visible to the
eye, and 1t needs a more than ordinary
nerve to scale this fragile staircase to the
greatest height in London.
Yet this suspended Jacobs Ladder has