The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-02
BUILDING IN THE AIR.


 Will there be a limit to the upward tendency of buildings? The old Dutch mans reason for building "a second story on top of his house--"Because der ground is cheap up here." may have been something of bull, but his the- ory was correct. In all cities, espe- cially the large ones, ground space is exceedingly valuable, and is continual. ly becoming more so; consequently | when a suitable lot Is obtained the go higher continually. Most of us can | remember when a ten or twelve story building was looked on as exceptional. but they have gone to twenty, and even thirty stories, and one contemporary claims that building of forty stories may be expected.
 But must there not be limit some- where? It is claimed that if a build ing of ten stories is safe. one of twcn- ty would be, and if that is safe and practicable, then forty stories will be equally so. That may sound like a correct theory. but 1t is apparent that there must somewhere be limit, or a point at which further rise will not be either practicable or safe, but who is to say when it has been reached? AL ready Swiss scientist has put forth a positive opinion that the sky-scrapers are detrimental to public health, and that not only will the upward tendency have to be stopped, but those already built must come down.
 This may be a good scientific deliv- erance. but we are persuaded that he will have to advance some convincing proofs before there will be either stop page or tearing down. To the ordi- | nary thinker 1t would seem apparent that a person living from one hundred | to three hundred feet above the earth | would have the advantages of purer air and less liability to malarfous and oth- CT diseases common to the surface res ident. But then 1t might be that enc descending from the pure upper at | mosphere to the disease-laden air of the streets might be affected just as | one would in removing from a healthy to an unhealthy region. By the way. what effect would a forty-story eleva- iton have on microbes?
 These are matters for the medical men to settle, but there are others that come more in the purview of engineers and builders. First there may be. and probably is, limit to the supporting capacities of the foundations of a com paratively small structure. We don't know how thick the earth's crust Is. nor yet how much any given spot will bear, and it might happen that a very tall brick, stone or metal building would outweigh or over-balance the resistance of its foundation and crush through into some unexplored portion of earth's internal economy That would be catastrophe sure enough and 1t Is one that is not absolutely i'm possible.
 Then again there is probably some limit to the height to which building materials can be carried at a cost not in excess of the profits. With the i'm proved mechanical and engineering ad- vantages now attainable heavy mate rials can be elevated quickly and eco nomically to heights which would once have been looked on as impossible, but even now there must be some limit to human effort. And still another dam ger is that a building probably ten times as high as 1t is broad would be liable to tumble over from a slight dis turbance of the earth's surface. We are not apt to have such shake-ups here, but they are not impossible. On the whole we should think that forty stories might be near approach to the limit.