The Monticellonian., 1904-10-13
SCIENCE IN SKYSCRAPERS.
Why Windstorms and Earthquakes Have But Little Effect on
 Tall Buildings.

Probably no person unaccustomed to such an experience ever stood on the roof of a 20-story building, when a grea. wind was blowing. without tremor of the nerves, and at least an imaginary sense of swaying in the huge structure beneath his feet. There is such sway ing and il has been measured with great exactness But it turnes out to be far less than is imagined, writes Garrett P Serviss, in Success
 Careful observations to determine the amount of oscillation of tall build ines in a high wind were made in Chl- cago. a few years ago, during tempest in which the velocity of the wind reached so miles sH hour. The Monad- mock building. 200 feet in height and unprotected in it's upper part by neigh boring edifices. swayed only one-quar- ter to one-half an inch from the perpen- dicular!
 But it should not be inferred from this that TO special effort is needed to secure a lofty building from the effects of the wind On the contrary the slight degree of oscillation mentioned above was due 10 the fact that the engineer-architect had calculated beforehand the at mospheric forces that his building would have to resist and had provided against them by means of system of wind -bracing"
 This is one of the niceties in the mod ern art and science of building. EXperi- lot of which the general public can have lit tle idea. have determined the pressures eXerted against lofty structures by winds of various yelocities. and also the best methods of enabling the buildings to withstand these pressures. When a building 200 feet tall sways only quar- CT of an inch out of the perpendicular in the face of a hurricane pushing against it with force of 90 pounds on avery square foot of it's surface, that act is a testimonial to the success ef scientific wind bracing" People who sit secure and indifferent in their offices. POO or 300 feet above the pavement, and near the wind howl and hurl its blasts lbout the steel cage that encloses them think little of the mathematics on which their safety is based; but if that mathe- matics were not the surest product Of the human mind they might find them ;elves at the bottom of a tangled wreck.
 What is wind-bracing then?' il may be asked.
 IL is a system Of steel connections which, in the body of tall building serve a purpose similar to that of the nterlacing muscles and tendons which bind together the bones of the human skeleton, and enable it to act all to- eether. as a unit in resisting foreee ending 10 upset or crush it. In a scien .ifcally constructed building the force )f the wind pushing against its upper portion arouses a resistance which is transmitted downward from story to story and distributed on all sides from member to member of the steel skele on. until it is felt at the foundations, md thus the strength and weight of the ower portion of the building, lying in he shelter of the surrounding edifiees put of the reach of the wind above, are brought into play for the common de- Tense very much as the effects of push against man s shoulder are distributed throughout his muscular system, down 10 his feet. and are thus resisted by his whole body.