Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1904-05-12
FACTS ABOUT SKYScRAPERS
Interesting Particulars of the Build
ing and Expense of the Great
City Structures.

Height is effected by the following
considerations: Sixteen stories or less
can be carried on piles or grillages, nc
matter how bad the bottom. More thar
l6 stories requires caissons or an equiv.
alent expense if the subsoil is bad
Therefore, several additional stories
must be put in simply to pay interest
on the extra cost of the caissons, says
the Architectural Record.
For lots of 1900 to 1880 square feet
five cars will give a satisfactory eleva.
tor service up to II stories. Higher
than that a car should be added fol
each additional three stories, costing
100 square feet OF room on each floo1
per car. For still greater area, the
number of cars must be increased, say
one car for each 1000 square feet. and
this is because it is impossible to IN
load a large car fast enough-two cars
OF 40 square feet running in a 20-story
building will handle more people in
2 day than one Of so square feet, and dc
1t with much more satisfaction.
In a History building, with ordinary
foundations, the addition of a seven
teenth story will add more than one
sixteenth the cost of the building by
five per cent; for an eighteenth story.
ten per cent. must be added to the one
sixteenth, and 10 on. Thus, if a 16.
story building costs $3.50, 600, then a
seventeenth story will add to the cost
S3l 500; an eighteenth story $4,000
etc.
The time necessary to go from a
street corner to the twentieth floor of
a 20-story building in front of which a
person is standing is about the same
as the time required to walk half a
block and reach the tenth floor of a
neighboring building.
The time required to go from the
twentieth to the fifth floor of a 20
story building is about the same as
that required to go from the tenth
story Of a 10-story building to the
tenth story of an adjoining 10-story
building.
The heating of one upper story
(above the tenth) will cost nearly as
much as heating two lower stories,
unless there is always exhaust steam
to waste.
The average temperature of the out
side air at any 200 feet above the
street and above is from three to five
degrees less than the average is at the
street. This is an advantage in the
summer and a disadvantage in the
winter.
If the elevators could be divided
into sections and the shaftways for the
way elevators stopped, for example,
at the tenth floor of a 20-story build
ing, then a saving of space could be
effected, though the space so saved
would not always be available for
renting purposes.
No formula a be made to express
all the conditions, for it would have to
be based on 90 many assumptions that
would have no value when solved, but
by averaging a number of cases and
making certain assumptions it may
be stated that probably a 32.story
building would have q gross return Of
IL per cent under conditions that
would show a gross return of 10 per
cent for a 16-story building en- the
same lot. That is. an investment of
S3,420,000, divided into lot 81, 200, 900,
building $4,000 would show a re-
turn of $4,000, where a total invest.
ment Of S2,000,000 divided into lot
100000, building 81, 900, 600, would
show a return of s20O, 900. That means
that an additional expenditure Of ST.
420,0 would return $4,000. There
are many cases in which the smaller
amount could be obtained, while the
larger could not.
The vibrations of very tall buildings
(over Is s~tories) is IN unknown guam
tity. Theory indicates that it would
be Objectionable. Practice reveals its
existence in certain cases, though in
a slight degree. 1t is probable that in
buildings exceeding IL stories and Of
a height exceeding five times the least
width there will be Objectionable vi
bration after the buildings have been
erected Is to 20 years.