The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1906-07-30
SINGER BUILDING IN NEW YORK
WILL BREAK THE WORLDS
BUILDING RECORD.
Will Be Sixty Feet Square and Stand
Six Hundred Feet or Forty
Stories Hieh-BuiIt of
Steel and Thing.

| New YORK, July 29.-"C loHdplerceT
that is the name invented to de-
scribe the building for which the
| foundations are now being laid at the
corner of Liberty street and Broad
way. Skyscraper was too common
place for this forty-one story monster.
| It is in a class by itself, class far
beyond anything ever known before in
! the "skyscraping' line. Its forty-on
stories will tower to a height of 612
| feet, topping the Washington monu-
ment by fifly-seven feet.
The tallest building in New York
City at the present time is the Park
Row building which is made up of
twenty nine stories with a height of
1882 feet. This great height was
reached by a gradual evolution in
building construction which began in
1888, when The Tower building of 10
stories was put up at 80 Broadway
under the direction Of Bradford L..
Gilbert This was regarded as a mar
vel in its day and everybody was
skeptical about the ability of the new
wonder to stand alone. But the engi-
neers and the architect triumphed and
the building neither toppled over of its
own weight nor snapped off when the
winds blew. When the race skyward
reached twenty-nine stories it was
thought that office buildings had
reached their limit
MI;II he ri; Gtand7
But now the Singer building with
its forty-one stories! Again the old
questions are brought back with re
Moved force. How can the building be
put up? viii it stand when once it Is
erected? what would happen to the
inmates of the building in case il
should catch fire? The architect, Err
nest Flagg, answers these questions
confidently 1t can be put up so that II
will not come tumbling down and it
will be built SO that 1t cannot burn.
When II is borne in mind that the
Singer building is to be but sixty feet
square the problem of securing a
firm foundation for the 600 feet of
steel and masonry towering aloft
grows apace According to careful
estimate by the engineer in charge
of the building, the steel skeleton
alone will weigh 10000 tons.
Add to this the weight of the stone
and brick forming the exterior of the
building. the hollow .iiing surround |
ing the steel skeleton, floors, walls, !
and the thousand other things found |
in a great office building, and weight |
almost incomprehensible is made up. |
Further more. the foundations must
stand the pull and strain of the great
as it tugs at its anchorage
when its broad expanse of surface is
struck by strong wind.
Hollow tile Eliminates Fire Danger.
With the engineering difficulties of
getting the great Singer building up
md then making it stay there. out of
he way. the question O. the fire haz
lrd still remains. If any of the great
,kyscrapers should go up in flames, II I
would necessarily mean the loss of d
treat many lives. not to speak OF dol. {
ais anu teJt0s j ne tenant VI Hbol W.
% will naturally want to know that
lis cloud perch is unburnable. Conse Z
uently as little wood and other in /
lammable material as possible is used !
'ut even then there is always enough ,
imber in any office building TO create {
terrible flame and generate such a 5
eat that unless the steel structure of s
he building is projected in the most .
borough fashion II will expand and r
uckle in a manner that will bring I
own the whole structure.
In the really fire-proof building such
s the forty-one story "cloudpiercer d
to be, the steel skeleton Is surround. .
d and protected by hollow tile In the
iaking these hollow brick have been h
objected TO a heat OF 2500 degrees. n
hey will neither burn nor crumble =
hen subjected to any heat less than
his. and as the hottest fire tempera n
ares rarely run over 1900 degrees, the p
ollow thing is the most efficient pro
ect.on obtainable for building where II
uman life must be protected