The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-10-13

the load are operated till the latter is de
| posted where il is needed With his foo
each engineer works the power lever Of
/ his engine. One slip of the hand, the leas
! nervousness or incompetency on the part
/ of any one of the engineers would send {
/ mass of steel crashing from perhaps the
/ tenth story of the structure to the base.
ment, 100 or more feet below, causing
| thousands of dollars damage and perhaps
crushing out the lives of a dozen work
men.
With two derricks working on each
building, steel is picked up by the wagon
load as it is hauled from the cars, and
deposited wherever needed. About three
stories can be set at a time before it is
necessary to change the derricks. 1t
takes half a day to change the four great
derricks from whatever story they are
working to the skeleton floor three stories
above
The height of the derrick from the
ground must make no difference in the
work it performs and with the great
masts stretching skyward seventy-five
feet from the eleventh story of the build
ings. a ten-t0n load of steel will be as
quickly. surely and rapidly picked up two
or three stories below. swung out into
space and landed as safely at the top as
though the derrick was being operated
from it's basement of the building.
Friday afternoon saw the first great
fOurteen-ton riveted girder swung to its
foundation on the northwest corner of the
Newkouse building.
Columns Weigh Two Tons.
The columns that are set up to hold the
cross beams weigh two tons at the start
those set in the basement and in the first
few stories of the building. Then as they
go up they become lighter until those set
in the upper stories weigh about a ton
apiece. When the Newhouse buildings
were planned they were weighed by Ar
chitect Cobb to such a fine point that il
is known just how much weight the foun-
dations of the two buildings will bear
when the latter are finished and turned
over 20 Mr.. Newhouse
Yesterday eighty-five men were working
on the two buildings. They were all
hired by Superintendent Morton in Salt
Lake In two weeks there will be go men
at work on the skyscrapers- Enough steel
workers. as they are called, are floating
through the city constantly to enable Mr..
Morton to hire all his men here. How
these men can be picked up here and there
and every place is somethming of a mys-
terry. They must be skilled and know
every inch of a modern steel framed sky
scraper and above all their work is dan
gerOus.
Here's Nerve for You.
A column twenty feet high is hoisted
to the outer edge of the Newhouse build
ing 100 feet above the ground held in
place till riVeted to the girder at the hot
tom and then the derrick swings loose and
starts for another load. There must be
a man at the top of that column to re-
ceive the end of the cross beam and rivet
il.
He climbs it.
For that twenty feet he chambers up
the column with the heads of the bolts
along its sides as his only footholds-and
those bolt heads are round and riVeted
close to the column.
It's a game for a nervy man and for
no other. Yesterday only the basement
columns Were being set at the NewhOuse
building, and a dozen workmen clambered
up the ten and twelve-foot columns by
the bolt heads in the same manner they
will climb them when they are 100 feet
above ground during the next few weeks. |
These men are the riveters. All the
basement columns and cross beams are
bolted together. Once above the first
floor and they are riveted with red hot
bolts The steel skeleton is up two sto-
ries-three pianks are laid across a couple |
Of cross beams at a corner and a small |
iron forge is set up. The expert at the |
forge heats his bolts red hot. catches |
them in pair of tongs, raises them over |
his head and with an aim that never |
fails throws the sputtering Yellow slug |
twenty feet across space to a bareheaied |
man who stands with his feet wide apart |