The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1907-02-21

Marvellous Method In Rearing the
Towering Structure.
MAGIC OF ITS MECHANISM.

The Building Of It Is Akin to the Put
ting Together Of Modern American
Watch-simpiy a Matter Of Assem-
bling the Various "Membsrs."
On the twentieth door OF a towering
Office building in lower New York a
young man sat at a roll top desk talk
ing into a telephone. he was a clean
shayen. clean collared young man, with
gray eyes and a cool, dry, even voice
1t was sunny ofiice, with an admira.
BILE rug on its oaken floor. and from its
windows you could see over into New
Jersey. The young man ut the desk
was the general superintendent Of a
company which builds askyscrapers,"
and he was performing the functions
of his Office.
What report on those beams7'' he
was asking. There was some reply. {
"How many men have your" he in
quired and then presently remarked:
well, make 1t 610." Then he turned
to the reporter who had come to ask
him how big buildings are erected.
But the telephone claimed him agilln,
and again he asked:
What rsportr' and to the reply an
nounced:
The masons must catch up by
Wednesday. This is final. Goodby."
He turned again to the reporter, and
the reporter asked:
How do you put up a skyseraperg'
The cool, clean faced superintendent
looked across to New Jersey for sec.
ond and said:
"The building Of an iron constructed
skyscraper is huge counterpart OF the
building of a modern American watch.
1t is simply a matter OF assembling
the parasitic members. we call them.
The fact is that little OF the real work
Is done on the site of che building at
all, as in the old days OF stone con.
struction. Broadly speaking, the dig
ging Of the cellar and the sinking OF
caissons in order to lay a bed for the
ironwork comprise most of the engi-
neering done on the spot The rest we
do in the Office"
What is the advantage OF iron con-
struction, aside from It's having. made
the skyscraper possibIef Is 1T stron-
gerT'
mo; it's cheaper"
But You have to use stone anyway.
One would think that the added ex-
pense of the ironwork, say, on COM
paratively small building would In
crease the cost"
ut isn't material that costa : It's
time. You see. in putting up an iron
construction building everybody eau
work at once -excayatora. draftsmen.
rolling mills, ironwor1ers. masons,
plumbers, finishers and all. Suppose
you come here and tell Us you want to
spend 100000 on building to take
the place Of big stone hotel. To as
certain the shape and dimensions OF
the lot is Of course easy. This done.
we turn the diagram over to an archt-
tect. He does the aesthetic part Of
the work, and we don't bother much
with him after we get his ground and
side elevations, though of course we
keep In close practical touch with him.
Well, now, as soon as we close the
deal with you-not a week afterward,
but the very next day=we are tearing
down the old building, the architect is
roughIng out his door plans. and we
are figuring, with your assistance, how
much weight each floor witt have to
carry. And all the white this is being
done our superintendent arc arranging
for caisson men. ironworkers. masons
and all the rest of the labor. At the
same time our foundrymen and quarry
men are planning to be in readiness to
ship material when It Is needed. In
fact everything moves forward stimuli
taneously."
what is the first step OF actual con
structionT
ITO get the architects finished
ground plan away from him. He dear
ly loves continually to make changes
in that end of the work. As soon as we
have the ground plan we can tell by
the shape of the future building JUST
where the uprights are to go and 50
where we shall have to atnk our Gals
sons. Meantime we have found what
load each upright will have to carry
and thus know the sort OF foundation
and structure each viii require By
the time we get the final ground plan
the excavation is so well under way
that caisson work may begin. and we
can also set our craftsmen to making