Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1909-05-27
BIG BOWLING TOURNEY
Gigantic Task Involved In Pre-
pairing For National Contest.
FINEST ALLEYS TO BE BUILT.

Builders Will Have Only Six Days and
Nights to Construct Twenty four.
Will Use 226,oo0 Feet of Lumber and
254,oo0 Nails In the Work.
Few persons who are interested in
the coming tournament of the National
Bowling association have any idea OF
the vast amount of work involved in
getting the big Madison Square Gar
den at New York in shape for the
1000 or more bowlers from all over
the United States who are to compete
there for the large purses. Not many
of the champion bowlers even can
make rough guess at the task that is
to be undertaken.
From the first the problem has been
Il difficult one to solve. Experts on
the building of bowling alleys studied
and figured for weeks on the question
before it was solved, and even now,
although the committee in charge Of
the preparations is confident that ev-
erything will be in shipshape order on
May 24, the opening day of the tour
nament. many who profess to know
shake their heads negatively and de-
clare that this will not be possible.
The whole Trouble lay in the fact
that the builders of the alleys viii
have only six days and nights In which
to do the work. In that time they
must put down twcnty-four alleys that
will he so perfect that no competitor
will have the slightest cause for com
plaint.
The contract for the work has been
given to a firm in New York city
which has assured the committee that
the alleys will be the finest ever built
and that no bowler will be able to de.
clare that he failed to roll high score
or win his match because OF the alleys
Should any easy spares be missed, they
say. it will be the fault of the bowler
and not because the alleys run Off
or "carry over"
Because the rent of the Madison
Square Garden is $1,000 "a night, and
the National Bowling association will
be compelled to pay that amount even
while building the alleys, it became
necessary to limit the time for the
work TO not more than six days. This
it was admitted, would necesSitate the
building Of twenty-four alleys in faster
time than even less than half that
number were ever built In the history
of bowling. The proposal was put up
to the officials of the New York firm
and they without hesitation accepted
the contract
Almost Immediately after receiving
the contract arrangements for the enor.
nous work were begun. Vast supplies
had to be ordered, so that the work on
the alleys could be started exactly on
time, and, equally important, the con
tractors had TO engage men to do the
work
Contrary To the general belief, ordi-
nary carpenters are not competent to
build bowling alleys They must be
built by men skilled in the work-men
who make a business of building al.
leys alone There is not a continual
demand for this class of labor, and
consequently men of this kind are few
and scattered about the United States
So in order to prepare for this the
New York firm has ordered about 100
of their men, who are located in the
various cities of the United States, to
plan their work so as to be able TO
come to New York city in time to go
to work in the Garden.
The figures of the materials to be
used in building the alleys have been
given out and are as follows:
In the first place it will be necessary
to use at least 100000 lineal feet of
yellow pine and maple for the beds OF
the alleys. 10000 board feet of maple
for the divisions, return ways and
kickbacks and 5000 board feet Of
spruce and hcmlock for the founda-
tions.
For holding all this together LOO
screws and 254,000 nails will be used.
The castings on the return ways will
require 1900 pounds of nickeled steel,
and the pit cushions will be made from
1000 pounds of leather For finishing
the beds two barrels Of shellac mixed
with one barrel Of alcohol will be used
Then the beds will be covered with
enamel polish, which will require at
least one barrel. ...