The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1909-12-23
GETS new BUILDING
Norwich University Secures
Valuable Addition From
the Government
DETAIL OF THE STRUCTURE

New Building Erected at Mortified
Contains Seismograph-AlI Latest
Apparatus to BE Installed and the
Structure VIII Be One of the Most
Modern Type.
william A. Shaw, of Northfeld the
local United States weather forecas-
ter for this district, received word
from headquarters, that the new gov
ernmeDt weather bureau, now nearing
completicn. is to be furnished with a
seismograph, or instrument for re-
cording earthquakes. This will be
the only 'nsttuEcn. of it's kind out
side of the observatory at Washington
The exterior of the new weather
bureau has been finished with the
exception of painting the wood work
snd installing the iron ladder and
steps that lead from the roof of the
building to the top of the observatory.
The interior is contracted to be turn
ed over to the government by the first
of March and if the present rate of
speed in completing it, is kept up
Mr.. Shaw will be ready to open it by
that date.
Three rooms on the first floor will
be occupied by the weather bureau,
one for the clerks and for tabulating
another for the recording instruments
and the third as an office for Mr.
Shaw.
These rooms viii be finished in
curly red birch, while large mod
ern open fireplace of magnificent de-
sign will add 70 their attractivness.
The floors will Sbe finished of hard
pine throughout the building with
the exception of the work rooms in
the basement. Three other rooms
on the first and five on the second
floor will be used as a residence for
the forecaster and his family, while
the third floor will remain, for the
present unfinished. The building is
to be heated by hot water and lighted
by electricity, the fixtures for the
latter, of heavy brass designs, having
arrived a few days ago and are now
ready to be put in place, while the
heating apparatus has been in work
ing order for some time past.
The basement of the structure will
be occupied by the Photographic de-
partment of the bureau and for do
mestic use. The Photographic work
will be carried on in two rooms, one
of which is to be provided with fin
ishing material, a sink, ETC.. as it is
often necessary for Mr.. Shaw to make
negatives of the maps and tabulations
At the back of the main building and
attached thereto by a covered stair
way is a small concrete house COW
cred with glass in which the
department is to install the seis-
mograph In talking of this instru-
ment, Mr. Shaw said:
1.-THE seismograph, or seismometer,
is an instrument for recording direc-
ton, extent and time of each vibra-
ton of the earth, even making note
of an interior disturbance which is
so slight that it would not otherwise
be perceptible.
"The first of the modern instru-
ments was made by j. and A. Bosch
of Strassburg, who patterned their dc
vice after models described by Omuri.
a Japanese. The seismograph now
used by the weather bureau the kind
that will probably be put in at North
field, was designed by James A. Ew-
ing, professor of mechanics and en-
gineering at the University of Toxic.
but now at Cambridge, England The
entire instrument stands about three
feet in height and just about as long,
in no way resembling the other deli
cate mechanism used in the work or
the bureau. When it arrives it will be
set up firmly on separate castings
secured to thick blocks of stone &C.
mented fast into the concrete floor and
projecting but a few inches above the
floor
1.-The object sought in this system
is to secure steady mass, that is,
a mass that shall remain quite at
rest during an earthquake, notwith-
standing that the earth and the sup
port for the mass are undergoing vi
bratory displacement. In order to do
this heavy casted support is provid-
ed which moves with the vibrations
while a balanced weight connected
with lever records the disturbance
ON a sheet of smoked paper, which
is wound on continuously turning
cylinder. Every minute a mark is