Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-07-31
FOUNDATION OF PRESS BUILDING
NEAR COMPLETION ON SCHEDULE
Changes Incident to Adding Three Stories and Re-
' arranging Boiler Rooms Made in Record Time.
Latest Devices Planned.

time waiting for elevators, 1t Is prob
able that the elevators to be installed
will be the best that Washington hats
ever seen The cars will stop auto
matically. and the doors viii open
and close the same way. A waiting
messenger at landing will stop the
''lift' simply by pressing a button in
the lobby. The operators can not
DELAY the service and irritate the
tenants with such elevator service.
Rapidly Empty Building.
1t is estimated that the entire
building, with something like 1880
occupants, can he filled or emptied
in about As minutes. This is constd-
cred record time. In addition, the
popula ton will be more or less stag
gered in its coming and going, due to
the nature of the business of the ma
jority Of the tenants,
The actual progress on the boiler
room is satisfactory. Due to the
height Of the boilers with the steam
pipes above them the floor of the
boiler room has to be about 50 feet
below the sidewalk level. The boil
ers are placed this low SO that there
can be rentable basement above them
and Immediately below the shops ON
the ground floor.
After the contract for the building
was signed and the plans for the
building almost complete, the boiler
room had 10 be moved from the To-
cation chosen by the architects, and
all the drawings done over again.
This was caused by local ordinance
which prohibits having boiler room
under a theater. So now. this room
is to he located under the office
building on the Fourteenth street
side The depth of it Is such that
the drain tile must be placed under
the floors and run to a stump from
which ground water can be pumped
up into a street sewer. Now that
the plan is finished the interior con-
crete columns are being poured; the
retaining walls on the side are being
concerted; the coal bin is about half
finished, and. shortly. everything
about it will be complete and ready
to receive the machinery when it
arrives.
Plant for Cooling Building.
The machinery room under the
theater is complete as to the four
walls. Here the refrigerating ma
chimes viii he placed. One of the
machines will produce a drop in
temperature, by the expansion of a
refrigerating gas or liquid. This may
lie carbondioxide coca or dichlor-
ethylene (C2liaCIa). After the
expansion the gas is pumped into
a condenser. where it is liquetied and
cooled ready for a new expansion.
The condenser is again cooled by
water flowing through it. and the
water is cooled and used over again
by being pumped to a spray pond on
the roof of the building. The drop
in the temperature produced by the
expansion of the refrigerant is trans
mitted to separate water system,
and the water is pumped up to air
the air is cooled and washed and
blown into the theater. The ma
chinery room is now ready to re-
ceive this machinery, and negotia
tions are being made for its pur-
chase.
Above the top of the machinery
room is the sloping floor of the
theater auditorium. Immediately
underneath this floor are the plenum
chambers, in which the air from the
theater discharges and through
which it passes back into the fans,
which blow it again to the air wash
ers. The. concrete walls of these
plenum chambers are now practical
ly complete, and these and all other
supporting walls are almost ready
for the concreting of the auditorium
floor.