Evening star., 1942-01-18

They look deserted these nights
certain buildings, scattered over the
city, some massive. all sizable
Not gleam OF light comes from
them. For all outward appearance,
everybody has left them and they've
been locked up for the night.
Actually they pulse with activity
all night. They're the citys hos
pitals, most Of them blacked out to
the last pinpoint of light.
Inside, there is sufficient illumina-
ton for all medical purposes, but
the hospital authorities have taken
extraordinary precautions They
realize The tragedy that might re-
suit should some inadventent light
make these buildings a target for
enemy bombers.
Hospital executives feel a modern
hospital is complicated. that it
would be too late to try to black out
their buildings after an alert signal
is received So they began work as
soon as America entered the war.
Equipment Is Installed.
Blackout curtains, paint and other
devices were used to conceal the
lights and protect the helpless. Most
of the Capitals hospitals have put
in all the equipment necessary to
blackout every light.
Doctors Hospital is an example of
a blackout job which took lot of
doing This new building. containing
the very latest in medical equip
ment, was designed to admit the
maximum in sunlight. Glass brick
was used to inclose operating rooms.
nurseries and many other walls of
the structure
The day after Pearl Harbor. o. K
Fike. executive director of Doctors
Hospital, called in chemists and en-
gineers. He wanted to know the
quickest and most effective way to
black out the hospital The chem
lists told him that if the glass brick
were treated with aluminium paint
1t would be Opaque
Bought Quantities of Paint.
Mr.. Fike went down, bought vir-
tually all the aluminium paint in
town and soon had painters on the
job.
Today the wide expanses of glass
brick are covered with two coats
of the aluminium paint And not
a flicker Of light can get through
these once brilliant stretches of
wall.
Babies are born and nursed;
operations 60 on; all the other ac-
tivities of big hospital continue
with ample interior illumination.
And there's not a stray beam to
betray the institution to an enemy
pilot. who. even If he wasn't aiming
at hospitals. probably would fire at
the first point of light he saw.
Lack Of ventilation is not a prob
lem, for the entire institution Is
air conditioned
For the patients rooms, special
opaque drapes have been placed
inside the Venetian blinds. At dusk
the blinds. are drawn. the drapes
pulled and bed lights put on. Even
without the curtains the rooms
could be blacked out and yet have
sufficient illumination for patients
and nurses to find their way around.
even for nurses to read thermom-
eters and write on charts. For the
rooms are equipped with small,
inner floor lights. which could not
possibly be seen outside, even with
the windows bare. These lights
make only a faint yellow glow at
the bottom of a wall.
No Room Overlooked.
Diet kitchens, offices and other
rooms have their windows blacked
out with the paint. Heavy velvet
curtains veil the downstairs recep-
ton hall. Not a room in the hos
pital has been overlooked.
The whole medical center built
around the hospital, with physi-
clans Office buildings flanking it, is
dark every night.
Windows of all'rooms at Gallinger
Hospital in which activities would
be expected to go on during a
blackout have been covered with
heavy tar paper. The black paper
is secured to the window frames by
lengths Of narrow wooden molding
DR.. Edgar A. Bocock. superin-
tendent of the municipal institution,
has made assignments Of emergency
duties to all members of the stan,
and weekly drills are held.