1892-08-03

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’THE; CINCINNATI' CREMATORY' •• PL.YAAPT OA)*&-TROWfhßl D qE.• ■RRCHTS,* . A!BSH - PLY/APTON - SUCCC.SSORS - •> - B"'L.D'G - CI/N'Tl - O'

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A FAILING CAPITOL. IT is said that the capitol at Topeka, Kan., though yet incomplete, is in danger of falling down, on account of the poor material used in its construction. It has cost so far $1,250,000. It is built of Kansas stone, in accordance with the act of the legislature, and this stone has so little resistance to pressure that many of the blocks in the base of the dome are cracked and crumbling with the superincumbent weight. The building has been erected under the supervision of a Board of Public Works, not one of whom, it is said, has the slightest knoivledge, theoretical or practical, of architecture. a tendency in architecture is toward the colo-L nial style,” said an architect. “In the northern and eastern cities, and in Louisville and Atlanta, many residences have recently been built after that style. In ten years from now every new house in Birmingham will be so constructed. There is only one house in Birmingham at present that is designed after the colonial style, and that is the handsome new residence of Mr. Sinnige on the South Highlands. All persons of good taste admire it very much. The massive white pillars, the broad porches, the dormer windows, the small stained glass, the picturesque gables, the low substantial walls, all combine to give a home-like appearance and convey the idea of comfort and safety. If architecture is frozen music, then this home might fitly be compared to some such sweet and homely song as “Home, Sweet Home.” There is another tendency in architecture that is very apparent. The substantial and the massive predominate. Men are now building for all ages, as they did in the days of Greece and Rome. —Age Herald. THEY BUILD EACH OTHERS’ HOUSES Tt is a custom, and a very commendable one, of the 1 Carpenters’ Union of San Francisco to build houses for one another without charging anything for their labor. The owner must supply land and material and his house will be speedily completed. A local paper tells how such a dwelling was recently put up in one day. At sunrise thirteen members of a carpenter’s union appeared on the ground, bringing their tools, and before dark they had raised a structure whose exterior at least was finished. It was not a Queen Anne villa of course, nor was there much taste of any kind displayed in the design, but it afforded a comfortable home to the mechanic and his family, and the burden of rent-paying was no longer to haunt him. “That is the seventh house built this way for members of carpenter’s unions here,” said one of the workers when they were packing up their tools. “My house you see over there on that hill was the first one. The boys put it up for me about a year ago,” A GREAT RUIN. What Is Left of the Magnificent Temple of Baal. THERE rises a huge Avail seventy feet high, inclosing a square court of Avhich the side is 740 feet long. Part of the wall, having fallen into ruins, has been rebuilt from the ancient materials ; but the Avhole of the north side, Avith its beautiful pilasters, remains perfect. As the visitors enter the court they stand still in astonishment at the extraordinary sight which meets their eyes; for here, crowded Avithin those four high Avails, is the native village of Tadmor. It was natural t noughfor the Arabs to build their mud huts Avithin these ready-made fortifications, but the impression produced by such a village in such a place is indescribabty strange. The temple, so to speak, is eaten out at the core, and little but the shell remains. But here and there a fluted Corinthian column or group of columns, with entablature still perfect, rises in stately grace far over the wretched huts, the rich, creamy color of the limestone and the beautiful moldings of the capitals contrasting with the clear blue of the cloudless sky. The best view of the whole is to be obtained from the roof of the naos, which, once beautiful and adorned with sculpture, is now all battered and defaced and has been metamorphosed into a squalid little mosque. To describe the view from that roof were indeed a hopeless task. High into the clear blue air and the golden sunshine rise the stately columns ; crowded and jumbled and heaped together below, untouched by the gladdening sunbeams, unfreshened by the pure, free air, lies all the squalor and wretchedness of an Arab mud-hut village. Blackwood's Magazine. THE ADVANTAGES OF ELECTRIC ELEVATORS. IT used to be said that steam plants in business buildings, hotels, etc, were a necessary evil, and something we could not getaway from, but since the wide introduction of the electric motor a great change has taken place, and this assertion is no longer true. The evil can be escaped, and very easily, too. One of the most important uses to which power is applied in buildings of the class named is for elevator service. We find these valuable conveniences in the most unpretentious buildings nowadays, and in order to maintain them power is needed. To get the power we must maintain a h}ffiraulic or steam plant, and to maintain a steam plant in a city building costs a large sum of money. The expense is not represented so much in the cost of fuel for the boilers or the quantity consumed per hour, but more in the space necessary for the plant. Space in a city building is valuable; hence the room taken up by a steam plant, which consists of boilers, engines and auxiliary apparatus, means so much less income from the premises. The question of economy of space is one that has always perplexed the architect and owners of buildings. Whether the power used for elevators be hydraulic or steam, a good deal of valuable room must necessarily be given over to the driving apparatus, which yields no visible return. The electric motor and its application to elevator service has, however, solved the problem. Electric elevators are no new thing—in the sense that they are untried. They have long since passed out of the experimental stage of their career, and are now established, in a commercial sense, on a sound foundation. They are great economizers of space and are in every way as reliable and efficient as steam or hydraulic elevators. The fact that electric elevators are being very EDITED BY DR. I. S. HOPKINS, PRESIDENT GEORGIA SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY. 247 THE SOUTHERN ARCHITECT.

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largely put into new buildings, and in many places displacing steam and hydraulic elevators in others, is a sure indication that the business public discern and appreciate their valuable features. They meet every requirement and challenge the most critical examination as to their merits. Compared with steam or hydraulic elevators they are unique in that they may be placed in any position. They may be placed on any floor, and in a horizontal vertical, or any other position to suit the circumstances. Steam or hydraulic power does not possess such flexibility, and compared with other machines the electric elevator occupies a minimum amount of space. In regard to the power necessary to drive electric elevators, it may be said that the energy consumed is in proportion to the amount of work performed. Thus a light load does not require as much current as a heavy one, and the motor takes no more than necessary. The electric elevators now in use are giving the best of satisfaction, and all users are unanimous in their praises of their performance. — The Electrical Age. A SOUTHERN PALACE. George W. Vanderbilt’s Supurb Mansion Near Asheville. A SPECIAL to the Chattanooga Times , from Bristol, Tenn., July 2, says : A brilliant newspaper man has furnished the following vivid picture of the marvelous mansion of George W. Vanderbilt: Two miles out from Asheville, N. C., is a little station, Biltmore. It is the headquarters of a water tank and the gate of Kenilworth Inn. It is something more. The Salisbury and Spartanburg divisions of the Western North Carolina Railroad come together here, while a little branch road deflects to the right and is lost among the hills. If you happen to see one of the little cars on this road you will notice the letters, G. W. N. V. C.,” on it. The car is loaded with stone or coal, maybe iron, and you may be sure it is bound for Vanderbilt’s famous building two miles away. Biltmore is called for Vanderbilt and a resident by the name of Moore, who has a pretty cottage on the road, just above the station. It is a smooth combination, and likely to become famous. Following the branch road, which runs up and down hill with equal facility, and winds around the mountains, you reach, in the course of half an hour, the summit of the Long Pine. This is the busiest spot in North Carolina. You pass Vanderbilt’s stone quarry, where much of the material for rougher work has been secured ; you view his brick-yards, where millions of tubes are pressing and baking ; you stop at his blacksmith shop, where the tools are mended and some castings made ; you ride near the shady home, which he has purchased for his chief engineer, always following up his rails and telegraph lines, which lead to the spot where lies the site of the house of Vanderbilt. Several years ago Vanderbilt wandered down to Buncombe county, N. C., and was attracted by the beauty of the place. He rode over the mountains, and while at the summit of Long Pine, two miles from Asheville, concluded he would buy a tract and put up a shooting lodge. This led to the purchase of a large lot of land up and down the mountain and along the French Broad, with the idea of controlling everything in sight and preventing settlers from obstructing the view or coming too close. Visions of deer park, quail covers, sheep farms and other schemes enlarged his demesne until his acres began to be numbered by thousands. White and black settlers surrendered their lodgings at good prices, and now there are only two or three black dwellers within the Vanderbilt limits who have refused to sell out and hold their places at $l,OOO per acre. Vanderbilt may buy them out or he may freeze them out. When Vanderbilt had finished his purchase of 5,000 acres his ideas broadened. Instead of a shooting lodge, he decided to put up a residence, and such a residence as would make Chauncey Depew’s eyes glisten at Peekskill. So he set about him and leveled off the cone of the mountain thirty feet. Some time over a year ago he began to lay his foundations, and his stone masonry now begins to rise sheer over the side of the mountain, like a walled precipice. This is just what Vanderbilt wanted, for he determined that his castle would have the view and command the heights unobstructed. He concluded to spend from his income about $1,000,000 a year for ten years, and he is pretty well assured, at the end of that time, of having the finest private residence in America, possibly in the world. The architects are very clever, but will not show the designs of the house. Perhaps they fear somebody will duplicate them before the dwelling is completed. The building will be 400 feet long and 300 feet wide. It has a tennis court in the left which is a marvel of masonry and filling, and which alone cost $lO,OOO. The banquet hall of the mansion is to be 70 feet long, and will have a pitch of 30 feet. Under the main entrance of the hall will be a swimming pool, while a fine gymnasium, wine cellar and art gallery are to be connected with the establishment. Three miles back of the dwelling is a cold spring on the top of Busby mountain. He has purchased this spring and carries the water in six iron pipes all the way to the Lone Pine. This will give him volume and pressure enough for every part of his premises, and enable him to throw a stream 100 feet high from any point on his place. It will insure a dozen or more fountains in his parks and drives; 500 hands are at work on the grounds and buildings. Superb carriage-ways are graded and macadamized up the mountain, commanding an approach to the house, and these will be continued beyond the residence and down the valley to the French Broad, where Vanderbilt will throw an iron bridge over this picturesque stream. Mr. Vanderbuilt is thirty-eight and unmarried. He* has selected a rare spot for his home. His front gardensteps right off into space and secures a view for miles of rich valleys and high-walled mountains in the distance. Pisgah and the trains of hills seem to grow opaline in the sunset and to be transparent. At the base is the French Broad, and two miles away are the spires and smoke of Asheville. To the right are the red gables of Kenilworth Inn, while directly in front, a mile or more away, are the chimneys of Oakland Sanitarium and Connell’s residence. There is nothing in Virginia, nothing in England, and, I am told, nothing finer than this view in western North Carolina. This palace of marble and iron is built for all time, and the picture will be kept perfect, so far as nature and art can make it so. An alloy of ninety-five parts of tin and five parts of copper will connect metals with glass. The alloy is prepared by pouring the copper into the molten tin, stirring with a wooden mixer, and afterwards remelting. It adheres strongly to clean glass surfaces, and has nearly the same rate of expansion as glass. By adding from one-half to one per cent, of lead or zinc the alloy may be rendered softer or harder, or more or less easily fusible, as required. It may also be used for coating metals, imparting to them a silvery appearance. 248 THE SOUTHERN ARCHITECT.

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