case, the front end of which is arranged to hold such articles as sheet brass, copper, or vulcanized fiber, in a similar manner to that provided for storing large window glass. This form of construction will be found better than to lay sheets in a horizontal position, as they can be more conveniently reached, and by providing entirely separate compartments for each thickness, small pieces can be more easily cared for and readily found when wanted.

Wire in coils may be hung upon the walls. It should be so assorted and arranged that all of one material shall be together and that the smallest size is at the top, or at the left of the group.

FIG. 93. Combination Stock Case with Compartments for Sheet Metal, etc.

Various modifications of these plans may be necessary in adapting the arrangements to different conditions and classes of materials to be handled, but in a general way the construction shown will be the most useful, both as to the proper storing and care of the stock, materials, and tools, and as to their convenient and consequently speedy delivery when called for.

Cotton waste, or whatever equivalent is used, may be kept in a bin built under the bench, or in a similar one built under the stairs.

A small counter scale weighing up to 80 pounds and provided with a pan for weighing small articles should be provided for the counter.

The Purchased Parts Storeroom is located in the office portion of the

building and is arranged in a similar manner to those just described. All articles purchased outside of the shops and in a complete form to enter into the work, are here received, stored, and issued. This will include all kinds of screws, bolts, hardware, belting, belt fastenings, etc. It might include files, but they are here classed as tools and put in the tool storeroom. Oil cans, hand lamps, file cards, emery cloth, grain emery, etc., may also be kept in the tool storeroom, as being more nearly allied to tools than to either rough stock or purchased parts. For the same reason it might be well to place belting and belt fastenings in this room.

Returning to what may strictly be considered purchased parts, the following arrangement of them will be found to be convenient and practical, both for proper storing and for issue. Machine screws should be kept in the original gross packages, on shelves not necessarily over 6 inches in width, and for the smaller sizes 5 inches apart; for the larger sizes about 9 inches apart. For eighty sorts, say from inch 6-32 to 2 inch 24-16, and in both round and flat heads, there will be about twenty linear feet of shelving required, exclusive of vertical supports. Set screws are also kept in the original packages on similar shelves. Thirty-four sorts, from inch x 3 inch to 3 inch x 24 inches, of both oval and cupped points, will require about twenty linear feet of shelving, exclusive of vertical supports, the shelves to be placed the same distance apart as for machine screws.

While the set screws average larger than the machine screws there are only fifty in a package, against one hundred and forty-four machine screws. Set screws with V-points, if they are of small sizes, may be kept in the original packages, but if of larger sizes, as for shafting hangers, they are best stored loose in bins. Gib screws, being of the smaller sizes, should be kept in packages or boxes. Round head and hexagon head cap screws of small sizes, say x 1 inch to 7-16 x 13 inch, should be kept in packages, on shelves, and will occupy about the same space as set screws. The larger sizes should be kept in bins holding about five hundred. In arranging shelf space for machine, cap, and set screws it is assumed that there will be at least three packages of each size on hand, which will be sufficient for all ordinary purposes. Special screws are usually made in large lots and are more conveniently kept in bins.

Belting may be placed under the bench at the end of the room. The rolls should be set on edge, between vertical supporting boards, and kept in place by a strip 3 inches high, placed on the floor in front of the rolls. In issuing belting the roll remains in place and the portion taken off is stretched along the floor and measured to the length required.

Miscellaneous hardware should be kept on shelves, and as it is seldom called for, the higher shelves will be the proper place.

Should the amount of purchased parts be larger in proportion than is

here arranged for, the door leading into the general office may be omitted, thus gaining room for one more case and making one more alcove, and a door be cut through into the hall from the space inside the rail. This would add about 15 to 20 per cent to the storage capacity of the room.

The desks provided in these rooms should be a fixed top about 44 inches. from the floor. Twenty-four inches wide will be ample. The top should be inclined to the front about 1 inch to the foot. Drawers provided with locks. are fitted under this top, and below the drawers should be three shelves 12 inches wide, the first 8 inches from the floor and the others 8 inches apart. These will be convenient for storing books, blanks, etc. The space under the counters should also contain similar shelves, but these should not contain articles of regular issue to the shop.

The stock used for building bins and cases should generally be 3-inch pine. The divisions in the file case and in the sheet metal case need be only inch thick. It is well to paint all these fittings quite a light lead color, as it is a good wearing color, and should not be so dark as to interfere with ample light. The partitions may be of the same tint up to a line 5 feet above the floor, and above that, including the ceilings, white. The same colors will be proper for the tool-making department.

From the descriptions given in this work and the dimensions mentioned ordinary carpenters should be able to construct any of these fixtures in a creditable manner. The author has supervised the construction of every form shown herein and can testify to their convenience and efficiency as well as the economy of the construction shown and described.

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CHAPTER XIX

THE DRAWING ROOM

Effective planning. Congenial surroundings. "The brain room." Proper design and furniture. Natural lighting. Artificial lighting. Location of the drawing room. The necessity for photographic facilities. Blueprinting facilities. Drawing tables. Chief draftsman's office. Desk for the chief draftsman. Filing case for drawings. Filing case for tracings. Filing case for blueprints. The dark room. The lavatory. The water-closets. The lockers. Plan of a drawing room with vault. Plan of offices on first floor when vaults are needed. The blueprint room. Blueprint frames and stands. Automatic washer for blueprints. Blueprint drying racks. The extension of drawing room facilities.

BRAINS are more important than hands; ideas are more sought after than things; the conception of that which we are to do, of that which we are to develop or to build, to produce and to sell, are first in the natural order of conducting all manufacturing operations, or of entering into any line of the world's trade and commerce. The plan is the first and important matter, and to plan well and wisely we must have the best ideas obtainable. These ideas and conceptions have many and far-reaching results and consequences, both as to a matter of mechanical and of financial success. Good ideas, properly developed and elaborated, may mean the beginning of years of business success to the owners or the promoters of the enterprise; while defective and ill-considered plans may mean practical ruin or thousands of dollars wasted in fruitless work.

But to plan well, to bring out the best ideas of the men whose duty in life is to study and think and plan the work that others are to perform, men should be placed in proper and congenial surroundings, which may inspire them to conceive and bring out the very best ideas of which they are capable, just as in any other line of human effort we make the conditions as favorable to success as we can if we are to expect good results.

The drawing room of the machine shop has often been facetiously called "the brain room," by those who have little conception of its real usefulness in the manufacturing establishment. Yet this is precisely what it should be, if it is properly organized, equipped, and has the right quality of men in its working force. And nowhere in the whole establishment is there more need

of men of original thought; of men with ability to "see the point," to grasp the situation and make practical use of ideas and suggestions as they present themselves; and to take apparently worthless plans or devices and develop them into that which is mechanically good and financially profitable.

These conditions making the drawing department one of the most important in the whole establishment, it naturally follows that in its location and equipment much thought and care should be exercised so that all the conditions and surroundings should be of the best, as to their kind and their adaptation to the particular class of product which the establishment is to turn out. By this we do not mean that the drawing room should be expensively or luxuriously fitted up. Its design may be comparatively plain and yet architecturally and artistically correct and agreeable. Its furniture may be simple and yet appropriate, and serve its purpose as well as that costing several times as much. Dark-colored woods should not be used, owing to the fact that their color absorbs so much light. We should choose, rather, lightcolored woods such as oak, ash, birch, or even white pine varnished, according to the amount available for the work. The walls may be wainscoted or sheathed up to about the height of the tables, but above this line they should be finished with a plain, white surface. The ceilings should also be white. A hard finish of what the plasterers call "adamant" is very durable and may be rendered still more so by painting with oil paint, several coats of which should be put on, in preference to kalsomining.

The windows should extend from the height of the drawing tables entirely to the ceiling. They should be provided with two curtains, one reaching from the top of the window down to the center, and a second one reaching from the center down to the bottom. The men working directly in front of the windows should only handle the lower curtain; and those in the center of the room have charge of the upper curtain. The curtains should be white, or nearly so. Instead of curtains some prefer ribbed glass, as it does not admit a glaring light in any one place, but is very useful in diffusing the light over the whole room, and the appearance of the room is much better than where curtains are used. Some prefer plain glass for the lower portion of the window and ribbed glass for the upper portion.

Electricity is the favorite artificial light, and the incandescent lamp seems to be the proper one. The question of whether we shall use enough of these, placed high up, to flood the whole room with light, or have them low down and under the control of each individual, is still discussed with fairly good reasons on both sides. Probably a majority of draftsmen will prefer the individual lamps which they can place in any position best calculated to aid them in the particular kind of work in hand.

Some of the more important conditions in reference to the location and