CHAPTER III

GENERAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE BUILDING

Principal requisites. Should be erected for utility rather than ornament. Special requirements of manufacturing buildings. The best type of buildings for the purpose. The construction of the walls. Sham work. Methods of laying bricks. Window spacing. Roof construction. Protection from condensation. The central portion of the machine shop. The traveling crane. Side portions or bays of the machine shop. The galleries. Dimensions of walls. The foundry. General dimensions. Central part. Side bays. Cupola platform. The forge shop. General dimensions. Roof ventilation. Chimneys. The power house. Alternate plans. The engine room. The storehouse. Special construction of floor. Trolley hoists and supports. The carpenter shop. Storage sheds. Coal and sand sheds. Floors of storage sheds. Forge shop storage.

HAVING arranged and planned the buildings for carrying on the work for which our plant is designed, making each of a size large enough for the equipment to be installed and the number of men required to operate it, and having placed the several buildings in convenient adjacency for economically passing the work through them, from the raw material to the finished product, let us now consider the construction of the buildings planned.

Manufacturing buildings are erected for utility rather than ornament, and the latter characteristic is always made secondary to the practical question of best fitting them for the special work to be done in them. To this end one must be guided by several well-known conditions.

First, the buildings should be strong enough to bear the weight and withstand the strain of the machinery operated in them, and the materials used in manufacturing, with which they are loaded. This load frequently varies within a wide range as to weight at different times, and is also constantly being shifted from one point to another, so that ample provision must be made for this condition.

Second, the building must be of such construction as to be amply rigid for all purposes, and to a certain extent be elastic enough to remain uninjured under the shocks that it is liable to undergo.

Third, there should be ample opportunity for ventilation, yet not unnecessary height, as the expense of heating would be needlessly increased.

Fourth, ample provision should be made for light, for which purpose the

windows should be placed at short intervals and extend nearly to the ceiling. At the same time an extravagant use of glass will also greatly increase the cost of heating.

Fifth, the floors should be of such strength and material as to bear whatever weight is to be put upon them, either regularly or temporarily.

Sixth, numerous exits should be provided for the use of employees in case of fire. This becomes more imperative as the number of employees increases in proportion to the area of floor surface; as for instance, in factories, particularly where boys and females are employed.

Seventh, the roofs should be so constructed as to bear the weight of snow in winter, as well as the pressure of high winds; and they should be so designed as to give a minimum amount of after-expense from deterioration and from leaking, the latter cause usually costing much more from damage to stock and machinery than for repairs to the roof itself.

For manufacturing buildings in general there is probably no construction more satisfactory in every respect and that answers all the usual conditions better than brick walls and an iron roof. The walls should be of a thickness proper to the dimensions and purposes of the building, and, except when the building is for light work, should be strengthened by buttresses placed between the windows or groups of windows.

In the building of brick walls much care should be taken as to the method of laying the bricks. It is too often the case that the wall is really two walls with little or no substantial connection between them. A "face" is laid up to the face line, and the "backing" even with the back line of the wall. If this leaves a space, from the regular size of the bricks failing to reach each other, it is frequently left as it is without being filled with pieces of bricks, or even with mortar. This space is not bridged over at as frequent intervals as it should be by header courses, so that we have what is practically a sham piece of work.

It is one of the too prevalent customs, also, of filling only an inch or so of the face of the joints between the ends of the bricks with mortar. This is another form of sham work, and neither of the above practices should be allowed.

Where very strong walls are desired, as for the brick foundation walls for buildings, or foundations for heavy machinery, the bricks should be laid in what is called the English bond, that is, the courses will be composed of an alternate header and stretcher brick. On the next course the header is laid across the center of the stretcher brick.

Another method is the Flemish bond, which consists of alternate courses of headers and stretchers.

For the side walls of shops generally, the bricks should be laid with a

header course to every five stretcher courses. It is often the practice that the stretcher courses are increased to seven instead of five, and we remember one old bricklayer who, in bemoaning some of the modern sham work, said that "they put in a header course every Tuesday."

In spacing brickwork for the windows it is customary to lay them off so as to take a certain number of whole bricks, or a certain number of lengths of bricks, with the width of one brick to fill out the space required. By this means much cutting of bricks is avoided, and the face of the wall appears much more neat and regular. In laying out the plans for buildings this matter should be considered.

In all cases the wall should be frequently leveled crosswise, as well as lengthwise, to insure a fair horizontal bearing for all the bricks, as even a slight inclination greatly endangers the strength of the wall.

The roof 1 proper should be supported by trusses at each division or bay, and connected by purlins, all securely braced; by which construction lightness, combined with great strength and ample elasticity, is secured. For a covering, wood may be used and covered with roofing tin which should be always protected by a good coating of mineral paint.

The covering may be of corrugated iron, although this has the very serious objection of moisture condensing on its underside and dripping into the interior of the building. This may be wholly prevented by laying on a couple of thicknesses of tar paper, or other paper impervious to water, and as a protection against fire from the underside of the tar paper, first laying two thicknesses of asbestos paper. These four layers of paper are supported by galvanized wire netting, tightly stretched over the purlin supports.

This is probably the best form of roof covering yet devised for the roofs of manufacturing buildings, and with brick walls, truss roof, and covering as described the building is practically fire-proof.

Referring to Fig. 4, the machine shop is seen to be constructed with a central portion 40 feet wide and covered by a traveling crane, giving a clear height of 40 feet beneath it. This crane is supported by wide plate girders resting on the main columns, and runs the entire length of the machine shop. be operated by belting and gearing, but preferably by electricity, as the necessary power is much more readily transmitted to any point in the length of the building by conducting wires and a suitable trolley than by means of shafts and belts with their attendant expense and annoyance.

It

may

On each side of the central portion of the building are wings 30 feet wide, extending the whole length of the structure, and built in two floors, the upper one, or gallery, being used for light machinery. It extends across

The roof designs shown are substantially those adopted by the Berlin Construction Co., New Britain, Conn.

The lower member of the roof truss is of latticed form, to give the required strength for supporting the lines of shafting. The floors of the galleries are

10-ft.

80-ft.

the front end, both as a means of conveniently connecting the two galleries and of affording a platform for transferring stock, materials, or machines to and from the ground floor by the traveling crane.

FIG. 4. Cross Section through Machine Shop.

30-ft

FIG. 5.-Cross Section through Foundry, Cupola Platform, etc.

supported by girders, upon which floor joists are supported, and to the under side. of which the line-shaft hangers are attached.

The side walls are built 20 inches thick for the first story, or 16 feet, and 16 inches thick for the remainder of the height, and are strengthened by buttresses of 8 inches projection and 24 inches wide. Each bay, or division, is 18 feet inches centers, and the side wall is pierced for two windows on each floor, each window being 4 feet wide; the lower ones 10 feet, and the upper ones 9 feet high.

3

Above the wing roofs is a monitor roof construction having another series of windows 5 feet high, extending the entire length of the building and separated one from the other only by about 12 inches, thus giving ample light to the central portion of the building. Every alternate sash is pivoted so as to be opened for ventilation.

The roof is constructed as has already been described, with an outward covering of corrugated iron, and has a pitch of 3 inches to the foot, as have the roofs of all the buildings of the plant. The form of truss is the usual one, as shown in the engravings.

The foundry is built on a