Stairway Enclosures-Buildings of Fireproof or Mill Construction.-(Rules of National Board of Fire Underwriters): Stair openings in buildings of such construction not "cut-off" in fireproof shafts are a violation of a most prominent principle of such construction, but when they do exist they should be enclosed by fireproof material.

CHAPTER II.

SPECIAL CONSTRUCTION AND NOTES.

BOILER HOUSES AND ROOMS.-While as a rule boilers are apt to be properly placed in new buildings and plants, it is quite a common thing to find boilers and breechings in poorly ventilated places, close to woodwork and not properly set in many buildings; especially so in risks where the boilers are only used for heating or for running light power plants.

They should be of brick, not contiguous to main buildings, or if contiguous, with fire-walls at main buildings in such risks as grain elevators, oil works, chemical works, where specially hazardous processes are carried on, varnish works, paint works, woodworking plants, saw mills, flour mills, cotton mills, woolen mills, rubber works, etc.

Should only be inside of such classes of risks as mercantile, light manufacturing buildings, rolling mills, etc.

Detached boiler houses should be of brick, with unfinished walls, earth or cement floors, roof high enough to give good ventilating space above the boilers, roof provided with a good sized ventilator, and the walls of the boilers should be independent of the boiler house walls.

When adjoining other buildings should be as per above, with the division or party wall a fire wall.

All woodwork directly exposed to any boiler, steam dome of boiler, breeching or flue, must be covered with sheet asbestos overlaid with tin (standard clad), both closely following all lines and angles of the woodwork. A metal shield with air spaces on both sides affords some protection, but is not generally efficient for the purpose of protecting the wood from the action of the heat.

(See also Chapter IV.)

Stacks should preferably be of brick, detached from all buildings.

Iron stacks must be detached from all buildings.

Where iron stacks, whether from boilers, furnaces, heaters,

forges, etc., pass through slate, metal, gravel or composition roofs, a clear space of 8 inches should be between the stacks and roof, and where the roofs are of shingles the clear space should be 12 inches. This clear space can be covered with a metal hood.

All stacks at electric light and power plants, cotton mills, woolen mills, grain elevators, oil works, etc., must be outside and disconnected from the buildings.

ROOF HOUSES for any purposes whatever, whether over elevators, for sulphur or other bleaching, etc., should be of firebrick or tiles, or of planking covered with lock-jointed tin.

HOODS.-Wood or metal hoods, 3 inches to 6 inches deep, should be hung from ceilings around all openings in floors, so as to prevent as much draft as possible between floors.

WASTE CHUTES.-Should be of brick, extending 3 feet above the roof, preferably outside of the building; but if wholly within the building the tops should be fireproof. Standard fire doors should be on all openings.

TEXTILE

MILLS PICKER ROOMS.-Should be in buildings independent of the main building, and cut off from them by fire walls.

Under some constructions picker rooms are now being cut off from the remainder of the buildings by brick walls extending to the ceilings of the picker room only, and with the ceiling of the picker room made of cement mortar, wire or expanded metal lathing, or of fire-brick, or in other cases left bare; while this construction tends to cut off the picker room from the remainder of the building, it is not as good a construction as the entire separation by means of brick fire walls.

DISCHARGE CLOSETS OR ROOMS FOR WASTE PICKERS.-Waste pickers should discharge into rooms lined with locked jointed tin.

OIL ROOM.-When detached from all other buildings, or when contiguous to, but separated from, all other buildings, should be of brick, with unfinished walls, tile, fire-brick or lockjointed tin following, all angles of the wood, or of some other non-combustible material; the floor should be of cement with a pitch towards a drain which will carry any flowing oil away from the vicinity of all of the buildings.

Where the room is inside of a building, the construction should be the same with all openings protected by standard fire doors or shutters.

DRY-KILNS FOR LUMBER.-Should be detached from all other buildings, and should preferably be of brick.

MALT KILNS.-Should be of a construction similar to that of bone-black char houses at sugar refineries, but if the roof is of wood it must be of sufficient distance above the kiln to give good ventilating space, and should be provided with a good sized ventilator; the floors should be of perforated iron, and no wood should be in the construction other than what is in the roof.

BONE-BLACK CHAR HOUSES AT SUGAR REFINERIES. Should be of brick with tile or fire-brick or brick arched roofs, cement floors and unfinished walls; all inside fittings should be of brick or iron.

OIL, LARD, AND ALL OTHER INFLAMMABLE MATERIALS, REFINERIES.—Should be as near fireproof as possible.

SMOKE HOUSES FOR MEATS.-Should be of brick, unfinished walls, floor at bottom of earth or cement or brick; first row of hangers should be of sufficient height above the fires to prevent fires setting the meat and hangers afire; roof should have a good metal ventilator.

PITS IN ELECTRIC CAR SHEDS, BARNS OR REPAIR SHOPS.-Should have earth, brick or cement floors, and only be under the tracks, and should not communicate with each other; side and end walls should be of brick built up solid to floor level of barn, etc.

STANDARD ELECTRIC LIGHT AND POWER STATION.-Brick or stone, either one story or one story and basement, in height, with a non-combustible roof, and a brick, stone or metal cornice; brick, stone or concrete floors; no wood (except in window frames and door frames) in the construction; boilers in separate rooms cut off from generator room by a fire wall; wire tower should be of brick or stone.

GRAIN ELEVATOR.-Either the machinery floor alone, or all of the "Texas," should be supported on good solid posts, independent of all bin work and running from the ground up;

boiler house must be in a separate brick or stone building with a fire wall on side towards the elevator, and stacks should be of brick, at least 20 feet from the elevator and at least 2 feet higher than peak of elevator roof.

PROSCENIUM WALLS IN THEATERS.-Should be of brick, at least 3 feet parapet, stone coped, with asbestos curtain on stage opening and standard fire doors on all other openings.

VARNISH AND OIL BOILING HOUSES.-Should be of brick, one story, with brick or concrete floor, non-combustible roof, and have a division wall between each two fireplaces, and a brick stack with entire opening and hood directly over each fire-place; should be cut off from all other buildings by fire walls.

Varnish boiling rooms, oil boiling rooms, boiler rooms, where the ventilation is poor or boilers close to the overhead construction; hot rooms in print works, core oven and all similar rooms, in which there is a very high degree of heat used, or in which extra hazardous processes are carried on, should preferably be built brick arched, or with steel trusses thoroughly fireproofed with fire-bricks or tiles, supporting fire-brick or tiles roof construction; no wood should be used in their construction.

TANNERIES.-The bark mill should be located in a house cut off from the remainder of the plant by fire walls. If detached, all openings in any brick or stone buildings exposed to the bark mill should be protected with standard fire doors or shutters.

Enameling rooms should be cut off from the remainder of the plant by fire walls wherever possible.

All buildings should be whitewashed or painted regularly, especially should the bark mill and leach house be so treated frequently.

GRAIN DRYERS.—As this subject is so fully treated in the pamphlet on the Construction and Installation of Grain Dryers, issued by the National Board of Fire Underwriters, simplification for the understanding of the non-technical is unnecessary. It is reproduced here in full.

As the use of grain dryers in connection with elevators is becoming more general on account of the increasing demand for