WHAT'S WHAT IN SKYSCRAPERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14250, 22 December 1909, Page 6

WHAT'S WHAT IN SKYSCRAPERS.

An analysis by a technical writer of the materials entering into the construction of the Singer Building, iu New York, shows that in it there are 136 miles, of piping of various ' kinds; - enough electric wiring (3425 miles) to reach across the sea to the top of Eiffel Tower in Paris ; steel enough to reach to Buenos Ayres (7100 miles) if made into three-quarter cable, or to build 125 mogul locomotives, and 101 tons of sheet copper, nearly * five acres in extent. It' has over eight acres of terra-cotta floors, and ' contains bricks enough (5,033,800) to pave a footpath 12in wide from New York to Boston. There are 13.3 miles of picture moulding and 47 miles of moulding on doors, windows, etc. The mortar in the masonry (5541 tons) would build a cement path 14in wide and lin thick from New York to Washington. The paint used on and in the structure (197' tons) would cover • a 6ft board fence extending from New York to Springfield, - Mass. There is < enough glass in the building • (85,203 square feet) to make a show window 6ft high on Broadway from Liberty-street to Thirty-fourth-street. Nearly six acres of metal laths support the plaster and are in turn held . firm by 50 miles of angle iron, with 130 miles of wire ' and 110,00 d .bolts. Lamps to the extent of 278,000 candlepower are installed in the building, arid the boilers ,of the power 1 plant generate yearly 150 million pounds of steam by boiling 18 million gallons of water with 8000 tons of coal. Tho elevator cars will travel yearly a distance equal to , four times the circumference of the earth. ;