The Equitable "Sky-Scraper."

Progress, Volume IV, Issue 1, 2 November 1908, Page 22

The Equitable "Sky-Scraper."

The following paiticulars are from the Office of the New York building authorities: — The plans filed consisted of seventy sheets of drawings, each measuring 4x5 feet, and it is estimated that the cost of preparing these plans, togethei with the cost involved m prelinnnaiy engmeeimg woik m connection with them, represent an outlay or probably not less than £62,500. _ The plans provide foi a main structure thiity-four stoieys in height, leaching 489 feet into the air, and having a frontage of about 150 feet on two sides, and over 300 feet on the othei two sides. Above the main building there will be a squaie tower rising twenty-eight additional storeys, and capped with a cupola, having a combined height of 420 feet. This, together with the thirty-four storeys of the main building, w ill give a total of sixty-two store} s, and a height of 909 feet. Above the tower of the building itself there is to extend a flagpole 150 feet long. The building is to be equipped with a group of thhty-three passenger elevators, built in two rows in a great elevator corridor finished m ornamental bronze. Eight of these elevators will run to the top of the tower extension. In addition to these, there will be a number of elevators exclusively for freight transportation. Despite the great value of the land which it will occupy (£3,750,000), and the expected large cost of the building itself, the society expects its building to be a big money-saver. Officials have estimated that the return on it should be from 8 to 10 per cent. Speaking of these plans, and generally of the kind of structuies to which they belong, our contemporary, "Building," declares that no matter what opinion one may have about their necessity, one cannot but take pride at the magnificence of such stupendous conceptions and the splendid testimonies they are to the human conquest of constitutional difficulties. v # -v- - v The studio built at the Wellington College for the Wellington College Camera Club is now out of the contractois' (McLean and Gray) hands Aiehitect, H. Andrews.

The evolution oi the locomotive whistle (says the "Liverpool Post") is interesting. Seventyfive yeais ago eiigme-drivers were provided with a tin horn, which they used to blow before rounding euives 01 passing over crossings. In 1833 an English farmer, on his way to market, was run down and himself killed, with his two horses. The pioduce, consisting of one thousand eggs and one hundred pounds of butter, was destroyed, and all had to be paid for by the company. The managing director sent for George Stephenson. "Our diiveis can't blow their horns loudly enough to clear the tracks ahead," he said. "You have made this steam do so much, why don't you make it blow a good loud horn for us?" The inventor consulted a musical instrument maker, and the outcome was the locomotive whistle.