I
N saying this, we wish to defend ourselves in advance against the accusations of hostility to professional interests, disloyalty to the Institute schedule, ignorance of professional usage, and so on, which are occasionally brought against us when we give a similar reply to the questions of correspondents on this or allied matters. We ought not to have to point out that we do not make the law affecting architects ; a good many things about it are, in our opinion, grossly unjust, and ought to be changed, as they might be, by the intervention of the Institute, with the weight of its authority, and, if necessary, with money and legal assistance for prosecuting appeals, in controversies which involve points of importance to the profession; but, until the efforts of the members of the profession are combined to bring about such a change, decisions will probably continue to be given in accordance with the law as it is, and not as it should be, and the law as it is must continue to be the basis of the advice we give to our professional friends who ask for it. To show the importance of the distinction, we may recall the famous case of Phelps vs. Tolman, where the architect, supposing that the usual professional claim, that “ drawings, as instruments of service, are the property of the architect,” was good law, laid hands on the plans for certain buildings, in consequence of some dispute with the proprietor, and secluded them. The proprietor, Phelps, thereupon brought a criminal charge against him, of having stolen his property, i. e., the plans of his buildings, and found a judge to issue a warrant, upon which the architect was arrested, and clapped into jail. We know, and every architect knows, and most reasonable clients know also, that it was very much for the interest of Mr. Phelps, as well as of Mr. Tolman, that the latter should keep possession of the drawings, which he alone could properly preserve, index and interpret in case of subsequent need; and there is no doubt that both Phelps and Tolman, like all other people who know anything of the ordinary relations of architects and clients, intended and expected from the first that Tolman should own the plans; yet the law as it is enabled Phelps to perpetrate a gross outrage upon his professional confidant and adviser, and, until it is changed, unwary architects need to have the dangers which it presents frequently pointed out.
ARCHITECTS, like other people, do well to be a little careful in dealing with strangers. A few days ago, two
well-dressed gentlemen, who lived at a fine hotel in New York, went to a firm of architects, and told them that they had leased a piece of land on Broadway, and intended to build a theatre on it, at a cost of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and wished the architects to prepare plans for the theatre. We all know, to our sorrow, that architects are a credulous race, and the drawings were made, and delivered to the elegant gentlemen, who took them to some stone dealers, and asked for estimates for the stone. While the stone estimates were being prepared, another visit was made to a contractor, named White, who was requested to make an estimate for the construction of the building, and invited to take a share in the enterprise, as a member of the Arcade Amusement Company, which was to be incorporated for the purpose of building and managing the theatre. Mr. White promised to think the matter over, and a week later the gentlemen presented themselves again, and explained that they had met with a heavy loss through the failure of the Maverick Bank, in Boston, and had some large bills to pay, and would be glad of an advance of three hundred dollars. Mr. White suspected that something was wrong, but made an appointment for tlje pair to call again. They seemed to have made sure that he would give them the money, for it appeared afterward that they went almost immediately to a fashionable tailor, and ordered about two hundred dollars’ worth of clothes. Instead, however, of treating them with the generosity they anticipated, Mr. White engaged two detectives to be present at the appointed meeting, and both the amateurs of stylish clothes were arrested on a charge of attempted swindling. One of them has already been arrested for smuggling opium and Chinamen from Canada into the United States, and it is to be hoped that both will be made harmless for a time bv judicial process.
THE tower of the Madison Square Garden, in New York, which forms a very beautiful part of the composition, is to be made also a profitable one. The top of the tower is throe hundred and forty-one feet above the ground, so that a
very extensive view is obtained from the upper chamber over New York, Brooklyn and Jersey City, with the harbor as far as Sandy Hook, the Hudson River and the Palisades, and the western part of Long Island. A large elevator, accommodating twenty-five passengers at once, makes regular trips to the top, while people who like exercise can reach the same point by climbing a staircase of six hundred steps. The tower is surmounted by a hollow copper figure of Diana, twenty feet high, with the crescent moon on its head. The crescent is of glass prisms, with two hundred incandescent lights behind it, and the figure itself, which turns with the wind, is illuminated by concealed lamps and reflectors. The whole affair is as curious as it is beautiful, and will be likely to prove an inexhaustible attraction to sight-seers.
THE old rule about chimneys was that they ought to have the flue tapered to the top, on the theory that, as the hot
gases in them ascended, they cooled, and, in cooling, contracted ; and that it was important to reduce the size of the flue in proportion to the reduction in volume of the gases, as otherwise cold air from the top would descend to fill the vacancy left by the contraction of the gases, and the draught would be checked. Reasonable as this theory seemed, practice has shown that cylindrical boiler or furnace flues are at least as good as the tapered ones, and within a few years practical engineers and architects of experience in such matters have inclined to make them slightly larger at the top than at the bottom, the increase in diameter being, perhaps, half an inch to ten or twelve feet. Recently, a Swiss engineer has made experiments to see whether the facts bear out the old rule, or support the more modern practice. To make the test, he built a chimney over a furnace-grate, the stack having two flues. One flue tapered upward and the other downward, and the flues opened side by side over the grate, with openings of the same size. On lighting a fire on the grate, with unlimited access of air under it,°the smoke was seen to issue nearly equally from the top of the two flues, but with an unmistakable preponderance in favor of the flue which enlarged toward the top. On partially shutting off the access of air to the fire, the difference became much more marked: the current in the flue tapering upward diminished, and finally stopped altogether, the smoke finding its way entirely through the flue with the wider top. Trials were then made to see whether the current in the flue with the upward diminution could be restored by partly shutting off the other. A damper was arranged at the top of the wide-mouthed flue, and gradually closed; but even after nine-tenths of the orifice of this flue had been shut off, no current was started in the other, and it was only after the wide-mouthed flue had been closed entirely that the smoke began again to pass through the tapering one. \Ye believe that the old theory is now made to conform to the facts by explaining that the friction of the smoke against the sides is much less in a chimney tapering downward than in one tapering upward; but, however that may be, there seems to be no doubt that the downward taper is more favorable, under ordinary circumstances, than either a uniform section, or one diminishing toward the top. What the most favorable rate of increase is does not seem to be yet determined. The foreign experimenter, whose report in the Schweizerische Bauzeitung has been extensively copied, thinks that an increase of diameter at the top of about one inch to one hundred and twenty-five inches in height of flue is not too much; and he considers that ventilation-flues may, with advantage, be increased in capacity at a still more rapid rate.
THERE is one Porl; on °f the American Architect which we have at times felt may not receive the consideration its
intrinsic excellence really deserves. Because of a misgiving as to the degree of interest that the majority of our readers feel in the fluctuations of the various markets we have thought it best to print our “ Trade Survey ” in small type, although by so doing we knew we sacrificed some part of the effectiveness which was really due to such well-considered effort. If any of our readers are not in the habit of reading the last column of each issue, he makes a mistake, as he° thereby misses the instruction which is often to be found in these compact little essays in political economy, to say nothino-of the advice and warning these surveys contain, which may be of the greatest value bow and -then to -individuals.
N saying this, we wish to defend ourselves in advance against the accusations of hostility to professional interests, disloyalty to the Institute schedule, ignorance of professional usage, and so on, which are occasionally brought against us when we give a similar reply to the questions of correspondents on this or allied matters. We ought not to have to point out that we do not make the law affecting architects ; a good many things about it are, in our opinion, grossly unjust, and ought to be changed, as they might be, by the intervention of the Institute, with the weight of its authority, and, if necessary, with money and legal assistance for prosecuting appeals, in controversies which involve points of importance to the profession; but, until the efforts of the members of the profession are combined to bring about such a change, decisions will probably continue to be given in accordance with the law as it is, and not as it should be, and the law as it is must continue to be the basis of the advice we give to our professional friends who ask for it. To show the importance of the distinction, we may recall the famous case of Phelps vs. Tolman, where the architect, supposing that the usual professional claim, that “ drawings, as instruments of service, are the property of the architect,” was good law, laid hands on the plans for certain buildings, in consequence of some dispute with the proprietor, and secluded them. The proprietor, Phelps, thereupon brought a criminal charge against him, of having stolen his property, i. e., the plans of his buildings, and found a judge to issue a warrant, upon which the architect was arrested, and clapped into jail. We know, and every architect knows, and most reasonable clients know also, that it was very much for the interest of Mr. Phelps, as well as of Mr. Tolman, that the latter should keep possession of the drawings, which he alone could properly preserve, index and interpret in case of subsequent need; and there is no doubt that both Phelps and Tolman, like all other people who know anything of the ordinary relations of architects and clients, intended and expected from the first that Tolman should own the plans; yet the law as it is enabled Phelps to perpetrate a gross outrage upon his professional confidant and adviser, and, until it is changed, unwary architects need to have the dangers which it presents frequently pointed out.
ARCHITECTS, like other people, do well to be a little careful in dealing with strangers. A few days ago, two
well-dressed gentlemen, who lived at a fine hotel in New York, went to a firm of architects, and told them that they had leased a piece of land on Broadway, and intended to build a theatre on it, at a cost of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and wished the architects to prepare plans for the theatre. We all know, to our sorrow, that architects are a credulous race, and the drawings were made, and delivered to the elegant gentlemen, who took them to some stone dealers, and asked for estimates for the stone. While the stone estimates were being prepared, another visit was made to a contractor, named White, who was requested to make an estimate for the construction of the building, and invited to take a share in the enterprise, as a member of the Arcade Amusement Company, which was to be incorporated for the purpose of building and managing the theatre. Mr. White promised to think the matter over, and a week later the gentlemen presented themselves again, and explained that they had met with a heavy loss through the failure of the Maverick Bank, in Boston, and had some large bills to pay, and would be glad of an advance of three hundred dollars. Mr. White suspected that something was wrong, but made an appointment for tlje pair to call again. They seemed to have made sure that he would give them the money, for it appeared afterward that they went almost immediately to a fashionable tailor, and ordered about two hundred dollars’ worth of clothes. Instead, however, of treating them with the generosity they anticipated, Mr. White engaged two detectives to be present at the appointed meeting, and both the amateurs of stylish clothes were arrested on a charge of attempted swindling. One of them has already been arrested for smuggling opium and Chinamen from Canada into the United States, and it is to be hoped that both will be made harmless for a time bv judicial process.
THE tower of the Madison Square Garden, in New York, which forms a very beautiful part of the composition, is to be made also a profitable one. The top of the tower is throe hundred and forty-one feet above the ground, so that a
very extensive view is obtained from the upper chamber over New York, Brooklyn and Jersey City, with the harbor as far as Sandy Hook, the Hudson River and the Palisades, and the western part of Long Island. A large elevator, accommodating twenty-five passengers at once, makes regular trips to the top, while people who like exercise can reach the same point by climbing a staircase of six hundred steps. The tower is surmounted by a hollow copper figure of Diana, twenty feet high, with the crescent moon on its head. The crescent is of glass prisms, with two hundred incandescent lights behind it, and the figure itself, which turns with the wind, is illuminated by concealed lamps and reflectors. The whole affair is as curious as it is beautiful, and will be likely to prove an inexhaustible attraction to sight-seers.
THE old rule about chimneys was that they ought to have the flue tapered to the top, on the theory that, as the hot
gases in them ascended, they cooled, and, in cooling, contracted ; and that it was important to reduce the size of the flue in proportion to the reduction in volume of the gases, as otherwise cold air from the top would descend to fill the vacancy left by the contraction of the gases, and the draught would be checked. Reasonable as this theory seemed, practice has shown that cylindrical boiler or furnace flues are at least as good as the tapered ones, and within a few years practical engineers and architects of experience in such matters have inclined to make them slightly larger at the top than at the bottom, the increase in diameter being, perhaps, half an inch to ten or twelve feet. Recently, a Swiss engineer has made experiments to see whether the facts bear out the old rule, or support the more modern practice. To make the test, he built a chimney over a furnace-grate, the stack having two flues. One flue tapered upward and the other downward, and the flues opened side by side over the grate, with openings of the same size. On lighting a fire on the grate, with unlimited access of air under it,°the smoke was seen to issue nearly equally from the top of the two flues, but with an unmistakable preponderance in favor of the flue which enlarged toward the top. On partially shutting off the access of air to the fire, the difference became much more marked: the current in the flue tapering upward diminished, and finally stopped altogether, the smoke finding its way entirely through the flue with the wider top. Trials were then made to see whether the current in the flue with the upward diminution could be restored by partly shutting off the other. A damper was arranged at the top of the wide-mouthed flue, and gradually closed; but even after nine-tenths of the orifice of this flue had been shut off, no current was started in the other, and it was only after the wide-mouthed flue had been closed entirely that the smoke began again to pass through the tapering one. \Ye believe that the old theory is now made to conform to the facts by explaining that the friction of the smoke against the sides is much less in a chimney tapering downward than in one tapering upward; but, however that may be, there seems to be no doubt that the downward taper is more favorable, under ordinary circumstances, than either a uniform section, or one diminishing toward the top. What the most favorable rate of increase is does not seem to be yet determined. The foreign experimenter, whose report in the Schweizerische Bauzeitung has been extensively copied, thinks that an increase of diameter at the top of about one inch to one hundred and twenty-five inches in height of flue is not too much; and he considers that ventilation-flues may, with advantage, be increased in capacity at a still more rapid rate.
THERE is one Porl; on °f the American Architect which we have at times felt may not receive the consideration its
intrinsic excellence really deserves. Because of a misgiving as to the degree of interest that the majority of our readers feel in the fluctuations of the various markets we have thought it best to print our “ Trade Survey ” in small type, although by so doing we knew we sacrificed some part of the effectiveness which was really due to such well-considered effort. If any of our readers are not in the habit of reading the last column of each issue, he makes a mistake, as he° thereby misses the instruction which is often to be found in these compact little essays in political economy, to say nothino-of the advice and warning these surveys contain, which may be of the greatest value bow and -then to -individuals.