for erecting their manufacturing plant in this city.
New York, N. Y.—Prof. Despradelle of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who is vice-president of the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects, of New York, is delivering a course of four conferences on architectural subjects in the tapestry ballroom of Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney, at her residence, southwest corner of Fifth avenue and Fifty-seventh street.
NOTES AND CLIPPINGS.
Carpenters Steel Squares.—The large steel squares used by carpenters are such a common tool that perhaps few know when and where they were first made, and how they came to be used, or even give the matter a th.ought. The making of them is a great industry now, but when the last century came in there was not one in use. The inventor was a poor Vermont blacksmith, Silas Howes, who lived in South Shaftsbury.
One dull, rainy day a peddler of tinware called at his shop to have the blacksmith fasten a shoe on his horse. These peddlers traveled up and down the country calling at every farmhouse, buying everything in the way of barter. This one had a number of worn-out steel saws that he had picked up in various places. Howes bargained for them, shoeing the peddler’s horse and receiving the saws in payment, and each thought he had an excellent trade.
His idea w.as to polish and weld two saws together, at right angles, and thus make a rule or measure superior to anything then in use. After a few attempts he succeeded in making a square, marked it off in inches and fractions of inches and found that it answered every purposethat he intended it for.
In the course of a few weeks he made quite a number during his spare hours. These he sent out by the peddlers, who found every carpenter eager to buy one, Soon he found orders coming in faster than he could supply the demand. One of his steel “squares” would sell for $5 or $6, which was five times as much as .it cost him.
He applied for and obtained a patent on his invention, so that no one else could deprive him of the profit it gave him. It was just after the War of 1812, and money was scarce and difficult to get. But he worked
early and late, and as he earned money he bought iron, and hired men to help him. In a few years he was able to1 erect a large factory and put in machinery for the making of squares, which by this time had found their way all over the country and had made their inventor famous.
Silas Howes lived to be a millionaire, and he did a great deal of good with his money. Squares are still made on the spot where the first one was made more than ninety-five years ago.
Famous Church Restored.—The Bishop of London reopened and dedicated the east cloister of the Priory Church of St. Bartholomew the Great, West Smithfield, recently.
The restoration of the church, which was founded in the twelfth century, has been slowly proceeding since 1885, and with the recovery of the last part of the monastery the restoration is now practically complete.
In the course of the restoration a fringe factory has been removed from the sanctuary and Lady Chapel, a forge from the north transept, a school from the north triforium, and a stable from the cloister. London Express.
Proposed Whistler Memorial.—It is stated that the proposed international memorial to the late J. M. Whistler will consist of a monument to be set up at Chelsea after a design by M. Auguste Rodin, who succeeded Whistler as president of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers. The Society contributes £500 toward the estimated cost, £2,500, of the memorial at Chelsea, and it is intended, if the necessary subscriptions are received, to erect replicas of M. Rodin’s monument in Paris and in America.—The Builder.
BUILDING NEWS.
(The editors greatly desire to receive information from the smaller and outlying towns as well as from the larger cities.)
Aberdeen, Wash.—The Crescent Hotel, now 2 stories, will be made 4 stories, with a modern elevator, at a cost of about $50,- 000.
Allegheny, Pa.—The board of trustees of the Presbyterian Flospital have adopted plans for the erection of a 6-story building
at Sherman and Montgomery Aves., to cost about $150,000. T. B. Billquist and E. B. Lee are the architects.
Appleton, Wis.—The local Y. M. C. A. has raised $50,000 and will have plans prepared for a new building as soon as a site can be selected.
Ashland, Ala.—Plans for a 2-story court-house, 80 x 110 ft., for Clay County, at Ashland, are being prepared by Charles W. Carlton, Anniston, Ala. Cost, $40,000.
Atlantic City, N. J.—We are advised officially that John L. Young will construct a 6-story, fireproof, -concrete and steel hotel in this city. Cost, $125,000. H. A. Stout, Bartlett bldg., is architect.
Atlantic City, N, J.—The. Y. M. C. A., it is reported will soon start work on the erection of their naw building, estimated еo cost $125,000.
Bakersfield, Cal.—The Kern County High-Sehool, to be : erected here, will be situated adjacent to the present building and be of brick, with stone ornamentation. As designed by Stone & Smith, of this city, the new structure will cost Kern Countv $50,000.
Bala, Pa.—George I. Lovatt, Philadelphia, Pa., has been commissioned by Rev. Father McCabe, pastor, to prepare plans for a church and rectory to be built here. The church will be built first. Work will probably be started in the late spring.
Bancroft, Neb.—We are officially informed that all. bids received for the construction of school building here were in excess of the appropriation and were rej ected.
Bangor, Pa.—The Bangor Real Estate: Co-., of this city, has plans in progress for a new 5-story fireproof store and office building. Cost, $50,000.
Beaumont, Tex.—It is rumored that
plans are on foot for the organization of a stock company, to be capitalized for $100,- 000 to construct a modern hotel building on Tevis St.
Ben Lomond, Cal.—It is announced that the work on the Grant Hotel, to be erected on the site of the old Horton House, will be begun immediately. Cost, $650,000.
Berkeley, Cal.—It is reported that J. Galen Howard, supervising architect of the University of California, is preparing plans
Continued on page vii.
New York, N. Y.—Prof. Despradelle of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who is vice-president of the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects, of New York, is delivering a course of four conferences on architectural subjects in the tapestry ballroom of Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney, at her residence, southwest corner of Fifth avenue and Fifty-seventh street.
NOTES AND CLIPPINGS.
Carpenters Steel Squares.—The large steel squares used by carpenters are such a common tool that perhaps few know when and where they were first made, and how they came to be used, or even give the matter a th.ought. The making of them is a great industry now, but when the last century came in there was not one in use. The inventor was a poor Vermont blacksmith, Silas Howes, who lived in South Shaftsbury.
One dull, rainy day a peddler of tinware called at his shop to have the blacksmith fasten a shoe on his horse. These peddlers traveled up and down the country calling at every farmhouse, buying everything in the way of barter. This one had a number of worn-out steel saws that he had picked up in various places. Howes bargained for them, shoeing the peddler’s horse and receiving the saws in payment, and each thought he had an excellent trade.
His idea w.as to polish and weld two saws together, at right angles, and thus make a rule or measure superior to anything then in use. After a few attempts he succeeded in making a square, marked it off in inches and fractions of inches and found that it answered every purposethat he intended it for.
In the course of a few weeks he made quite a number during his spare hours. These he sent out by the peddlers, who found every carpenter eager to buy one, Soon he found orders coming in faster than he could supply the demand. One of his steel “squares” would sell for $5 or $6, which was five times as much as .it cost him.
He applied for and obtained a patent on his invention, so that no one else could deprive him of the profit it gave him. It was just after the War of 1812, and money was scarce and difficult to get. But he worked
early and late, and as he earned money he bought iron, and hired men to help him. In a few years he was able to1 erect a large factory and put in machinery for the making of squares, which by this time had found their way all over the country and had made their inventor famous.
Silas Howes lived to be a millionaire, and he did a great deal of good with his money. Squares are still made on the spot where the first one was made more than ninety-five years ago.
Famous Church Restored.—The Bishop of London reopened and dedicated the east cloister of the Priory Church of St. Bartholomew the Great, West Smithfield, recently.
The restoration of the church, which was founded in the twelfth century, has been slowly proceeding since 1885, and with the recovery of the last part of the monastery the restoration is now practically complete.
In the course of the restoration a fringe factory has been removed from the sanctuary and Lady Chapel, a forge from the north transept, a school from the north triforium, and a stable from the cloister. London Express.
Proposed Whistler Memorial.—It is stated that the proposed international memorial to the late J. M. Whistler will consist of a monument to be set up at Chelsea after a design by M. Auguste Rodin, who succeeded Whistler as president of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers. The Society contributes £500 toward the estimated cost, £2,500, of the memorial at Chelsea, and it is intended, if the necessary subscriptions are received, to erect replicas of M. Rodin’s monument in Paris and in America.—The Builder.
BUILDING NEWS.
(The editors greatly desire to receive information from the smaller and outlying towns as well as from the larger cities.)
Aberdeen, Wash.—The Crescent Hotel, now 2 stories, will be made 4 stories, with a modern elevator, at a cost of about $50,- 000.
Allegheny, Pa.—The board of trustees of the Presbyterian Flospital have adopted plans for the erection of a 6-story building
at Sherman and Montgomery Aves., to cost about $150,000. T. B. Billquist and E. B. Lee are the architects.
Appleton, Wis.—The local Y. M. C. A. has raised $50,000 and will have plans prepared for a new building as soon as a site can be selected.
Ashland, Ala.—Plans for a 2-story court-house, 80 x 110 ft., for Clay County, at Ashland, are being prepared by Charles W. Carlton, Anniston, Ala. Cost, $40,000.
Atlantic City, N. J.—We are advised officially that John L. Young will construct a 6-story, fireproof, -concrete and steel hotel in this city. Cost, $125,000. H. A. Stout, Bartlett bldg., is architect.
Atlantic City, N, J.—The. Y. M. C. A., it is reported will soon start work on the erection of their naw building, estimated еo cost $125,000.
Bakersfield, Cal.—The Kern County High-Sehool, to be : erected here, will be situated adjacent to the present building and be of brick, with stone ornamentation. As designed by Stone & Smith, of this city, the new structure will cost Kern Countv $50,000.
Bala, Pa.—George I. Lovatt, Philadelphia, Pa., has been commissioned by Rev. Father McCabe, pastor, to prepare plans for a church and rectory to be built here. The church will be built first. Work will probably be started in the late spring.
Bancroft, Neb.—We are officially informed that all. bids received for the construction of school building here were in excess of the appropriation and were rej ected.
Bangor, Pa.—The Bangor Real Estate: Co-., of this city, has plans in progress for a new 5-story fireproof store and office building. Cost, $50,000.
Beaumont, Tex.—It is rumored that
plans are on foot for the organization of a stock company, to be capitalized for $100,- 000 to construct a modern hotel building on Tevis St.
Ben Lomond, Cal.—It is announced that the work on the Grant Hotel, to be erected on the site of the old Horton House, will be begun immediately. Cost, $650,000.
Berkeley, Cal.—It is reported that J. Galen Howard, supervising architect of the University of California, is preparing plans
Continued on page vii.