VOL. LXX.

No. 1299.

Mr. Franklin W. Smith's Scheme for a great Archæological Museum in Washington, D. C.-Cornell University suggests a great College of Fine-Arts. Innate and acquired Artistic Feeling and the best Way to cultivate Them.- A New Park for Washington, D. C.-The Competition for the "Maine" Monument. Testing Cement for the New York Subway Tunnels.-Windows in a Party-wall. - The Simplon Tunnel. 49 DIFFUSION OF LIGHT. II.

LETTER FROM CHICAGO. COB BUILDING. ILLUSTRATIONS:

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The Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Monument, New York, N. Y.- Plan and Approaches of the Same. - Diagrams illustrating the Diffusion of Light. - New Assembly-hall: Reform School for Boys, Washington, D. C. Design for a County Court-house. First Prize Design for the Church of St. Johannes, Malmo, Sweden. Additional: Detail of the Fifth Ave. Front: Metropolitan Museum of Fine-Art, New York, N. Y.-Original Design for the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, New York, N. Y. – Swansea Road Board-School, Reading, Eng. Proposed Shooting-box, near Andover, Eng. .

COMMUNICATIONS:

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NOTES AND CLIPPINGS.

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R. FRANKLIN W. SMITH, whose efforts, already familiar to our readers, for the adornment of the City of Washington by an immense group of museums, have been delayed by the necessity for some months' rest and treatment in Europe, has now returned, and asks the coöperation of all persons interested in the advancement of his pet scheme. Such coöperation we very willingly offer, not only because Mr. Smith's long labors, as unselfish as they have been enlightened, deserve the recognition of the profession, but because we heartily approve his scheme, as a whole. As artists and critics, we think that it will be possible to give a little more harmony to the group of buildings than is indicated by the published designs, without injuring the fidelity or the individuality of each element, but this is simply a matter of revision and study, such as every architectural design undergoes before execution. The suggestion in Senate Document No. 209, in which Mr. Smith's plans are described in very interesting detail, for a straight avenue from the Capitol to the old Observatory grounds, on the banks of the Potomac, we do not approve, and we believe that Mr. Smith himself would agree with us that the group of public buildings which he foresees lining it would look much better under a different arrangement. Nothing in municipal topography gives a more fatiguing effect than a long, straight avenue ascending a hill, while the buildings on such an avenue, looked down at from the higher portion, lose immensely in architectural effect. Even if such an avenue were a desirable feature in itself, it would be a great misfortune to Washington to have the beautiful view, from Capitol Hill, over the Botanical Garden and the Smithsonian grounds, cut in two by a wide avenue; and, in practice, the group of future buildings would be far more magnificently and appropriately situated on the riverbank, leaving the present parks intact. is probable that the matter will come before Congress at the next session, and we shall be glad to see at least a beginning made at carrying out the great educational scheme which Mr. Smith has so long had at heart, and in which so many persons are now interested.

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opinion than ourselves of the artistic capacity of the American people, or is more desirous of seeing it brought out and properly developed; but the way to encourage art is not, as we believe, to take every year fifty boys or girls, whose parents have money enough to send them to college, drive them out into the wild, rugged, scenic combinations" of the landscape of Central New York, stuff them with lectures on decorative harmony, economy of means and the history of the Cinque-cento, flatter them into the idea that they are all great artists, and send them off with a diploma. Great Britain has tried this system, at an enormous expense, for thirty years, with results which are, to say the least, not encouraging; and, before so much money is sunk here in similar experiments, it seems to us that it would be better to use a small fraction of it in the way in which art has been encouraged in every country in which it has ever flourished; that is, by large rewards to the best artists. There is no need of sending people to college to find out whether they are capable of painting or carving. It is related of Benjamin West, that when he was a boy, and had to rock the cradle of his baby sister, he fell so in love with her pink cheeks and curly hair that, having no other means of providing himself with painting materials, he seized upon the family cat, and robbed it of some tufts of fur, which he tied up into rude brushes, and used, with such colors as he could get hold of, to transfer to paper something of the beauty which had filled his heart. Many other American children are quite as highly endowed by nature as West with artistic sympathies, but they do not find the encouragement that brought him, later, to be President of the Royal Academy, or that is given to French or Italian children. Instead of being told that the practice of art affords a noble and well-paid career, and, as they grow older, being sent to Paris to study at the expense of their village, as has happened to many a French boy, the American child, as soon as he is old enough to begin any serious study, is told that painting and sculpture are mere amusements, by which no one can earn a respectable living, and is, probably, shown some lanky, hairy persons, who wear large, flapping hats, velvet coats and dirty collars, and informed that these are artists. the mental power which makes the great artist is also available in other professions, and as persons of artistic refinement of mind are the first to revolt against the prospect of lifelong dirt, shabbiness and Bohemianism, those children who might make their dreams of the beautiful, and devote themselves for life to the practical. Even then they do not lose all their artistic instincts, and a curious indication of the artistic power inherent in Americans, but applied to other purposes than art, is to be found in the graceful lines of our ships, railway cars and machinery, as well as in the force of imagination, or, as we call it, inventiveness, which has brought American engineering

As

THE

HE problem of artistic development in this country is not, then, to lecture and drill genius into fifty freshmen per annum, but to find the young people in whom the genius is inborn, to encourage them, protect them from petty cares and anxieties, as well as from flattery and Bohemianism, provide them, at the proper stage, with good teaching, and assure them, if they do their best, of a comfortable and honorable career. Something has already been done in this direction, by the scholarships in art which have been established in some of our cities, but much more remains to be done. Instead of half a dozen travelling-studentships, we should have a hundred; instead of a few annual prizes for artists at the great exhibitions, we should have in every school prizes of substantial value for drawing. Those who have seen much of the drawings of school-children must have noticed the frequent evidences of remarkable talent, which disappear as the children grow older, and become engrossed in what they are told are more important studies; and a system which might serve to encourage and develop this infantile genius would be of the greatest value. A few thousand dollars a year, a hundredth part of the income which Cornell University seems to propose to devote to its art department, would provide a multitude of these school prizes, and a few thousands more would pay for better prizes for more important work. It may be said that large sums should be appropriated also for the purchase of meritorious pictures or statues, but this is much less necessary, for the reason that public patronage of artists, particularly in this country, soon follows authoritative recognition of their merit. Even children would find admiring purchasers for the works which had received the highest honors in the school exhibitions, and the average American picture-buyer, distrusting his own judgment, is ready to pay liberally for a guaranty on which he can rely, and which he can exhibit to others, of the merit of what he purchases. Such a guaranty is best afforded by

medals and prizes, and the more common the award of such prizes becomes, the greater will be the public interest in them; and with the growth of public interest will also increase public appreciation and patronage of those who win them.

TH

HE last Congress, before adjournment, authorized the War Department to employ an expert to prepare plans for a great public park in Washington, and Mr. Samuel Parsons, of New York, has been engaged accordingly. The Evening Post, in speaking of the appointment, congratulates the people of Washington upon their escape from the danger of having their park laid out by an architect or an engineer. We are not sure that some architects could not lay out a very good park, and some engineers are also accomplished landscape-artists, but, in contemplating the "parks," designed by the municipal engineer, which make an effort to adorn so many of our towns and small cities, it is impossible not to agree in general with the Evening Post. Washington has always been very much the victim of alleged "experts," of limited fame in their profession, but on good terms with political magnates, and it is a relief to think that the Government money is not to be spent in endowing it with a pleasure-ground, brought, at great expense, to a perfect level, planted with spindly elms and maples, and, perhaps, diversified with a nice open sewer, with banks at one and one-half to one, neatly sodded, running straight through

the middle of it.

IN

'N the competition for a monument to the soldiers and sailors who perished in the Spanish War, and on board the "Maine," three designs have been selected, which are to be worked out in further detail for a final choice. The authors of the three designs chosen are Messrs. Austin Hays, O. Piccirilli and George Julian Zoinay. The judges of the competition, in which there were forty-five contestants, were Messrs. J. Edward Simmons, W. R. Hearst, John W. Keller, Frederick Dielman, John La Farge, Walter Cook, W. R. O'Donovan, General James Grant Wilson and Dr. G. F. Shrady.

ing for the purpose, all the cement shipped to the works will be ready for use without further testing, and the possibility that operations may be stopped at any time by the rejection of all the cement on the ground will be removed, while the reserve of tested cement in the bins of the company will facilitate the regular shipment of the cement required for the subway. It has long been the practice to test structural steel at the mill, and the idea of applying the same system to cement-testing is an excellent one.

A

CASE of importance to architects and real-estate owners is before the Rhode Island Courts. Some years ago, a party-wall agreement was made between the owners of two adjoining estates in Providence, who erected five-story buildings in accordance with it. Now, one of the estates has been purchased by the City Realty Company, which is constructing a twelve-story building on it, and proposes to have windows in The owners the party-wall, overlooking the adjoining estate. of the latter disapprove of this, and have sued to restrain the Realty Company from carrying out its intentions. The Realty Company offers to execute an agreement to close the windows in the party-wall, whenever the owners of the adjoining estate wish to use it, but the latter are not satisfied with this. Of course the matter is simply one of the interpretation of the party-wall agreement. If a reasonable construction of this admits of the opening of windows in the party-wall, so long as they do not interfere with the use of the wall by the adjoining owner, or create an easement, the Realty Company is acting within its right. It is said that the Realty Company proposes to put iron shutters on the windows in the party-wall, which will overhang the adjoining property. Its right to do so might, perhaps, be more questionable than its right to open windows; but it would be easy to fit the windows with rolling shutters, which would not project beyond the face of the wall.

E

E GÉNIE CIVIL gives an account of the present condition of the work on the Simplon tunnel, of which about three miles have already been cut. As every one knows, the tunnel is built by contract, the drilling of the rock being done by Brandt machines. Work is going on simultaneously at the Swiss and Italian ends, the drilling-machines advancing at each end at the average rate of thirteen feet a day. Dynamite is used exclusively for blasting, the extensive series of experiments with liquid air, carried on at the tunnel works to determine its value as a blasting material, having shown it to be too uncertain in its action for practical use. The temperature in the tunnel varies curiously. In the southern end, a mile and a half from the entrance, it is above eighty-three degrees Fahrenheit, while at the same distance from the northern entrance it. is only sixty-nine degrees. Whether this difference on the southern side is due to the heating effect of the direct rays of the sun, which, as is known, penetrate to a great depth into the earth, it would be difficult to say, but future tourists by this route, judging from these indications, should prepare themselves for a warm half-hour in the twelve miles of underground transit. So far, the rock is hard, and it may be hoped that the contractors will avoid the disastrous experiences which brought ruin to the builders of the St. Gothard tunnel. Ever since the beginning of operations on the tunnel, remarkable care has been taken by the contractors of the health of their men, and now, the excavations having proceeded so far as to bring the workmen into a warm atmosphere, provisions for this purpose have been multiplied. The fresh air, which is supplied in ample quantities by means of fans, is cooled by a waterspray before it is delivered, that supplied at the headings having a temperature eighteen degrees below that of the surrounding rock. In addition to this, all the men, in going to their work, pass through a group of buildings, comprising bath-houses, wash-rooms and restaurants. Before entering the tunnel, they are required to change their clothes, leaving their ordinary clothing, and putting on dry and clean working-suits. When they come out of the tunnel, they are obliged to pass through the bath-rooms, where they leave their working-suits, bathe, and put on their ordinary clothes, which are waiting for them, dry, and ready for use. Meanwhile their working-suits are taken from the bath-rooms, washed and dried, to be used again the next day. The group of bath-rooms and restaurants, and all the passages connecting them with the tunnel are carefully enclosed, so that no cold draughts of air can reach the workmen until they have bathed and put on their dry clothes.

should be an obstruction to vision without materially diminishing the light. Deck-lights, used in ships for 30 years or more, have diffused or deflected the light to a certain extent.

In 1883 and 1884 examination of several types of commercial window-glass was made by Mr. Edward Atkinson, who was apparently the first to recognize the immense gain in effective light in rooms when lighted by windows which were roughened so that the incident sky light or sun light did not pass directly through them, but was diffused in directions in which it otherwise did not go. In the summer of 1894 Mr. Atkinson laid before me the problem, requesting an examination of some dozen or more different kinds of glass. The hopelessness of trying to get something for nothing, that is, to get a sheet of window-glass to throw into a room more light than fell upon it, appeared so plain to me that I made all my preparations to measure not a gain but a loss of light in using Mr. Atkinson's samples. The results of my tests at that time, published in Circular No. 67 of the Boston Manufacturers Mutual Fire Insurance Company, showed how real was the gain in the amount of effective light in small rooms when glazed with a roughened or corrugated glass. The finely corrugated or ribbed glass, described more fully later, was found to give the greatest increase, and has since been widely used under the name of "factory ribbed " glass. Just as I was completing my tests the now common prismatic glass began to be put upon the market and I tested it, finding it slightly less effective as a diffusing medium than the "factory ribbed" glass. An examination of the prisms then used and those now furnished by the company show a considerable gain in efficiency in the newer ones.

The results of the tests on a score or more of different glasses may be stated briefly as follows:

We may increase the light in a room 30 feet or more deep to from 3 to 15 times its present effect by using "factory-ribbed' glass instead of plane-glass in the upper sash. By using prisms we may, under certain conditions, increase the effective light to 50 times its present strength. The gain in effective light on substituting ribbed glass or prisms for plane-glass is much greater when the sky-angle is small, as in the case of windows opening upon light-shafts or narrow alleys. The increase in the strength of the light directly opposite a window in which ribbed glass or prisms have been substituted for plane-glass is at times such as to light a desk or table 50 feet from the window better than one 20 feet from the window had previously been lighted.

The samples of glass tested were of two distinct types: First, glasses which were roughened or ribbed, primarily to blur distinct vision, and which happened to be of service as diffusing media as well; second, the special prismatic forms, designed especially to divert light of windows from the original downward direction to one more nearly horizontal. The first group consists of comparatively inexpensive glass made in large sheets, and it has often a pronounced greenish tint, which varies with different makes, the white glass 1 Continued from No. 1298, page 48.

being the most desirable. The following samples were tested, their cross-section being shown in Plate I:

1. Ground glass of different degrees of fineness. 2. Rough plate or hammered glass: Figure R.

3. Ribbed or corrugated glass, with 5, and 11 and 21 ribs to the inch, the corrugations being sinusoidal in outline and the back of the plate smooth: Figure F. 4. Glass known as 66 Maze," ," "Florentine" or "figured," in which a raised pattern is worked upon one side, practically roughening the whole surface: Figure M. 5. "Washboard" glass, corrugated, with 21 ribs to the inch on one side and 5 ribs to the inch on the other side, the ribs being parallel. 6. "Skylight" glass, which has 5 ribs to the inch on each side, groove on one side being opposite the rib on the other, giving a sinuous section: Figure Sk.

7. "Baird's hand-made silver glass," with rippled surfaces on both sides; of very beautiful appearance and a clear white color.

8. Glass ribbed on one side and figured on the other.

9. Ribbed glass with a wire net pressed into it, to increase its resistance to fire.

Of these several specimens, one or two may be dismissed with brief mention. Ground-glass is of little value, except as a softening medium for bright sunlight. Its rapidly increasing opaqueness with moisture and dust makes it undesirable as a window-glass. The common rough plate has very little action as a diffusing medium, giving no perceptible change in the effective light. "Baird's handmade silver glass" has great value as a diffusing medium in small rooms with nearly open horizon. Of the ribbed glasses, the fine "factory ribbed," with 21 ribs to the inch, is distinctly the best, not in all probability because of the fineness, but because of the greater sharpness of the corrugation. The "ribbed wire" glass is about 20 per cent less effective than the ordinary "factory ribbed" glass. The addition of a second corrugation upon the back of the plate giving the "skylight" and "washboard" glass is of no apparent value. The raised pattern imprinted upon one surface of the glass, as in the case of the "Maze," gives the widest diffusion, especially in bright sunlight. A raised figure, when worked upon the back of the "ribbed" glass, renders it less offensive to the eye in bright sunlight, but less effective in deep rooms. The only glasses of this group which it is worth while, then, to discuss further are the "factory ribbed " and the "Maze" glass.

The second group comprises the following glasses: 1. The Luxfer prisms.

2. The Solar prisms.

3. The Daylight prisms.

4. The glass of prismatic section made by the Mississippi Glass Company.

The Luxfer prism shown in Plate I, Figure L consists of a plate smooth upon one side and deeply notched upon the other, the teeth or prisms being of very flat, smooth faces and of brilliant appearance. The glass is clear white, and the prisms used in canopies and in the inches square. Tiles are built up in large sheets in frames of copper major part of the vertical glazing are made in tiles or plates about 4 or brass, so made as to give to the sheets of tiles a strength and durability far in excess of a single sheet of the same size. The Luxfer prisms are now being made for factory use in large sheets, as well as in the small tiles. The Solar prisms are made in small tiles, which are held together in a metal frame to make large sheets. The main difference between the Solar and Luxfer prisms is that the under face of the former prism is curved instead of plane, as is shown in Plate I, Figure S. The Daylight prisms tested were made in large sheets and of approximately the same cross-section and general

appearance as the Luxfer prisms for factory use. tiles of Day-light prisms were tested, as came to hand in time for the test. The Mississippi prism glass is much like the other prisms in cross-section, but the ridges or prisms do run across the

not

plate in a straight line, but in a wavy or sinuous line. I cannot detect any advantage arising from this over the straight-edge prism.

The room in which the tests were made is the Physics Lectureroom in the Walker Building of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The room is 53 feet deep and 41 feet wide and has a sloping floor, as may be seen in the accompanying Illustrations, which were taken from near the window. In the middle of the west side, at a height of 8 feet above the floor, two openings 12 inches square were left in a large window. All other openings by which light might enter were closed. Over these two windows a shutter might be rapidly slid, allowing light to come through one or the other opening, as desired, and the effect of the difference in glass in the two windows noted. A small screen of white paper was arranged

upon a system of trolley-wires, so that it might be moved about and examined at points in a plane 6 feet below the centre of that window. A radial arm 15 feet long was also arranged to carry a white paper screen in a vertical or horizontal plane for examination of the intensity of the light at different angles. In a window some 15 feet from the one in which the test specimens were tried was placed the photometer, the great rapidity of change in the brightnesss of the daylight, at times, making it necessary to have for a standard light something which would vary directly with the light at the test window. I therefore made use of a modified Cornu "cat's-eye' photometer, the standard of light being a piece of white porcelain so set at the window as to be under the same conditions of light and shade as were test specimens. This enabled us to determine the intensity of light in percentages of light at the window. Examination of the data gathered on 16 days, between August 15 and September 15, shows that the probable error arising from uncertainty in the setting of the photometer is less than 5 per cent. In order that no error might arise from varying outside conditions which might favor one glass momentarily, the screen upon which the intensity measurement was made was kept in one position while all the glasses tested were placed in the window in rapid succession, the screen being then moved to a new position and the series repeated. When the intensity of light falling on the screen was very small, it was necessary to insert calibrated neutral-tint glasses between the porcelain plate and the telescope. In the diagram of the photometer, Figure 4, the window is shown at W, the screen at S, the porcelain plate at G, the "cat's-eye" at C, the eye-piece at E and the telescopes at T and T'. For the benefit of those who are not particularly familiar with photometers, it may be well to state that the apparatus

possible to restore the light by the use of ribbed glass, and to even improve its earlier condition by a prism canopy. The assumption is here made that the obstructing building is at least thirty feet distant. Figure 5 is an attempt to show this graphically by exhibiting sectional diagrams of two mills with a street thirty feet wide between them. On floor B we should receive as effective light with ribbed glass as floor A received with plane-glass. Or, again, the obstructing building shown at the right may be raised two stories in height and we could still have as good a light as we have at present with the plane-glass. The plotted curves show the great increase in efficiency of ribbed glass and prisms as the skyangle diminishes. The intensity of the light is plotted vertically and the angular height of the obstruction horizontally. Rooms with windows opening upon light-shafts and narrow alleys with very limited sky, where the available light is now small, may have the light twenty feet back from the window increased ten or twenty times by using prisms; and, by using canopies of prisms, it is sometimes possible to strengthen the light from fifty to one hundred times. The data on the varying sky-angle was obtained by placing outside the window, at a distance of about five feet, a vertical curtain, which might be raised to cut off the sky-light at any desired angle, side curtains being provided to cut off the light at the ends of the main curtain.

The accompanying photographs show the Physics Lecture-room with its one window twelve inches square glazed in different ways. These were taken when bright sun was shining upon the window, a condition especially favorable to the glass of the “Maze type. All were exposed and developed and printed under exactly the same conditions. Figure 7 shows the relative sizes of windows glazed

here used is merely a system of lenses and mirrors, by means of which the standard source of light, the white porcelain in the window, may be seen as if side by side with the screen whose brilliancy it is desired to determine. The standard is then obscured gradually, by closing the "cat's eye," until the two images appear of the same brightness. From the area of the opening of the "cat's eye" we may then compute the relative brightness of the standard light and the object examined-in this case, the white paper screen. No measurements were taken when the direct sunlight was upon the window, the slightest variation in the position of the sun causing such a change in the distribution of the light as to make all attempts at measurement hopeless. Moreover, the exceeding brightness of all the specimens except the "Maze" and ground-glass, when in the bright sunlight, is such as to forbid their use where they are constantly in sight, unless they be provided with shades of thin white cloth. This practice of using a thin white shade is to be commended, as it gives a maximum of light when it is needed, in dull weather, when the shade need not be drawn, and yet keeps the eyes protected from a painful glare in bright sunlight. The white cloth shade cuts off about 60 per cent of the light.

As the result of the test made in a room fifty feet by forty feet, we are able to draw the following conclusions :

First. The conditions in a room less than fifteen feet deep are such that, except with a sky-angle of less than forty-five degrees, it is not advisable to alter the general course of the light by using a prismatic or ribbed glass. A nearly hemispherical diffusion, such as is given by the "Maze or "silver ripple," is ordinarily pre

ferable.

Second. When a room is from twenty feet to sixty feet deep, or even more, and has a sky-angle of sixty degrees or less, the ribbed and prismatic glass gives a very great gain in effective light. The gain in brilliancy is such as to make a basement with prism canopies as light as a second story without them, and the first story with ribbed glass should be distinctly brighter than the second story with plane-glass. If the building which obscures the light from the sky at a window be increased two stories in height, it will be found

with plane, ribbed or prismatic glass, which would give the same effective light in a room of about fifty feet deep, with a sky-angle of sixty and thirty degrees.

The Luxfer factory-prism and the Daylight prisms for large skyangle came to hand too late to be examined as carefully as were the other specimens. With sky-angles of thirty degrees or less, and in deep rooms, the relative efficiency of the prism-tile increases greatly.

It

Figure 6 shows the average distribution of light in a room glazed with plane, "factory ribbed," "Maze" or prismatic glass. shows more clearly than would a lengthy description the rearrangement of the light resulting from the use of the diffusing or reflecting glasses. The interior of the room is shown in perspective, as if one side were removed.

The refraction of the incident ray in a case of the ribbed glass and prism is shown in Figures 2 and 3, Plate 1.

"Ribbed " and "Maze" glass are of very great value in softening the light, especially in the case of such windows as are exposed to the direct sun, aside from their effectiveness in strengthening the light at distant points. With the "Maze" glass, the artist may have, in all weather and in all directions, what is in effect the much desired "north light." The photographer may have in this way as well diffused a light as he now has with cloth screens or shades, with a much greater intensity. To be efficient in rooms of twenty feet deep or more, ribbed glass should be set with its ribs horizontal, and where the sunlight falls upon it, it should be provided with thin, white shades. All inferences drawn from the test are made upon the assumption that the windows are to be reglazed with diffusing glasses only in the upper half, which is the common practice. If the lower sash is to be reglazed as well, a further increase of about twenty-five per cent may be expected.

The question of the effect of whitening the ceiling cannot here be discussed, but it is certainly much more effective when the window is set with prisms or ribbed glass than when plane-glass is used. The matter of the selection of one or another of the various types of glass for any particular window can be made in this report only

in a general way. Great difficulty in rolling sheets of sharp prisms has made the use of a small moulded tile imperative until very recently, and what small difference there is between a rolled sheet prism and the tile is due to the deforming of the prism in rolling, thereby causing some light to be thrown in directions not desired. Considering both expense and efficiency, the following general suggestions are given:

Use "Maze" or "Baird's hand-made silver" glass in small rooms or offices not more than fifteen or twenty feet deep.

must look elsewhere. The prospects are good, however, for a rational, conservative amount of building in the near future.

In that district north of Chicago known as the North Shore, a great deal of building of perhaps more than average quality is predicted and expected. This will include chiefly houses of the better class. This section, beginning at the north end of Lincoln Park and continuing as far north as Lake Forest, will be in the near future the place where Chicago will find its pleasantest homes. Sheridan Road, which leads through the ravines and along the bluffs of the northern woods, is destined to become for Chicago a combination of Cliff Walk and Jerusalem Road. Since the stringency in the

It must be borne in mind that one factor, which can be merely hinted at in this report, may be the one which decides the matter of the selection of any one glass, that is, the cost. At present prices we may assume that the "factory-ribbed " glass costs but little more than ordinary double-thick plane-glass. The cost of rolled prismatic glass is not yet established. The cost of the cast prismatic glass is of necessity much greater than of either of the others. It is to be hoped that some systematic attempt will now be made by glass manufacturers to furnish a "prismatic ribbed glass," if the term may be used, consisting of a sort of prism with a rounded edge made at a cost commensurate with that of the ordinary ribbed glass. This glass should be made in large sheets, and have the ribs or prisms of several different angles for use with different sky-angles. Such glass would often have many advantages over the sharp-edge prism and the rounded corrugation.

Respectfully submitted,

ROGERS LABORATORY OF PHYSICS, MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY,

October 8, 1900.

CHARLES L. NORTON.

MR.

FFAIRS in building circles have taken a decided turn for the better, and what was more a matter of prophecy at the date of has the labor question in Chicago been so capable of settlement as at present, nor have the relations between the majority of contractors and individual laborers been more harmonious. The men, after eight months of self-enforced idleness, have learned the hard lesson, that the contractors must run their own business without help from the Building Trades Council. This organization has just inaugurated a new president, William G. Schardt, and although he states his policy will be for peace, many think he will not be able to save the association. And not only has the central organization suffered, but the individual unions as well. The following figures tell a plainer story than any amount of moralizing:

The unions to withdraw from the Council amount to a considerable number, many of them strong organizations. They are those of the brick-layers and stone-masons, the plasterers and hoisting-engineers, the electricians and the bridge and structural iron-workers. Rumors of the withdrawal of the carpenters and plumbers are afloat, and should they withdraw, the fate of the organization would be sealed. Those unions which have not withdrawn are having seasons of discord amongst themselves, and their strength is materially lessened because of these internal dissensions. The contractors insist upon their rights to employ non-union men who have stood by them through the summer. They will not force the matter, however, by placing union and non-union men, in most trades, together on the same building. When it comes to a matter of arbitration and final settlement both parties might say there was much still unsettled; still the strain and stress has been so great on the men that, settlement or no settlement, they have gone back to work, the contractors still maintaining the points taken by them last winter, and it looks a little as if the honors of war remained with them.

We are not, as some people might imagine, on the eve of a tremendous building-boom. We are getting to be too old a city for that, and those interested in building projects who care for that

along this beautiful stretch of bluff, either immediately on it or within the few adjoining squares: Winnetka, Highland Park, EvanWhile the eastern shore of the ston, etc., all have their share. Lake is being covered with a sporadic growth of summer-cottages, generally of the cheapest variety, and summer-hotels of a similar nature, the western shore is being utilized for the sites of buildings of the better class, and being surrounded by less picturesque features naturally, art and money are, in a measure, supplying them. Consequently, as said above, this district is destined to be the centre of a good deal of architectural activity of an interesting description. Besides the actual residences, other buildings of a high grade, schoolhouses, etc., are being erected in this section. Evanston has just finished its large township high-school, a building of excellent appointments. The next township, that of New Trier, is now erecting a large and commodious high-school for the use of the five villages within its limits. This building is only now being roofed over, and is not ready yet for criticism and inspection.

Near Sheridan Road at Highland Park, directly on the Lake, the large Hotel Moraine has just been opened this season, of quite a different character from any heretofore seen in this part of the country. While designed only for summer use, it is quite substantial in character and the good taste displayed in its interior decoration makes it a pleasure to be within its walls. Its exterior is a good Colonial, the material brick; but it is on the inside that the great success of the building lies. The whole is very simply treated as befits its style and use, but both in wall-covering, draperies and furniture the greatest success has been reached. Several of the private dining-rooms are especially attractive, where the high wainscoting is treated with a combination of paper and wood panels, the paper being let-in to the wood, which is most harmoniously stained. Casement-windows with leaded panes in these small rooms add one more picturesque feature. The decoration is entirely devoid of any fussiness, but it is so planned as to avoid any effect of bareness in the absence of pictures and ornaments. In going through the house one is led to wonder how so many excellent designs in paper could have been found, and the same thing could also be said of the rugs and furniture, all comparatively simple and inexpensive, but charming in conception. It is said these tokens of good taste and judgment are due largely to the manager of the hotel, Mr. Miller, in whose hands the decoration rested. The Colonial features are very well carried out in the finish of the rooms, and with the exception of some one or two very minor details, like a corner capital thrusting itself into notice in several of the rooms, are all good.

The really important architectural event here this month has been the completion of the Illinois Theatre. Julia Marlowe has opened it amid applause from the hands of the Four Hundred, and the architects, Wilson & Marshall, have been personally honored, one of the firm being called before the curtain on the opening night. In a later letter we shall take up the building more in detail. It is unique of its kind here in Chicago, inasmuch as it is a theatre pure and simple, devoted to the dramatic art, and not a building of which a portion is used for a theatre, while the rest is devoted to shops and offices. All the practical questions which arise in such a building have been given ample consideration. Forty-five exits from the auditorium are said to exist, and all the appointments of green-rooms, toilet-rooms, ladies'-parlor, check-room and foyer are very complete.

One architectural feat which has proved of great interest to Chicago, if we can judge by the crowds who stop to admire and gaze, has been the placing of the great weather-vane on top of the tower of the Montgomery Ward Building. The building has been mentioned before in these letters as the one which complied with the lowbuilding ordinance, but in which owners and architects gave vent to their "feelinks" in a large, square tower, which shot up to the height of the tallest sky-scraper. After the structure has mounted in solid steel-and-iron construction in a shape calculated to give commodious office rooms within its four walls, it takes on a more frivolous form, and, covered with gilded tiles, it continues its upward course to be crowned by the great bronze weather-vane, which is in the form of a nude female figure, bearing in one hand a torch whose flames, blowing backward, act as a vane. The figure rests on one foot on a large ball, while from her outstretched arm extends the caduceus, which is the pointer for the vane. Above the ball to the top of the torch the statue is fourteen feet high, and even at its height of nearly four hundred feet above the sidewalk looks large. The subject is supposed to be "Progress Lighting the Way for Commerce." One rather interesting detail is the way the lightningrod is arranged. On the tip of the torch-flame is a platinum lightning-rod, a continuous contact for which is obtained by the use of a copper brush at the base of the vane, which is ball-bearing. The