es, the toilets
and locker rooms are finished and fitted with materials in harmony
with the high-class character of the building. The masonry-floor
construction consists of concrete reinforced with expanded metal, and
except where iron or other floor plates are used, or where tile or
special flooring is laid, the floor is covered with a hard cement
granolithic finish.
In the design of the interior arrangements, the value of a generous
supply of stairways was appreciated, in order that all parts of the
structure might be made readily accessible, especially in the boiler
house section. In the boiler house and machinery portion of the plant
the stairways, railings, and accessories are plainly but strongly
constructed. The main stairways are, however, of somewhat ornate
design, with marble and other trim work, and the railings of the main
gallery construction are likewise of ornate treatment. All exterior
doors and trim are of metal and all interior carpenter work is done
with Kalomein iron protection, so that the building, in its strictest
sense, will contain no combustible material.
[Sidenote: _Chimneys_]
The complete 12-unit power house will have six chimneys, spaced 108
feet apart on the longitudinal center line of the boiler room, each
chimney being 15 feet in inside diameter at the top, which is 225 feet
above the grate bars. Each will serve the twelve boilers included in
the section of which it is the center, these boilers having an
aggregate of 72,000 square feet of heating surface. By these
dimensions each chimney has a fair surplus capacity, and it is
calculated that, with economizers in the path of the furnace gases,
there will be sufficient draft to meet a demand slightly above the
normal rating of the boilers. To provide for overload capacity, as may
be demanded by future conditions, a forced draft system will be
supplied, as described later.
As previously stated, the chimneys are all supported upon the steel
structure of the building at an elevation of 76 feet above the
basement floor and 63 feet above the grates. The supporting platforms
are, in each case, carried on six of the building columns (the three
front columns of two groups of boilers on opposite sides of the center
aisle of the boiler room), and each platform is composed of single-web
plate girders, well braced and surmounted by a grillage of 20-inch
I-beams. The grillage is filled solidly with concrete and flushed
smooth on top to receive
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