Stack (building)

“ The plans in Plates VI, X and XVII, show how one stack can serve three rooms on the same floor with fire-places, and in the case of the double houses all the designs show that this method of saving expense has been adopted. Chimneys must be carefully built of good, hard brick, laid in cement mortar, the flues straight and smooth and of uniform size. To allow of better arrangement in the upper floors, the flues may be safely drawn on one side to at least 30° from the perpendicular. There must always be at least 8 inches of brick work when the chimney-stack comes in contact with any wood-work. ”

“ The cases are of iron, and similar in a general way to those in the large stacks, to be described later; but they are built against the walls, according to the older method of library arrangement, and with very little attempt to combine them in a real stack system, properly so called. The upper shelves in the lower story are reached from a small iron gallery; in the second story a step-ladder must be used—the only instance in the whole building where a book-shelf cannot be reached by a person standing on the floor. ”

“ The demand for these cases has been so great from libraries, large and small, that shelving made from a combination of wood and steel has been very successfully adapted to this use, and at a price within the reach of all libraries. One of the principal advantages in buying such "steel stack" shelving, with parts all interchangeable, is that in the rearrangement of a room, or in moving into a new room or a new building, it can be utilized to advantage, whereas the common wooden book cases very generally cannot. ”

“ For a gothic stack, build an ordinary one until commencing to draw in, then draw in the oval corners and build center of sides and ends straight up. For an X stack draw in sides and ends; build center straight up. These stacks look very ornamental on a premium farm and will save well, but take more time to build than ordinary stack tops. ”

“ Two stakes, one eight and the other ten rods away, and in line with the center of foundation, will sometimes assist the stacker in keeping his stack well balanced, for at a glance he can tell whether the center is in line with the stakes. A man may build, as his fancy dictates, either round, elliptical or square, but in all, the same general principles must be observed—the lower part of the stack built straight up; put in a bulge which settles down around and nearly conceals the lower part, leaving the center of the bulge high; filling the middle to support the center of the top. ”

“ I have found in the course of a long experience, that a foundation eleven or twelve feet wide and eighteen or twenty feet long, and a stack built in the form of an ellipse, and so as to contain ten or twelve large loads, to be the most convenient and [Pg 11] economical. Grain can be put into a stack of this size much more rapidly than in small stacks. If a stack is built much larger it will require more labor to pass the bundles across the stack, and will have to be carried much higher before it is topped out, which takes time and hard work. ”

“ The school-room, laboratory, or college class-room could be used at midnight, it is true, but not conveniently; and as students increase, buildings must be added. The same is true of any industry. We cannot conveniently increase the business of a lumber-yard without a larger yard-space, or of a factory without a larger floor-space. But the added space may be gotten by spreading horizontally or piling up perpendicularly. A ten-story building on an acre lot represents ten acres of floor-space. Putting up higher buildings is an expansion in area by the more intensive utilization of the land. ”

“ A square stack, or one with corners, is easily kept balanced, but in turning the corners there is too much fullness at the heads of the bundles, and when the stack settles there will usually be a sag on each side to catch water. ”

“ In recent years the mill-owners have abandoned the old low, two-story type of building with its narrow windows and dingy aspect of gray stone, and erected in its stead these enormous structures—the only approach to the American sky-scraper I saw in England. They are magnificent mills, far superior to those you will see to-day in this country, clean, bright and—every one I saw—new. ”

“ In column, girder and floor work unit construction means the division of the form work as a [Pg 144] whole and also of the individual forms into independent structural units; thus in forms for a building the column forms may be independent of the girder forms and also each column and girder form be made up of several separate units. In all cases unit construction has for its purpose the use of the same form or at least the same form lumber over and over for molding purposes. Every time the use of the same form is repeated, the cost of form work per cubic yard of concrete placed is reduced. ”

“ It would be almost impossible for the contents of the pile or stack to be submitted to the same action of the gases throughout. Some parts of the stack and its contents will be under more favourable conditions than others, hence the reason why, in practice, it is invariably found that some stacks, and some parts of a stack, work better than others. ”

“ Southward the shed faces a yard of about ten acres in extent. This is bounded on every side by other workshops and premises, all built of the same dingy materials — brick, slate, and iron — blackened with smoke, dust, and steam, surmounted with tall chimneys, innumerable ventilators, and poles for the telephone wires, which effectually block out all perspective. To view it from the interior is like looking around the inner walls of a fortress. There is no escape for the eye; nothing but bricks and mortar, iron and steel, smoke and steam arising. ”

“ Laying out or putting in the bulge is the most important part of the stack, for it contains the greater part of the grain; by laying out and keeping the stack flat, the work can be done rapidly, and when the stack settles the buts will hang down, for there is nothing to hold them up. ”

“ But there is no brick, or stone, or mortar, in the whole;—but all is iron, wood, and glass—and the vast building is composed of very many parts, each only eight feet square, but so great in number, that it is longer than any street you know, for it covers 18 acres of ground, which is nine times larger than your garden at the school, and all is supported upon iron pillars of the same size and pattern. ”

“ Outlay on Farm Buildings—It would not be very satisfactory, perhaps, to attempt to lay down any rule as to the proportion of capital per acre which it is necessary to invest in buildings on any particular class of farm. The class of building, the material used, local circumstances, as well as the extent of the farm and the value of the land, all tend to disturb calculation. ”

“ This range-work facing, which presents in its way an attractive appearance, and whose rusticity contrasts with the smooth finish of the dressed stone, is backed with ordinary rubble walling. Thus, in districts where stone occurs naturally of this shape in the quarries, we get an economical building material. But it is puerile to amuse one’s self with making thin coursed-work where soft freestone abounds, and where it must be cut into little bits to obtain this appearance. ”

“ Seven millions scarcely covered the cost of those bulks overshadowing the square beyond,—and there are miles of such. Stairways of steel and cement, of brass and stone, with costliest balustrades, ascend through the decades and double-decades of stories; but no foot treads them. By water-power, by steam, by electricity, men go up and down; the heights are too dizzy, the distances too great, for the use of the limbs. My friend who pays rent of five thousand dollars for his rooms in the fourteenth story of a monstrosity not far off has never trodden his stairway. ”

“ First, however, before building the mould for a residence, school, theatre, office building, or factory, 296 the engineer decides what strength his foundations must have. The foundation for a small residence is an easy matter, but when it comes to a big factory, or an office building of a dozen stories or so, the most careful work must be done beforehand. In the old days, when it was desired to sink the foundations of a building down to bedrock, they used steel or wooden piles, but these will rust or rot, and the modern way is to use concrete piles. ”

“ Now commence at the outside and lay a course around, neither laying out or drawing in, except to correct any little error that may occur in the elliptical form of the stack; complete the courses to the center, but don't fill the middle too full; if the outside is lower than the middle, lay a double course around outside; keep your stack flat—full as high at outside as center; build the first load straight up, neither laying out or drawing in, if the stack is to contain ten or twelve loads ”

“ This simple fact, that a building of glass and iron, covering eighteen acres, affording room for nine miles of tables, should have been completed in less than five months from the day when the contract was entered into, at a cost less than that of the humblest hovel, opens a new era in the science of building. ”

“ They should go hand in hand with general good construction, and naked ironwork must be non-existent. Some of the modern fire-resisting floors are too expensive to permit their introduction for fire protection alone. In considering their introduction, the general advantages which they afford as to spans, thickness, general stability, &c., should be taken into account. A practical installation of floors, partitions, doors, &c., should, first, not increase the cost of a building more than 5%, and secondly should add to the general value of the structure by giving it a more substantial character. ”

“ Always the same rows of red-brick or brownstone houses, all alike, the monotony broken only by infrequent warehouses or loft-buildings; always the same doubtful mounting of stone steps, the same searching for a bell, the same waiting, the same slatternly, suspicious landlady, the same evil hallway with a brown hat-rack, a steel-engraving with one corner stained with yellow, a carpet worn through to the flooring in a large oval hole just in front of the stairs, a smell of cabbage, a lack of ventilation. ”

“ Should additional chambers be required, partitions may be set over those or the second story, duplicating that plan, with rooms having the same hight of ceilings. The stairs are placed immediately above those of the lower stories, are ceiled in, and have a door at the foot.... Construction.—The durability, general abundance, and substantial appearance of stone, make it the most desirable and appropriate material known for the exterior walls of any building. The cost of cutting and dressing such material ready for use is the principle barrier to its general adoption. ”

“ We were the first to manufacture a full line of Valley, Hip and Ridge Coping, Gable, &c., to enable the builder or roofer to use them at a reasonable price, and are the only factory in America prepared to furnish such trimming in any quantity; and while they are not absolutely necessary, they greatly lessen the amount of labor and cost of laying, besides adding a finish to the roof not otherwise obtained, so that the saving in labor will pay the additional cost. ”

“ In the ground plan will be seen a brick, or stone partition—which may extend to such height as may be necessary to contain the bulk of ashes required for storage within it—on one side of the building, to which a door gives access. ”

“ The hòng-phārlā may extend also across the front of the house; it is roofed over, but open towards the house. Similarly, at the back of the house is the pàng-hòngkup, or back veranda, and the unroofed pàng beyond. No ladder gives access to this.
Under the house are the pigsties, phàk-roi, and in front is a yard or compound (tikup) , usually fenced round.
The furniture of the house is of the simplest description. The floor, or a raised platform of bamboo, serves as a bed. A block of wood (inghoi; Ass. pīrā) is used as a stool to sit on. ”

“ When the corn is in a doubtful state, by being too green, or wet, the stack-builder, by means of old timber, etc., makes a large apartment in his stack, with an opening in the side which is fairest exposed to the wind: this he calls a fause-house. ”

“ The method of construction is the same throughout, and each is absolutely fireproof, the only materials used being steel, iron, brick, glass, and marble. Few things which can be destroyed by fire at all are more difficult to burn than books, and a fire in the stacks, even if carefully nursed by an incendiary, could hardly do more than a trifling injury.
Arrangement and Construction.—The stacks are divided into nine tiers, each tier being seven feet high, and into an equal number of stories the same distance apart. ”

“ The framing upon which the house stands is firmly secured round the centre column and to the heads of the outer columns by means of hollow cast-iron capitals let down over the heads of the columns and secured with screw-bolts. To give lateral strength to the building, round iron angle-braces were applied, by which means a resisting power equal to at least three hundred and fifty tons is presented in every direction.
The platform upon which the house stands is twenty-seven feet in diameter. ”

“ This method gives twice as much air space between the trays as regular flat-stacking, and is to be recommended when the weather is damp. A combination of this last method and roof-stacking is used by some, every grower almost having his favorite way to stack. It must be remembered that in very rainy weather no kind of stacking will be of any value, while, when the showers are few and far between, stacking may save the crop. ”