1026





R:EC0RD  AND  GUIDE





June 6, 1914





USEFUL APPLIANCES





Novelties, New Applications of Familiar Devices
and the Trend of Invention, Designed to Aid the
Architect, Builder and Building Manager, Described
Without  Regard   to   Advertising   Consideration.





A Household Ice Plant.

SEVERAL innovations are contained
in a household ice plant that the
Montclair Refrigerating Co., Wool-
worth building, is just putting on the
market, that make it appeal strongly
to architects and to apartment house
owners.

The device consists of a refrigerator,
to all outward appearances identical with
any that may be bought in the open
market. Instead, however, of the usual
ice box there is a brine tank fed by
ethelchloride gas, instead of the usual
ammonia, and an electric motor which
circulates the gas and again vaporizes
it after it has become condensed through
the performance of its refrigerating
work.   All this is concentrated in a self-







contained cylinder and motor which is
attached to the top of the refrigerator,
where it works silently, and only so long
as the predetermined temperature con¬
trolled by a thermostat is being main¬
tained. In ordinary operation the mo¬
tor will operate about one hour to give
a refrigerating temperature, which may
go as low as 18 degrees below zero for
several hours.

In addition to these features there is
an ice-making chamber in which cubes
of ice, suitable for use in tumblers, are
always on hand. This is accomplished
at a cost for current of 17 cents, some¬
times less, according to the manufac¬
turers, depending upon the local rate for
electricity. Machines having a refriger¬
ating capacity equal to a thousand
pounds of ice are beina; made, as well
as machines small enough to be pur¬
chased in quantity by apartment house
owners and leased to tenants at a rate
low enough to afford them a saving in
their ordinary ice bills. The device re¬
quires a gas pressure of only 10 pounds,
thus avoiding danger of explosion, and
it is operated without cranks, valves or
springs.

What Lack of Caution Did.'

TOO much care cannot be exeiiised
by rent payers in starting fires
in ranges, which have been exposed to
cold weather, says the "Plumbers' Trade
Journal," which proves the assertion by
the    accompanying    photograph.      The







tangled mass of iron shows the result
of starting a fire in a stove, in which the
waterback had become frozen. The fire
was kindled and the servant stepped out
of the room. Had she not done so
she probably would have been killed,
for in less than five minutes st^am had
been   generated   under   excessive   pres-





sure_ in the frozen heater and an ex¬
plosion followed. The range was lifted
from its foundation, the side of the
house was blown out and part of the
stove and debris were carried one hun¬
dred feet away from the building.
Waterbacks do not freeze at this time
of the year, but it might be well next
autumn to recall the experience of the
family whose stove is shown in the ac¬
companying illustration.





Electric   Heater  for   School.

OPERATING on a flat rate of $1
per kilowatt a month for electricity
generated from a government power
plant situated fourteen miles away, it
is said that the new high school at
Rupert, Ohio, is demonstrating the prac¬
ticability of heating its entire building
by electricity at a cost considerably less
than that ultimately chargeable to coal
or oil when cost of delivery, handling,
ash removal and cleaning are eliminated.
Of course, the success of electrical
heating depends entirely upon the rate
procurable from distributing power sta¬
tions and in this case the power is de¬
rived from a government-owned hy¬
draulic plant. In New York where
electricity is generated from coal hauled
great distances from mines, hoisted to
hoppers from barges and automatically
fed, where franchise rights and mainte¬
nance costs are heavy, the rate of 10
cents per kilowatt, regardless of the
amount of current used, must necessarily
be beyond fair comparison with the case
cited, but it demonstrates to architects
and builders the economic possibilities
of electric heating if the rate can, by
some means, be brought to a workable





having a total capacity of 400 k.w., which
allows for an overload of 100 k.w.
These units are connected in pairs ver¬
tically, each pair beine- under the con¬
trol of a separate switchboard in the
principal's office. Each pair can be
switched to a 220-volt circuit or a 440-
volt circuit, thus giving 9 or 36 k.w. for
each pair. Different degrees of tem¬
perature may be obtained by this sys¬
tem. The sketch shows the layout of
this most unusual heating plant, and
also gives a partial idea of the character
of the heating problem that confronted
the contractors.

The   cost   of   the   heating   system   is
estimated  by  experts  to  be  $3,000  less












mi r 1






















than the cost of any system using coal
as the soijrce of heat. The total cost
of current for heating purposes for a
school season, it is contended, will not
exceed $1,500. In addition much room
has been saved for school purposes that
otherwise would have been used for
boiler, heater and fuel rooms. The basis
of compensation for the current has
been worked out so that the school pays
for the maximum amount used for four







J





level. At any rate, a description of the
size of the building thus heated may
be of interest.

The accompanying illustrations pub¬
lished by courtesy of the Heating and
Ventilating Magazine, gives a good idea
of the heat-generating equipment and
distributing system of the building. The
high school is built of repressed brick
and stone trim, three stories high, 65 x
111 feet with a rear extension 43 x 47
feet. Its cubical contents totals 300,000
feet. It has been called the most per¬
fectly fire-resistive high school in the
country. No fire is used anywhere with¬
in its walls.. The transformer and heater
room is a ventilated brick and concrete
vault, yet the structure is provided with
standpipes reaching every office and
room and fire-fighting equipment is sta¬
tioned within reach on all floors^
- The heatin.?- system eniployed is that
of the hot blast composed of 18^ units.





months and for each of the remaining
months the school is charged _ for the
maximum amount used at any time that
month.





Checking Up Elevator Mileage.

A DEVICE is being put on the market
by the Chicago Elevator Mileage
Co. that checks tip the mileage Of eleva¬
tors. It operates somewhat on the or¬
der of the speedometer on an avftomo:-
bile wheel. Its value lies in its. capacity
for deterniining j.ust when to expect
evidences of wear on cables and in¬
cidentally gives an accurate record daily
of the performance of each car. It has,
however, a much more important virtue
than that. Renting agents- use it to
convince prospective tenants that the
building is not only well occupied, but
that it.; is a Avell-freqiiented structurp.
-^ijsy• el e va tors -laeaii-b usy-i e njtnts an.it
busy  tenants  are  goTfd'"drawiiig cards.