Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XXYI.





NEW YOBK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1880.





No. 652





Published Weekly by

C^« Heal #stah Hetarb ^ssodalbn,

TERMS.
ONE YEAR, in advance.. ..$10.00.
Communications should be addressed to

C.   W.   S\irEET,
No. 137 Broadway





The subscription books for the Interna¬
tional World's Fair wiU not be opened on the
fifteenth instant, as was originally agreed
upon, the executive committee having de¬
cided to defer their opening for   a mohth.
This decision, we are informed, was arrived
at by the committee, after thoroughly can¬
vassing the situation and ascertaining that
many persons anxious to aid the enterprise
would be absent   from the city until  that
date.    In the meantime the suggestion here¬
tofore made by The Eeal Estate Record
not to ask for money subscriptions until the
site is selected, has also had its due weight
with the executive committee, and there is
hardly any doubt now but the wisdom of
this suggestion has been endorsed by a ma¬
jority of the executive committee.   If capi¬
talists and property  owners know, before
they put down their money, where the exhi¬
bition is to be located, matters wiU. run on
smoothly immediately after.   Let us know
the locality and money without stint wiU be
forthcoming; until this question is settled
the entire matter wUl be bereft of the proper
spirit of local enterprise.     At the same time
we urge once more upon the projectors of
this   enterprise the importance of placing
General Grant at the head of the Board of
Of&cers.     His name   alone will  be worth
thousands of dollars to those who desire to
see the World's Fair of New York eclipse all
of its predecessors.





the Mayor signed the ordinance he confer¬
red with Commissioner Campbell, and that
official consulted Mr. G. S. Chesbrough, of
Chicago, one of the most eminent engineers
in the country, who declared the Prall system
to be " very satisfactory and economical for
heating buildings, cooking, etc." Experi¬
ments made in Harrisburg, have been very
successful, and the conversion of the super¬
heated water in the converting chamber into
steam appears to be all that can be desnedfor
the supply of power and heat. A large manu¬
facturing concern in said city speaks in the
highest terms of the experiments there made.
Mr. Robert Cartwright, of Rochester, a gen¬
tleman well known in connection with the
Hghting and watering of towns, considers
the Prall system far superior to any other,
for heating purposes, and is anxious to co¬
operate with the new organization. In a
very few weeks the Prall Union Heating
Company wUl be placed more prominently
before the public, the conditions imposed
upon the company by the authorities will be
complied with, and shortly after work will
be begun upon the first square mile of streets
lying north of Fourteenth street.





HOW NEW YORK IS TO BE HEATED.
The franchise granted by the city authori¬
ties, and now approved by the Mayor, to the
Prall Heating Company, is not for the pur¬
pose of conveying heat and power by steam,
but by means of superheated water. The
mains will range from three to six inches in
diameter, will be covered with packing and
enclosed in a wooden box, thus preventing
loss of heat by radiation. The temperature
of the water will be maintained from 350 to
400 degrees Fahrenheit, and by means of
converters and dissipating valves, wiU. be
regulated to make steam at whatever pres¬
sure may be desired by the various buildings
using the system, which would average
about five pounds for private houses. Before





PRESERVATION OF TIMBER LANDS.

The fact that foreign countries are endeav¬
oring to get possession of our hardwood
timber, as was shown the other day in these
columns, by the purchase of 150,000 acres in
Wisconsin, by an English company, and the
increased consumption of this material in
this country, for furniture purposes—now
amounting to two thousand million feet—
has revived the discussion in regard to pre¬
serving and cultivating our forest supplies.
In addition to this, the periodical destruction
of timber by forest fires, in various sections
of the country, has given strength to the
arguments of those who insist that some leg¬
islation is necessary to protect future sup¬
plies. In various European countries,
governments of states and municipalities,
now publicly express their regrets that in
times past no legislative enactments, prevent¬
ing the destruction of forests, were engrafted
on their statute books. Here, in what may
be called a virgin country, we find a body
like the American Association for the Ad¬
vancement of Science, already preparing a
memorial to the governors of States call¬
ing their attention to the danger of a de¬
creased forest supply in the future. This
action cannot be called permature, now that
we have the experience of European coun¬
tries before us, and that we see the enormous
destmction of forests going on all over the
Union. It wOl be shown ere long, however,
that this subject of forest preservation musit





be studied like everything else, not in accor¬
dance with the precedents of the past, but in
accordance with the demands of an ever in¬
creasing civihzation.   For instance, neither
England nor any other country, would to-day
be so anxious to possess themselves of Amer¬
ican hardwoods,  if, during the last twenty
years, they had not seen abroad the excellent
furniture made from our American timber.
Not only at the universal exhibitions held in
London, Paris and Vienna, have Europeans
seen and studied the merits of these hard¬
woods, but in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Lon¬
don there are to-day branch houses of Amer¬
ican   furniture   factories   .which    sell   our
products in that line with profit and advan"
tage.     It  is singular, however, that just
about the time that Europe, attracted by the
excellent walnut used to great advantage in
our American dwellings for years past, is
trying to imitate us by securing ti.e greater
part of our hardwood products, that at the
same time our own builders and architects
are turning more and more their attention to
mahogany, which   is   slowly but   steadily
taking the place of the walnut of the past.
This, however, shows only the more how
the equilibrium of consumption is steadily
kept up, by either local preference or foreign
taste, and this changeable demand does not
detract in the least from the effort sought
after by the American Society for the Ad¬
vancement of Sciences to inaugurate some
legislation that wfil put a stop to the des¬
truction of our forests.





The Department of Public Paiks, not hav¬
ing complied with the provisions of the law
enacted last winter calling for the filing of
plans for the improvement of Morningside
Park within a specified time, the West Side
Association, under the lead of its energetic
president, Dwight H. Ohnstead, is now pre¬
paring to take action against the Commis¬
sioners in the civil as well as in the criminal
courts, for non-performance of their official
duties.





A marked contrast to the neglect of the
Park Department has been displayed during
the present season by the Department of
Public Works. Encouraged by the Mayor
and Board of Aldermen, Mr. Allan Campbell
has placed a number of up-town streets in
excellent condition for immediate building
improvements. The West Side has been
greatly benefited by this, the absence of
these public works having been the main ob¬
stacle to building operations in the past.
Now the good result of such work is already
in part before us, and Mr. Edward Clark's
example is being steadily followed by other