REAL. ESTATE
AND
â– -â– NEW YORK, AUGUST 8, 1914
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PHILADELPHIA TOWER FIRE ESCAPE
History of Safety Tower From Its Infancy—Examples of
Practicability In Cases of Fire—Space Always Utilized.*
By MANTON E. HIBBS, C. E.
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"T^HIS age is demanding from science
*• a very heavy toll of duty, especially
along those lines affecting specifically
the human element and its welfare. A
fire takes place in one of our large
buildings and, for the same reason, all
are concerned for the safety of its oc¬
cupants. In nearly every disastrous
fire that has taken place, there seems to
arise a wail for more fire-escapes, to the
total exclusion of the ordinary means of
exit.
In order that all might get a grasp
as to how Philadelphia is solving the
problem of adequate means of exit in
matter of panic or fire, as well as for
ordinary use in her buildings, attention
will be first drawn to the history of the
tower, for its building, like any other
mechanical device, is an evolution ex¬
tending over a period of twenty years
or more.
First Type to Be Used.
Probably the first kind erected many
years ago was simply a vertical, metal
ladder available for exit at windows
with no platform at the story heights.
This was replaced by fixed platforms
covering two windows with immovable
stairs at an angle of 45° more or less,
with a movable, vertical ladder reaching
from the second floor to grade line.
Then came the substitution of a mov¬
able, hung stairway, counterbalanced by
a weight attached to a chain or cable
.for the vertical hung ladder from the
second-story landing.
In the next step, this stairway was
counterbalanced in the rear like a can¬
tilever. The platforms are usually of
slats, channels and angles carried on
brackets bolted to the walls by through
bolts. It will be noticed from this evo¬
lution that the main development has
been that a stairway and platform
growth, with little or no attention paid
to the means of reaching the fire-escape,
which was, in most cases, from windows
placed 3 feet above the fioor. Recently,
the Pennsylvania Legislature passed a
law, making it mandatory that the en¬
trance to the fire-escape platform should
be by a fire-door, and all the windows
covered by the escape must be of wire-
glass and metal frame.
Tower Fire Escape Born.
The tale runs that a Kensington mill
owner of Philadelphia was ordered by
the Building Bureau to put up an out¬
side metal escape on one of his build¬
ings. â– Upon consultation with his archi¬
tect, the idea of eliminating outside
stairs of the escape by taking the or¬
dinary stairs of his building and en¬
closing them in a tower of brick, there¬
by separating the stairs entirely from
the re^t of the building, was evolved.
This forced, of course, an entrance to
the tower from the outside of the build¬
ing by means of the platforms of the
outside metal escape, which were reached
from the main building by doors, at
every story, opening upon the plat¬
forms. The Bureau agreed to this, and
the tower fire-escape was born.
♦Excerpts from a paper read at the First An¬
nual Convention of the American Society of En¬
gineers, Architects and Constructors.
Under the Act of June 8, 1893, the
tower fire-escape was taken as an
equivalent for a metal escape and was
required for mills and stores only.
Later on, this same mill owner, upon
advice of his architect, submitted to the
Bureau a proposition that, in place of
the mitside platform, a vestibule be sub¬
stituted with one side open entirely to
the air. The Bureau consented only on
the condition that if the experiment was
not a success the outside platforms
would have to be added. However, it
was successful.
Towers Installed.
Under the Act of May Sth, 1899, stores
and manufacturing establishments were
compelled to install towers, and if the
areas exceeded 10,000 square feet of
floor, additional towers could be or¬
dered. This, of course, applied to build¬
ings three stories or more in height.
Under the Act known as No. 236, of the
date of April 25th, 1903, which is now
in force in Philadelphia, all buildings
of first, second or third class used as
school houses, tenement houses, apart¬
ment houses, flat houses, stores, oftices
(first class exempt), manufactories,
workshops, mills, places of assembly or
resort,^ of three stories or more, shall
have in addition to the main stairs
tower fire-escapes, whose number de¬
pends upon the character of construc¬
tion of the building, the number of sto¬
ries and the area of the floor.
Features of Construction.
A formula for the construction of the
tower fire-escape was evolved and has
as main features the following: The
tower fire-escape shall be divided from
the building and completely enclosed
with brick walls or fire-proof material;
the walls must run 3 feet above the roof
of the building and the roof must be of
hard, incombustible material, thus the
tower becomes sinoke-proof as well as
fire-proof. The stairs may be of metal
or wood with a rise not more than 8
inches and the tread not less than 9
inches. The entrance to the tower
must be by means of an outside balcony,
whose floor is of solid, incombustible
material through a metal or tin covered
door or by means of an incombustible
vestibule, one side of which is entirely
open to a street or alley, and there must
be also a well, separating the vestibule
from the tower. The vestibules, walls,
floors, ceilings, must be entirely of hard,
incombustible material.
Meeting Architectural Needs.
Now, having placed in the building
code the clause making nearly every
kind of building that formerly required
a meta! escape have a tower fire-escape,
also adopted a formula for its construc¬
tion, then came the task of adapting
the tower to meet the architectural and
commercial needs of the building.
The tower can be used, especially if it
has a vestibule, as an ordinary sta'irway
at all times. In the Wanamaker build¬
mg, whose floor area is 112.608 square
feet per floor and whose height is 243
feet, the four double fire-towers are al¬
ways used by the employees, and that
is the only way of entrance or exit for
them. Hence, all are familiar with
them, and, in case of emergency, their
value is not an unknown asset to each
worker.
Saving Space.
As the stairway leads from the sec¬
ond floor directly to the street, it was
only that space occupied by stairway
necessary for tower, while one-half the
tower of the first floor, and all below
first, was really wasted as far as utility
goes. To make this space available as
an entrance to the elevator in rear, or
as a stairs to the cellars, a wall was run
from the basement to the landing above
the first floor, while the stairs to the
second floor and basement were made
fire-proof. An entrance could not be
made in the main wall of the tower on
the first floor, and if a fire breaks forth
in tlie cellar, the smoke ascending will
Ije blocked by the fire-proof stairs and
middle wall and the tower is still smoke-
proof as if the walls were still run solid
to foundation.
The fire-tower is especially adapted to
theatre construction. Often, emer¬
gency exit platforms are forced beyond
the street lines, which can be readily
done above the first floor, and if a fire-
tower can be built to cover the second
floor only, these exits can run to the
tower thus preventing any encroach¬
ment of the sidewalk. At the Phila¬
delphia Opera House and the Orpheum
Theatre, vestibules extend along the
lines of the balcony, and by these ves¬
tibules, the people are readily led to the
tower and thence to the street. In the
Philadelphia Theatre Law, if towers are
constructed for the use of emergency
exits, the courts along the sides of the
theatre are allowed to be decreased.
Apartment houses and hotels use their
tower fire-escapes in conjunction with
their kitchens for supplies and a ser¬
vants' exit.
Saving Money.
The factories have placed their eleva¬
tors in the rear of towers, thereby sav¬
ing one side in cost of construction.
Also, by running the walls 20 feet above
roof and increasing the walls below
tank positions for their sprinkler sys¬
tems. Sometimes, these factories have
more than 25.000 square feet of floor
area and division walls are necessary
with no openings. In place of the usual
openings with double fire-doors, a
double fire-tower can be constructed on
the outside of the building, and work¬
ers can readily leave the two buildings
without making a journey to another
stairway. In case of fire, the tower be¬
comes a means of advantage for the
firemen to reach and fight the fire at
every story with perfect safety. In
fact, in one fire in Vine street near
Broad street the only thing that was
left was the fire-tower.
Our architects have woven the towers
renrlily into our structures so that no
buildins* need be marred or disfigured in
-the same way as the outside metal es¬
capes. In some instances, by a little
thoughtful decoration in the matter of a
balconv. or by window boxes of floors,
a touch of the city beautiful is added to
our streets.
In the matter of cost, which seems to