Article December 3, 1932 Issue

Item of Interest

The new Publishing House building is to be definitely fireproof, since the structure is of stone, steel, and concrete and the communication doors are to be of metal. A sprinkler system is being installed in the plant portion of the building as a further protection to the contents.

In spite of some days of stormy weather, which interrupted the stone setting on Section "A," excellent progress has been made. The parapet at the fourth-floor level has been set, and by the time this Item is read the limestone and brick walls doubtless will have proceeded to the sixth floor.

One of the most interesting features of the stone work soon to begin, and to be completed within two weeks, is the erecting of the eight monolithic limestone columns over the main entrance, their bases being at the second-floor level and their capitals a little below the parapet. These columns are shipped two at a time from the limestone quarries at Bedford, Indiana, in extra long gondolas, as distinguished from flat cars, the columns being thus held immovable in shipment. They measure 22 feet 3 inches in height, and in thickness average from 3 feet 4½ inches at the base to 2 feet 10½ inches at the head. Each weighs exactly thirty-one thousand pounds, or fifteen and one half tons. One may wonder how these slightly tapered columned shafts will be erected. Upon arrival at the freight yards adjacent to the building the car containing two will be put on the siding; a derrick, attached at two places on each column, will remove it in a horizontal position to a truck. The base of the column is protected by a metal projection running up over the sides and connected to a collar several feet above the base. Upon arrival at the building site a derrick will pick up the column in the same way in horizontal position from the truck and deposit it on the pavement. An extra powerful derrick attached to the collar and to the second padded band about the shaft will be used to up-end the column, and in a vertical position raise it directly above its permanent position. At that point all unnecessary tackle, including the metal base, will be removed, and the tackle to the collar above the base will be depended upon while the shaft is lowered to its place on a circular plinth already set to receive it.

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