Items of Interest May 6, 1933 Issue

Items of Interest

But little has been said in these columns about the Globe Room, which is an unusual feature of the new Publishing House. It is unique, too, since nowhere is there anything quite similar. A newly erected newspaper plant in a distant city has a large revolving globe depicting the surface of the world on its exterior. It has been designated "The largest World in the World," but the Globe Room in the new Publishing House will be twice as large, its diameter being approximately thirty-one feet in the interior. This Globe Room will be constructed on somewhat different lines from the other, since the surface of the world will be depicted on the interior. One entering it can cross it midway by a bridge of structural glass, located a little below the level of the equator. Thus one can walk directly through the world! Indeed, from this vantage point one can see what he can see nowhere else, namely, the north and south poles, also the entire map of the globe.

It was explained in this column last week that the foundation for the Globe Room of steel and concrete had already been erected, reaching from the basement floor through the first floor into the second in Section "A." The inside of the globe will be fabricated of thin bronze ribs taking the place of longitude and latitude and, fitted within the bronze, sections of iridescent glass depicting the various portions of the world's surface. Painted on the glass in a manner similar to the decorative painting on the windows of The Mother Church Extension will be the map of the world, showing oceans and continents, countries, cities, and towns. The globe will be lighted from the exterior—the light, of course, shining through the glass; and provision has been made for the expansion and contraction of the glass sections, which are grooved in such a way as to be held firmly in place by the bronze ribs.

The Globe Room is looked upon as an educational feature which will be interesting particularly to pupils in schools, as well as to adults visiting Boston. The interior of the Globe Room will be made under contract let to an English firm in London having a branch office in the United States so that both the construction and the erection of the globe will be supervised by a single firm.

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