B 357897
ARTES
1837
SCIENTIA
VERITAS
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
E PLURIBUS UNUM
TUZBUR
SQUAERIS PENINSULAM AMOENAMAA
CIRCUMSPICE
M
TS?
1550
.2697

HOW a factory can be fitted to its site so as to make the building the master tool of all is strikingly shown in this Philadelphia plant. Two railroads are available
at two sides of the building. Room for growth is provided. Ramps, or long, easy inclines, give motor trucks direct access to all floors, independent of slow-
moving elevators. The net result is a big saving of time in loading and unloading material, and in getting it where wanted
THE
LIBRARY OF FACTORY
MANAGEMENT
VOLUME I
BUILDINGS AND UPKEEP
A. W. SHAW COMPANY
CHICAGO
NEW YORK
LONDON
THE
LIBRARY OF FACTORY
MANAGEMENT
(Trade-Mark Registered)
Copyright, 1915, by
A. W. Shaw Company
Entered at Stationers' Hall, London
A. W. Shaw Company, Ltd.
CONTENTS
I-FACTORY LOCATION AND
CONSTRUCTION
CHAPTER
I MAKING THE BUILDING THE MASTER TOOL
Where managers can find lost time and space (11)-How a
foundry man increased production nine hundred per cent in
the same space (12)—When buildings are one hundred per
cent efficient (13)—Money value of a straight line (14)—
Routing diagram (15)—How models saved money (17)
II WHEN AND HOW TO REMODEL A FACTORY
PAGE
11
23
When to remodel and when to rebuild (24)—Making the fac-
tory over (26)—Mistakes to shun in rebuilding (27)-Re-
modeling a crowded plant during operation (28)
III ENLARGING CAPACITY WITHOUT STOPPING WORK
Doubling capacity in a machine shop under the same roof (32)
-How a manager put a mezzanine floor in his shop (35)—
Thirty per cent more work in the same building (40)
IV CHOOSING THE SITE FOR A NEW FACTORY
How an implement company studied new territory (41)—How
it tabulated location data (42)—Why steel companies located
at Gary (44)-Locating the small factory (46)-Group
"homes" (48)-What to do about inducements (50)
V PLANNING FOR CONSTRUCTION
•
Studying the needs of the business (52)-Data to collect (53)
-Deciding the big questions (57)—How growth is provided
for (59)—How to go at the blueprint work (62)
VI TYPES OF BUILDINGS AND WHAT THEY COST.
Getting costs for the manager (64)-Timber-mill, concrete
and steel construction (65)—How costs of forms vary with
the number of stories (67)-Costs per square foot for brick
buildings (69)—Six principles governing building costs (72)
VII HANDLING THE CONSTRUCTION
Ways to make bids and contracts safe (77)-How an office
appliance company built on a cost-plus-percentage plan (80)
-What an owner did to hurry up the work (82)-Supervision
by engineers (84)—Methods of paying for the job (85)
31
41
52
64
77
279513
6
CONTENTS
VIII MAKING THE PLANT ATTRACTIVE
When landscape work cuts down expense (87)--Conditions
that keep workmen contented (89)-Plants and trees for
smoky atmospheres (90)
II-CONSTRUCTION DETAILS THAT
INCREASE EFFICIENCY
IX FITTING THE BUILDING INTO THE WORK .
Profit-making details in a textile plant (97)—A lunch room
that saved material (98)-How workmen are affected by con-
struction (100)—Fitting the office into the business (101)
X WINDOWS, WALLS AND PARTITIONS
Metal sash and frames (104)—Getting daylight into dark
corners (105)-Standards for curtain walls (107)—Partition
walls and fire-doors (111)
XI LAYING THE RIGHT FACTORY FLOOR.
87
97
103
113
Standard foundations for floors resting on the ground (113)-
Eight floor plans (115)-Concrete, wood block, asphalt and
brick (118)-Five rules for laying good floors (120)
XII ROOFS AND SKYLIGHTS
121
•
Nine styles of roof framing (122)—What roofing material to
choose (122)-Heat and condensation (124)—Eight plans for
roof construction (126)-Saw-tooth lighting (130)
III-FITTING UP THE BUILDING
XIII FRESH AIR AS AN OUTPUT FACTOR
What ventilation did for a hat factory (135)—Ventilation de-
fined (136)-How bad air reacts on workmen (136)—How to
help men do their best work (137)-How to keep dust out
of the air (138)
XIV HEATING AND VENTILATING
Defects of window ventilation (141)-Piping good air to
workmen (143)-What amount of moisture is necessary (148)
-How the duct system works (150)
XV LOW COST FACTORY LIGHTING
Tungsten lamps (153)-General illumination (154)-Individ-
ual lights (154)—Indirect lighting (155)—Replacing 56 incan-
descent lamps with 18 mercury vapor lamps (156)-How
lighting costs were cut 64% (157)-Lamp maintenance (159)
XVI WATER FOR INDUSTRIAL USES
How to get quantity and quality (161)-Drinking water (162)
-Supply for fire protection (166)-Softening the water
(166) Where to put water mains (168)
XVII FACTORY SANITATION
Manager's duties to his men (169)—Where six plants located
sanitary equipment (170-172)—How to dispose of sewage
(174)-Sewer piping (175)
135
140
152
161
169
CONTENTS
77
XVIII CUTTING DOWN THE FIRE HAZARD
When sprinklers protect (177)-Preventing tanks and pipes
from freezing (177)-How to keep a sprinkler system in
working order (178)-Dry-pipe system (180)-Three sources
of water supply (180)-Pressure (184)-Protection in a
cotton mill (184, 185)
XIX MOVING IN AND STARTING UP
How one manager moved his plant without breaking off
production (188)—A color scheme that simplifies moving
(189)—Closing up the old shop (191)-Getting into the new
building (191)-Keeping down moving expenses (192)
IV-FACTORY MAINTENANCE
XX KEEPING BUILDINGS IN CONDITION
Seasonal repairs (198)-What poor maintenance cost a
foundry (201)-When to make alterations and additions
(203)-How managers plan finances and seasonal work (204)
XXI FACTORY HOUSEKEEPING
Value in dust and dirt (206)-How a machinery company
standardized cleanliness (207)-How housekeeping reacted
on the efficiency of employees in an enameling plant (212)——
Piping dust and dirt into the furnace (214)
176
188
197
206
Fitting the Building to the Site
Crane-ways That Speed Production
Efficient Construction Details
Factory Housekeeping That Pays
Floors That Stand the Wear
Getting Daylight into the Factory
Holding Down the Fire Hazard.
How to Make Buildings Efficient
How to Make the Plant Attractive
Light for Dark Hours
Making the Factory Over
Modern Construction Methods
Providing Heat and Good Air
Safeguarding Employees' Health
Windows, Walls and Partitions
•
•
PLATES
Frontispiece
19, 55, 56, 200
19, 109
199, 200
110, 127, 163, 182
19, 37, 38, 55
181, 182
19, 74, 91, 92, 145, 181
91, 92
146
20, 37, 38
38, 73
145
163, 164
73, 74, 110, 181
FORMS
I A Master Sheet for Location Data
II Moving Day Tally Sheet
III Daily Maintenance Report
49
192
209
8
CONTENTS
}
IV A Requisition for Repairs
V Superintendent's Order to Repair Man
VI Watchman's Report to Superintendent
FIGURES
I Increasing Production Nine Hundred Per Cent.
210
211
213
12
II
How Time and Space Are Wasted
13
III
How to Increase Output in the Building You Have
IV Making Work Flow through the Factory
14
16
V
When and How to Remodel a Plant
27
VI Doubling Floor Space under the Same Roof
VII Finding the Right City for Your Plant
VIII Picking Out the Site
IX What Decides the Type of Building
X Providing for Factory Growth
XI Transportation within the Factory
XII Timber-mill and Concrete Buildings
XIII How the Cost of Forms Varies
XIV What Brick Buildings Cost
XV Comparative Costs of Concrete and Mill Construction
XVI Building Costs for Normal and Subnormal Years
XVII Points to Observe in Handling Construction
XVIII Getting Daylight into Dark Corners
32
43
45
54
•
59
61
66
67
69
71
75
81
105
XIX Four Plans for Floors Not Laid on the Ground
XX Four Plans for Floors Laid on the Ground
115
•
117
XXXV A Mercury Vapor Lamp System
XLIII How a Dry-pipe Valve Works
XLV-VI
Fire Protection in a Cotton Mill
XXI-IV Nine Plans for Roof Framing
XXV to XXXI Eleven Plans for Roofs and Skylights
XXXII Construction Details That Cure Factory Absences
XXXIII How an Air Conditioning Plant Operates
XXXIV How Humidity Affects Temperatures
XXXVI How Lighting Costs Were Cut 64%
XXXVII Lavatories in a Machine Shop
XXXVIII Lavatories on a Mezzanine Floor
XXXIX Sanitary Equipment in a Foundry
XL How to Prevent Pipes from Freezing
XLI Where to Locate a Tank Check Valve
XLII Two Ways to Make Tank Joints Tight
XLIV Plan for an Automatic Alarm Valve
XLVII How to Move the Factory
XLVIII Moving Day Directory
122-125
126-131
137
143
149
156
157
170
171
172
177
178
179
180
183
184-185
191
193
Part I
FACTORY LOCATION AND
CONSTRUCTION
DIV
THE LIBRARY AND ITS SOURCES
IVIDENDS are the final test of good manufacturing.
Whatever plans and methods have found places in these
volumes have passed this test.
For this work the fifteen years of SYSTEM's work have been
drawn upon, and the seven years during which FACTORY has
searched the industrial field for better methods. This period
has, perhaps, witnessed more great industrial changes than any
previous one. Invention has developed not only remarkable
improvements in construction and equipment, but also in man-
agement.
A better method is no less an invention and often no less
significant than the conception of the motor, the multiple drill or
the endless conveyor. And like an ingenious machine, a better
method usually fits many different lines of manufacture. The
most valuable of the amazing inventions in management and
operation during this period, The Library of Factory Manage-
ment has now collected from many hundreds of plants and
puts at the disposal of all factory executives.
Completely to list the plans, and the executives, specialists
and engineers that have contributed to this work is impossible.
Much of the help has been confidential. Information has
frequently been rounded out by reference to scores of sources.
Most of the chapters are the work of many men.
Because of the composite nature of the work, the chapters
have not been signed. To establish their authenticity, how-
ever, references to the more inportant contributors, authorities
and concerns have been massed on the opening pages of each
division of each volume. Those in immediate charge of the
field studies and the entire production are Stanley A. Dennis.
F. M. Feiker, Carroll D. Murphy, Harry Franklin Porter,
Thomas S. Rockwell, and Leon I. Thomas, of the Editorial
Staff of the A. W. Shaw Company.
Chapter I. Based upon the experience of P. L. Battey
chief engineer, Railroad and Industrial Department, the Arnold
Company, and Harry Franklin Porter, C. E., Industrial
Editor of FACTORY and Consulting Engineer, together with
studies of the use-factor in various paper, textile and wood-
working plants, the United Shoe Machinery Company and
other industries.
Chapter II. George M. Brill, and Mr. Porter are the con-
tributors. The chapter embodies remodeling experiences of
an automobile company, a wood-working plant, etc.
Chapter III. J. P. Brophy, general superintendent, Cleve-
land Automatic Machine Company, W. B. Pavey, Economy
Engineering Company, and Sterling H. Bunnell, works manager,
Griscom-Russell Company, contributed to this chapter.
Chapter IV. The location work of a score of concerns has
been drawn upon by the various members of the editorial staff
for this chapter, which cites at length the experiences of the
International Harvester Company, Hart-Parr Company,
Shredded Wheat Company, United States Steel Corporation,
Bush Terminal, etc.
Chapter V presents methods of planning for construction
gathered by Mr. Porter and others from actual investigation at
the plants of the Ford Motor Company, the Cincinnati Milling
Machine Company, Acme Tool Company, Pierce-Arrow Motor
Car Company, Warner Brothers' Corset Company, Hart-Parr
Company, Bullard Machine Tool Company, Philadelphia Watch
Case Company, American Optical Company, American Water
Works and Guarantee Company, etc.
Chapter VI. Chiefly contributed by Walter B. Snow, from
his experience with plants for many purposes, and by Mr. Porter,
the editorial staff of FACTORY collaborating.
Chapter VII. Contributed by Mr. Porter; based on expe-
riences of the United States Steel Corporation, the Baker-
Vawter Company, a Philadelphia hat company, a chewing gum
factory, and many construction companies, such as William
Steele & Sons, Day & Zimmermann, Aberthaw Construction
Company, Turner Construction Company, Samuel Austin &
Son Company, and the Ferro Concrete Construction Company.
Chapter VIII. Chiefly contributed by Jens Jensen, con-
sulting landscape engineer of the Chicago West Park Board,
with points from the practice of the National Cash Register
Company, German-American Button Company, Crocker Wheeler
Company, Hudson Motor Company, Elgin Watch Company,
Eastman Kodak Company, and H. J. Heinz Company.
I
MAKING THE BUILDING
THE MASTER TOOL
T
WENTY-FOUR hours in the day is the operation time of
a paper mill; a machine shop runs eight hours out of the
twenty-four. The machine shop manager uses the space.
and equipment in his building only thirty-three and one-third
per cent of the time. What may be called the use-factor in his
building is only thirty-three and one-third per cent of the paper
manufacturer's.
This difference between the paper mill and the machine shop
also exists when the paper mill is contrasted with shoe factories,
textile mills, or foundries. Buildings in these industries are, in
general, occupied only eight or ten hours, which is all the more
reason why they should be used thoroughly during that period.
Making a product, from a physical standpoint, involves two
prime factors-time and space. Some manufacturers, when they
build, base their requirements principally on floor space. They
do not give due consideration to the more important factor,
time. A foundry designed along the old lines, on a space basis,
turned out two tons of product per thousand square feet of
molding floor space. When the time element was considered,
after a careful analysis of all the factors, twenty tons of output
were easily produced from the same floor space (Figure 1).
If every machine and every individual function and every em-
ployee is working at maximum efficiency, the paper mill realizes
one hundred per cent value in the use of the plant, because it
operates during all of the available time. The most important
element in making the building the master tool is, therefore,
12
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
!
the use-factor. It may be defined as the ratio of the time and
space in actual use to the time and space available for use (Figure
II). These may be termed, respectively, the time-factor and the
space-factor in production.
FIGURE I:
feet.
Both drawings represent a foundry molding floor space of about 24,000 square
The black areas indicate the amount of production per 1,000 sq. ft. Two tons were turned
out when the foundry was laid out on a space basis only. Twenty tons were produced for the same
surface when the foundry was planned on a space and time basis. Production increase 900%
Maximum production is the result of the highest grade of
workmanship rightly applied to the best material during all the
time and over all the space available. The chance of greatly
increasing the output thus turns upon increasing one or more
of the four elements that determine maximum production. Per-
haps nine times out of ten, more product is looked at by the
manufacturer as identical with more space. Yet he should not
enlarge his plant without calculation. Far too often he has
forgotten the possibility of increasing his output by increasing
the time his plant is in actual use. And before deciding to
keep his men working longer hours, the question arises whether
the manufacturer is using them all over the entire space and
during all the time at his command under present conditions.
To approach one hundred per cent productiveness in buildings
-to get the most out of a given space in a given time-the factory
manager must plan to get immediate and continuous use of all
space and all equipment in the factory. Instead of building a
big plant to which he may grow in the future, instead of making
THE MASTER TOOL
13
a large present investment in walls, roofs and equipment to fore-
stall future congestion, he may design his buildings on a unit
plan so that each unit of economic capacity will approach the
ideal production.
Practically every manufacturer has applied this principle of
the use-factor in some smaller way. Few, however, consider
all their buildings on the same basis as they would a department.
A manufacturer of wood screws discovered that the five hundred
square feet of space in his automatic machine department could
be made to turn out twenty-five per cent more product by increas-
ing the speed of the machines. The use-factor of that depart-
ment was thereby increased twenty-five per cent. If he had
added twenty-five per cent in space to that department and had
25%
50%
75%
100%
FIGURE II: Time actually used in a factory is represented by the upper shaded portion, and space,
by the lower. Let maximum production be represented by 200% (time available 100% plus space
available 100%). If only 50% of the time and 75% of the space available are employed, the
actual production, therefore, is only 125% of that possible, or 62% when the problem is worked
out on a 100% total basis
not considered the time element, the use-factor of his enlarged
department would have been only fifty per cent of that in the
smaller area.
Maximum production in any plant is not reached until all lost
time and waste space are eliminated (Figure III). While this
production will be approached when lost time and waste space
have been eliminated within each department, it will not be
14
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
reached until time and space wasted between departments are
also reduced to the minimum practicable. Often the use-factor
of an entire department may be increased by running overtime
some one part of the department.
The manufacturer may well consider each unit in a factory,
whether it is a department or a building, as a machine with cer-
tain functions. To keep that machine operating at its highest
speed and with the greatest efficiency is to bring the use-factor
of that section or building close to one hundred per cent. Then
your plant becomes the master tool.
IT
FINDING WHERE TIME AND SPACE ARE LOST
AND HOW TO SAVE THEM
T may take only a general study of a department to show
where time is wasted and where output can be doubled,
or it may take a stop-watch study of detail operations to locate
the weak spots and losses.
Straight-line routing, developed directly from the principle
of the use-factor, is now a well recognized practice in economic
Use Time Lost in
How to
Increase
Production
Shut-downs and Repairs
Crippled Machines and Low Speed
Criss-Cross Routing
Soldiering and Absences
Handling and Transporting Material
Arrangement of
Buildings
Departments
Equipment
Use Space Lost in
Storage of Material and Supplies
Unused Areas
FIGURE III: Planning for a new building is necessary only when the limit of production has
been reached in the structure in use. In perhaps every factory many of the ten ways here suggested
can be found to save lost time and space in order to increase the output of the present building
production. More and more, operations are becoming so arranged
that production literally flows through the factory. In making
over an old factory or in planning a new one, straight-line rout-
ing, as a principle and a practice, should be borne uppermost
in mind. No more effective method for saving time lost within
and between departments has yet been developed.
THE MASTER TOOL
15
Service features, such as stairways, elevators, toilets, wash
rooms and lockers, cannot be considered one hundred per cent
efficient in the same sense as a machine, for they are in use only
a small part of the time. They may, however, be thought of as
machines with certain functions which should be brought up to
the highest possible efficiency. Where to locate them is the
question. The principle of straight-line routing suggests the
answer. The movement of labor through a factory like that
of material and product should seek direct lines. Placing the
service features of construction where they may be of the fullest
use in the shortest time is the thing to be desired. Locating
these features in abutting towers and wings, shut off from the
main floors by standard doors, is a favorite plan with many
manufacturers. It is safe and economical. The less time these
accessories are used the greater will be the saving in light, power
and heat. This plan also avoids breaking up the productive floor
space. At the plant of the United Shoe Machinery Company,
these features are consolidated and incorporated within bridges
connecting the various buildings. The dispensaries are also
located in these bridges. Such a layout, intended primarily to
conserve time and space, is almost always possible.
то
SEEING THE PLANT IN MINIATURE BEFORE IT IS BUILT
HELPS TO DEVELOP THE USE-FACTOR
assure the highest use-factor requires, as perhaps the first
step in planning a factory, the preparation of a routing
diagram. This is nothing more or less than a chart of the com-
plete process, showing the progress of production in a natural
sequence of operations from raw material storage to "out" ship-
ping platform (Figure IV).
A detailed routing diagram, looked at in bird's-eye, resembles
nothing else so much as a map of an ocean or air current. It
represents, in fact, the flow of production through the plant.
The less departure from straight lines and broad sweeping curves,
the more fully will the layout contribute towards maximum
production and maximum economy in operation.
The routing diagram is basic in factory production. It is the
key, not only to both the graphic layout of equipment and the
model of housing structure, but also to the details of construc-
16
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
:
tion. Materials and construction methods should conform to it.
It is of course impossible for any man, however experienced
in factory planning and however well grounded in economic
principles that underlie the greatest efficiency and however
familiar with the peculiarities of the particular problem, to work
out a plan that shall be perfect in every detail, even with a rout-
ing diagram before him. Yet a close study of routing methods
in other plants will generally enable one to bring up the use-
factor in his new plant. An endless conveyor in a shredded
TOILET
"FUDER:MODHIG
IFURNACES
SAND
EMERY WHEELS
BLASTINO ROS
PLATHIO: QUONS
ASUBES YAITING
IGED:
TUMBLING BARRELS
·NOLDERS" TUBS:
LDING MACHINES.
BENCH
CORE:OYEN
•DRYING RACK
·PAFJERNS
BOUGH CASTING AND PATTERN STORAGE.
LINE OF LATHES, DROLS, WILLING MACHINES, ETC:
MAN'S
·BENCH
EMERT WHEELS AND BUFFERS
·EUNDING MACHINES
·BENCH
PART STORK ROOM
STAIRS
AND
ELEVATOR"
PAUSTTHE
PASKING
(LIKES DE LATHES ETE.
FINISHED:
AS DESKS
-STOCKROOM
STAIRS
AHD
ELEVATOR
י
FIGURE IV: Gravity helps in the handling of material and finished products in the Walworth
Manufacturing Company's factory in which the floors are arranged as this diagram shows. The
foundry is placed at the top of the building, the shipping department on the first floor. Raw ma-
terials are carried from the basement to the top floor. Work progresses downward as shown by the
arrows, the double elevator equipment making the straight-line routing of work simple and practical.
The location of the foundry permits easy and low cost ventilation
wheat factory has practically the same function as a conveyor
in a car-wheel factory. Both are installed to reduce the amount
of floor space necessary to handle a given amount of product,
and also to cut down the time and labor necessary in turning
out that product. Ideas and methods pass from one factory to
another-the rock-bottom principles are everywhere the same.
The conventional and time-honored way of getting construc-
tion ideas into shape for consideration is to show them in plan,
THE MASTER TOOL
17
section and elevation. Generally also these are supplemented by
an architect's perspective in water color. This is of great value
in enabling the executives to get the "picture" of the completed
work. Better even than the architect's perspective, however,
is a model of the plant, true to dimension, line, and detail, and
built in such a manner as to permit of a rearrangement of the
sections and the removal of the top to give a view of the interior.
In this way defects and shortcomings will be apparent which
might otherwise pass unnoticed into brick and concrete.
In one instance, a conference of the manager and his depart-
ment heads over routing diagrams and a model resulted in
several important departures from the original layout, which
greatly improved the plant's efficiency. To have made subse-
quent alterations to accomplish the same changes would have
cost many thousands of dollars, if, indeed, these had not been out
of the question. The cost of the model was trifling compared
to the advantages that were gained.
The practice of visualizing a factory plan in model form is
more common abroad than in America. But it is growing in
favor here. Factory designers are more and more appreciating
its advantages. As a means of testing the layout and bringing
architect, engineer and executives into complete harmony, the
model and routing diagram are unexcelled.
A CARDBOARD SCHEME THAT MAY PREVENT COSTLY
ERRORS IN CONSTRUCTION
THE graphic principle may also be used to advantage in
developing the layout. Having determined on the approxi-
mate arrangement and extent of a department and the equip-
ment to go into that department, carefully cut to scale squares
or rectangles of cardboards to represent each machine and the
working space required around it. Lay these out on a drawing
or blueprint, and arrange and rearrange them until each occupies
the "one best" location. The "one best" location is that which
involves the least departure from straight-line production. A
pin through each bit of cardboard fixes it. Passageways, stair-
ways, offices, shafting, lighting fixtures and other construction
details can be located so as best to serve the processing machinery;
and the proportions of the department, the natural facilities for
18
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
lighting and other elements can be arranged in accordance.
It is well to defer the making of a model until all the depart-
ments have been worked out in this way. There is then less
likelihood of having to change the model save in minor respects.
In one factory where the manager followed this method, the
cardboard layouts have been preserved intact and are used to
study out rearrangements of departments as developments in
equipment make them necessary. A room in the engineering
department is set aside for this purpose. Each department in
the factory is represented by a separate table. On each table
a blueprint of the department, drawn on a large scale, is kept
stretched and on the blueprint the bits of cardboard representing
the pieces of equipment are pinned. Each cardboard bears the
name and symbol of the piece it stands for, and also the power
requirement, in case it is a power consumer. A color scheme
tells one at a glance what is what. Every feature has a distinc-
tive color; all power consumers are of one color; all benches,
another; and passageways, another.
The use of such a scheme of graphical representation of layout,
together with a model of the housing structure, and a routing
diagram, places factory planning on a scientific basis. Their
employment is simple business foresight.
Next to the principle of straight-line routing by means of
visualized plans, to fix correctly the ratio of investment and fixed
charges to the cost of production is of the greatest importance
in developing the highest use-factor. To operate inefficiently
at an overload for a short period is often done rather than to pay
investment charges on more equipment. This applies especially
in the case of certain plant functions which are periodically
inoperative. Large space provided for storage may be unused
at times, but the demands of the business may be such that less
space provided for storage would have been unwise. A heating
system is used only a portion of the year, so a practical engineer
will not provide sufficient heating surface to warm a building
economically to a given temperature during the most extreme
weather. Rather, he will sacrifice steam economy for those few
days because he knows that the saving in investment and depre-
ciation charges with the lower first cost heating equipment will
offset any loss due to the short period of inefficient operation.

REID
MURDOCH
& CO
Quick and economical facilities for handling material in a multi-story building are afforded in the
Ford plant (above) by an immense crane court-way, with numerous landing platforms which are
"stepped off." A full-width skylight assures abundant natural lighting. The wholesale grocery
plant (below) houses a train of freight cars on one side of the building and provides for shipping on
the other to facilitate loading and unloading. All tanks are enclosed in the tower

Provision for growth was made by the Cleveland Metal Products Company when their building was
originally designed. Without interrupting production in the first two stories, three new stories
were added. The foundations and walls had been built to carry the additional load. In connec-
tion with vertical expansion, plans of layout in the form of the letters L, T, U, C, H, F, and E
facilitate horizontal growth, as well as meeting the requirements of light, air and transportation
THE MASTER TOOL
21
Only recently have factory owners and managers realized the
importance of the structures that house their manufacturing
processes in their relation to, and bearing upon production costs.
Formerly it was not thought to matter much in what kind of a
structure were carried on the processes of an industry. The pos-
session of patent rights or special secret knowledge of certain
arts and processes was held to be the all-important thing. The
use-factor idea was unknown. Now managers realize that success-
ful manufacturing is a highly complex art and that no element
is all-important in the sense that, if it is taken care of, while
others are lightly considered or disregarded, success will be
certain. Rather do they realize that if any factor is treated with
indifference, success will, to that extent, be jeopardized. Espe-
cially does this apply to factory buildings, not only in general
plan, but in details of construction. Faults embodied in build-
ing design are costly and difficult if not impossible to eradicate.
So long as they exist, production is hampered, time and space
are lost, and production costs prevented from reaching rock-
bottom.
That managers and owners do realize these facts is attested
by the multitude of modern factory buildings, plain and sub-
stantial in design, and with utility and permanence showing
forth in every detail, that stand out prominently in nearly every
industrial center on this continent and abroad, in striking con-
trast to the makeshift, ramshackle, fire-trappy, dark and dingy,
dungeon-like structures of earlier days.
These buildings of the new era are monuments of uncommon
common sense, broad-gauged judgment and farsighted economy.
They represent, in many cases, a large initial money outlay, but
they do not represent extravagance. Not one penny has been
wasted on embellishment or useless quality. They represent,
instead, the cooly calculated expenditures of canny industrial
leaders-men alive to the importance of every factor-men wise
enough to reach out and garner the fruitage of generations of
experience, experiment and development-men who are looking
for results and will exhaust every practical means to get them.
Whether a manufacturer remodels his old factory or builds
a new one, to reach the maximum production at the lowest per
22
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
1.
unit cost requires that he look at his plant not only from the
viewpoint of space, but also of time; not merely as a roof, but
as a tool. How to get the maximum use of his plant is the
problem that he must solve in either case. Routing all material,
supplies and product in the straightest possible lines will help
him use all his available space. Investment and fixed charges.
will be determined largely by these considerations and thus will
directly undermine or lay a firm foundation for efficient produc-
tion at feasible cost.
Bound up with these essential ideas on investment are those
subsequent questions that are vital to all factory management,
how to increase machine output, how to purchase and store stock,
increasing the effectiveness of labor, perfecting operation and
cost-keeping methods and developing an organization into a
conscious working unit. The manufacturer's ability to apply the
most satisfactory known answers to these problems also plays
a part in deciding whether or not he will reap the greatest
return from every part of his plant and investment.
II
WHEN AND HOW TO REMODEL
A FACTORY
O
VER in Germany when a factory ceases to fit the
requirements of the business, the practice has been not
straightway to abandon it, but painstakingly to make it
over, as the thrifty German haus-frau makes over her dresses
from year to year by recutting the material and cleverly working
in a new piece here and there. Perhaps this is because the
German manufacturer has faced a keener necessity in his older,
more densely populated country. Many American manufacturers
take the stand that, because of the grave difficulties encountered,
it is better to move into a brand new plant than to undertake
changes in an old one. Definite cost figures prove in plenty of
instances, however, that remodeling, guided by a sure aim and
for the purpose of remedying definite defects, often pays better
than building anew; and profit is the test. When a manufacturer
considers remodeling, there is only one issue at stake-to make
the factory meet the demands of the business.
The signs of a misfit plant are many. In the beginning it is
often a makeshift, permitting a profit only because of easy
competition. Then departments get out of proportion; allied
processes are forced apart; orders cannot be filled promptly;
insurance premiums have gradually gone up; capacity is insuffi-
cient to take care of the business prospects and rising costs
sound a warning.
When these conditions face a manufacturer, the wise procedure
is to go by the old rule: "Make business crowd you out of your
shop before you tie up more capital in a new one.
New con-
struction is a second choice, remodeling the first.
24
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
"Is every foot of our present space used to the best advantage?
Is time wasted that might be saved by a few changes?" the
manager first inquires. "Are we getting the most work possible
out of floors, walls and tramways, as well as labor and equip-
ment, in the twenty-four hours that are at our disposal? Do
material and product zig-zag around corners and machines or up
and down from roof to basement; or does production flow evenly
down and through every building?"
Carefully worked out answers to these questions will solve
the construction problem cheaply for many a manufacturer who
is on the verge of building or moving. They will serve to show
him a source of new profits through remodeling, for all other
considerations are a part of this one.
To reach and maintain a lower production cost is the obvious
method of increasing profits and the most common reason for
remodeling the plant. In any case, every change that cuts costs.
helps to pay remodeling expenses. Greater economy of produc-
tion is the final justification for any change.
Larger capacity also is often a legitimate reason for remodel-
ing. Sometimes output can be increased without bringing up
the total cost of production, or without increasing the overhead
expense. In such cases, the per unit cost will, of course, be
lowered. When, conversely, remodeling is done with the primary
object of lowering costs, greater output also is often attained.
This is very frequently the case when the work is a rearrange-
ment of departments. Even if remodeling permits costs only to
be maintained level, without reducing them, if the increased
capacity permits waiting markets to be served, a gap that invites
competition is filled up and the business fortified.
REMODELING TO OBTAIN GREATER PROTECTION
AGAINST FIRE AT LESS COST
THESE are the accepted reasons for remodeling a plant. Mak-
ing over the factory to improve fire-resisting qualities is less
commonly considered as justifiable from a cost-of-production
viewpoint. To some managers, money so spent is regarded as
adding to the costs or increasing the overhead. Yet there is a
very direct saving possible, one which to a large extent cancels
any increase in fixed charges. This is the saving in insurance.
MAKING THE FACTORY OVER
25
In one instance, as the result of making improvements in this
respect, the premium was cut from $1,200 to $200 a year, and
in another from $3,050 to $262.50, and there are many instances
of similar saving. Balance savings like these against the interest
on investment and the depreciation charges which are due to the
added investment, and it will be found that actual economies
have been effected.
Less direct but fully as noteworthy economies are accom-
plished in other respects by remodeling in order to guard against
fire. The greater security, for instance, which everyone, from
the manager down to office boy, feels in a factory safe against
fire, is a positive asset that makes for smoother operation and
lessened labor costs. Making the factory fireproof has been
found to attract a high grade of operatives. There have been
so many holocausts in inadequately protected factories that
working people have come instinctively to avoid them. The
better class of factories get the pick of operatives, and the poorer
risks have to take what is left. This, too, is reflected in the
production costs.
More noteworthy even than the saving effected through a
greater sense of safety on the part of the workers, is the security
of the business itself. Insurance does not and cannot cover the
loss a business suffers in event of fire. A large automobile fac-
tory burned. It was fully insured, but several years have passed
and the fire is still in evidence in the books. There are plenty
of instances of industries never recovering from the effects of a
fire. Insurance, as a matter of fact, merely distributes the loss.
Protection of a poor risk by insuring is less an investment than
a tax-a tax on the imperfections in building. Capitalize the
premiums and invest a corresponding amount in remedying these
imperfections, and the "tax" goes on the credit side of the
ledger.
Extensive remodeling to improve a factory as a fire risk is
necessary only in extreme cases. Usually the careful expendi-
ture of a few hundred or a thousand dollars will remedy the
more important deficiencies and compass a marked saving in
insurance. Best results are obtained by calling in a representa-
tive from an insurance company. He will point out what
changes to make in order to get the greatest saving in premium
26
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
for the least outlay. Factory mutual insurance companies will
not, in fact, accept a risk unless it satisfies certain requirements.
Before applicants for membership are accepted, they are required
to remodel in accordance with the recommendations of the com-
pany's inspection and engineering bureaus.
TACKLING THE VITAL PROBLEMS IN
MAKING THE FACTORY OVER
No matter whether the aim in remodeling is to make the
building meet the demands of the business by lowering
costs, reducing fire risks or increasing output, there are certain
problems evident in all reconstruction (Figure V). Ease and
speed in remodeling require that the best form and arrangement
of buildings be determined first of all, if remodeling is to be
extensive. Whether these factors are of first importance depends
on the extent of the work to be done. Any change in the size,
shape or location of buildings may be impossible. On the other
hand, a factory may sometimes be greatly changed with only
a small outlay of money and labor, by building new walls to
connect separate structures and throwing one roof over all.
The space to be allowed each department will call for a decision
early in the planning. The departments will be correlated to
the largest advantage of all. Every process in the course of
manufacture will be considered and the best method found.
The character of the materials used, the size of the various parts
of the product, the amount and the nature of the work to be
done, storage, service requirements and the amount of money
to be invested in the work are the big problems common to and
especially complex in practically all construction.
Because of the difficulty of adjusting new plans to old struc-
tures, industrial engineering perhaps knows no more delicate
problem to handle than remodeling. First, it is essential, in
changing from the old to new, that production should be inter-
fered with practically not at all. For if production is not main-
tained, not only will the business be burdened with the cost of
the idle plant, but inability to fill orders will to some extent
demoralize, and may permanently upset selling conditions.
To secure capable contractors who will under such conditions
undertake a remodeling job at a reasonable figure is another
MAKING THE FACTORY OVER
27
When and How
to Remodel
a Plant
Aims
To Increase
Output by
To Lower
Costs by
Routing Work on Straight Lines
Increasing Power
Installing Handling Equipment
Safeguarding against Fire
Mezzanine Floor
Another Story
Additions
Raising the Roof
Widening or Lengthening
General
Rearrangement
Departments
Enlargement
Features to
Remodel
Detail
Basements
Connecting Structures
Light Shafts, Windows and Skylights
Doors and Shutters
Passageways, Stairs and Elevator Shafts
Floors
Belt-ways
Division and Fire Parapet Walls
Beams and Roofs
Sanitary Equipment
Common
Mistakes
to Be
Shunned
Fire Hazard
Insanitary Conditions
Poor Lighting
Lack of Ventilation
Insufficient Heating
Lost Space and Time
Untried Innovations
Careless Estimating
Cost Keeping Omissions
Lax Maintenance
Planning
Present and Future
Engineering Service
Conditions in Detail
Analysis of
Needs
New Processes
Decisions
Change in Use
Amount to Be Expended
Tentative Plans
Final Plan
Operation Schedule
FIGURE V: Effective reconstruction at lowest cost requires always a definite idea of what is
to be made over and why, what to avoid, and how the work is to be done. In planning to make
the factory over, it is well to add to the above list all the features that could be remodeled advan-
tageously, in order to get a correct perspective on what needs to be done without delay
28
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
difficulty. It is too hard to estimate the cost, and there are
so many chances for money to be swallowed up in unexpected
ways that experienced contractors will not risk a bid on a close
margin. Yet it would be folly to entrust the work to an inex-
perienced man simply because his figure is low.
In meeting these various difficulties, a definite working
schedule has been found indispensable where a factory has been
remodeled satisfactorily at the lowest cost. Manufacturers who
have developed the principle of visualizing their plans have used
cardboard layouts and models in scheduling every operation in
the work of remodeling long before the actual work has started.
With such aids it is less of a problem to list exactly every piece
of machinery that must be moved, to decide when to move it, to
find the shortest route to each new location, to determine the
space needed by the rearrangement, to apply the principle of
straight-line routing and finally to develop a high use-factor
in the remodeled plant. The care with which these problems
are studied and an accurate solution worked out decides largely
both the advantages and the cost of remodeling.
Probably in the majority of cases when buildings have been
remodeled, the manufacturer has sought to minimize production
costs by rearranging departments, and thus to make the build-
ing meet the newer demands of the business. Factory managers
know that they can tackle no more difficult task than that of
rearranging departments and keeping men and equipment at
work effectively at the same time.
IN
HOW ONE MANAGER HANDLED RECONSTRUCTION
WITHOUT LOSING A DAY'S WORK
a woodworking plant, where it had become a question of
remodeling or building elsewhere, the management concluded
that the superiority of the present location over any other pro-
posed, cast the ballot for remodeling. The shipping facilities
were exceptional. The neighborhood was desirable and con-
venient to the homes of the working men. The business and
social connections in the community were almost invaluable.
Furthermore, in regard to markets and supplies of raw mate-
rial and fuel, the location could not have been improved upon.
For these reasons, it was decided to remodel.
MAKING THE FACTORY OVER
29
,
!
:
For forty years this plant had grown as have many others,
adding equipment and new buildings when necessary and with-
out much regard to a general plan. As a result, although the
equipment was kept up to date, the layout became with the
years increasingly wasteful. In order to meet competition a
radical change had become necessary. To gain the advantage
of the low production costs which are possible only in a skill-
fully arranged factory, either extensive reconstruction or a new
plant was required.
The procedure followed is full of suggestions for the manu-
facturer who faces a season of remodeling. In the beginning
an experienced industrial engineer was engaged to design and
supervise reconstruction. It was intended, under his super-
vision, to let out the various parts of the work under contract.
The bids received, however, so far exceeded his estimates, that
it was decided to do the work on a day basis, organizing local
labor for the task. Under this arrangement, the engineer's cal-
culations were abundantly proved. The total cost, including
boilers, engines, generators, motors, heating, lighting and sani-
tary equipment, was less than the lowest outside proposal. Nor
was there a single day's interruption of production. For his
compensation the engineer was paid a percentage of the cost.
This achievement was possible largely because of the unit-plan
of construction followed. The new buildings were erected in sec-
tions. As soon as a section was completed it was occupied over
night, or over Sunday, and manufacturing went on as usual
the next day.
Substitution of motor for belt drives greatly simplified the
power problem, as it was unnecessary to line up shafting in the
new section with that in the old. A change in floor levels, how-
ever, presented a difficulty in transferring material from the
old to the new buildings. This was overcome by building in-
clined connecting ways and operating special inclined trucks
with horizontal beds. The plant was a two-story affair and
raising the floors made a place in the basement for wiring, dust-
collector piping, motors for driving machinery on the floors
above and hoppers to receive the heavier waste. These hoppers
put an end to the trucking of debris through the machine
room, and the placing of the driving and dust-collecting equip-
30
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
ment beneath the floors freed the workshop from these usual
obstructions to light and air.
The old factory was a frame structure with a flat roof in
which occurred an occasional skylight. The rebuilt sections,
however, are timber-mill construction with brick side-walls and
tin-covered roof. Windows and skylights are of wire-glass set
in metal frames. Instead of an occasional old-fashioned sky-
light, saw-tooth roof construction was adopted, with the result
that the second floor, occupied by the finishing departments,
dark and dingy before, now has ideal light. The ventilation
also is much improved. A coat of white, fire-retarding paint
over the interior completed the task of modernization.
Less than a year was occupied in making the change. In this
time practically a new plant, well arranged for economy of
production, of high-class, fire-retarding construction, scien-
tifically lighted and with every modern facility for ensuring
good working conditions, grew up on the exact site of the old,
wasteful, out-of-date factory. Yet production was not disturbed
in the least, and the cost was, of course, less than for a new plant.
By such attention to every step in the planning, almost every
old-style factory can be so cut and fitted as to improve manu-
facturing conditions, make the business safer, postpone indefi-
nitely the day of complete rebuilding, gain the benefit of such
reduced production costs as are possible only through the more
scientific layout with its highly developed use-factor and put
the industry in the running with modern competitors.
III
ENLARGING CAPACITY WITHOUT
STOPPING WORK
G
ROWING pains" are not peculiar to boys; factories
also have them. A small boy suffers when his ankles,
elbows and knees refuse to do his bidding. A factory
suffers when foundry, forge, machine and paint shops must gain
enlarged capacity without shutting off production for an hour.
A boy can afford to forget his growing pains, but a cramped
factory must be taken in hand, if it is to continue at a profit.
An executive order to add to the regular output an article
of like nature but marketable in an otherwise dull season is
often the reason for developing capacity while the plant keeps
on running. Or an expectation of increasing trade in a newly
opened territory may be the basis. Perhaps a consolidation with
a former competitor has been effected and readjustments of pro-
duction methods necessitate a larger capacity in a department
or shop. New machinery in one department may have given it
double capacity and left other departments out of proportion.
An emergency may exist, or a growing demand for the regular
product may put orders on the office spindle faster than de-
liveries can be made from the shipping room.
Whatever the cause, every now and then a manufacturer is
face to face with this situation. He must turn out more product,
and that means that he must increase the capacity of his factory
without closing down the foundry during reconstruction, shut-
ting off the power, or reducing his force. Under his fingers and
eyes are a thousand details affecting capacity, walls, windows,
roofs, floors, elevator shafts, stairways, passageways, machines
and benches, any one of which can be moved at will, like men
32
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
Height of Old Wall-
Skylight
Ventilator
Skylight
Broken Cross Section
Skylight-
The
FIGURE VI: Only the upper half of the enlarged machine shop building is shown here.
northern (at the left) half of the roof was raised together with that over the fourteen-foot middle
section. The southern (at the right) half was left trussed just as formerly. The closely bridged
on a checkerboard. Profits demand that he scan every detail,
that he take advantage of every trifling change that means
greater output.
His task is puzzling, but like all puzzles it can be worked out.
Here and there a factory manager has done it. He has developed
a suggestion, an idea, or a plan and wrought it into brick, con-
crete or steel to the lasting profit of his growing business.
HOW TO DOUBLE THE AMOUNT OF FLOOR SPACE UNDER
THE SAME ROOF WHILE WORK GOES ON
CONSOLIDATIONS often mean extensive alterations. The
Griscom-Russell Company was a consolidation. It became
necessary, says Sterling H. Bunnell, to add to the existing foun-
dry and machine shops a number of both small and large machine
tools, a coppersmithing and sheet-metal department, and a boiler
and tank shop. The last named could be well provided for by a
new steel frame building of proper height for efficient crane
service. The new machine shop equipment, however, could not
be put into the existing shop floor space without crowding it,
and the fumes from the copper work could not be permitted to
escape into the space occupied by machine tools.
After much discussion of alternatives, a way was finally dis
covered by which the necessary additional floor space could be
obtained without increasing the existing heating plant, and at a
fraction of the cost of a new building.
ENLARGING CAPACITY
33
Through East' Wing
Skylight
Wood Posts
Left in Place
Ventilator
Roof Construction as Before
This section of Roof Left in Original Position
floor was almost the only new construction necessary to effect this large increase in floor space.
Three skylights and the vertical windows in the middle wall provided sufficient light for the new
floor, which appears in the lower left-hand portion of the figure
The machine shop building was cross-shaped, and provided
with traveling cranes along the stem of the cross and in the
west wing. The tool room, which occupied the east wing, was
one hundred feet long and thirty feet wide. It had no crane
service. The room contained a number of lathes and other ma-
chine tools. Some were quite large.
All machines were driven by belts from countershafts carried
by the roof beams, some twenty-one feet above the floor. The
countershafts were driven from a line shaft on a platform sup-
ported by a double row of heavy posts fourteen feet apart, which
extended through the center of this wing and supported the roof.
This roof was nearly flat, and consisted of matched planking
covered by composition and carried by built-up wooden rafters,
forty-three feet long, trussed with iron rods. The trussed rafters
rested at their outer ends in the brick walls of the building, and
at their inner ends on the rows of posts; and the central gap
of fourteen feet was bridged by timbers without trussing.
The height of the roof was too great for easy access to counter-
shafts, and made the belts to machines below excessively long.
As the dust accumulated, the darkened surface absorbed the
light, so that the wing was gloomy even on the brightest days,
and the long belts flapped and slipped in the darkness overhead.
Heat as well as light was uselessly absorbed in this waste space.
It was therefore decided to get some use out of this empty space
by putting in a second floor (Figure VI).
34
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
As the head room in the wing was only twenty-one feet under
the rafters, and nearly three feet less under the truss rods, it
was necessary to raise the roof six feet to make the second floor
space usable. With the copper shop requirement in mind, it was
decided to raise the northern part of the roof only, comprising
the forty-two-foot trusses and the fourteen-foot central strip,
and to leave the southern side as it was.
In this side of the wing the copper and sheet-metal shop would
be located, and its fumes kept from the rest of the shop space by
partitions running clear up, and carried off by ventilators to be
placed in the roof above. It was important to interfere as little
as possible with the use of the tool room during the changes.
From the dismantling of another shop, we had on hand a
number of I-beam columns and horizontals which had formed
the supports of a traveling crane. The columns were nineteen
feet long and sufficient in number for the purpose. Accord-
ingly, footings of concrete were laid in the proper locations, and
the columns erected in position, which could easily be done, as
they were about two feet shorter than the distance from floor
to roof. Steel floor girders were bolted to the columns through
bolt-holes previously drilled at the proper height. There were
not quite enough girders on hand, so the remainder were pur-
chased to size. Enough pieces were cut off and left over to serve
for lengthening the columns later. Floor joists of wood were
then placed in position, bridged, and planked over, as quickly
as possible. The countershafts of the tool room equipment were
removed from the roof and replaced under the floor joists, and
the tool room was soon in operation again.
There was now a solid floor about five feet below the roof, on
which preparations could be made for raising the roof to the
desired height. That portion of the brick walls which extended
about two feet above the roof in battlement style and was already
badly loosened by frost, was taken down, exposing the ends of
the trussed beams.
Jacks were set up on the floor with struts reaching to the roof
trusses. The portion of the roof to be lifted was cut away from
the part to be left in place. A few hours' work completed the
raising operation. Immediately the necessary short extensions
were bolted to the steel columns and secured to the roof beams.
ENLARGING CAPACITY
35
The division of the forty-three-foot space made the truss rods
unnecessary and gave clear head room to the beams. The brick
walls were built up, and the stone caps were put back in their
former place.
The necessities of lighting were met by inserting skylights in
the roof area, and by filling with glazed sashes pivoted for venti-
lation the vertical gap left between the raised roof and the
portion remaining in its original position. The result was a bril-
liantly lighted second floor space. On this floor were located all
the small machine tools and the turret lathes, also the assembling
benches for all the small work in the plant.
The space below was made lighter than before by ceiling the
underside of the second floor beams with sheet-metal enameled
white, presenting an unbroken reflecting surface. Light from
outside reaches the ground floor space through the windows in
the north and east walls, and through the glazed partition of
the copper shop space on the south side.
The cubical contents of the building as a whole were increased
by this change by an amount merely trifling, so that the extra
cost for heat and building upkeep is negligible. The productive
effect of the original floor area has, however, been nearly doubled,
and at a considerable saving in belting and accessories. The
net result of our remodeling is an important increase in the
efficiency of this section of the works.
MAKING EQUIPMENT DO DOUBLE DUTY TO GAIN MORE
ROOM FOR STORAGE AND OPERATION
INCREASING capacity, whether in the big factory or the little
shop, means making the most of every foot of space available.
When it became necessary to find more storage space for bar
stock in our shop, says W. B. Pavey, I rigged a stock rack out
of angle and channel iron and placed it along the wall. Then I
saw an opportunity to enlarge our capacity by making the rack
do double duty. Besides taking care of the bar stock on the
shelves formed by the horizontal pieces bolted to the upright
channels and angles the latter were made to support the "wall"
edge of a mezzanine floor, the outer edge of which was hung
from overhead. We did not have to stop work while the floor
was being built.
36
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
The floor is used for storage of finished parts and is later to
be served by a trolley hoist. We did not want to support the
outer edge on posts from below, because we needed a free un-
broken space under it. To hang it from above made me question
the strength of the roof beams, for the finished parts to be
stored were not light. The factory is of one story and the roof
construction is only as heavy as needed for the usual light gravel
covering. As a "way out" the roof beams from which the sup-
porting straps hung were reinforced by bolting channels to them.
Farther down on the same side of the shop with the mezzanine
floor are two small windows. Advantage was taken of this in
locating at that point the forge equipment and pneumatic riveter.
In every factory it is possible to serve more than one purpose
at a time while developing capacity. We saved space in our
boiler room and also the radiated heat of a steam plant at one
stroke. Our factory is motor driven, so steam for heating
is the only requirement upon our small boiler, which is located
in a basement made just large enough for the heater and its
coal supply.
Much as in the lokomobile type of engine, developed abroad,
in which the engine is placed directly on the boiler to use all
the heat produced, we have left the floor of the shop open over
the boiler room and thus get the advantage of all the heat. We
save two hundred feet of radiator coils by this arrangement.
Nor is production robbed of any floor space. The boiler
room is located close against the blank wall at one end of the
shop where the light is poor. By building an angle iron storage
rack over the open space, some of the iron parts can be kept
there with no danger of rusting. Three sections of heavy iron
grating which had originally served another purpose in the shop,
put up around the opening, form a satisfactory partition. At
the same time they obstruct no heat.
BETTER USE OF SPACE MADE POSSIBLE THIRTY PER
CENT MORE WORK IN THE SAME BUILDING
INCREASING business made it necessary for us to choose
between erecting a new building and finding more room for
production in our old one, says J. P. Brophy. Study showed that
space was wasted in our factory in at least six different ways.

640
These four views show from the outside the complete process of enlarging the capacity of a machine shop without stopping work. Jackscrews are raising the roof
in the upper left-hand picture. Next to it are shown the raised roof in place and work commenced on the gap to be closed by sash. Below, at the left, the frames
of the skylights, for furnishing the new floor with additional natural illumination, are being put into place. At the right, the alteration after the sash were set

El at
400
B
Large opportunity for gaining space lies in remodeling details. In one shop, when a bar stock rack
was built out of angle iron, the uprights (A) supported the back edge of a mezzanine floor, the front
edge of which was hung from overhead floor beams (B). Below are shown concrete saw-tooths in
three stages of construction. The wilderness of forms explains the high cost of single-story concrete
ENLARGING CAPACITY
39
Utilization of this space increased our capacity thirty per cent
without necessitating new construction.
Our plant grew up like that of many other manufacturers.
Our first factory was complete in all departments for handling
our product. As our business increased a first addition was
erected and new machinery installed without seriously consider-
ing the machines we already had. Space in the new addition
was found for machinery of all kinds. In effect we duplicated
our old factory.
Not until the demands of our business made necessary a third
building did the value of the space already available come home
to us. Departments were wrongly placed with relation to each
other, machinery was poorly grouped, aisles were too wide, hall-
ways vacant, wall surface wasted, and space around machines
poorly utilized.
The first thing done was to rearrange departments and cen-
tralize operations so that the work in one section dovetailed into
the work in the next. Lathes, milling machines and planers,
all previously located in different parts of different buildings,
were grouped in individual departments. Boring mills, for ex-
ample, formerly in several locations, were grouped and put in
charge of one foreman. Three lathe departments, each with a
foreman, were combined on one floor and placed in charge of
two foremen. Both floor space and supervision were saved.
The machine departments were grouped so that each was
placed logically with respect to handling the work. Drilling
operations come next to planing, so the drilling department was
placed next the planer group.
Aisles used to be twelve and fifteen feet wide. In our expe-
rience only a third or a quarter of the space ordinarily given
to aisles is needed. Put to profitable use the waste space may
save building. In our factory are two parallel buildings about
thirty feet apart with fifteen-foot hallways between. Instead
of using this space for trucking only, about half the hallway
is now used for parts storage.
Wall space formerly was wasted. Our large storeroom con-
tains possibly $100,000 worth of small parts for our product,
but every department in a certain sense is a storeroom. Blank
walls have been utilized by fitting them with shelves and pockets.
40
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
Pieces and parts upon which work is done are kept in these com-
partments between operations. This makes unnecessary many
piles of work about machines. Available wall space is cheaper
than a new building. One of our assembly departments would
have to be one-third larger in order to give space on the floor
for parts needed on one lot of one size alone, if the wall space
were not utilized.
Benches are not always necessary.
We saved three or four
feet in the width of a room by pulling out unnecessary benches
in front of planers and drills. In a building one hundred feet
long this meant a saving of between three and four hundred
square feet of floor space.
These are some of the changes in construction that made it
possible to perform thirty per cent more work in the same build-
ing, simply by saving and utilizing floor space. We took advan-
tage of these alterations to emphasize the value of neatness in
saving space. Work piled in irregular heaps takes up more
room than when arranged in neat piles. Our floors are now
kept so that a man with just light enough to see his course can
find his way about the aisles in any direction without falling
over castings on the floor. Neatness can be commercialized and
new construction postponed in many a plant that is crowding
out into the dooryards.
IV
CHOOSING THE SITE FOR
A NEW FACTORY
WEE
HEN a sturdy young New Englander, a hundred or
more years ago, pulled off the tattered blue jeans of his
apprenticeship days and decided to set up his own har-
ness shop, it was not a difficult problem for him to choose a
location. He picked out a site along the water front and not
too far from the blacksmith's forge. That the shop was an easy
"pipe and a stroll" from his cottage made the location all the
more ideal. Then the pioneer harness manufacturer settled down
and sewed bridles and collars and tugs for the rest of his life.
He died probably without ever glimpsing the day when the
great harness business built up by his grandson might succeed
or fail according to the strategic value of the site chosen by the
grandfather. For of the three big elements of the "plant prob-
lem" incident to all manufacturing; namely, location, construc-
tion and equipment, the most vital one today is often location.
Picking a location for a new factory calls into play on a
broader scale the same principles that determine the best place
for a machine tool within the plant or a machine gun in warfare.
The key to all three problems is strategy. The factory should
be so placed as to defend the interests of the owner, command a
wide range over the business field, be easily supplied with mate-
rials and in touch with its support. Factory conditions in vari-
ous parts of the country differ so widely that quick perception,
careful appreciation of contingencies and keen strategy are
sometimes exacted of the manufacturer in finding the best loca-
tion for his new factory (Figure VII). Frequently an unex-
pected factor will be the final and deciding consideration.
42
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
A new branch of an important implement manufacturing
business was to be located not long ago in a progressive but
distant and unfamiliar farming section. The section was en-
tirely strange to the production manager and the progress of
his personal investigation was slow. At the end of six weeks.
he had extended his analysis of land developments, acreage,
crops and probable sales to cover many cities. Then the funda-
mental factor he had been seeking began to loom up.
Labor conditions were entirely different here than at his well-
established plants. The temper, habits and viewpoint of the
men were oddly unfamiliar. Any executives whom he could
send to organize the new branch would spend months or years
in labor controversies. To get up momentum quickly, he must
secure not only a location but an organization.
His various field salesmen had been reporting from time to
time plants which might be purchased. One of these interested
him and he began to chart its conditions in columns parallel with
his summary of other sites (Form I). It had deep water wharf-
age, good railway facilities, and an excellent record covering both
raw material and market in a line similar to his own.
Labor and first cost of the location were still problems. He
began to look for the moving spirit among the men and found
him in a certain foundry foreman. Gradually friendship sprang
up between the two. One day the foreman said: "I'd like to
work for you, if you would buy this plant. Many of my best
men feel the same way." The manager had succeeded in gaining
the loyalty of his men.
When the plant was finally taken over, this organization
nucleus quickly proved an asset to the concern; and the foreman,
after becoming superintendent, has organized other branches in
three similar districts. The organizer's decision to locate for
the sake of a foreman and a body of workers who could not be
had quickly in any other way has been emphatically justified.
S
HOW TO ATTACK THE BIG PROBLEMS
IN FACTORY MANAGEMENT
As this shows, there is a right way to approach the problem
of factory location, which to a large extent is also applicable
to every question of factory management, whether of buildings,
CHOOSING A SITE
43
equipment, material or men. First of all eliminate the personal
equation. Family ties, early associations, the preference of
fathers and grandfathers who long since have let slip the reins
Markets
Domestic
Foreign
Nearness of Competition
Proximity of Supply of Principal Material
Abundance of Supply
Raw Material
How Laid Down
Proximity to Feeding Industries
Rail Lines Available
Navigable Water Courses
Suitability of Highways for Motor Trucks
Rates Obtainable
Transportation
Street Railway Accommodations
Finding the
Right City
for Your Plant
Men
Sources of Supply
Women
Native
Foreign
Labor
Character of Supply
Skilled
Unskilled
FIGURE VII:
Power
Current Standard of Wages
Extent to which Supply Is Unionized
Attitude toward Employers, Strikes, etc
Proximity to Supply of Coal and Oil for Fuel
Cost of These Laid Down at Plant
Natural Condensing Facilities Afforded
Possibilities of Water Power Development
Supply of Electric Power and Cost
On this analysis of the five factors which determine general location check off the
relatively unimportant problems in your search. Then the vital considerations will become evident.
If power, for example, is the heart of your problem, find where disadvantages are least and
advantages greatest
of business, what may be called the flocking habit of certain
industries and even personal preferences seldom coincide with
the demands of a manufacturing business which has outgrown
its present location or even of the business which is just start-
ing out.
Business strategy insists, also, that the big problem be ana-
lyzed into all its constituent problems. What about markets,
raw material, transportation, labor? When this has been done,
44
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
weigh every factor carefully, examine each from various view-
points and determine its importance. One by one, often merely
by inspection, you can strike from the list for consideration all
the advantages or disadvantages that are common to different
sites until only those points remain on which the decision
should turn.
Finally, in looking at the problem of location, take a fresh
viewpoint. This is essential. It is not conclusive that a certain
city best suits your plant because your convenience has always
pictured it there or because other factories of the same kind
have succeeded there. The South, as well as New England, has
its cotton mills and there are failures as well as successes in any
section. The fresh, unbiased gaze shows the true situation. The
balance of advantages with disadvantages will thus be found.
Pittsburgh was for years the home of practically every great
steel-producing industry. But with national growth and the
incessant demand for cheaper production, it finally became ap-
parent to the masters of steel that Pittsburgh, although it pos-
sessed many points of advantage, was by no means the logical
location. The supreme location must be found. Gary was
discovered by a great organization of clear-sighted specialists
in the steel needs of the West. The conception of a plant big
enough to satisfy those needs took concrete shape with the choice
of a tramps' paradise for the raising of the mightiest and most
efficient steel mill the specialists could conceive.
Many elements contributed to that choice. Assembling of
raw materials and distribution of product were vital, inseparable
factors. Where could ore of the Superior ranges, the coke of the
Alleghanies and a store of limestone be laid down together at
lowest cost? Where were the existing and potential markets?
Where an adequate labor supply, with surroundings making for
stability and efficiency? Could materials, markets and labor be
brought to a common focus? Where could land enough be had
at reasonable prices to accommodate the visioned mill? Square
miles were wanted. The new plant was building for the century
of steel and experience warned that no boundaries be put on its
expansion.
The answer was Gary, then only a heap of sand dunes at the
cusp of Lake Michigan, just beyond the city limits of Chicago,
CHOOSING A SITE
45
the greatest transportation center in the world and one of its
greatest labor markets. There was no town near at hand. They
built one. There was no harbor. They dug one. There were
over a hundred miles of railroad track across the site.
These
Site
Public Improvements
What to Consider
in Acquiring
a Factory Site
Environment
Legal Points
Initial Cost of Land
Cost of Additional Land
Proximity to Switching Facilities
Accessibility to Workers
Healthfulness
Suitableness of Topography
Nature of Subsoil
Proximity to Supply of Building Materials
Natural Water Supply
Advertising Value
Water Supply
Sewage Disposal System
Fire Protection
Good Roads
Healthfulness
Living Accommodations
Schools and Churches
Facilities for Recreation and Amusement
Community Standards
Law Enforcement
Laws and Local Ordinances
Character of Local Government
Tax Rate
FIGURE VIII:
Inducements
Financial Aids
Bonus
Free Site
Tax Remittance
Cooperative Capital Available
Banking Accommodations
Rates on Water, Electricity, Gas
Decision among sites in the same city is often as important as the choice of city
After finding the right city, an implement company based its choice of sites on detailed information
covering each of the elements listed here
were moved. A winding river was in the way. They pushed it
into a made-to-order channel. And a thousand other economies
might be similarly recorded-for the one-time making of a city
or river or harbor is, in the strategy of location, an economy com-
pared with the roundabout of a mile on every ton of material
and product year after year.
46
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
The plant of the United States Steel Corporation at Duluth
is another example of finding the one best location. In this case
it was desired to locate as near as possible to the ore ranges of
Minnesota and where transportation charges would be reduced
to the minimum. A site was found with a two-mile frontage on
the St. Louis River. A deep channel gave the largest vessels
adequate facilities for handling incoming and outgoing ship-
ments. Excellent railroad connections were established with the
inland mines. Located close to Minneapolis and St. Paul, and
on the direct railroad line to Winnipeg, Duluth was assured a
permanent supply of labor.
COMPETITION BASED ON KEEN LOCATION STRATEGY OFTEN
DECIDES THE FATE OF THE SMALL FACTORY
PERHAPS you cannot attack the problem in such far-reaching
ways as did the United States Steel Corporation; but you
may well take the same factors into consideration. The prin-
ciples underlying economically sound location apply to every
plant. Gary and Duluth contain lessons for every factory head.
Wherever cost of production plus cost of sales is at the minimum,
there is the most profitable location.
As between city and city or between two sections, there might
at times be little choice. Between city and small town or sub-
urban site, another phase of the question comes up (Figure VIII).
It would seem that there should be little hesitancy about choosing
the suburban site. Land is plentiful and comparatively cheap.
The fixed charges due to land rent will be low. There will be
abundant room for expansion, and breathing space for all. In
due time the plant will become the nucleus of a village, furnish-
ing to the workmen desirable homes at low cost or rental and
the social atmosphere conducive to their highest efficiency. The
distractions of the city will be absent The spirit of the plant
will determine that of the town. There will be nothing to dwarf
or delay the growth of a thoroughly efficient working force.
These are some of the advantages of the suburban site.
On the other hand, such a site has many disadvantages.
Managers have found it hard to attract and hold men in the
isolated plant unless exceptionally good wages are paid. This
is partly because of the expense of carfare and also because of
CHOOSING A SITE
47
the length of time consumed in getting to and from the plant;
workmen as a rule prefer to dwell within walking distance of
their work. Often it has been found necessary, in addition to
paying higher wages, to make a special allowance to cover car-
fare, an additional running expense which may more than coun-
terbalance the saving in land charges and taxes.
In the long run, however, as the plant grows and the men
find working conditions to their liking, the plant becomes, as it
were, self-sufficient. And the larger a plant, the sooner this con-
dition is realized. Then the economies of the suburban site are
realized.
The more skilled the class of workmen required, however, the
greater the necessity of sticking to the city. Highly skilled labor
is hard to wean from the comforts and conveniences of city life.
Frequently a city, or a section, as New England, through its
supply of labor of this sort, becomes an industrial Mecca for
enterprises requiring highly skilled mechanics. In industries
where bulk is small, labor cost high and transportation charges
small in comparison with the value of the finished product, the
labor supply is the vital factor.
In other industries cheap power is the main consideration,
and favorably situated power-producing centers, like Niagara
Falls, attract such as these in large numbers. This particular
center also possesses other marked advantages, such as central
location with regard to markets, exceptional transportation facili-
ties and excellent labor market. Incidentally, too, the adver-
tising value of this famous locality is no small advantage.
Thus Niagara Falls became the logical location for a well-
known food company, not only because here was an abundance
of cheap electric power needed to operate its machinery and
bake its product, and because here the grain from the middle
Northwest could be laid down by watercourse as cheaply as any-
where, but also because here was available a never-ending stream
of sightseers from all over the world, who went away to spread
the story of the electrically-operated factory. A further reason
was the location of Niagara along the western border of the
Eastern standard time zone, which is practically equivalent to
setting back the clock an hour and giving more daylight during
the hours of work.
48
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
Cheap power is the magnet that has drawn industries to itself
from time immemorial. New England teems with mills and
factories gathered around dam sites reared up at convenient
points along her many swiftly flowing streams.
These New England waterpowers, however, for the most part
are now supplemented with steam plants, as the water supply
has been found unequal to the task the year around, or else the
increasing size and centralization of the industry has rendered
it inadequate at any season. Today it is doubtful whether any
factory would find it advantageous to locate at a point along any
small stream or river solely because waterpower could there be
produced cheaply.
The great advantage of electric power and of the importance
of hydro-electric power is that electricity can be transmitted
economically several hundred miles. Thus, Niagara Falls is
generating power for use in Hamilton and Toronto on the
Canadian side, and on the American side for cities as far east
as Syracuse. This greatly simplified the problem of location
in many instances. Los Angeles, until recently thought to be
barren of industrial possibilities, through her development of
electrical power on the wholesale plan now bids fair to become
the focus of scores of thriving factories. So also Chicago
through its development of waterpower along the drainage canal
has attracted many manufacturers who otherwise might have
found it more advantageous to locate elsewhere.
PROVIDING GROUP "HOMES" AND SERVICE
FOR THE SMALL MANUFACTURER
THE development of power by specialized corporations or by
factories in cooperation is one practical reason for industries
to locate in groups. Still another advance phase of the co-
operative tendency is seen in Toledo, where a manufacturing
building has arisen on the plan of an office building-to furnish
"homes" at low cost to a multitude of industries. The tenant
here pays for just the space he needs and can add to his space
as his business grows. Heat, electricity, building, repairs, sani-
tary upkeep, shipping accommodations, even the services of an
employment bureau are included in the rental. Power and light
are paid for at a low rate as used.
CHOOSING A SITE
49
On the east side of New York bay, in Brooklyn, there is
another enterprise similar in scope to the foregoing, but on a
much larger scale. This is a vast group of steel and concrete
buildings, designed especially to furnish loft, factory ware-
house, railroad and shipping facilities-the Bush Terminal.
Not only manufacturers, but wholesalers and the New York
branches of many establishments located in various sections of
the country are here segregated. They utilize space in these
buildings for their stock, retaining space for their sales rooms
in New York.
To serve such tenants as these, the company operates a union
stock and shipping service, which relieves the manufacturer of
all responsibility in connection with the storage and shipment
Plant Location
Present Sites
Prospective Sites
Factors
Domestic
Foreign
Domestic
Foreign
Chicago Denver London
Bordeaux Cleveland Hartford Hamburg
Odessa
Markets
Competition
Raw
Material
Proximity
to Supply
Abundance
of Supply
How Laid Down
Proximity of
Feeding Industries
Bonus
Free Site
Financial Tax Remittance
Aids
Cooperative
Capital
Banking
Accommodations
Rates on Water,
Gas, Electricity
Grade
FORM I: On this master sheet, the location man for a chain of factories analyzes the advantages
of present plants for comparison with prospective sites. Reports from existing factories and research
among desirable sites furnish the data for decisions by the heads of the business
of his goods. Even accounts are handled so that the patron
can know at a moment's notice just how his stock, orders and
50
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
accounts stand. All this service is included in the price of rental.
Of a different order are the inducements frequently held out
by small towns which have an ambition to become great indus-
trial centers. These offer free land, freedom from taxes and
even a money bonus. Many times these inducements are worthy
of consideration and may justly influence the choice of a loca-
tion, but localities that possess the highest qualifications scarcely
need to resort to such measures.
For an existing industry that has outgrown its present head-
quarters, a change in location often is advisable, although an
old location may possess peculiar advantages that entitle it to
the preference. If thoroughly established in a small town the
manufacturer often finds it best either to remodel or to relocate
in the immediate vicinity.
Other factors that on occasion should be taken into considera-
tion in choosing the most profitable location are legal obstruc-
tions and facilities for and cost of construction. In some states
the taxation and liability laws place such a burden on the manu-
facturer, that compared with manufacturers in the same line of
business in other states where legislation is more favorable, he
is at a real disadvantage. Local ordinances, too, need to be con-
sidered, particularly in large cities. In some the building
restrictions are much more stringent than in others.
The character of the local government seriously affects the
question of taxes. Ordinarily, a manufacturer would decide in
favor of the locality where the tax rate is lowest, but if the low
rate is due to an unequalized system of taxation, the inducement
is only apparent. Only when low taxes are due to efficient gov-
ernment are they a safe attraction.
On the other hand, a high tax rate is not of itself a deterrent.
If due to the inauguration of a far-sighted plan of civic develop-
ment, a high rate may be an attraction-for it will be com-
pensated for in other ways.
In some cases the facilities for quick and economical construc-
tion are the crucial consideration. It may be that, in what seems
the best location, the bulk of the building materials must be
transported from a distance at high expense, that the labor
available for the work of construction is poor, unorganized and
scanty; or, on the other hand, so highly organized, high-priced
CHOOSING A SITE
51
and arbitrary that the cost of building in that vicinity is ren-
dered almost prohibitive. No manufacturer would wish to handi-
cap his business with high interest charges on this account unless
the locality were exceedingly promising and advantageous
otherwise.
Then again, the length of time required to build may mean
a heavy money loss as well. Supposing the choice narrowed down
to two locations, on a par as to desirability, except only that the
facilities for quick construction in the one were superior to those
in the other and the project had reached the point where build-
ing operations had to be begun at once and must be completed
within a given time. Then the decision obviously would be in the
favor of the location with the superior facilities for buildings.
The manufacturer who would decide wisely among rival sites
needs to compare them point by point in as many particulars as
he considers essential to successful operation. Location deter-
mines the handicaps and advantages of the plant for its lifetime;
no problem, therefore, deserves more careful study.
V
PLANNING FOR CONSTRUCTION
M
ANUFACTURING in the face of competition means
balancing the net of your advantages minus your dis-
advantages against the similar net advantage enjoyed
by your competitor. The factory that was made expressly for
the use to which you are putting it helps the sum of advantages.
The makeshift in shop or equipment is one more handicap. When
Henry Ford found that endless chain conveyors, on which work
flowed past workmen like water, cut some of his costs deeper
than fifty per cent, he made a big addition to his advantage
column; but it was not until he housed that manufacturing prin-
ciple in specially designed shops that he gained its full leverage
upon costs.
So the task of cutting costs and meeting competition begins
with making the factory right; and making the factory right
begins when planning for construction begins. Planning time
and selling time are vitally connected. Never is it easier to safe-
guard against errors, and never is it easier to make more costly
blunders unwittingly than at the start. On wise planning de-
pend not only the immediate returns on the investment, but alco
the permanency of the business itself (Figure IX).
A bundle of blueprints is not the starting point in planning
for construction, as too many examples of inadequacy in factory
construction testify. Experienced manufacturers, who have put
up noteworthy buildings, have found that the first work is to
collect information on which must be based those fundamental
decisions on material, height, arrangement and cost, which govern
throughout the construction.
:
DECIDING ON PLANS
53
A plat of the factory site is the first requisite. Have this
prepared by a skilled and reliable engineer. The plat should
show accurately the topography, transportation facilities, loca-
tion of water mains and sewers and the character of the soil.
This data you will find necessary in blocking out the location
of buildings, yards and trackage.
Before planning his buildings, the manufacturer will find it
advantageous also to visit other plants-not only those in the
same line of manufacturing, but also in lines having one or more
similar requirements. Study the types of construction and the
conditions affecting the manufacture. Tabulate for future ref-
erence the information you collect.
Approximate costs of the various types of buildings may be
learned from experienced engineers and the manufacturers.
"Lower-first-cost" and "quickest-ready" were formerly the
standards in choosing a type of building. That was before it
was realized that a first-class building is one of the essential
factors of economical production. The premium is now placed
on buildings that are permanent and fireproof, upon which de-
preciation and upkeep and fire-tax are a minimum and in which
ideal working conditions may be most nearly attained.
Modern concrete construction seems to answer this purpose
best. In first cost concrete construction is little more expensive
than the best type of timber-mill construction, and there are
instances where the cost on comparative bids for the same work
was less. Even if concrete does cost you more originally, rarely
if ever is a greater burden of fixed charges entailed on the
product. Compensating low depreciation, upkeep and fire
hazard charges readjust the balance.
Of the materials available, wood may well be left out of con-
sideration entirely, except to supplement other and less de-
structible substances, as in buildings of the "mill" type. The
combination of brick and wood generally designed as "slow
burning" or "mill construction" makes a very satisfactory
building of the multiple-story type, if properly designed and
constructed.
In the design of steel-frame structures first cost is not the
only consideration, but certainly an important one. It seems
worth while, therefore, to point out that formerly steel-frame
51
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
buildings were sometimes more expensive than was necessary.
Such structures were designed apparently with slight reference
to economy of material. Now, however, all economies are safe-
guarded, for structural steel design has become almost an exact
science.
Type of Building
to Be Erected
Depends on
Line of Manufacture
As to Height
Single
Multi-story
Operation to Be Housed
Shape
Sites Available
As to Dimensions
Length
Width
Temporary or
Pemanent Use
Wood
Brick and Wood
Urgency of Demand
As to Materials
Steel Frame
Investment Involved
Concrete and Tile
Concrete and Steel
FIGURE IX: Meeting competition is easier when the building fits the business. Both cost and
selling difficulties may often be traced back to one of the above considerations that was forgotten
when executives were planning the kind of building to put up
Tabulation of building costs should include figures on single-
story and multi-story construction. Between these types of
building tentative choice must be made before a layout is de-
veloped. The advantages and disadvantages of each type are
shown later. The question of building costs will be developed
at length in the next chapter.
When you have gathered information on the approximate costs
of various types of buildings, collect data also on the available
supply of building materials and on probable deliveries. This
will be necessary in drawing up contracts later.
A copy of the state building laws will help you to avoid ex-
pensive errors in construction. This can be obtained from the
office of the state factory inspector. The city officials will supply
a copy of the local building regulations. Machinery catalogs
will help to determine the space needed for equipment. List also
the local building contractors with a report on their ability and
reliability, and prepare a list of out-of-town firms whose services
may be required.
Many other items for focusing information might be men-

Thorough planning ahead is apparent in the facilities for making the most of daylight, the two mezzanine floors, and the extensive side-bays which are characteristics
of the huge machine shop in the turbine plant of the General Electric Company at Schenectady. Ample working space is left around each machine and the
movement of product is made easy by unobstructed aisles

Numerous economies result when outdoor construction is planned to merge into indoor construction
without alteration. Two views of the erecting shop of the Great Lakes Engineering Works at
Ashtabula, Ohio, are shown. Above is the shop for erecting machinery under cover, and below, the
exterior erecting shop The same crane serves both shops. If advisable at any time, 'the roof can be
carried out over the exterior crane runway
DECIDING ON PLANS
57
tioned, but these will indicate the way to start planning for con-
struction.
Equipped with this information, thoroughly analyzed and
ready for quick reference, the manufacturer will be ready to
face certain big questions that must be decided before he can
go ahead with detail plans.
What provision to make for growth is a most important con-
sideration. Providing for growth does not mean building struc-
tures of twice or three times the capacity needed at the start.
The wise manager will forecast development along systematic
lines (Figure X). How to do this is suggested by the sectional
bookcase-by observing the unit principle. A sectional bookcase
may be extended upward or laterally. Similarly, the factory
should be standardized in layout, with strength in the founda-
tions and columns to receive one or more extra stories, and the
ends free so that sections may be added as needed. Under the
unit principle, buildings are placed so as to permit expansion
perhaps to double and triple the original size without extending
the land limits.
A decision on the type of management also directly affects the
layout. The more scientific the plan of management adopted,
other things being equal, the less space will be required for de-
partments. Compared with the old-fashioned scheme of layout,
the latest word in scientific management makes two threshing
machines or automobiles or steel billets "grow" where one grew
before. There are such things as intensive and extensive manu-
facturing as well as intensive and extensive farming. Before
building, decide which you are to follow.
E
EVERY PRODUCTION SCHEME DIRECTLY AFFECTS
THE SHAPE AND SIZE OF BUILDINGS
XPERIENCED manufacturers have found it profitable to
make an early choice even of the production scheme to be
followed in the factory. This means to determine whether you
will make to order or to stock, to decide what material to buy
already processed and to what extent to purchase raw material.
This decision enters into the question of providing space for
storage. The production scheme necessitates a decision on
arrangement of departments on the article or operation basis.
58
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
Shall grinding, drilling, planing, polishing and all other proc-
esses in making a cylinder for an automobile engine be done in
one cylinder department, for example, or shall all grinding on
cylinder, crank case, frame, piston, gears and all other parts, be
done in one department, all drilling in another, all planing in
a third, and so on? The second or operation arrangement has
been found to give important economies, but the article arrange-
ment has been adopted in many plants whose business is large
enough to require a steady and uninterrupted flow of parts.
Sources of power and types of drive must be decided before
the work of laying out the plant is started. Whether machines
are to be belt or motor driven or which the one and which the
other; if motor driven, whether in groups or singly by direct
application; where electricity is to be used; where steam, and
where air. These are questions the solution of which bears a
vital relation to the layout. More care than might be thought
must be taken that enough space is reserved for each machine.
In deciding what provision to make for storage of raw material,
supplies, tools, jigs and fixtures and semi-finished parts, as well
as finished product, two points may well be borne in mind: first,
convenience in serving the shop; and, second, accessibility in
receiving or shipping (Figure XI). Centralizing all stores, or
housing them perhaps in a special structure, concentrates the
keeping force. If the double-bin system of storing supplies is
adopted, almost a third more storage room will be necessary than
with the single-bin system. To what extent the wall space can
be utilized for intermediate storage of work in process needs also
to be worked out.
Inter-factory transportation is another factor which comes
into the problem of planning for construction. The kind of
floors to lay down, the space to leave between machines, the
width and height of doorways, the location of elevators and
cranes, the space for conveyors, gravity chutes and inclines, must
to a workable degree be predetermined.
Certain space has to be set aside in every department for
administration. Ample gangway space is needed in handling the
men quickly as they register in and out and at pay time. Not
only must provision be made for the general offices, but also for
desk or record room for every foreman. The space necessary
DECIDING ON PLANS
59
for administration depends on the extent to which the principle
of planning out work in advance is to be followed. If produc-
Providing for Factory Growth
FL *?
Circular Plan of Expansion
Parallel Plan of Expansion
FRX2
FRX1
FR * 2
FIGURE X: In providing locations for future buildings your choice is limited to the two plans
here drawn, or modifications of them. The shaded areas represent existing buildings and dotted
areas proposed ones. "O" indicates offices, and buildings marked "Fl. No. 1," factory left number
1, or "Fr No. 2," factory right number 2. Both plans observe the unit principle
tion is to be scheduled, generous provision for a planning depart-
ment will be needed.
What may be called the social policy of the plant needs, to
60
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
some degree, to be developed at the start. Assembly rooms,
reading and lounging rooms, perhaps a gymnasium and a club-
house, grounds for outdoor sports, a dispensary-these are
among the service features which characterize some of the larger
plants today. Progressive managers are realizing that in order
to conserve the whole-souled interest of the men in their work
and the welfare of the plant, it is necessary to interest them-
selves in the men's play and health, as well as in their work.
Hazardous processes may well be housed in separate struc-
tures, unless all buildings are to be of fireproof construction.
Fire-fighting equipment, too, requires a certain amount of space
at different points throughout the plant and proper provision
for it in advance may be equivalent to doubling its efficiency
on occasion.
Good lighting, heating, ventilating and sanitary conditions
have a marked influence on the efficiency of labor. How much
money shall be spent in making them as perfect as possible must
be decided early. Afterwards it is expensive to remedy service
deficiencies. A manufacturer in a middle-western state built
a plant admirably equipped in many ways, but he failed to pro-
vide for dust collection in his grinding department. Recently
he was compelled by law to remedy his lack; and when he had
installed his system, he found that he had seriously impaired
his lighting conditions.
Having at this point gained a perspective upon the services
the plant must render to his business, the manufacturer will now
find it advisable to decide tentatively whether he will put up a
multi-story or a single-story building. One of the reasons why
single-story construction is often preferred is because of the
superior natural lighting possible. With saw-tooth skylighting
every part of the interior, however broad the extent of the build-
ing, is made equally light. In multi-story buildings, unless de-
pendence is to be placed largely on artificial lighting, the width
is, as a rule, limited to between fifty and seventy feet, depending
on the height of ceiling and effective utilization of wall area
for windows.
That the only working floor rests on solid ground, that this
floor needs no expensive supporting pins and beams and no rein-
forcing steel to give it strength and stiffness, and finally, that
DECIDING ON PLANS
61
throughout the entire area no columns need break up or interfere
with the working space except possibly an intermediate row
to furnish a support for crane girders as much as for roof sup-
port-these facts constitute some of the weighty arguments in
favor of the single-story structure.
SAFEGUARDING AGAINST ERRORS IN CONSTRUCTION
AND ARRANGEMENT OF DEPARTMENTS
WITH his mind made up on the big questions in factory
layout.
planning, the manufacturer is now ready to develop his
Blocking out on the plat the buildings to be put up will dis-
close the difficulties of arrangement. A choice may often be
made between an east and west or a north and south arrange-
ment. Both have their merits and demerits, but the preference
seems to be for the east and west arrangement, especially when
buildings are equipped with saw-tooth roofs. Usually such roofs
are constructed with the skylights facing north to insure a steady
diffused light all day. Saw-tooth roofs facing north are cheaper
on buildings running east and west because of the smaller num-
OFFICE
SERVICE
STEEL
FORGE
GRIND-
ING
TEMPEA-
ING
STOA.
AGE
POLISH-
ING
HANDLE
FINISH-
ING
STOCK
SHIP-
PING
INDUSTRIAL TRACK
MACHINE
POWER
INCOMING TRACK FOR RAW MATERIAL
DRYING
TURN-
ING
WOOD STORAGE
OUTGOING TRACK, FOR FINISHED PRODUCT.
FIGURE XI: In building a new factory future economy depends upon the actual drawing up of
a chart indicating the routing of material so that minimum transportation may be possible and ample
provision for future growth may be assured. The plant here shown may be extended to several
times its original capacity without interfering with the basic design
ber of roof ends necessary than when the building runs north
and south. Arrange your buildings not only to facilitate the
rapid, continuous and direct flow of material in the process of
manufacture, but in such a way as to allow any one of them to
62
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
be extended or duplicated without blocking this flow (Figure XI).
Before planning the arrangement of departments, decide what
shall be the sequence of operations in the process of manufac-
ture. This decision will, of course, vary in different lines. The
number of departments to be blocked out will depend largely on
the kind of production scheme followed, whether on the opera-
tion or article basis.
To make the greatest use of time and space within the build-
ings, the next step in making the layout is to draw up a routing
diagram. To do this effectively make a cardboard dummy in
the manner described at length in the first chapter. This plan
allows the experiments and shifts necessary in bringing the many
divergent requirements under the final plan. When each depart-
ment is laid out in this way, a routing diagram developed and
space requirements settled, it will be easier to determine the
exact dimensions of your buildings.
This first arrangement of departments will be tentative, of
course, but such a study will show which departments must be
located on the ground floors and which may be placed on the
upper floors.
In developing the routing diagram, the manufacturer will at
this point find it necessary to decide finally how many stories.
high his buildings shall be, if he has not adopted the single-story
type. This decision on the number of stories and on the location
of departments will permit the completion of the routing dia-
gram. One step remains to finish the layout, and that is to pre-
pare a schedule of the floor loads. This will have a direct bearing
on the preparation of specifications for the actual construction
of the buildings.
The last step is the preparation of the actual plans for con-
struction. The first thing to do is to make a final decision on
the type of building, whether mill, steel frame or concrete, and
the style of architectural treatment. In deciding on a type of
building it is well to bear in mind the value of concrete con-
struction. The worst fire has usually left buildings practically
unharmed, ready for the replacement of damaged machinery and
perhaps the resumption of manufacturing in a few days. With
other types of construction a bad fire means that you must get
DECIDING ON PLANS
63
a new building, and get rid of the ruins of the old one.
Now sketch rough floor plans that will indicate the location
of stairways, elevator shafts, perpendicular belt-ways, and par-
titions. Have the designer prepare a perspective drawing of
the buildings as they will appear when completed. From this
drawing you may lay plans during actual construction for mak-
ing the plant attractive with vines, window boxes, trees and
shrubbery.
With the aid of the routing diagram, the cardboard dummy
and the rough floor plans, have your designer build a model of
the factory. When this has been constructed as described in
the first chapter, hold a conference with the architect, engineer
and contractors. Among you, revise the model and decide on
the various construction details such as windows, skylights and
heating, ventilating and sanitating systems.
Next prepare floor plans and start detail drawings of build-
ings and departments. When these have been approved, sepa-
rate sets of floor plans should be blueprinted for each of the
several equipment features to be installed separately, such as
wiring, plumbing, heating, ventilating, and machinery requiring
advance provision.
If necessary, revise the specifications for each set of plans thus
prepared. From these plans make a final estimate of the cost.
If the estimate exceeds the limit set for the initial investment
in buildings, have one or more less expensive alternate designs
drawn up. Make a final choice among them, and change the
plans and specifications accordingly.
These are the steps in construction planning which are actually
followed by manufacturers of recognized ability and achieve-
ment. So fundamental are the points involved, that on the care
and foresight you employ in this work which precedes actual
building operations may rest the success or failure of your enter-
prise.
VI
TYPES OF BUILDINGS
AND WHAT THEY COST
WHEN
HEN a manufacturer, wishing to erect a new building,
asks how much that building will cost, it is possible to
answer his question with sufficient definiteness to guide
his decision. The figures of cost will necessarily be approximate,
but they will show with substantial accuracy, not only the cost
of a particular size and type of building, but also the compara-
tive cost of different available types.
First of all, the manufacturer must make up his mind as to
what he means by the word "cost." Every business man knows
that after the new building is paid for there come along other
costs, in the form of recurring outlays for maintenance and
repairs on the building, for machinery, and for insurance on the
building and its contents.
Cost may reasonably be taken as the ultimate yearly charge
for the expense of erection, plus the other annual outlays men-
tioned. With rigid, wholly unburnable buildings all the up-keep
charges are lower than with "slow-burning" buildings, and the
loss from interruption of operation caused by a bad fire is very
much less. The manufacturer must, therefore, decide in the first
place whether he means to consider first cost-the mere outlay
for the erection of his building-or the more important ultimate
yearly cost. The latter is obviously indicated by sound business
judgment.
Having, perhaps by legal necessity, ruled out frame construc-
tion, the manufacturer may consider three possible types of
factory construction: first, steel frame, either with or without
fireproofing of the members; second, mill construction, the
BUILDING TYPES AND COSTS
65
so-called "slow-burning" type, and, third, reinforced concrete
(Figure XII). If the steel work is adequately protected by fire-
proof sheathing, steel frame buildings are the most costly of
these three types. Steel construction without fireproofing may
be cheaper than the other types, but it embodies a very serious
fire risk.
It does not burn, but when heated it bends, buckles and
collapses, forming a mass of ruins that cost almost as much
to clear away as it does to put up a new building. A machine
shop of unfireproofed steel, with a single story forty feet to the
roof, will go down under the heat from burning oil and waste
and a few bits of wood below. This has happened repeatedly,
resulting in a tangled mass of metal that had to be cut to pieces
with the cold chisel, drill and blowpipe.
With regard to the other two types of construction it is true
in general that a monolithic, reinforced concrete building costs
for erection from five to fifteen per cent more than a similar
building of mill construction, though there have been cases where,
owing to the local cost of materials, freight rates, and so on, the
concrete first cost has been quite as low as that of mill con-
struction. A cotton mill and weave shed of reinforced concrete
construction was built for $1.21 per square foot of floor surface;
´a similar mill and shed of mill construction could have been built
at that place for $1.10 per square foot. On the other hand, a
four-story cotton storehouse of reinforced concrete was built
in Texas for fifty cents per square foot of floor surface; and a
similar building of mill construction would have cost in Texas
approximately the same price.
RELATIVE COSTS OF TIMBER-MILL AND CONCRETE
AND STEEL CONSTRUCTION
THE usual difference in first cost of these types is due to two
main features. The first of these is the difference in the
weight of timber and of concrete floors. A mill-construction floor
intended for light loads is comparatively light. Its thickness
may be exactly proportional to the load conditions, and no large
part of the strength of the timber columns is needed for the
mere supporting of the weight of the floor itself. With concrete,
the case is entirely different.
66
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
Determining the Type of Building
PROFIT
LOSS
Advantages
Low First Cost
Easily and Quickly Built
Easily. Altered
Timber Mill
Disadvantages
Not Fireproof
Subject to Vibration
Increasing Cost of Lumber
Difficult to Keep Sanitary
Depreciates Rapidly
Diminishes in Strength
Costly to Maintain
Advantages
Fireproof
Carries Heavier Load
Depreciates Slowly
Easy to Maintain
Cheap to Insure
Sanitary
Rigid
Allows More Window Space
More Readily Salable
Unskilled Labor Can Build
Concrete and Steel
Disadvantages
Higher First Cost
Hard to Alter
Hard to Remove
FIGURE XII: From the standpoint of costs, the choice of building lies usually between the two
types balanced here under profit and loss. The advantages of concrete and steel outweigh those of
timber mill and the disadvantages of both types
A reinforced concrete floor slab with any reasonable span
must be several inches in thickness to allow for the reinforcement
and sufficient concrete above it and below it. There is conse-
quent waste of material and expense if the floor is thus, by
force of circumstances, made stronger than the work requires.
BUILDING TYPES AND COSTS
67
The weight of this floor, including girders and beams, obviously
necessitates columns considerably stronger than for the mill-
construction floor intended for light live loads. Or, to put it
differently, although a floor may be required to carry a live load
of only seventy-five pounds per square foot, the lightest concrete
floor that can be made is capable of carrying a much greater live
How the Cost of Forms Varies with the Number of Stories
Forms (labor and material).
Concrete (columns, roof and floors)
1. Story 3. Story 6. Story.
$5,643
$9,677
$15,294
1,587
6,963
16,576
Basement floor..
1,780
1,780
1,780
Steel (columns, roof and floor).
1,213
5,826
13,715
Walls (Interior and exterior above footings)
1,288
3,690
7,293
Windows
1,510
4,530
9,060
Fill in cellar.
900
900
900
Stairs and elevators
2,850
6,000
Plumbing...
375
825
2,250
Foundation and excavation (interior and exterior)
1,220
2,554
4,310
Roof and flashing
1,260
1,260
1,260
Exterior surface finish.
94
282
564
Oil and cold water painting
94
282
564
....
$16,964 $41,419
$79,566
Add 10% for profit and nome-office expense
1,696
4,141
7,956
Total....
$18,660
$45,560
$87,522
Cost per square foot of surface area
$1.15
$0.94
$0.90
FIGURE XIII: The relation of the cost of forms to the numbers of stories and other items of cost
in a concrete building are shown in this table computed by Sanford E. Thompson, and published in
"Concrete Costs," by Taylor and Thompson
load. The fact is that a concrete floor cannot reasonably be cut
down to so small a carrying capacity; the timber floor can be,
and for light loads the timber floor and column construction is
decidedly cheaper. As the live floor load increases, however, the
cost of the increased strength in floors and columns rises much
more rapidly with mill than with reinforced concrete construc-
tion. The cost is about the same when floor loads reach 300 or
350 pounds to the square foot. For heavier loads, concrete is the
less expensive; it costs practically the same for supporting forms
no matter what the thickness.
Into the first-cost difference between concrete and mill construc-
tion comes also the outlay on lumber and labor for forms (Fig-
ure XIII). This item alone usually represents from twenty to
thirty per cent of the erection cost of monolithic concrete
68
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
buildings, and more than covers the usual excess cost of concrete
over mill construction. This is apparent from the following
figures showing the relation of form costs to concrete costs in
specific cases.
In a group of nine buildings of various types and sizes, the
cost of the forms for the concrete columns averaged 13 cents
per square foot, while the complete cost of the concrete in the
columns averaged 30.1 cents per cubic foot.
The average cost per square foot of the forms for concrete
slabs between steel beams in thirteen buildings was 9.5 cents,
while the cost of the concrete in the slabs was 35.8 cents per
cubic foot. If the slabs had been only three inches thick, this
would mean that the forms cost a little more than the floor.
Manifestly, the thicker the floor, the less, relatively, the form
cost.
This excess cost of concrete, due to the great outlay on forms,
has largely been done away with by a new type of construction
which seems to secure many advantages over monolithic concrete,
both in the matter of cost and in the perfection of the concrete
itself. The essential part of the new method is the casting of
columns, girders, beams, partition slabs and cornices as separate
members on the ground, allowing a period of ten days or more
for seasoning, and finally the erecting of the framework. At
junctions, the various sustaining members are connected by metal
dogs, and the joints are made tight with a thin grout of neat
cement. Floor slabs are cast directly upon the floor beams, and,
because of the fact that these supporting members are seasoned,
no centering is required.
HOW BUILDING BY UNITS WILL LOWER YOUR
COST OF ERECTION
THIS type of concrete construction has been employed in
several new buildings, and has shown the same freedom from
vibration under heavy, rapidly run machinery that is char-
acteristic of monolithic concrete. The cost advantages of this
method are obvious. The amount of lumber required for forms
is greatly decreased, especially in the absence of centering and
bracing. The casting of the necessary members is done on the
ground, and, hence, all form work is done at the same level.
BUILDING TYPES AND COSTS
69
COST
PER
SQ. FT.
$2.10
2.00.
1.90
DIAGRAM SHOWING ESTIMATED COST PER SQ. FT.
GROSS FLOOR AREA OF BRICK MFG. BUILDINGS
INCLUDES ORDINARY FOUNDATION AND PLUMBING
ONE STORY BUILDING
FOUR STORY BUILDING
1.80
1.70
1.60
1.50
1.40
1.30
1.20
1.10
1.00
0.90
0.80
0.70
LENGTH
FEET
WIDTH
25 FT.
WIDTH
25 FT.
5Q FT:
75 FT.
50 FT.
100 FT.
125 FT.
75 FT.
100 FT.
125 Ft.
50
100
150
200
250 300 350
400
450
FIGURE XIV: These cost curves (plotted by Charles T. Main, mill engineer) for standard "slow-
burning" mill-constructed buildings under average market conditions apply for heights of stores as
follows: 13 feet for 25 feet of width, 14 feet for 50 feet, 15 feet for 75 feet and 16 feet for 100 feet or
over. Floor loads taken at 75 pounds per square foot. From these curves it is evident that, in the
case of such construction, a four-story building is the most economical to put up; that is, it gives
the lowest cost per square foot of floor area. This height is fixed as the line of greatest economy in
the cost of increasing thickness of walls. With concrete the economy increases within limits with
the number of stories
70
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
Not so many men are required to make the forms, and the cost
of casting is much less than when it is done in position.
A striking example of this was presented in the cost of a build-
ing where one of the cornice pieces, which had been cast on the
ground, was broken, and it was decided to cast that particular
piece in place, at the top of a four-story wall. The cost of making
the form for the original casting on the ground was a little over
twelve dollars, not counting the cost of the lumber. But the
new form built at the top of the wall-also excluding the cost
of the lumber-amounted to forty-four dollars. No more strik-
ing proof of the great economy of casting on the ground could
be asked. Single-story buildings erected by this system have
shown a cost fully twenty per cent lower than that of similar
buildings in monolithic concrete, not including fixtures.
It was asserted in the opening of this chapter that it is possible
to answer the manufacturer's question with relation to the cost
of his building with sufficient definiteness to guide his decision.
But this does not mean that the offhand methods of figuring per
cubic foot of space or per square foot of floor area will give more
than rough results. This is particularly true with regard to
reinforced concrete, where the cost of the forms and the question
of their repeated use enters as a very large factor in the ultimate
cost of the building.
The great diversity in estimates on the cost of very similar
buildings of reinforced concrete has been largely due to im-
perfections in the method of estimating. Figuring on the
cubic feet of enclosed space, or the square feet of floor area, will
inevitably result in inaccuracy, unless previous records exist of
buildings of almost identical design. The effect of size and
character upon cost is shown by the following: a small factory,
costing only $12,774, with a volume of 112,440 cubic feet, showed
a unit cost in reinforced concrete of 11.4 cents per cubic foot of
space; another factory building, costing $44,652, with a cubic
contents of 746,674 cubic feet, cost only six cents per cubic foot.
The diversity in the cost of ordinary mill construction is well
shown by a comparison of costs of ten mills and warehouses
which ranged all the way from 4.5 to 12.2 cents per cubic foot,
and from 54.2 cents to $1.51 per square foot of floor area. All
this points to the necessity of much more careful and detailed
BUILDING TYPES AND COSTS
71
methods of estimating. Lumber and brick may be figured by
the thousand with accuracy, but to estimate concrete by the
cubic foot without regard to its thickness or the cost of the
necessary forms is certain to lead to gross error. This is evident
in such figures as the following: the cost of concrete beam floors
in a group of nine mill and storehouse buildings ranged from
28.6 to 47 cents per cubic foot, while flat slab floors in a similar
Comparative Cost of Buildings of Concrete and Mill Construction
(Compiled by Association of American Portland Cement Manufacturers)
Initial Cost of Building
Yearly Charges:
Mill Construction
$100,000
Reinforced Concrete
$115,000
Taxes
Interest @ 6 Per Cent
Fire Insurance:
1 Per Cent
$6,000.00
1.000.00
$6,900.00
1,150.00
Building
@ 70c
Contents
@ 90c
700.00
1,800.00
@ 25c
287.50
60c
1,200.00
Depreciation
@ 1}%
1,250.00
@ 1%
287.50
Items Chargeable vs. Mill Construction Only :
(a) Loss Due to Vibration (Estimated)
450.00
(b) Increased Light Necessary
500.00
(c) Vermin Losses
(d) Increased Cost of Heating
(e) Less Security to Business, Due to Greater
100.00
100.00
Fire Hazard (Estimated)
750.00
Total
$12,650.00
$9,825.00
Annual Saving of Concrete over Mill Construction
$ 2,825.00
Per Cent Saving in Fixed Charges
8
10
2 per Cent
Annual Saving Capitalized @ 6 Per Cent
$47,083.00
Thus, Owner Could Afford to Pay $150,000 for a Concrete Building or 50 Per Cent More Than for the Same Thing
in Mill Construction and Still Save Money on His Investment
FIGURE XV: Cost figures prove that "the best is the cheapest in the end." Manufacturers
spend their money on high-class construction and equipment only because prospects of greater ac-
tual returns on their money compel them to do so. It is a case of spending two dollars to get eight
dollars back, rather than one dollar to get three dollars back
group of buildings varied in cost between 27.2 and 42.2 cents
per cubic foot, and the per cubic foot cost of walls above grade
in a diversified group ranged from 17.5 to 44.6 cents.
There are several broad principles governing the cost of
buildings, according to their size and shape, that should be con-
sidered by the manufacturer in deciding upon his new building.
In many instances, of course, where the ground plan of a building
is determined by necessities of site, or of sequence of manufac-
turing processes, in a way that is contrary to the greatest economy
in first cost. But, in general, the manufacturer can lessen his
cost considerably by trying to fit his purposes into the size and
shape of building that is most economical. Here are certain
72
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
fundamental principles, most of which apply to both concrete
and mill construction.
A. The square building is always the cheapest because it gives
the largest floor space for a given area of roof and extent of
outer walls. Long and narrow buildings are among the least
economical,
B. The cost of ordinary foundations does not increase in pro-
portion to the number of stories, and, therefore, their cost per
square foot of floor area decreases as the number of stories
increases.
C. When the type of roof is the same, whether for a one-story
building or for one of several stories, its cost relative to the total
cost grows less as the number of stories increases.
D. The cost of columns, including the supporting piers, does
not vary much per story as stories are added.
E. The cost of columns and beams in mill construction increases
rapidly with floor loads of one hundred and twenty-five pounds
and over. With concrete, the increase will usually be nil until
much heavier loads are to be provided for.
F. In mill construction, the cost of the walls increases in a
greater ratio than the number of stories, since the thickness of
the walls has to be increased, and this increase in thickness ex-
tends all the way to the ground from the floor of each added
story. With concrete, the cost of walls increases with the number
of stories but less rapidly (Figure XIV).
WHY A CONCRETE BUILDING IS MORE ECONOMICAL
THAN TIMBER-MILL BUILDING
ONCRETE costs in a building of a given size will necessarily
vary with differences in the spacing of columns, the design
of floors, the number of beams to each bay, and the always
present local variation in the different factors. The cost effects
of structural variations have been worked out in such detail that
within a few years the most economical types of design for
specific building dimensions and floor loads will be so well
known as inevitably to bring about a lowering of the cost of
monolithic concrete construction (Figures XV and XVI).
It is obvious that, once built, the concrete building is distinctly
more economical than mill construction. The assurance that a

Two methods of handling concrete work adapted for economy of forms are shown. The walls of the
Uno Manufacturing Company (above) were molded on horizontal platforms and raised into position
by steel jacks. In the plant of the National Lead Company (below) the integral parts after casting
were raised into position by a derrick, when the joints were made fast and cemented

NAAY
Interruptions of work due to weather conditions are avoided in the plant of the New York Shipbuilding
Company by putting the entire work of construction under roof; two vessels are seen (upper picture).
Fullest use of daylight, an abundance of air, economy as to walls, columns and basement were ob-
tained in the attractive steam laundry shown in the lower picture
BUILDING TYPES AND COSTS
75
fire in a concrete factory can cause only a brief interruption to
manufacturing operations is of great importance, though it can
hardly be expressed in terms of annual saving. In the matter
of fire insurance, the rates are lower on concrete factories
WAS $27
IN LUMBER
10%
LUMBER
SAVING
NOW $24.
IN TOTAL BUILDING COST
1.3%
PLANT
INCLUDING LARGE AND
SMALL TOOLS. SLIGHT CON-
CESSIONS BUT CARRY HERE
AT SAME PRICE
AGGREGATE
LESS DEMAND, SO CHEAPER
SAVING
IN AGGREGATE IN TOTAL BUILDING COST
5%
2%
OTHER MATERIALS
NAILS, WIRE, OIL AND SO ON
IN OTHER
MATERIALS
5%
SAVING
IN TOTAL BUILDING COST
2%
MISC. IRON AND STEEL
PLANT 5%
AGGREGATE 4%
3.8%
2.5%
ALL OTHER
MATERIALS
MISC. IRON
AND STEEL
STEEL REINF. 2.5%
CARPENTERING 3%
ALL OTHER 5%
LABOR
LUMBER 5.7%
LABOR.
EXCAVATING 5.3%
CONCRETE 7.7%
11% STEEL
PURCHASES
35.5%
12% CENTERING
64.5%
SAVING
IN IRON AND
STEEL
IN TOTAL BUILDING COST
20%
5%
STEEL REINFORCEMENT
WAS $1.40
NOW $1.15
SAVING
IN STEEL
REBWORCEMENT IN TOTAL BUILDING COST
18%
2%
13% CEMENT
SUB-CONTRACTS
19.5%
CEMENT
[VARIES WITH AM'T AND LOCALITY
SAVING
IN CEMENT
10%
IN TOTAL BUILDING COST
1.3%
SUB-CONTRACTS
EAGER COMPETITION, LOW PRICES
IN SUB-
CONTRACTS
5%
SAVING
IN TOTAL BUILDING COST
1%
LABOR
WAGES SAME, EFFICIENCY GREATER
MI LABOR
5%
SAVING
IN TOTAL BUILDING COST
1.8%
PRESENT BUILDING COSTS COMPARED WITH COSTS IN JUNE-JULY, 1913
FIGURE XVI: Building costs for normal (1913) and subnormal (1914) years are compared in this
chart, worked out by L. Č. Wason, President of the Aberthaw Construction Company. The com-
plete circle represents a concrete factory's total cost, which is made up of elements in the propor-
tions indicated. Practically every element contributed toward the savings possible
properly planned. For unsprinkled risks, the rates are only
thirty to forty per cent of those for mill construction with open
joists; for reinforced concrete buildings, the average rate of
insurance on building and contents ranges from four cents on
a machine shop to seven cents on a woodworking plant. Rates
on such risks must inevitably be lower than on any other con-
struction.
Another side to the fire question is the fact that concrete is
waterproof as well as fireproof. Hence, in the event of fire, the
contents of a single story or apartment may burn, and tons of
water may be poured into that story without damaging material
in the stories below. In a cotton storage warehouse at Lowell, of
monolithic concrete, each compartment in each floor (forty-eight
compartments in all) is provided with drainage slopes leading to
scuppers in the outside walls, so that water cannot damage the
interior of the building nor its contents.
Flat-slab, or beam-and-girderless construction is rapidly grow-
76
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
ing in favor because of its many advantages. Greatest economy
of forms is possible and the economy increases rapidly with each
story. Ceilings are as unobstructed as the floor surface itself.
This freedom from girders yields a saving on every construction
and equipment feature in which story-height is a factor. Nearly
a foot is saved on each story. Walls, sash, windows, all vertical
piping, stairs and other features are reduced to minimum dimen-
sions and costs are therefore cut down also. Ventilation, day-
light, and artificial light are free of overhead "pocket" restraint.
The total efficiency of the ceiling as a reflector is obtained.
Sprinkler heads not only operate to their fullest advantage, but
may also be centered on the maximum distances prescribed by
fire underwriters and building codes. Floors are of uniform
strength and stiffness. Vibration is dissipated more rapidly and
machinery may be placed anywhere on the floor.
Freedom from vibration is another very valuable quality of
the concrete factory. This stability results in a great reduction
in the cost of repairs to machinery, and often in increased pro-
duction as compared with mill construction. It is the unusual
experience in concrete factories with every type of machine,
from spinning machines and looms to fifteen-ton embossing
presses, that machines do not "walk." Shafting stays in line,
and repairs and interruptions are reduced to the minimum.
In conclusion, as at the beginning of this chapter, it may be
said that your choice must depend on your definition of "cost.'
For a long series of years, in an industry where changing
machinery does not involve radical changes in the factory build-
ing itself, a concrete factory is likely to result in a direct annual
saving of two or three per cent on its own cost, and it has some
peculiar virtues in assuring slight interruption to manufacturing
activity in case even of a serious fire. On the other hand, you
may, in some circumstances, be justified in deciding that it is
wiser to make the smallest possible capital investment in a new
building, and to accept annual charges higher than would come
with a concrete factory.
VII
HANDLING THE CONSTRUCTION
T
HOROUGHLY worked out plans and specifications, cover-
ing every detail of building and equipment which must
be provided for in construction and also those installations
which must follow hard on the completion of construction are
the first essential to economy. Many managers, in laudable eager-
ness to get operations under way once they have decided to build,
make the mistake of beginning too hastily. Almost without
exception the result is that not only is time saved at the expense
of thoroughness in preparation more than offset by time con-
sumed later in correcting the inevitable mistakes that ensue,
but that to correct these mistakes involves large expenditures.
Of course, it is unlikely, no matter how careful the preparatory
work is done, that errors of omission and commission will
entirely be avoided, but careful planning will usually forestall
any serious errors (Figure XVII).
One reason why managers make the mistake of wishing to
start building operations before the plans are completed, is
because they are in the habit of building special equipment that
way. A new machine, however, is more or less of an experiment,
and alterations and additions are expected. On the other hand,
a factory must be right from the outset.
Finding the proper parties to execute the plans is the second
essential to economical construction. No matter who does the
work, the goal to be achieved is the same-to get the best possible
job in the quickest possible time and at the least possible cost.
You may go at this task in the traditional way, which is to ask
for bids on the basis of plans and specifications as provided,
78
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
and to award the contract to the lowest responsible bidder. Each
bidder usually is required to deposit with his tender a certain
sum of money as a guarantee of good faith and responsibility;
and the successful bidder, before the contract is closed, is re-
quired to file a bond as a guarantee that he will complete the
job in accordance with the conditions named in the contract.
This arrangement is not always satisfactory. In fact, such
contracts frequently terminate in litigation to the loss of both
owner and contractor. Something is fundamentally wrong with
a contract that leads to such a result. If the bids are open, it
is hard to determine who is the lowest responsible bidder. The
firm that is ruled out because of irresponsibility usually enters
a complaint of unfairness. If the bids are closed, that is, re-
ceived by invitation, which is a device to eliminate irresponsible
bidders at the outset, those ruled out also are apt to set up a
cry of discrimination. Yet this way is better. The wise manager
will not let contracts to parties upon whom he feels he cannot
depend, and at the same time he will feel obligated to entertain
in good faith all bids he allows to be made.
PLANNING TO MAKE BIDS SAFE AND SATISFACTORY
TO ALL PARTIES CONCERNED
To make bids of this sort safer you may require submittal in
itemized form, stating the quantities of work on which esti-
mates are based and the unit prices. This plan to a large extent
does away with the evils of the lump-sum bid. In a bid of this
sort there is no way of telling whether the lowest bidder has
taken all points into consideration. The fact that his bid is low
does not prove that he has estimated most closely or has the
means and ability to execute the work cheaper than his competi-
tors. On the contrary, the chances are even that he has left out
important items. Or he may have detected errors of omission
in the plans and made some of his prices low with the expectation
of making his profit on extras.
To avoid these troubles, the bidders are frequently asked to
name unit prices at which they will install work beyond that
shown in the plans and specifications, or correct mistakes not
their fault. Or, it is sometimes provided that all extra work
shall be done by the contractor's men under supervision of the
HANDLING THE WORK
79
owner's representative at cost plus a certain percentage. Even
this arrangement does not always make for positive satisfaction.
Contractors often find themselves running shy on time and at
the risk of their profit. The result is needless haggling, vexa-
tious delay, and unnecessary extra cost. The trouble is deeper
seated than the form of contract-it is inherent in the system
itself. The interests of owner and contractor, instead of being
one, are from the very nature of things divergent and
antagonistic.
How building on a cost-plus-a-percentage basis can be made
agreeable to all parties and reasonably assure a satisfactory
building is illustrated by the experience of the Baker-Vawter
company. It had decided on the type of its new building and
then took up the question of handling construction. The usual
methods were investigated and given careful consideration.
Finally, it was decided to build on a cost-plus-a-percentage basis.
Several contractors were interviewed. A contract was entered
into with a large engineering firm that executes work chiefly on
the basis named. The arrangement made, briefly, was this: For
all the materials bought by and all work done under the super-
vision of the constructors, they were to receive the actual cost
plus the cost of labor and superintendence plus a certain agreed
percentage of the total as their commission. As an incentive to
keep the aggregate cost as low as possible, it was further stipu-
lated in the contract that the constructors guarantee their esti-
mate of the cost to the extent of a certain proportion of their fee.
That is, if the actual exceeds the estimated cost, the contractors
were to assume the difference up to the proportion of their
percentage agreed upon.
Further conditions of the contract were that the owners should
have free access to all construction records and books; that they
should have the final judgment on placing all orders for materials
and equipment; that they should control and direct the general
policy of carrying on the work. These stipulations were a
positive assurance to the owners that full value at the very best
obtainable price for both materials and labor would enter into
the construction. Thus, the interests of owner and builder were
made one so far as possible.
As a further improvement you may call for tenders upon
80
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
definite quantities of work, and base final payment upon meas-
urement of completed work at the stipulated unit figures. This
puts the burden of accurate estimating upon the owner's engi-
neers instead of the contractor. All bidders then are put upon
an equal basis, and the chances for satisfactory execution of the
contract are greatly increased. By this means also, an average
lower level of bids is usually assured, as the contractors, relieved
of the burden of responsibility and the expense of taking off
quantities in detail, will scale down their figures to the minimum.
If itemized quantities are not furnished them, they will naturally
include a liberal allowance for the expense of estimating. Then,
too, the owner's engineers are obliged in any event to prepare
a separate estimate, in order to check up the bids, regardless of
the form of presentation, and they might as well make their
estimates accurate, and let the contractors bid on the basis thereof.
The fact that this way of handling the matter requires fully
worked out plans is an advantage, not a disadvantage, for the
reason that it puts the premium on preparedness.
Some contractors, in their eagerness to gain the advantage
over competitors, volunteer to prepare "free of cost" their own
detailed plans upon the basis of the general plans and specifica-
tions, and some architects and engineers favor this arrangement.
What attracts them is the saving of their own time and expense
in working out the plans in complete detail. This, however, is
what they are paid for.
The contractor, nevertheless, certainly includes in his bid an
allowance ample to cover drafting expense. So the owner really
pays twice for the same service. Also, if one bidder is allowed
to tender upon the basis of his own plans, all must do likewise,
and this means that no two bids will be upon the same basis.
Other owners undertake either with or without the active
assistance of outside engineers the design and construction of
their buildings, contracting out only certain features which
require special skill in installation. This arrangement seldom
works out to advantage except where the owners are operating
on such a large scale that it pays them to maintain a regular
staff of designing and constructing engineers. If they have to
organize a special staff for the work, or crowd it onto their
HANDLING THE WORK
81
Points to Observe
in Handling
Construction
Schedules for
Operations
Deliveries
Installations
Completion by Units
Inspections
Construction Details
Entire Buildings
Bids and Contracts
to Cover
Material
Lighting
Installation of Fixtures for
Ventilation
Decorating
Cleaning up
Sanitation
At Market
Material
At Grounds
Inspections of
Buildings
Fixtures
Preliminary Investigations
Planning
Legal
Fees
Engineering
Inspection Service
Cost Records
to include
Construction Insurance
Wages
Labor
Bonus
Material
Testing
Decorating
Cleaning up
FIGURE XVII: In remodeling an old building or in erecting a new one managers have found
that it pays to schedule all work and arrange carefully for every contract and inspection. Every
value expended, from preliminary investigations to cleaning up, should go into the cost records
regular staff, the chances are more than even not only that the
cost of the work will be excessive, but also that the completion
of the work will be greatly delayed. This is partly because
of the "experimental" habit of mind of company engineers,
and partly because of the lack of experienced executive leader-
ship. The execution with dispatch and at minimum cost of
building plans is an art in itself, and to secure wise and able
supervision and direction, is the better part of getting the right
parties to execute the plans.
Whether a designing engineer also directs the construction
82
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
or a separate firm is secured for the latter, either is better than
the owner attempting with his own force to handle the work on
a day basis. For both designer and contractor have reliable
cost data, the fruit of many jobs, to guide them, while the owner
has nothing. He is in the predicament of a mariner sailing new
and uncharted seas. They navigate with perfect assurance
waters whose depths they have plumbed many times and of whose
every shoal and reef they are fully aware. Consequently, they
are able to steer construction straight for the desired port.
HOW A SUPERINTENDENT HASTENED
CONSTRUCTION IN A NEW PLANT
THIS is not to say that the owner shall delegate the entire
proposition. It is important that he have on the ground a
representative who has his interests thoroughly at heart and
who is intimately acquainted with the business. What he can
do is to exercise only supervisory direction. Superintendent
Gleason, of the steel works at Gary, was present in such a capacity
from the breaking of the ground, and to his constant presence
and unceasing vigil the wonderful success that attended this piece
of construction was no doubt largely due. Where he performed
his most useful function perhaps was in so guiding the course of
installation that the various parts were brought to rounded
completion in the order of earliest desired occupancy. As a
result it was possible to start up certain portions of the works
while construction was still in progress elsewhere. This made
for important savings in interest charges and set forward the
day of first dividend payments. Mr. Gleason, however, scrupu-
lously refrained from interfering with those who had the actual
direction of the work.
If you do not have the work done by a contractor, or by your
own force, the possibility remains of having the work done under
the direction of an outside engineer. This method has repeatedly
proved successful in getting the plans executed, but only when
the owner has been careful not to exert his influence too authori-
tatively. If the engineer is a "big" man, he will not brook any
interference, but will insist upon having absolutely untrammeled
sway. This any engineer must have, if he is to produce results.
HANDLING THE WORK
83
Owners, of course, interfere usually out of over-interest. In
the disorder that attends most construction work in the early
stages the demand seemingly is strong that they should step in.
Buildings in the making are always attended by more or less
confusion, in spite of the most skillful direction, and the owner
must bide his time. Particularly must he restrain his impatience
over the seemingly slow progress at first. More progress is
likely to be made in a week after the machinery of construction
is working smoothly than in a month or six weeks at the start.
The owners were
Their supervisory
energy to help the
Presently order be-
In one instance, the builders were two months getting up to
the first floor of an eight-story concrete hat factory. They were
four weeks getting in the first floor alone. Gauged at this rate,
instead of the factory being ready by fall, as planned, it would
not be ready until the following summer.
wroth and talked of cancelling the contract.
engineer advised patience, and bent every
construction superintendent get organized.
gan to emerge out of chaos, and story after story went up as if
by magic. In the succeeding two months, the remaining seven
stories were added and long before the frost set in the building
was under cover, enclosed and busy with the installation of
equipment. Completion was a month or two later than expected,
but this was due almost entirely to the fact that the owners
insisted on starting construction before a number of important
details had been decided. This prevented the constructor from
completing his plans, ordering his materials and going ahead
with a free rein, not to mention actual hold-ups while waiting
for tardy decisions on various matters.
The impatience of owners in another instance led to the
starting of a job of concrete construction in a northern city at
the beginning of winter. The work was interrupted by severe
cold spells and so retarded that when spring broke, instead of
the building being ready for occupancy as hoped, the roof
remained to be put on. With the advent of mild weather, the
work went forward rapidly. The roof was put on in a week and
in two weeks it was in better shape than the floor below cast in
February. So, in this instance, nothing was gained by starting
precipitately. On the contrary much was lost. The cost of the
building was at least twenty-five per cent greater than it should
84
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
have been, and the appearance and strength of the concrete in
the first two floors were both inferior to that in the roof. Nor
was time saved. The building would not only have cost less,
looked better and been better, but would actually have been com-
pleted sooner, if not a sod had been turned nor construction
work started until the breakup of winter.
GETTING THE WORK DONE IN THE BEST POSSIBLE
WAY AT THE LOWEST EXPENSE
IF the same engineer who prepares the plans and supervises
construction, is competent also to direct the actual construc-
tion, a satisfactory relation obtains all around. The interests
of the owner, designer and builder become one, and the fact that
the designer and contractor are one practically insures a pains-
taking interpretation of the plans and specifications. Progress
and good work are dependent solely on the ability of the manager
and his assistants.
In this case the owner, through his own purchasing depart-
ment or through a specially established one, buys all the ma-
terials needed, on the requisitions of the engineer, and pays for
them on the approval of an inspector who oversees the receipt
of all material ordered and certifies to its correctness both in
quality and quantity. The labor involved, including resident
superintendence, is handled as an addition to the regular
payroll.
Costs are kept on each item of the work and compared with
the estimates. Thus the owner can tell at all times just how
he is coming out. If the estimates are exceeded, an investigation
is promptly instigated to find out why. Should it be found out
that the cost on a certain item has been under-estimated, the
figures are corrected. If the discrepancy is due to mismanage-
ment, pressure in that quarter is at once brought to bear. To
beat the estimate is the goal set before the construction super-
intendent, and to do this he must push incessantly and watch
expenditures and construction costs as carefully as a factory
manager.
An accurate cost record includes the expense of preliminary
investigations and planning, engineering and legal fees, inspec-
HANDLING THE WORK
85
tion service, and construction insurance. Expense of installing
and testing equipment should be added to the initial cost of the
unit. A perpetual appraisal on the basis of the original cost
records may be started, making proper allowance for all pre-
liminary expenses.
In order that there may be no doubt about the date of com-
pletion, a schedule is prepared at the start and rigidly adhered
to. If the work is behind at any stage, extra pressure is put on
to catch up. To prevent lack of material from causing delays,
the material requirements are carefully prepared months in
advance and the dates are strictly kept. The arrival of material
on the day puts a pressure on the construction force to use it
up, and this works powerfully to counteract any tendency to
depart from the schedule.
Liberal bonuses to the contractors, construction superintendent
and his foremen, and some reward to the men by way of appre-
ciation of their part in keeping the schedule-with still more
liberal rewards all around for beating it as well as for keeping
down the costs-complete the conditions necessary to insure
speedy, economical and painstaking execution of the work.
Bids on installation of fixtures for lighting, heating and venti-
lation, plumbing and sanitation, are obtained early. When the
contracts for this work have been let, the construction superin-
tendent prepares a schedule of installation in accordance with
the construction schedule. He will follow up building work
closely and see that portions first needed are urged to completion,
and that specified provision is made in advance for fixtures and
equipment. The same follow-up work will be necessary with
respect to the installation of fixtures and equipment.
As
Machinery may now be ordered and delivery specified, that
installation may proceed at the earliest possible moment.
decoration is completed and equipment installed constructors
follow up promptly and make what repairs to the structure are
necessary. When all fixtures and equipment have been tested
and found in working order, the grounds and buildings can be
cleaned up and laid out in harmony with the plans for making
the plant attractive.
For his compensation the engineer may receive either a fixed
sum or a fixed percentage of the cost. Ten per cent for prepar-
86
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
ing the plans and directing the actual construction, which does
not include the salaries of the men on the job, is the fee exacted
by some engineers, and this is modest considering the overhead
they must carry and the expense of preparing the plans and
specifications.
Sometimes in order to make it more to his interest to complete
the job on time and at the least possible cost, an arrangement is
made whereby the engineer's percentage varies, so that the less
the cost and the sooner completed, the more he receives for his
services. On the other hand, if the cost is excessive or the job
is unnecessarily protracted, he is penalized by a considerable
reduction in percentage. So the incentive is powerful both ways
in securing economy and speed in construction.
The same arrangement-cost plus a fixed sum, or cost plus
a fixed percentage, or cost plus a variable percentage-is also
satisfactory in paying for contract work, whether for the main
construction or for subsidiary details. If the engineer merely
prepares the plans and supervises the construction, he usually
receives for this service a compensation of from five to seven
per cent of the cost. The interest of the owners, designer and
builder are made practically one in this arrangement, but not so
good results are secured as when the engineer also directs the
construction. If the former is the best arrangement that can
be made, however, then the entire job is best let to a single,
experienced contractor and the responsibility put on him of
dealing with sub-contractors.
VIII
MAKING THE PLANT
ATTRACTIVE
T
REES, vines, shrubs and flower boxes have a money-making
value that is frequently forgotten or neglected in building
a factory. Foliage of some sort around a factory is
thought of as desirable, but the full value of "the looks of
things" is seldom realized unless it is shown in figures, and such
figures are not often available. This value has often been
demonstrated, however. In one factory it is estimated that
several thousand dollars are saved annually on the payroll be-
cause the factory is located in a residence district. A net wage
equal to that in other factories is paid, but the company does
not have to pay carfare for its employees. The residence location
is possible only because the buildings are made attractive. In
other cases the good-will value of a handsome plant in the path
of national travel, the influence of right surroundings upon the
spirit and standards of the workers and the actual returns in
health and efficiency have been established quite to the satis-
faction of the management.
Local conditions in general govern the arrangement and deco-
ration of factory buildings. Manufacturing plants closely con-
fined by city streets and railroad tracks, present, of course, an
altogether different problem to the landscape architect than do
those located in rural or suburban districts. Money spent in im-
proving the appearance of buildings in either location has not
often been considered an investment. But whatever the condi-
tions, wherever the location of the plant, a tendency is now grow-
ing to increase its value by making the buildings attractive. For
manufacturers are learning that a factory that is good to look
88
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
at has an important advertising value, and that money spent
in beautifying factory grounds returns in many indirect ways.
Factories where the advertising value of attractive buildings
has been developed are increasing in number. One big plant has
an international reputation for just this development. Plans
for few large factories are now completed until those in charge
have made a tour of investigation of other plants in the country
and this tour always includes a trip to Dayton, Ohio.
The advertising value of attractive factory buildings in the
case of the small plant is often as noteworthy as with a large one.
A party of factory men on an automobile trip passed through
several factory towns. When they reached their destination at
night, conversation centered about one small factory which stood
out in the day's tour primarily because the buildings and grounds
had placed that factory in pleasing contrast with its surround-
ings. Other factories were almost forgotten.
Many conditions govern the indirect value of attractive factory
buildings. One manufacturer definitely planned his investment
for well arranged and attractive buildings, not as an advertising
asset, but as a means of getting the best class of labor. This
factory, planned for the manufacture of buttons, is located on
the edge of a fine residence section and the factory name does
not appear upon the buildings. West of the plant is a five-acre
park which is open to the employees and east of the factory is a
private park of about one and one-half acres. By locating this
factory in a residence section, convenient to the homes of his
employees, the manufacturer obtained and held an unusually
high class of operatives.
Whatever the advantages gained from attractive factory build-
ings, certain practical details for the beautification of such
structures need to be considered when you decide upon a progres-
sive policy in this matter.
Location is one of these details. When a factory building
fronts closely on a city street, or is edged with sidewalks and
railroad tracks, certainly no garden treatment can be developed
for that plant. If the sidewalk is laid so close to the building
that no space is left between the pavement and the wall, ivy
or other vines will not grow. When it is known beforehand that
such conditions will exist, some measure of attractiveness may be
LANDSCAPE WORK
89
gained by a careful grouping of the structures making up the
factory.
It is possible, however, to improve such buildings with flower
boxes. Geraniums and periwinkles will grow even in a smoky
atmosphere and under other discouraging conditions. The ex-
terior of a factory with so simple an addition as window boxes
containing these plants can be made unusually attractive.
Growing plants will make interesting a blank surface of brick
or concrete.
A visitor's impression of the factory may also be modified by
a simple change in architecture. When a factory building faces
directly on a city street it is possible often to get an attractive
effect by making a feature of the entrance. A simple change
in the design of the doorway, an overhanging roof, perhaps, or
an entrance hallway, will give character and individuality to a
wall surface otherwise plain and perhaps unsightly.
HOW ENVIRONMENT HELPS TO KEEP
WORKMEN CONTENTED
FOR factories where there is some earth about the walls, from
which plants can draw nourishment, probably the most
common and simplest way of making factory buildings attractive
is by planting ivys. Ivys, the wild cucumber and other vines,
and window boxes have transformed the factories along the
west side boulevards of Chicago. These buildings are hard to
distinguish from apartment houses, primarily because the owners
have taken the location of plants into consideration and have
made their factories match the surroundings.
Whenever atmospheric conditions permit, ivys will make the
ugliest wall surface attractive. Those varieties known as the
Boston and Engleman's ivy are hardy and will grow under very
adverse conditions. A three-year-old plant of Engleman ivy
under good conditions will grow ten or fifteen feet in the first
year after it is planted. Vines should be set close to the walls
and about ten feet apart.
Flower boxes of special design or even built of stained rough
boards, make an inexpensive method of beautifying wall sur-
faces. Geraniums will average about a dollar a dozen and the
periwinkle or vinca can be purchased for about fifty cents a
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LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
dozen. Five or seven plants are enough for an ordinary window
box. In the winter, outside window boxes may be made attract-
ive by planting them with evergreens.
Objections have sometimes been made by the ever practical
factory man that ivys disintegrate the walls. When it is remem-
bered that the beauty of the walls of the old buildings in Europe
depends primarily upon the ivy and that these walls have stood
the elements for centuries the objection is unsustained.
When a factory is located so that advantage can be taken of
trees and shrubs in a decorative plan, the methods by which
a pleasing effect may be gained are many, although, here again
local conditions modify details. The problem of making your fac-
tory attractive in the suburbs or country is that of harmonizing
the buildings with the environment. The whole idea in grouping
shrubs and trees about a plant is to match the buildings with
the grounds. Ivy covered walls, shrubs and trees tie the build-
ings to the earth. You may gain the desired effect by grouping
units of utilitarian character, and by bringing these units (the
power house, perhaps, the office and different factory structures)
into a picture framed by trees and shrubs.
In one factory located on a railroad right-of-way, the water
storage basin with its stand-pipe, necessary for the fire protective
system, is made the center of an attractive factory layout for
about fifteen acres of ground. Both the water tower and the
pond were necessary. A cement basin was built, having a depth
of about four feet. The water tower was one hundred and twenty
feet high. Greenery was planted with due regard for this tower
and miniature lake as the central features.
Trees and shrubs serve as frames for a landscape and give
most pleasing effects when used to outline streets, driveways
and sidewalks. Do not plant trees so close to the buildings as
to prevent the entrance of sufficient light.
SHRUBS AND TREES THAT WILL FLOURISH
IN SMOKY ATMOSPHERES
IN N planting trees near the buildings do not select those having
a heavy foliage. The Norway maple and the linden should not
be planted near the windows because the foliage of both is very
dense and casts a heavy shade in the summer, which may inter-

By combining brick and concrete, the Crocker-Wheeler Company (upper right) constructed an attract-
ive factory post office within the factory grounds. Light posts support a glass canopy and afford
hand grips in slippery weather before the administration building of the Hudson Motor Company
(lower left). Trees, shrubbery, vines and flower boxes transform the lawn of the German-
American Button Company's plant and the entrances to the National Cash Register Company's plant

HEIN
OOF GARDEN
Attractive surroundings have a powerful influence in keeping employees contented. To gain this end
the Eastman Kodak Company (above), the Waltham Watch Company (left), the Blair Camera Com-
pany (right), and the H. J. Heinz Company (below) have made buildings and grounds beautiful by
abundant use of vines, lawns, fountains, flowers and shrubs
LANDSCAPE WORK
93
*
fere with the interior lighting of factory buildings. These
objections, however, do not hold in the case of the elm, oak or
hard maple, on which the foliage is comparatively open.
Under some conditions such features as seats or covered arbors
where workmen can eat their noonday meal, can easily be
screened and shaded, and it is often possible, when a number of
factories of similar nature locate together, to design the general
surroundings so that these features for the convenience of the
employees may be used in common.
Even the most unattractive details of your factory may be
changed in appearance, if you so decide. A coal trestle laid
from the railroad siding to the power house may be made a
thing of beauty. If the piers for the trestle are built of concrete
and if shrubs which grow under smoky conditions are grouped
around the base of the trestle and one or two hardy trees are
planted at the ends of the structure, what is perhaps the ugliest
feature about the average factory from the aesthetic standpoint
can be relieved of its harshness. The trusses and girders between
the columns become part of the picture framed by growing
ivys, shrubs and trees.
Experience has shown that certain shrubs are more hardy than
others under conditions where the atmosphere is smoky and
dirty. The mock orange, Persian lilac, Japanese privet, honey-
suckle, dogwood and sumac can be grown successfully in smoky
atmospheres.
In planting shrubbery, choose varieties of plants native to the
locality. Not only will they be better adapted to the conditions
of growth, but the whole scheme or plan becomes a part of the
locality, in keeping with the surrounding shrubs and so har-
monizes with the buildings and grounds.
The viburnums, winebark, crabapples, hawthorns, dogwoods,
elderberry, Juneberry, sand-cherry and choke-cherry have
proved suitable trees and shrubs for factory grounds. It is a
good plan to group flowering varieties with those which have
berries late in the season, so that the shrubbery with berries even
in the winter will be attractive. Evergreens may also be used
effectively for the same purpose, but an overdose of soft coal is
deadly to them. Such shrubs as the high-bush cranberry, bar-
berry, snowberry and Indian currant, have colored berries which
94
LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION
add to their attractiveness during the months when the leaves
are gone.
The attractive building is logically the economical building.
Scrap heaps about a factory yard, as a good many manufacturers
have discovered, are burying grounds for dividends. When the
back yard is made a lawn, the junk is sold and the waste
reduced. Any factory owner is interested in keeping his scrap
pile low.
When you are building your plant all features of the building
itself come in for consideration. Economy is the reason why
you select a certain type of building, decide upon its general
dimensions, and provide for expansion, accessibility to employees,
transportation facilities and cost.
So with the details of attractive buildings. If your plan for
a new structure is considered from the viewpoint of attractive-
ness as well as utility, without great expense you will obtain
the indirect and direct values of well proportioned, attractive
buildings. Beauty and utility, moreover, may often be gained
without greater expenditure than that necessary for ugliness
and utility.
Part II
CONSTRUCTION DETAILS
THAT INCREASE
EFFICIENCY
AUTHORITIES AND SOURCES
FOR PART II
Chapter IX. Chiefly contributed by James A. Potter, super-
intendent of the Potter Knitting Company, and Mr. Porter.
Chapter X. Contributed by Mr. Porter and based on
economies achieved in construction details at the following
plants, among others: Western Electric Company, the Baker-
Vawter Company, and the German-American Button Company.
Chapter XI. Contributed by Frank D. Chase, architect,
out of his own study and experience, with the collaboration of
the editors.
Chapter XII. Contributed by George W. Cravens, consult-
ing engineer, and Mr. Porter. Among the companies whose
experiences are given are: The United States Steel Corpora-
tion, American Zinc Company, The American Steel Foundries
Company, Clark Brothers Company, Western Electrical Instru-
ment Company, H. Black & Company, Matthiessen & Hegler
Zinc Company.
IX
FITTING THE BUILDING
INTO THE WORK
F
EW managers believe what a manufacturer of the old
school once said, "If I have enough checks on production,
I do not care what sort of place my men work in."
Nowadays his plan of forcing results regardless of excessive
friction would have few advocates. Most factory executives
have seen for themselves the dividends that come from white
paint, clean windows, well-swept floors, uncluttered benches
and a detailed adjustment of the plant to the work. The prac-
tical side of the influence of new buildings or remodeled interiors
is put convincingly in the experience of a New England factory
superintendent.
"For some time before deciding on the exact plans of the
new building, in fact as soon as it was practically certain we
were at last to have one," said he, "we began to take note
of big and little things which interfered with production, of
construction details which might be improved, and of still other
changes which would be desirable.
"Of course, many of the ideas we could see were wrong or
not profitable; but then many others looked good enough to
try. It is always better economy to put such ideas into a build-
ing while it is being constructed. All of our ideas have worked
out well, except one, which proved to be unnecessary.
"In order to obtain more room for the immediate needs of
our business and to provide for expansion, we put up a modern
five-story building. The two upper floors we leased to a manu-
facturing concern. It is desirable in such cases to keep the
different companies separated. So the front entrance of the
98
CONSTRUCTION DETAILS
building is provided with three large double doors. The door
on the right is labeled 'Potter Knitting Company Offices.' The
middle door is lettered 'Potter Knitting Company' and leads to
the factory. The extreme left-hand door is labeled with the
name of the tenant company, and opens into a stair-well and
elevator shaft.
"This elevator is of the semi-automatic type and is operated
by the passenger himself. If the elevator is not at the floor
from which he desires to enter, he presses a button which brings
it to him, providing it is not already in use, in which case it is
inoperative. When he is in the car, and the door is closed, he
presses the proper button on the side of the elevator, and the
elevator rises and stops automatically at the correct floor. This
arrangement is almost fool-proof. An elevator is practically a
necessity in a five-story building and this self-service saves
employing an elevator boy.
"The library-like entrance to the building with large doors,
plate glass, and neat gold lettering on the panes, is part of the
plan of the company to have everything in the new quarters
neat, dignified and, if possible, even elegant. We think it has
an effect on the people who spend here so large a part of every
day, and so will indirectly benefit our production. We have tried
to follow the same plan throughout. For instance, all doors
between rooms are fireproofed, though they do not look at all
like the ordinary big clumsy tinned doors. The type we chose
have the tin fitted closely to the panels and the molding of the
panels. They are stained a dark green, which tones with the
woodwork, and then grained to make more complete the re-
semblance to wood. We have put these fireproof doors in many
unnecessary, but advisable places, where the unattractiveness
of the old kind of tinned door would have barred their use.
ON
HOW OPENING A LUNCH ROOM HELPED TO
STOP A WASTE OF MATERIAL
NE of the conveniences we needed most was a lunch room.
In the old building the girls used to eat in the work-
rooms, and inevitably some of the goods became soiled. There
is no way of washing these, for the finish is then gone, and then
they are hardly worth the handling. In the new building we
BUILDING ECONOMIES
99
planned ahead to save this waste. We have a large, well-lighted,
high-ceiled room with tables. Adjoining, and opening into the
lunch room by windows, is a small kitchen where dishes are kept
and cooking may be done.
"It was feared that the girls-some of them, at least-would
not like to come down to the lunch room, but would either stay
up in the workrooms, or else sneak back as soon as they could.
So a pantograph gate was attached across the foot of the stair-
way, which might be opened out and locked after the girls had
come down. But after a few days, it was found that they would
not stay in their department if they could, for it was too pleasant
in the lunch and reading rooms. These large rooms might seem
to take up an undue proportion of the floor area, but the com-
pany thinks they are a profitable investment, in view of the
saving in damaged stock.
"The girls also have a large dressing room, well lighted, with
individual compartments for their wraps, though the doors of
the lockers are not furnished with locks, for we thought there
would be too much forgetting of keys and too many broken
locks.
"In the old building the light was not all that could be desired;
but in the new one, the windows have been made very large,
forming about eighty per cent of the wall space. The panes are
sanded to keep out the glare. So that the amount of air entering
in summer may be closely regulated, the window is divided into
quarters, and each quarter is pivoted in the middle on trunnions
on each side so as to swing inward at the top. In the new plant
tables are placed so that the girls sit sidewise to the windows.
Enough light comes in, not directly opposite a particular table,
to give a uniform distribution without sharp shadows.
"Even in the stock-room we did away with dark corners.
The racks are not solid but are built of slats, which let the light
permeate through the room to a degree greater than one would
expect.
"In this connection it may be said that the very first day the
bleach room was in operation we had trouble getting the cloth
to bleach to the correct whiteness. It was quickly discovered
that the cause was a slight yellowish discoloration of the light
which came through the sanded glass-very slight, but still
100
CONSTRUCTION DETAILS
enough to make it impossible to judge color correctly. So in
two of the windows we replaced the sanded glass with clear
panes, and then had no more trouble.
REDUCING ILLNESS AND ABSENCES BY KEEPING
THE WASH ROOM DRY
THE wash room, where materials are washed and bleached,
is in the basement, and has a cement floor, which drains to a
catchbasin in the center. Over the cement is a false floor of slat-
work, raised about four inches, on two-by-fours cut away at
intervals to allow the water to go through. This floor as formerly
constructed was always wet, but with the new arrangement the
water goes through the slat-work and the boards are dry under
the workmen's feet. This not only makes a neater room and
promotes more careful work, but also saves constant discomfort
and a number of days' idleness every winter enforced by illness.
"The new drying rooms, where the goods are made ready for
use and sale, are exceptionally efficient and at the same time cheap
in construction and operation. In the old mill, it was noticed
that when the goods were quite dry at the top, they were still
damp or wet at the bottom. So in our new building the heating
pipes are laid just over the cement floor, and a false floor of
wooden slat-work is put on above them. The goods are hung
on poles, the room closed, and the steam turned on. The heat
first gets at the bottom, where experience has shown it to be
most needed, and then rises.
'An exhaust fan mounted at the top of the room takes away
the moist air. The drying speed of this room is nearly twice as
rapid as in the old rooms. This increase in speed is due to the
fact that the heat is applied uniformly and thoroughly. So we
save in amount of drying space needed because of its quicker
operation, as well as in steam and in value of material tied up.
"The slat-work of these drying-room floors is built in sections
small enough for one man to handle, so that he may displace them
and scrub out the room with a hose. Each room has its separate
catch-basin and also its own steam-pipe valve and fan switch, so
that there is no waste from having more drying space in use
than is actually necessary for the amount of material to be
dried.
BUILDING ECONOMIES
101
"In the stock-room most of the bins are not numbered, but
have painted directly on the front of the partition the style and
size of the garments they are to contain-thus: L N Vests S S 36
---meaning in this case, 'Low neck vests, short sleeved, size 36.'
Only this style and size is ever put into that bin; and as the bins
are arranged in order of garment and size, and the stockkeepers
know where everything ought to be, there is no time lost in stor-
ing or taking goods from store. Consequently, not so many
mistakes are made as under our old arrangement.
"The bulkhead through which coal is taken in from the wagons
is a hole two feet wide by three high in the wall in front of the
boilers, and is closed by a simple iron door. Outside, a rectangu
lar recess is bricked into the ground. This recess has a cement
bottom slanting from the outside top edge of the bulkhead to the
bottom edge of the door, so that coal which falls off the chutes
will roll down and not have to be shoveled out of the corners of
the recess.
""
These are among the constructional details which must be
challenged in remodeling or planning for a new structure, in
order to fit the plant nicely to the work. Making the office fit
the business is equally important. Many economies in factory
office location and design can be made at most establishments.
Natural lighting, isolation from outside conditions, comfort
and convenience, and safety against fire, need even more careful
consideration in designing and constructing the parts which house
the administrative and planning departments, than the strictly
manufacturing portions or buildings. This is true because a
more highly organized body of workers, more likely to be dis-
turbed and rendered less productive by untoward conditions,
are quartered therein, and valuable records, requiring positive
safe-keeping, are there kept on file and are further accumulat-
ing all the time.
It is not enough that the general construction be fireproof or
slow-burning. The doors, trim, partitions, and office furniture,
as much as possible, should be equally proof. Large and thor-
oughly isolated and guarded vaults should be provided for the
safe-keeping of office supplies, records, drawings and the like.
If the floors are timber, the vault floors at least should be of
concrete and the walling-in structure a separate entity from top
102
CONSTRUCTION DETAILS
to bottom, so that the rest of the building may be entirely
destroyed and the abutting walls fall without in any wise
impairing the integrity of the vault itself. The sad experience
of many fires has thoroughly demonstrated the necessity of this
precaution.
If the office is not housed separately from the factory, there are
additional problems to solve. In a multi-story building, on what
floor to put it is the question. If the construction is timber mill,
how shall dust and sound be kept out. These may in instances
be so annoying as greatly to impair the efficiency of the office
force. In the latter case, a suspended ceiling is an excellent relief,
and ceilings of matched boards, metal lath and plaster, and
stamped metal, have been used with good results. These devices.
keep out the dust and lessen the noise somewhat. Of course, if
the floors are of concrete, this problem is already solved.
As to location, managers have found that an intermediate floor
is better than either a top or a bottom floor, for the reason that it
minimizes the steps clerks and others who have occasion to be
in and out of the office and factory have to take.
Managers who build separate buildings for their offices fre-
quently make the mistake of omitting a basement. Later on they
find themselves with an accumulation of old records, transfer
files, and so on, which they do not wish to destroy, or they need
other storage or extra space for new purposes, for which a base-
ment would come in handy. One manager, who found him-
self in precisely this situation, met the need by excavating a
cellar. But it cost him twice or three times as much as to have
provided for it originally. Incidentally, he also utilized his new
basement for a kitchen and lunch hall, and as a storage space for
catalogs. Such needs in a business are not difficult to anticipate
before building, however, and the possible savings make it ad-
visable at planning time to check over the long list of alterations
which the experience of more precipitate builders offers as an
open warning.
X
WINDOWS, WALLS
AND PARTITIONS
A
LTHOUGH good lighting has a money value that is self-
evident and almost universally recognized, even yet many
factory buildings wall out daylight and handle artificial
lighting more carelessly than they would think of doing with
finances in any other form. This has been due, not so much to
failure on the part of manufacturers and designers of factory
buildings to recognize the value of good lighting, as to the limita-
tions of the building art. With the old type of frame or masonry
side-wall structure, the larger share of the wall space was needed
for strength.
The development, however, of skeleton steel and concrete con-
struction, whereby the integrity of the structure has been made
independent of the side-walls, by means of slender columns of
cast iron, steel or concrete, carrying the load and furnishing all
the stiffness necessary, has set free almost the entire expanse of
wall space for windows. Managers and engineers have not been
slow to make the most of this improvement. Except for the con-
temporary development of steel window frames and sash they
would not have been able to avail themselves of this opportunity.
With the old-fashioned window frames, windows extending from
column to column would have been practically impossible.
Metal sash has another advantage over wooden frame, even
for small multi-pane windows, in that the percentage of light
interrupted by the framework is reduced about a quarter.
Much trouble has been experienced with loose sashes. The older
the building, the looser the windows become, unless at the outset
great care is taken in setting them. Metal frames are superior
104
CONSTRUCTION DETAILS
to wood in this respect, as they do not shrink with age. One
device for making metal frames dust and air tight consists of a
corrugated copper flange extending out from the frame all
around. This is imbedded in the concrete or masonry side-walls
and the corrugated copper takes care of expansion and contrac-
tion. Wooden frames are sometimes made tight by the use of the
same device. Sometimes in lieu of an interlocking device, the
frames are set against an overcapping ledge and the space behind
packed with cement mortar.
Metal sash and frames are a necessary part of wire-glass or
prismatic fire-resisting windows, and where there is danger on
any side of a building from fire in an adjacent structure such
windows are indispensable. The insurance companies and the
building laws of most cities require them. Thirty feet is com-
monly the limiting distance prescribed. Wire-glass somewhat
obstructs the light, but very slightly.
For satisfactory natural lighting, multi-story buildings should
not be more than about sixty feet in width, even with the best
use of the wall space for windows. As the width exceeds sixty
feet, the story heights must be increased, if natural lighting is
to be adequate.
The natural lighting also is improved somewhat-if building
in reinforced concrete-by doing away with the beam-and-girder
type of floor construction. The absence of any obstruction below
the ceiling, other than the lighting and sprinkling fixtures, obtains
the fullest benefit from the extension of windows quite up to the
ceiling level.
Where factory buildings are located parallel to one another,
the horizontal distance between them should not be less than
the height of the tallest building measured from the window sill
to the top of the cornice. Otherwise the natural lighting will
be somewhat obscured and artificial light necessitated.
WI
GETTING DAYLIGHT INTO NARROW PASSAGES AND
DIFFUSING IT THROUGH WIDE BUILDINGS
HERE buildings have to be located close together, or the
width is greater than for best natural lighting through
ordinary window glass, the use of ribbed and prism glass improves
the illumination (Fig. XVIII). These types of windows deflect the
WINDOWS AND WALLS
105
ATTIC
RIBBED GLASS
ABUTTING
WAREHOUSE
COURT
PRISM CANOPY
THIRD FLOOR
AREA
RIBBED LIGHT
SECOND FLOOR
+
-
PRISM CANOPY、
PRISM SKYLIGHT
BASEMENT
GROUND FLOOR
FIGURE XVIII: How managers reach out of their plants and pull back the daylight by means of
canopies of prism glass is shown in this chart. Such application of ribbed, prism and maze glass
will greatly improve the interior lighting conditions where buildings stand close together
more or less vertical rays of light and turn them toward the
horizontal. Prism canopies have been similarly utilized with good
effect. Many a dark basement has been made light in this way.
Ribbed glass is a favorite for factory windows, not only be-
106
CONSTRUCTION DETAILS
cause it deflects the light inward and diffuses it, but because it
protects the interior from outside view and the workmen from
looking out. Ground and frosted glass are also employed for
this purpose.
At least one manager, however, put in plain lights in the lower
sash so that his factory would not have too much of a shut-in,
prison-like appearance. He had overheard one of his men com-
menting unfavorably upon the solid obscured windows, declaring
that he intended going to some other shop where he would not
have to feel as if he were in a prison. The light which enters
through the upper sash is, after all, that which reaches the inte-
rior and counts for most.
In some factories the trouble is not too little but too much
light-particularly during the heat of a midsummer's day. Not
only the excess of light, but the heat, is a discomfort and really
impairs efficiency. To remedy this trouble awnings and curtains
are put up. In one factory the upper sash on the south side are
painted green. In another instance, white curtains are hung
along the sunny side. These arrest the heat waves and diffuse
the direct sun rays, but do not appreciably diminish the illumi-
nation. Shade trees give the same advantages.
Whitewashing windows in summer time to modify the intensity
of light, as well as to keep the shop cool, is another simple and
inexpensive device that has been utilized by more than one
manager with agreeable results.
Large window area formerly was considered objectionable be-
cause it was believed that the larger the window area the greater
the difficulty and expense of heating the building. With old-
style wooden windows this is true, but with steel sash any valid
objection on this score disappears. Because steel sash are air-
tight, actual tests have proved that they allow no more heat to
leak out than does a twelve-inch brick wall. By double glazing
the heat loss is still further diminished, for the air spaces afford
excellent insulation. If, in any case, heat loss be still an objec-
tion, it will be found a paying proposition to equip with double
windows rather than sacrifice any of the available wall space
for light. The double windows not only lessen the cost of heat-
ing in winter by keeping the heat in, but represent added value
in summer also by keeping the heat out.
WINDOWS AND WALLS
107
Next in importance to getting in the maximum of daylight is
the full conservation of daylight after it has entered. Like any
wild thing involuntarily trapped, it unceasingly hunts for oppor-
tunities to escape. Dark and dirty walls and ceilings furnish
these opportunities. It is surprising the amount of light that will
be absorbed in this way. To offset this absorption, it is well to
white-coat the interior and all surfaces within reach so far as
practicable, and to keep them scrupulously clean. One manager
found that by adopting such a policy he was able to do without
artificial light for over a month longer than formerly, and when
at last the shortening days compelled him to light up, he found
that he could do without the lights, on the average, nearly an
hour longer than under the old conditions. The saving he made
in his lighting bill paid several times over in a year for the ex-
pense of white-coating and keeping surfaces clean.
LOW COST WALLS THAT RESIST FIRE,
DAMPNESS, HEAT AND SOUND
CONSTRUCTION of side-walls, even apart from the lighting
aspect, is an important consideration. If the construction
is fire-resisting, the walls not taken up by windows will be of
concrete, brick or tile-practically the only materials available
for this purpose. A great advantage of the skeleton type of
construction is that it permits thin curtain walls in place of the
heavy, massive brick walls of the wall-bearing type. This gives
five to ten per cent more space on the average and the same
amount on each floor. Brick walls thirteen inches, or concrete
eight inches, or twelve-inch tile are standard for curtain walls.
Walls of concrete or tile as thin as four inches have been used,
but they are objectionable for a number of reasons. In the first
place, they are considered imperfect in fire-resisting qualities, and
for this reason are prohibited by many building codes and dis-
criminated against by some insurance companies. Also they are
not dampproof unless built with unusual care. They are less
sound- and heatproof. A double wall of two four-inch sections
would be ideal from every standpoint, but it is too costly in solid
concrete or tile in the average factory and practically impossible
in brick. The condition, however, is nicely met by the use of
concrete blocks, particularly on the two-piece plan, which gives
108
CONSTRUCTION DETAILS
practically a double wall with an air space between. Slabs of
cement plaster on a metallic mesh, or especially corrugated metal,
also have been employed for exterior walls in a number of cases,
but, ordinarily, they are too thin for this purpose. They are
better adapted to interior partitions, particularly around inclos-
ures, where their thinness is an advantage.
When wide stiffening uprights are used, however, which carry
a facing of mesh covered with plaster on either side, a double
wall is produced, comparable in fire-resisting and heat- and
sound-insulating properties with the best alternative and less
expensive than most. In fact, this construction makes a superior
division or exterior wall of moderate first and low final cost.
FOR
ECONOMIES IN BUILDING UNDERGROUND
WALLS AND BASEMENTS
OR that part of the wall which extends underground, solid
concrete is now standard. In case of single-story structures
without wall or lintel beams, this serves as a foundation for the
side-walls and is carried sufficiently above grade so that rain-
water will not soak into the plane of junction. Ordinarily it is
made wider, and the extra width is put on the outside to form a
water-table. A little latitude also is given thereby in laying up
the topping wall. Extra width may be necessary to insure
stability, depending on the depth it is necessary to go in order
to obtain a good foundation. This is an essential consideration,
if the floor is below grade or plans call for a basement floor. In
this case the wall below ground must be proportioned to sustain
earth thrust. A thickness in inches equal to three-tenths the
depth in inches below ground level roughly is required.
That the basement shall be watertight also is an important
feature. Concrete properly proportioned, mixed and placed, is
sufficiently proof against seepage even under considerable pres-
sure. Often, as an additional precaution, some waterproofing
compound is added to the mixture, and it is always well, if the
wall will be subjected to moisture constantly, to coat the outside
with bitumen. In the extreme case, the enveloping of the entire
basement wall and floor with a continuous waterproofing fabric
or asphalt layer, suitable backed, may be necessary.
Where the building is of the skeleton type-that is, one in

B
Efficiency in construction details is here shown. Steel trackage (A) for trucks is set flush in the concrete
loading platform of the dry kiln of the Western Electric Company's plant. Air-ducts (B) and adjusta-
ble wall brackets (C) are installed at the plant of the Androscoggin Pulp Company. At the Potter
Knitting Company's plant a stock bin serves as stockkeeper's office

EA
Full-length windows and a ceiling free from obstructions make full use of daylight at the Ford Motor
plant (above). Prism glass canopies (middle) refract light well into the interior of buildings set close
together. Metal and glass partitions (below) have proved highly satisfactory with the Continental
Motor Company; a space below the metal base prevents dirt accumulation
WINDOWS AND WALLS
111
which the load is carried by wall columns-a large saving in the
bulk of basement walls is possible by designing them as flat slabs
in the vertical plane reacting against the columns as beams, these
in turn transmitting the pressure to the column foundation and
basement floor construction. No greater thickness in this case is
necessary than is dictated by the principles of reinforced concrete
design, and this usually is less than the dimension required to
square with the wall above or to insure a watertight job. A
thickness in inches of half the distance in feet columns-for a
space of twenty feet a thickness of ten inches-is adequate to
meet the requirements of strength and stiffness, regardless of
depth. A minimum thickness of twelve to sixteen inches, how-
ever, usually is dictated by other considerations. The economy
over a design on the retaining wall principle is apparent. In
addition, the reinforcing metal required thoroughly ties the base-
ment-enclosing structure together, safeguarding against cracks
and joints which would allow moisture and vermin to penetrate.
To give best results, the basement wall and columns should be
poured simultaneously. If the basement floor is likely to be sub-
jected to any considerable amount of water pressure, which would
tend to buckle it, either it must be made excessively thick and
stiffened by the embedding of steel bars or mesh, or properly
proportioned reinforced concrete struts must be laid across the
building extending from column footing to column footing.
These are to absorb the thrust transmitted to the exterior column
footings by the side-wall slabs. The basement floor in this case
may be designed as a reinforced concrete slab to resist the upward
pressure, the reactions being taken by the struts, by these trans-
mitted to the columns and thus the entire weight of the building
brought to bear in resisting the pressure on foundations, base-
ment floor and side-walls.
When basement walls are designed as slabs, they require no
footing except perhaps a slight flare at the bottom to give a
broadened bearing on the soil while the concrete is hardening.
A projection on the inside of from two to four inches, however,
usually is provided to furnish a seat for the basement floor.
This practically is necessary in order to make a moisture-proof
joint between the two.
Greater security against fire requires solid partition walls
112
CONSTRUCTION DETAILS
of brick, concrete or tile at intervals. Partitions should extend
across the building. Many insurance inspectors recommend such
a fire wall at least every one hundred feet. The nature of the
business may be such, however, as to make any fire-resisting
division walls unnecessary, especially if there is nothing inflam-
mable about the building or its contents. On the other hand, the
nature of the business may justify partitions at closer intervals.
If some of the processes are of an especially hazardous nature
and require a less amount of space than afforded by the one
hundred foot interval, they may be completely isolated either by
partitions as close as necessary or else housed in a separate
structure.
Fire-resisting partitions are worthless unless all openings are
carefully guarded. The standard protection for door openings
is the tin-covered solid two-inch oak or pine door, either hinged
or hung on an inclined rail, and so rigged with a closing device
that it shuts automatically after one passes through, or by the
action of a fusible link in case of fire. Many instances are on
record of doors too light, or not properly covered with tin, or
not overlapping the doorway sufficiently, or not closing promptly
or tightly enough, allowing flames to pass through with disastrous
results. All openings leading outside need to be similarly
guarded. A modification of the standard fire-door, folding in
the middle and opening upward, known as the “jack-knife” door,
is found in a number of factories where space is lacking for the
operation of the hinged or sliding types. A notable instance is
that of the Acme Tea Company's plant in Philadelphia. Here
the elevators are in multiple, in a solid concrete, cell-like en-
closure, and the ordinary types of fire-door would have been out
of the question.
Partial partitions, fitted into the apex of a wooden roof at
intervals, have also been used in long one-story peaked roof
factories to limit the possible spread of a fire horizontally. If
the roof is of concrete or tile, there is nothing to feed the flames
and such partitions are unnecessary.
XI
LAYING THE RIGHT
FACTORY FLOOR
B
UILDINGS consist of floor, walls, and roof, but the greatest
of these three is the floor. Walls and roof can easily be
made to serve their purposes. The floor is the vitally im-
portant feature of the industrial building. Materials are handled
over it and are piled on it, workmen come in contact with it in
every motion, machinery is secured to it, and the efficiency of
the factory depends, in no small measure, on the efficiency of its
floor. It is essential, therefore, for the manufacturer to make
himself familiar with the different kinds of floors used for indus-
trial buildings, the essentials of their construction, and the ad-
vantages and disadvantages of each.
The foundation needs careful consideration. All floors
above the ground floor or carried by the frame of the building
should be properly bedded in the building construction. The
ordinary method in fireproof buildings is to attach sleepers to
the concrete base, fill in the intervening spaces with a thin layer
of cinder concrete, and then lay down maple flooring, and in
wooden buildings to spike the under floor directly to the joists
(Figure XIX). Treated cypress makes excellent sleepers.
Where floors are laid directly on the ground, the first essential
is thoroughly to compact the soil before the floors are laid. As
a rule, the ground under a factory building is cut up in the plac-
ing of pipes, underground drains and tunnels. These trenches
and any low spots in the area of the building, and sometimes the
entire floor area must be brought to a level of the bottom of the
floor construction. Thorough tamping and the spreading in thin
layers of the dirt which is put back into the trenches and ditches
114
CONSTRUCTION DETAILS
is essential. Danger of further settling or shrinkage must be
reduced to the minimum. This is a process which sometimes
in a clay soil takes several weeks.
No moisture will reach the floor construction if at least six
inches of cinders is placed under it and thoroughly tamped.
This is not essential if the floor is two or three feet above the
ground-water line, and is well drained (Figure XX).
After the floor filling has been placed, thoroughly tamped and
flooded, if the soil is sandy, and has settled, grade stakes placed
at distances in both directions of not to exceed ten feet insure
the perfect level of the finished floor. The level should also be
marked on all columns.
The floor proper may be divided into two parts, the base and
the top. The base may consist of concrete, not less than four
inches and ordinarily six inches thick, consisting of one part
Portland cement to three parts of sand and six parts of broken
stone or gravel. After placing, the concrete should be thoroughly
tamped. Steel rods set over any trenches or pits in the fill which
have not been thoroughly compacted reinforce the concrete base.
This is a simple way to prevent cracking or settlement in the
finished floor. The base may also consist of stone and tar mixed
together, and thoroughly tamped. The tar forms a binder
which on a well compacted soil insures satisfactory results. If
the top coat is not laid so as to bond perfectly with the base
course, its thickness should be increased to at least one and a half
inches and a fine mesh properly embedded.
A cheap base for wood floors can be made by laying sleepers
directly on cinders, and nailing the wood floor directly thereto.
This type of floor is inexpensive in first cost only, as the sleepers,
unless treated, will completely rot in the space of three or four
years. The top or wearing surface of the floor may consist of
wood, wood blocks, asphalt, brick, tile or composition.
HOW TO LAY DOWN A FLOOR
THAT WILL ENDURE
FOR concrete, the top or wearing surface should be at least
three-fourths of an inch thick, consisting of Portland cement,
torpedo sand and fine stone, without dust, in equal proportions.
Granite screenings used in place of limestone will add materially
LAYING THE RIGHT FLOOR
115
to the hardness of the floor without increasing the cost more than
two cents per square foot. This top is best laid on a concrete
base, as above described, immediately after it has been tamped.
In other words, the entire floor, including base and top, must
in order to secure the best results be laid in one operation.
This point is frequently overlooked, and its importance often
minimized. Many concrete floors are rendered worthless, as the
top becomes loose and cracks, and it is difficult to make a proper
3º SPRUCE PLANK
FLOOR BEAMS SPACED
.6 FT. TO 10 FT. APART
3 LAYERS ROSINED,
PAPER LAID IN TAR
ww
WIRE LATH AND PLASTER
!1! HEMLOCK
•
11" MAPLE
CONCRETE
BEAMS
FLOORING
CORRUGATED IRON SHEETS
NAILING STRIPS
JOISTS AND BRIDGING
1 MAPLE
PLASTER
TIE BAR
HOLLOW TILES
CONCRETE
1
REINFORCING BAR´
FIGURE XIX: For structures with a basement or for the upper stories of a building, the floor
plans shown here in cross-section have been so widely used, with only slight changes in the dimen-
sions, as to become almost standard
union with the old floor when patches are made. The failure to
lay top and base in one operation resulted, in a factory in Winni
peg, in the top becoming loose and necessitating the breaking up
of a large area. In this case the contractor frankly admitted his
foreman's error, and stood the cost of the replacement. If the
specification is not properly written and enforced, the owner may
pay twice for his floor.
The surface marking of concrete floors is a subject of much
discussion among engineers. Floors will wear under heavy truck-
ing at the joints or markings. On the other hand, any settlement
will show cracks in these joints and can be more readily taken
care of. Such markings as have been found satisfactory are as
large as possible, and extend, where columns are used, from
column to column. Squares should be large and grooves small.
116
CONSTRUCTION DETAILS
While it adds to the cost somewhat, the most perfect floor or
sidewalk is made by laying the top and base in alternate squares,
and then going back and laying the remainder. All of the
concrete sidewalks on South Michigan Avenue in Chicago from
Adams Street to Twelfth Street were laid in this manner, and
there has not been the slightest cracking or settlement. This
method takes longer and costs more.
A satisfactory compromise is to put the temporary forms
around each square, and permit the concrete to get its initial set
and then proceed with the base of next square while finishing
the top of the first. However, dividing through the base of
ground floors is not advisable, as it permits dampness to strike
through from below. It is a good practice to reinforce such
floors to prevent settling and cracking.
One caution in laying concrete floors: Be sure that all pipes,
and conduits are in place, as cutting concrete is an expensive
process. Do not start a concrete building or lay a concrete
floor until all underground work is lined up. If this cannot be
done, provide extra hangers, holes and inserts to meet the pos-
sible requirements.
Managers sometimes hold concrete unsatisfactory because it
dusts. However, this trouble has been remedied or avoided by
oiling the surface, adding a hardener to the top coat or by grind-
ing down the surface instead of hand-troweling it. If correct
materials are properly mixed and laid the floor will not dust.
A good deal has been said and written about the effects of con-
crete floors on the health, and, therefore, the efficiency of the
workmen. There are many specific instances where numbers of
employees have been affected injuriously and an equal number
of cases where the employees suffer no ill effects. This problem
is strictly up to the foreman or superintendent, who can by
judicious advice, instructions and diplomacy avoid any serious
or general dissatisfaction.
Wood is still the most widely used flooring, although concrete
is rapidly growing in popularity. Wood floor can be laid on any
kind of a base, and for that reason can often be laid cheaper
than a concrete floor. Oak, maple, yellow pine and gum are
the most frequently used for top floors, and the choice usually
depends on the cost in the local market. The most satisfactory
LAYING THE RIGHT FLOOR
117
wood beyond question is maple, which comes in three grades:
No. 1, No. 2 and "Factory."
No. 1 is selected. Only perfect pieces are included in this
grade, which renders its cost prohibitive, and its use extravagant.
No. 2 maple gives a perfectly sound, uniform floor as only
small sound knots are permitted, and there are no imperfections
which weaken the floor in any way.
"Factory" grade maple admits of any and all imperfections
and the waste attending its use is so great that No. 2 maple can
be used more economically and with better results. Other woods
may be used where the local market gives them an advantage over
maple.
A wood floor of proved merit and low cost for fireproof build-
ings, consists of seven-eighths inch No. 2 dressed and machined
5º COAL TAR, GRAVEL
EARTH
6' COARSE
BROKEN STONE
HEAVY STAKES 3 FT. APART
NAILED TO SLEEPERS
4'X 4' SLEEPER
1' FINE GRAVEL
AND TAR CONCRETE
EARTH
AND PITCH CONCRETE
2º HEMLOCK
'6' TARRED GRAVEL
2º TAR AND SAND
+ MAPLE
MAPLE FLOOR
4'X 4' SLEEPER
EARTH
EARTH
4º TAR AND STONE
PITCH
♫ SPRUCE
H' SPRUCE
6 CINDERS
HEAVY STAKES 3 FT. APART
NAILED TO SLEEPERS
3'X 3' SLEEPER
2º LIME MORTAR ·
2' MAPLE
いい
​FIGURE XX: In these cross-sections are shown different types of low cost and durable floors
which can be laid directly over the earth, when a basement is not necessary. The foundation of
floor is fully as important as the surface
maple top floor, seven-eighths inch No. 2 dressed and machined
yellow pine under floor, laid at right angles to top; sleepers two
by four inches-beveled-laid twelve inches on centers and
attached to the concrete base. This floor will hold lag screws for
any kind of high-speed machinery.
For machine shops and buildings where the floor on the ground
level is subjected to heavy loads, and extra hard usage, the fol-
1
118
CONSTRUCTION DETAILS
lowing brief specification gives a floor which has been used ex-
tensively with satisfactory results:
Base of concrete six to eight inches thick. One-inch cushion
of sand and pitch. Mix one yard of sand to forty-five gallons
of pitch. Sand to be hot when mixed, and spread while hot.
Under floor of two- or three-inch plank surfaced one side, laid
to an even surface and topnailed-top surface seven-eighths inch,
No. 2 maple flooring-blind nailed. Under exceptionally heavy
service lay one and one-quarter inch maple. This floor is damp-
proof, the sand forming a waterproofing, and has given years
of service.
When a wood top floor is laid on a wooden base, it should be
laid at right angles to the other, and there is no question but
that the greatest wear can be obtained from a wood floor by
laying with the joints in the direction of the aisles or greatest
traffic. Floors laid either across the traffic or diagonally will
split at the tongue or groove.
Wood block floor is used extensively and with satisfactory
results when a proper base is provided. The most satisfac-
tory blocks are probably sound yellow pine, well impregnated
with eight pounds of creosote to the cubic foot of wood. They
should be laid with broken joints on a one-inch cushion of sand,
the surface brought to an absolute level by tamping, and the
joints filled with pitch or sand. The specification for a wood
block floor is quite different from that of a wood block pavement.
Asphalt is used extensively for platforms, and for rooms where
there is a great deal of moisture, either in the air or on the floor,
as in packing houses. Asphalt floors consist of two layers, each
from three-quarters inch to one inch in thickness, laid preferably
on a concrete base.
Brick is used more frequently for pavements than for floors,
as it is noisy and rough, and is not suited to the average manu-
facturing process. Brick for floors or pavement needs to be uni-
form in size and evenly burned, and in the absence of a specific
test, of a make or brand which has given proved service. Brick
makes a good floor or pavement when laid on edge on a one-inch
sand cushion, on concrete base, thoroughly tamped, and with the
joints filled with sand, cement or asphalt. Proper expansion
LAYING THE RIGHT FLOOR
119
joints are necessary when cement is used as filler. A large variety
of tile may be obtained for different uses. Tile floors are used
for engine rooms, toilet rooms, entrances, and special process
rooms. What is known as the "Quarry" tile is popular owing
to its hard, dense surface, and comparative cheapness. Ceramic
or vitrified tile can be obtained in many colors and sizes, and can
be laid with or without patterns on a concrete base.
Composition floors have been used extensively in Europe for
years with fairly satisfactory results, and their use is gradually
extending in this country. Composition is laid to a thickness
of about one-half of an inch on either wood or concrete base,
preferably the latter. This composition consists of magnesium
oxide and chloride and sand or sawdust. These materials are
mixed in proper proportions on the job and laid in the same.
manner as cement. Asbestos, stone dust, and other materials
are sometimes added, and coloring is obtained by the use of
mineral pigments. Avoid laying composition floors where much
water will be present, as water causes the flooring to disintegrate.
When laid on wood two layers are necessary, the under one
reinforced with a light mesh.
Special floors and a special study are required where unusual
conditions are met, as, for example, in acid processes, in the
presence of excessive moisture, the handling of especially heavy
machinery, processes where dust or vibration must be entirely
absent and where sanitary features are essential. Each condi-
tion requires careful study before a material is chosen.
FIVE CONSIDERATIONS TO BEAR IN MIND IN CHOOSING
FACTORY FLOORS
IN selecting a floor the considerations which have a direct
bearing not only on costs but also on the efficiency of the
plant are:
First: Character of the foundation.
Second: The wearing surface required.
Third: The occupancy of the building.
Fourth: Ease of repair and replacement.
Fifth Permanency of plant.
:
120
CONSTRUCTION DETAILS
A good floor of suitable material is the cheapest in the end and
to obtain this desired result the following cautions may well be
kept in mind:
First: Provide a good foundation.
Second: Allow for possible settlement at walls and columns.
In a mill-constructed building, the floor joists should be set in
hangers and proper provision made for shrinkage so that the
floors will always be level.
Third: Employ a responsible contractor.
Fourth: Use a good specification.
Fifth: Keep the floor in good repair.
The two essentials in securing a good floor, and this holds good
in all building work, are: a good specification and a good in-
spection. A good specification can only be written by one having
experience. A good inspection also requires an experienced man
and one who can enforce the specifications.
XII
ROOFS AND SKYLIGHTS
H
ARDLY less important than the factory floor is the factory
roof. Too often the dominating thought in planning
is to make the roof watertight and then let it go at
that, making it no stronger or more substantial in construction
than the building laws or conservative practice may require.
Sometimes in straining after economy, the dead line of safety is
passed, and frequently the result is disastrous. To provide a
roof sufficiently strong to sustain the maximum wind and snow
load is the lowest standard the factory builder may wisely accept.
Your choice of material for roof construction depends largely
on the type of building selected. If you have determined upon
a single-story structure, with steep slope, the roof need not be
stronger than necessary to sustain, with ample margin of safety,
the maximum snow and wind loads, since there is little if any
possibility of ever putting the roof to any other use. If it is a
multi-story structure, however, or a single-story building which
may some day have another story or two added to it, to build a
roof strong enough at the start will provide for such a con-
tingency.
Some protective covering is usually necessary on a concrete
roof, unless a permanent watertight super-roof is added. Com-
position roofings made of overlapping layers of roofing-felt
mopped with asphaltum and sprinkled with gravel, are much
used for this purpose.
If the roof is of wood, the sheathing should be preferably
three-inch plank, tongued and grooved, and the supporting beams
not less than six inches in width for security against fire.
122
CONSTRUCTION DETAILS
2
3
FIGURE XXI: Standard plans for framing roofs of single-story buildings are shown in this and
the next three figures. For narrow buildings fronting a street (1) is especially adapted; (2) shows a
framing for spans of moderate width; (3) shows still wider widths where the necessities of both light
and ventilation require a monitor skylight construction at the center. When the space does not ex-
ceed 50 to 75 feet concrete girders are often used in lieu of steel trusses or solid rolled sections on
account of greater fireproofness and lower maintenance cost
Wooden beams are preferable to steel beams unfireproofed for
this purpose, for, as fires have repeatedly shown, steel beams
collapse under a heat which would only char a solid section of
timber and not materially impair its sustaining qualities.
Composition roofings are also used to cover wooden roofs, but
they are less secure against fire than tin deckings when the tin
is properly laid. The tin is more costly, but it lasts indefinitely,
while the life of a composition roofing is placed at twenty years.
Roofing a single-story building like a foundry or machine shop,
where there is a traveling crane, is a different matter. Here
the unsupported span is large and lightness of construction is
absolutely necessary.
Concrete construction has been used for roofings of this kind,
but owing to the wide spans, heavy framing required and high
cost of forms, preference is usually given to construction whose
supporting body is of structural steel trusses and purlins and
whose decking is either cement mortar applied to corrugated
sheet steel plates of rib-stiffened fine mesh, or overlapping slabs
of concrete cast on the ground and laid' like shingles. The latter
method seems to be meeting with increasing favor. The slabs of
concrete are familiarly known as cement tile. A number of large
plants, notably those at Gary and Duluth, have been so roofed.
Asbestos-covered metal, too, is gaining in favor for certain
types of factories as a substitute for plain corrugated iron, to
which it is superior by reason of better resisting fire and rust,
and being a better insulator against outside conditions. A notable
example of the use of asbestos-protected metal is at the new plant
ROOFS AND SKYLIGHTS
123
5
FIGURE XXII: Large power cranes require a high roof above the crane-way. Sometimes the
side-bays are roofed over at the same level and the height divided up among one or more mezzanine
floors. In (4) the roof of the bays is only as high as need be. In (5), merely another variation of
the same type, the roof of the bays is sloped inwardly, allowing a greater height of windows and
draining the roof to downspouts within the building where they are free from frost nuisance
of the American Zinc Company, which is entirely roofed and
walled with this material.
Corrugated iron, however, is by no means obsolete either for
walling or roofing. Its use in times past has been largely re-
stricted to structures like storehouses, which require no heating.
But one company not long ago found that by paying careful
attention to making all joints tight and stopping up all crevices,
it was possible to heat a building covered with corrugated iron
unlined almost as easily and at hardly greater cost than the ordi-
nary type of factory building, and this structure is now being
used as a machine shop.
I
ROOFING FOR PLATFORMS, BRIDGES
AND CONNECTING PASSAGES
N roofing and "walling-in" the manufacturing processes, it is
not advisable, though often done, to leave out the receiving of
raw materials and shipping of finished product. Both can be
conducted to much better advantage and more economically if
under cover. No good reason is ever urged why the loading and
unloading platform should not be covered and so arranged that
it can be entirely closed in during stormy or very cold weather.
An excellent arrangement is that in a machine shop where the
switch extends through one end of the building so that not only
may the receiving and shipping be conducted entirely within
doors, but the shop crane may be used for loading and unloading
heavy pieces. In another instance, at a foundry, the switch
extends down through the shop. This arrangement is found in
many factories producing heavy metal products.
124
CONSTRUCTION DETAILS
6
FIGURE XXIII: In (6) the side-bay roofs are on a level with the main roof and stock-rooms and
light machine operations can be placed on the mezzanine floors. More skylighting is needed than in
(5), as the side light is cut off from the main area. (7) is a roof design suited to heavy machine
shop work where crane service is needed in the side-bays as well as in the center area
Such raw materials as lumber, pig iron and ore are of such
a nature that they must be unloaded out of doors, but cases are
few where it is not a better method to load finished product under
some kind of shelter.
Bridges or connecting passages between buildings which are
much used need to be thoroughly closed in. Open bridges may
be comparatively cool and comfortable in summer time, but in
winter and stormy weather it is an unquestionable advantage to
have them enclosed. Not only is the opening and closing of the
doors a waste of time, but on each occasion a nasty draft is made
which may be detrimental to work in process, and certainly is
wasteful of heat and injurious to the health and comfort of the
workmen near the doors. Especially is it inimical to the health
of the workmen who have to use the passage. Much winter
sickness has been traced to this cause. It is a simple matter to
throw a light roofing of corrugated metal over a passageway. The
sides need not be closed in permanently, but arranged so they
can be re-opened in warm weather.
HOW TO HANDLE ROOFING WITH REGARD
TO HEAT, COLD AND CONDENSATION
IN N summer, keeping the heat out; and in winter, keeping the
heat in-also avoiding condensation-are problems with which
all manufacturers in single-story structures, particularly of saw-
tooth roof construction, have to contend.
In an eastern plant manufacturing a high grade of electrical
apparatus, this problem has never been one of moment, thanks
to the forethought exercised by the management in construction.
The roof slab was made double, with a layer of mineral wool
ROOFS AND SKYLIGHTS
125
FIGURE XXIV:
8
9
Where heavy travelling crane service is not needed, as in planing mills and the
lighter machine-tool plants, a saw-tooth roof as shown in (8) is the best construction, giving uniform
natural light. (9) is a modified style of (8), often used where part of the operations require heavy
travelling crane service
between; the saw-tooth skylights were double glazed; and a double
system of gutters adopted, down-spouting through the hollow
steel columns, which provides not only for the roof run-off, but
the interior condensation as well. A steam pipe runs under the
gutters and in winter the dry heat from this not only helps
appreciably in getting rid of condensation, but quickly melts any
ice or snow collecting in the trough of the roof.
The fact that the roof and skylights are double greatly simpli-
fies and cuts the cost of heating in winter-always a difficult
problem in a saw-tooth area-and in summer contributes im-
mensely towards keeping the shop cool.
In another instance, good results were obtained by construct-
ing the roof slab of the saw-teeth of porous aggregate-cinders
and pumice-and making it somewhat thicker than if of sand and
stone concrete. The top was put in condition to receive the
waterproofing material by slicking it with thin mortar.
Concrete, particularly dense concrete, is a fairly good con-
ductor of heat-not nearly as good as iron, of course, but much
better than wood, mineral wool and cork. Dense, thoroughly
tamped concrete, experiments show, transmits heat twice as rap-
idly as porous, dry and untamped concrete, and three times as
rapidly as cinder concrete. The superiority of the thicker cinder
roof slab in the above instance is thus evident.
W
WHAT KIND OF SKYLIGHT AND HOW MUCH
SKYLIGHTING IS NECESSARY
HAT kind of building you select not only determines to a
large degree the kind of roof, but also the extent of sky-
lighting necessary. In a narrow multi-story building with high
126
CONSTRUCTION DETAILS
ceilings, and unobstructed on the sides, skylights are not essential.
In single-story buildings above sixty feet in width skylights
are indispensable, if the story height is not great.
In one-story structures the requirements for natural lighting
impose no limitation on width, as in the case of multi-story build-
FELT ON
EDGEWISE WOOD STRIPS
A
A
B
DOUBLE BOARDS WITH
CEMENT BETWEEN
FIGURE XXV: A comparatively inexpensive roof (A) is made by setting wood strips edgewise
on plank and covering them with felt or other waterproofing material. A roof (B) which has been
recommended by insurance companies for mill construction is impervious to heat and cold
ings, for the sole dependence no longer needs to be placed on side
windows. You may skylight the roof in such a fashion as to
make the interior independent of the windows altogether. Light-
ing by means of skylights is not altogether satisfactory, since the
direct rays of the sun, snow in winter time and condensation
C
HOLLOW TILE
WITH RE-ENFORCED
CONCRETE PURLINS ON
STEEL FRAME
D
ROOFING TILES ON
STEEL FRAME
FIGURE XXVI: Increasing use of concrete for building purposes has developed a hollow-tile roof
(C) with reinforced concrete purlins. No waterproofing is necessary when the roof has a sharp
pitch. Tiles are interlocking in the other roof (D) shown
combine to make many troubles, aside from the interference with
the passage of light. Much depends on the slope of the roof.
The troubles are at a maximum with flat-sloped roofs.
By far the best way to overcome the difficulties with skylights

In the plant of the Packard Motor Company a skylight over a wide court (above) between two build-
ings gives largest use of space otherwise subject to weather changes, and the foundry (middle) is
especially efficient because of its unobstructed floor space. In another plant, treated wood blocks
(below) laid with the grain set vertical, make a warm, resilient and durable floor

B
Saw-tooth roofing is thrown over both first floor and upper floors in this Philadelphia plant, another
view of which appears as the frontispiece. Sections of the saw-tooth hinged for ventilating purposes
are indicated (A) and (B). Roof construction details in another plant appear below
ROOFS AND SKYLIGHTS
129
is to adopt the saw-tooth type of roof construction. With this,
perfect interior natural lighting may be secured. By facing the
saw-tooth towards the north the problem of direct sun rays is
E
GUTTER FOR
SAW-TOOTH ROOF
F
TAR AND GRAVEL,
OVERHANGING EAVES
FIGURE XXVII: The secret of success with saw-tooth roofs lies in carrying the gutter lining (E
far enough up the sides, in keeping gutters of sharp incline warm enough to prevent the formation of
ice, and in providing plenty of downspouts to carry off the water
obviated. Also the slope of the tooth does away largely with
condensation. Any slight amount of this is easily caught by
running gutters underneath the notch of the saw-tooth and by
G
DIRIGIRID
M
HIIREIR
H
KOTIKLID
TAR AND GRAVEL,
OVERHANGING GUTTER DAMA
TAR AND GRAVEL,Į
FINISHING AGAINST; PARAPET WALL
FIGURE XXVIII: In constructing overhanging gutters (H), or finishing against a parapet wall (G),
care must be taken to avoid leakage. Not only should metal linings be notched carefully, but tar or
asphalt should be mopped over roofs every year or two instead of waiting for trouble to develop
placing a heating pipe or two in each tooth. Saw-tooth con-
struction makes it slightly more difficult and expensive to heat
a factory, and it is higher in first cost. But when everything is
130
CONSTRUCTION DETAILS
taken into consideration, particularly the fact that this is the
only kind of skylight with which it is possible perfectly to day-
light interiors, it easily justifies itself.
F208
ད་ལ་པ་ནསཔས་འ་ས ་་།
O
CONCRETE ROOF AND FRAMING WITH WATER PROOF COVERING
FIGURE XXIX: Many factories of modern design have followed the above plan in constructing
concrete roofs. The slab is shown in the shaded area, with the framing outline beneath. Provision
is also made for crane trackage by putting a shoulder on the columns
If, for some good reason, saw-tooth construction is not favored,
then the maximum results with flat skylighting are furnished by
adopting cement tile for roofing. With these it is possible, by
J
CONCRETE SAW-TOOTH ROOF
WITH STEEL FRAME AND
WATER PROOF COVERING
FIGURE XXX: In this concrete saw-tooth roof reinforced with steel, and covered with felt and
slag, the sashes are glazed with ribbed glass. In another factory, the south pitch is glazed with
opaque glass and the north with ordinary rough glass. Such trussing is not always necessary
casting plates of glass in the tiles, to have any desired proportion
of the roof surface transparent, up to fifty per cent or more. A
very economical skylighted and waterproof roof is thus secured.
ROOFS AND SKYLIGHTS
131
In cases where the width of the building is not so great as to
require saw-tooth construction, very effective natural illumina-
tion is secured by making practically of solid glass that part of
the roof nearest the eaves-in effect extending the windows up-
ward around the angle formed by the junction of wall and roof.
The width of the strip of roofing to be made transparent is
approximately determined by drawing a forty-five degree line
from a point within at the floor level at or just beyond the
meridian line of the building through the roof. Where this line
CAST IRON
CAP
GRAVEL ROOF
2X12-24" © TO C
6X8
8X8
SHEET ZINC GUTTER
DROPPING EACH WAY
FROM MIDDLE OF
BUILDING
2-1" RODS
.6X8
ABOUT 22º,
6 PCS 2'X 12" SPIKED,TOGETHER
24'
›SHEETĪZING
CORNICE
GLASS
FIGURE XXXI: This is a plan of the oldest saw-tooth roof in the United States, built in 1874 at
the Mathiessen & Hegler Zinc Company's plant at LaSalle, Illinois. The roof is still in service and
when the owners erected another building in 1899, they used a modified form of the same design
cuts the plane of the roof determines the innermost margin of
the skylights. When so located skylights are much more effective
than the conventional type ridge, unless, of course, the roof is
very flat or inclined inwardly.
Another and less expensive method of single-story construc-
tion reduces the necessity for saw-teeth and skylights in buildings
not unusually wide. The highest point of the roof is that directly
above the tops of the side-walls. The two halves of the roof slope
downward and inward, thus intersecting along the middle line
of the building. This design gives a high daylighting area, as
windows are run up to the top of the walls, and also a rapid
natural ventilation. If the width of the building is great, but
not sufficiently so to require skylighting, the lighted area can be
extended by placing prism glass in the upper sashes of the
132
CONSTRUCTION DETAILS
windows. Roofs are drained by a gutter under the line of inter-
section and the water is carried off by piping inside of or against
the supporting columns, thus preventing freezing of the pipes.
If too much direct sunlight is admitted, it can be reduced and
diffused by cloth shades as thick or as thin as conditions require.
Keeping the windows and skylights clean is the next important
essential to making the most of the illumination nature affords.
Neglect to clean the transparencies with sufficient regularity
greatly diminishes their effectiveness. Tests made in one in-
stance, in a factory where windows had not been cleaned thor-
oughly for months, showed that after a good cleaning fully fifty
per cent more light was admitted. And it is quite possible for
seventy-five and even a greater percentage of light to be thus
lost. Every spect of dust, however minute, constitutes a light
leak. Uusually neglect of this kind is due not to parsimony,
but lack of a suitable system of maintenance. If it is due to
parsimony, nothing could be more foolish, since for every penny
saved on cleaning labor at least a score of pennies may leak out
in the artificial light bill, to say nothing of the lessened efficiency
of the operatives, due not only to lack of sufficient daylight but
to the demoralizing effect of dirt and gloom.
Part III
FITTING UP THE BUILDING
AUTHORITIES AND SOURCES
FOR PART III
Chapter XIII. Contributed by C. A. A. Winslow, associate
professor of biology, the College of the City of New York. His
study of ventilation embraces government offices and such
industries as printing, cutlery, stone cutting, hat factory, etc.
Chapter XIV. Contributed by Mr. Porter out of the ex-
perience of the Western Electric Company, two publishing
houses, etc.
Chapter XV. Contributed by Mr. Porter, with reference
especially to the experience of the Crane Company, Westing-
house Electric and Manufacturing Company, and other shops
making tools, dies, etc.
Chapter XVI. Contributed by Mr. Porter from the experi-
ence of the Link-Belt Company, American Water Works and
Guarantee Company, etc.
Chapter XVII. Contributed by Mr. Porter from the ex-
perience of Thomas Devlin Manufacturing Company, the
International Harvester Company, the Kohler Company, the
Cincinnati Milling Machine Company, and many other plants,
including foundries, machine shops, structural iron shops, shoe
factories, textile mills, etc.
Chapter XVIII. Contributed by Mr. Porter. Based chiefly
upon the fire-fighting experiences of many industries, including
farm implement manufacturing, cork manufacturing, locomotive
works, piano making, cooperage, textiles, and sash, door and
blind factories.
Chapter XIX. Contributed by Mr. Porter-the detailed
account of a highly successful moving plan followed by the
International Time Recording Company.
XIII
FRESH AIR AS AN OUTPUT
FACTOR
NⓇ
O ventilating apparatus was provided when an eastern
straw hat factory was built. The first two winters after
occupation the sick rate was twenty-seven and one-half
per cent. A ventilating system was then installed, after which
the winter sick rate fell to seven per cent. It was claimed that
the ventilating system paid for itself in one year.
In every factory, there is a type of machine, the living machine,
which is extraordinarily responsive to slight changes in the con-
ditions that surround it. These conditions, in this relation, we
habitually neglect.
Consider now not the sociological and humanitarian aspects
of the case, but quite frankly and coldly, for the moment, treat
the operative as one of the factors in production whose efficiency
should be raised to the highest pitch, not only for his own sake,
but also for that of his employer and for the welfare of the
community at large.
The intimate relation between the conditions which surround
the living machine and its efficiency are matters of common expe-
rience. Contrast your feelings and your effectiveness on a close,
hot, muggy day in August and on a cool, brisk, bright October
morning. Many a factory operative is kept at the August level
by an August atmosphere all through the winter months. He
works listlessly, he half accomplishes his task, he breaks and
wastes the property and the material entrusted to his care.
If he works by the day the loss to the employer is direct; if he
works by the piece the burden of interest on extra machinery
has just as truly to be borne. At the close of the day the opera-
136
FITTING UP THE BUILDING
tive passes from an overcrowded, overheated workroom into the
chill night air. His vitality lowered by the atmosphere in which
he has lived, he falls a prey to minor illness, cold and grip, and
the disturbing effect of absences (Figure XXXII) is added to
inefficiency. Back of it all lurks tuberculosis, the social and
industrial disease which lays its heavy death tax upon the whole
community after the industry has borne its more direct penalty
of subnormal vitality and actual illness.
The remedy for all this is not simply ventilation in the ordi-
nary sense in which we have come to understand the term.
Ventilation should mean more than replacing foul air by fresh.
It should mean adapting the condition of the air of any enclosed
space to the requirements of the occupants of that space. Con-
ditioning of the air so that the human machine may work under
the most favorable conditions is one of the chief elements of
industrial efficiency as it is of individual health and happiness.
The chief factors in air conditioning for the living machine, the
factors which in most cases far outweigh all others put together,
are the temperature and the humidity of the air. In many a
plant money has been spent for an elaborate system of ventilation
and if the air has been too hot or too dry or too moist the effect
on comfort and efficiency has been worse than nil. It is a curious
instance of the way in which we neglect the obvious practical
things and attend to remote and theoretical ones, that for years
more attention has been bestowed on the testing of air for carbon
dioxide which was supposed to indicate some mysterious danger
than on the actual concrete effect of overheating.
HEA!
DISCOMFORT, INEFFICIENCY AND DISEASE
IN RELATION TO AIR CONDITIONS
EAT and particularly heat combined with excessive humid-
ity, is the one condition in air that has been proved beyond
a doubt to be universally a cause of discomfort, inefficiency and
disease. Flugge and his pupils in Germany and Haldane in Eng-
land have shown that when the temperature rises to eighty de-
grees with moderate humidity or much above seventy degrees
with high humidity, depression, headache, dizziness and the other
symptoms associated with badly ventilated rooms begin to mani-
fest themselves. At seventy-eight degrees with saturated air
FRESH AIR AND MORE WORK
137
found that the temperature of the body itself began to rise. The
wonderful heat regulating mechanism which enables us to adjust
ourselves to our environment had broken down and an actual
Reason
Heat Prostrations
Typhoid
Lung Troubles
Headaches
Rheumatism
Construction Cures for Factory Absences
Cause
1. Tin Roof
2. Tin Roof
Bad Water
Cold Alley between Two Heated Rooms
Short Smoke Stack near Windows
Damp Concrete Floors
Remedy
1. Wet Down with Hose Twice a Day
2.False Ceiling Hung below Roof
Purification and Sterilization System
Roof over Alley
Extra Section Added to Stack
Wooden Walk-ways around Machines
FIGURE XXXII: A large percentage of factory absences are due to construction defects. It is for
the manager to decide in such cases whether he will bear the direct cost of a remedy, or the indirect
cost due to absences. Remedies for five frequent causes are here listed
state of fever had set in. Overheating and excess of moisture
is the very worst condition existing in the atmosphere and the
very commonest.
The importance of the chemical impurities in the air has
dwindled rapidly with the investigations of recent years. The
common index of vitiation due either to human beings or to light-
ing and heating appliances is carbon dioxide; but carbon dioxide
in itself has no harmful effects in tenfold the concentration it
ever reaches in ordinary factory air. Nor is there any reduction
of oxygen which has any physiological significance. It was long
believed that the carbon dioxide was an index of some subtle and
mysterious "crowd poison" or "morbific matter." All attempts
to prove the existence of such poisons have incontinently failed.
There are very perceptible odors in an ill-ventilated room due to
decomposing organic matter on the bodies, in the mouths and on
the clothes of the occupants. These odors may exert an unfavor-
able psychical effect upon the sensitively organized, but as a rule
they are noticed only by those who enter the room from a fresher
atmosphere. Careful laboratory experiments have quite failed to
demonstrate any unfavorable effects from re-breathed air if the
surrounding temperature is kept at a proper level.
The main point in air conditioning is the maintenance of a low
temperature and of a humidity not too excessive. For maximum
efficiency the temperature should never pass over 70° F. and the
138
FITTING UP THE BUILDING
humidity should not be above seventy per cent of saturation.
At the same time a too low humidity should also be avoided. We
have little exact information upon this point, but it is a matter
of common knowledge with many persons that very dry air,
especially at seventy degrees or over, is excessively stimulating
and produces nervousness and discomfort. It would probably
be desirable to keep the relative humidity between sixty and
seventy per cent.
Another point which may be emphasized in the light of current
opinion is the importance of "perflation" or the flushing out of
a room at intervals with vigorous drafts of fresh, cool air. Where
there are no air currents the hot, moist, vitiated air from the body
clings round us like an "aerial blanket' and each of us is sur-
rounded by a zone of concentrated discomfort. The delightful
sensation of walking or riding against a wind is largely perhaps
due to the dispersion of this foul envelope and it is important
that a fresh blast of air should sometimes blow over the body in
order to produce a similar effect. The same process will scatter
the odors which have been noted as unpleasant and to some per-
sons potentially injurious. The principal value of the carbon
dioxide test today lies in the fact that under ordinary conditions
high carbon dioxide indicates that there are no air currents
changing the atmosphere about the bodies of the occupants.
There is one other problem of atmospheric pollution to which
special reference should be made. The presence of noxious fumes
and still more the presence of fine inorganic or organic dust in
the air constitutes a grave menace to health in many processes
and is an important contributory cause of tuberculosis.
WHY DUST COLLECTORS ARE IMPERATIVE WHERE
THERE IS GRINDING MACHINERY
THE body of the normal workman has its "fighting edge" and
can protect itself against the tubercle bacillus if given a fair
chance, but the lung tissue which is lacerated by sharp particles
of granite or steel quickly succumbs to the bacterial invader.
In dusty trades like stone cutting and cutlery working and emery
grinding, seventy-five per cent of all deaths among operatives
are often due to tuberculosis, against twenty-five per cent for
the normal adult population. This may be fairly interpreted
FRESH AIR AND MORE WORK
139
as meaning that the actual death rate from tuberculosis in these
trades is from two to four times as high as in a corresponding
average population; in other words, three or four or five out of a
thousand of these workers are sacrificed every year to the condi-
tions under which they labor. The elimination of the dust by
special hoods and fans is imperative in such industries and must
be supplemented in extreme cases by the compulsory use of
respirators.
There is plenty of evidence, though of a scattered and ill
digested sort, that the elimination of dust, dirt, bad air, dark-
ness, over-crowding and poor air conditioning brings a direct
return in increased efficiency of production. The classic case of
the United States Pension Bureau offers striking evidence of this
fact. The removal of the offices of the department from scattered
and poorly ventilated buildings to new and well ventilated quar-
ters reduced the number of days of absence due to illness from
18,736, in the neighborhood of which figure it had been for sev-
eral successive years, to 10,114.
In one printing establishment in New York, a ventilation sys-
tem was installed because of the insistence of the State Depart-
ment of Labor that the law be complied with, the order having
been resisted for two years. After the system had been in use a
year the proprietor said that had he known in advance of the
results to be obtained no order would have been necessary to
have brought about the installation. Whereas formerly the men
had left work on busy days in an exhausted condition and sick-
ness was common, now the men left work on all days in an entirely
different condition, and sickness had been very much reduced.
The errors in typesetting and the time required for making cor-
rections were greatly reduced.
It is much to be desired that this problem should be studied
by careful quantitative methods as a definite factor in the profit
and loss account. Only by such systematic study can it be deter-
mined how much factory sanitation is really worth in any given
case. The evidence is strong enough, however, to warrant manu-
facturers to make sure of the right atmosphere as one essential
in remodeling or in new construction.
H
XIV
HEATING AND VENTILATING
OW to supply good air to the shop at all times with cer-
tainty and economy is one of the most important consid-
erations in fitting up a building after construction. By
good air is meant air not only of the correct oxygen content, but
of the proper temperature and humidity and reasonably free
from dust, germ-life and fumes. These several elements are im-
portant because all react upon a man's efficiency. Rarely in its
scale of conditions, does nature provide exactly the right com-
bination. Hence, in the factory, where a premium is placed on
securing the maximum efficient work from each operative, some
means of air-control is highly desirable if not absolutely essential.
Not only man, but in many industries the material also imposes
certain demands on the composition of the air which must be
subserved for greatest efficiency.
To what extent artificial regulation will be necessary in a par-
ticular case depends upon several factors. One of these is loca-
tion. Obviously, if the factory is located in the country or near
the seashore, where the quality of the air naturally is most
favorable, less regulating will be necessary than if it is located
in a crowded district, near a railroad yard or in a cluster of
industries that produce quantities of smoke, gas and dust.
Another factor is the nature of the industry. The require-
ments of a foundry, for instance, are quite different from those
of a shoe factory, and those of a shoe factory from a textile mill
or a varnishing shop.
Type and arrangement of building also have an influence. A
long, comparatively, high-studded building, like a machine shop,
AIR CONDITIONING
141
requires less artificial aid to good ventilation than does a broad,
low-roofed building. Location with respect to other buildings,
too, varies the requirements. So it is evident that the problem
of furnishing a sufficient supply of the proper quality of air
does not permit a general solution. Each case must be dealt
with individually.
Only within recent years has the importance of this problem
impressed itself upon factory engineers and executives. The
ventilation afforded by open windows, or air-leakage in winter,
always was to a considerable extent and by many is still regarded
as all-sufficient.
The shortcomings of window ventilation are only too well
known. In summer, when the wind blows even moderately, a
good deal of dust is wafted in and loose and light articles are
tossed about in an annoying fashion. Whenever a storm comes
up, the windows must be closed in a hurry. Then while the dis-
turbance lasts, the shop is largely cut off from its fresh-air supply.
And when the windows are opened those nearest them get an
excess of breeze, while those farthest away receive little if any.
In winter the windows may be opened only slightly, if at all,
during working hours because of the discomfort to those close by.
Not only that, but when open they leak out heat rapidly. Thus
the problem of heating is complicated and its expense increased.
A way to remove some of the objections to window ventilation,
which is applicable where heating is by means of steam or hot-
water radiators located along the outside wall, is to cut an open-
ing through the wall directly back of each radiator. The air on
entering thus must come in contact with the coils and be warmed
before it passes into the room. A fine-mesh screen on the inside
of the aperture prevents a great deal of dust and dirt from
entering. By sloping the bottom lip of the opening downward
towards the exterior, driving in of rain and snow also is pre-
vented. This device, in combination with exhaust fans to induce
circulation and expel devitalized air, gives fairly satisfactory
results. Humidifying saddles on the radiators are a further
help. In fact, in all cases of heating by steam, some method of
moistening the air in contact with the coils is worth while, if
not indispensable.
An example of the porthole method of ventilation is to be seen
142
FITTING UP THE BUILDING
in the composing room of a Milwaukee newspaper. Though the
plant is of recent construction, no special thought was given by
the designers to the problem of ventilation, other than always has
been given-that is, reliance was placed solely on the windows.
As might have been expected, conditions in the composing room
soon proved to be bad. The management was patient for about
a year and then called in a ventilating expert. Upon his recom-
mendations a system of exhaust ducts was installed, each lino-
type being exhausted directly above the lead pot in front of the
operator. Conditions vastly improved.
Reliance was still placed, however, upon open windows for the
supply of fresh air. This sufficed until the next winter closed
in, when the windows could no longer be left open as much or as
long as necessary to furnish the requisite amount of fresh air;
then the system began to work badly. Holes were thereupon
cut through the walls in the run of each wall-radiator. Humid-
ifying saddles were also subsequently fitted in each radiator, so
that the entering air was moistened as well as warmed.
The net result was an almost entire cessation of complaints
about air conditions on the part of the linotype operators, a
noticeable improvement in their health and an increased capacity
for high-pressure work, such as is usual in a newspaper plant.
Precision in air-control, however, is only roughly approxi-
mated-is not and, from the very nature of things, cannot be
reached-by any of these measures. Seldom is either the tempera-
ture or the humidity correct, because there is no exact means,
with constantly varying outside conditions, of controlling them.
Nor is there the proper degree of freedom from dust and dirt,
particularly at times when the outside air is full of flying par-
ticles, or when nearby smoke stacks are polluting the atmosphere
with smoke and gases. In hot weather there is no provision for
cooling the air, although factory managers are fast realizing that
this is as necessary to higher productivity in summer as is ade-
quate heating in winter.
An ideal solution, as a matter of fact, is not furnished by any
system yet devised, and indeed may never be found. However,
a method exists which, when properly operated, closely approxi-
mates the desired results. Natural ventilation-by means of
windows, portholes and attachments on window panes-is boldly
AIR CONDITIONING
143
disregarded. Air is taken in at one point (Figure XXXIII)
and distributed throughout the factory like a water supply is
piped. At the same time it is heated or cooled, washed and
humidified. Thus it is delivered to the point of use conditioned
in every respect that bears on the worker's efficiency.
HOW TO PIPE GOOD AIR CONSTANTLY
TO ALL THE WORKMEN
STEAM is still relied on as a source of heat, but instead of
being distributed through the buildings in radiators or pipe-
coils, it is supplied at one point only-where the air from the
outside is admitted. The arrangement is such that the entering
air can be heated to any desired degree, up to 150° F. or higher,
or not at all, or cooled. A water curtain not only washes but
cools and moistens the air before it passes through the heating
coils. A set of baffle plates causes excess moisture to be deposited.
The means of regulation are entirely automatic. A thermostat,
located out in the rooms under the actual conditions of service,
actuates a valve which cuts out or cuts in as many sections of the
heating coils in the air-intake as are necessary to preserve a given
GRATE
PARA VITA YA
MAIN WATER PIPES TO HEATERS
SPRAY
CHAMBER
HOT AIR PIPE
FAN
HEATER
COILS
BY-
WATER TANK
PASS
DAMP
ER
USTA LAPA YA
MATER
ORAIN
MOTOR
FIGURE XXXIII: A complete conditioning system for blowing warm air at any degree of humidity
into a plant is shown in this cross-section sketch. The amount of moisture in the air may be
adjusted automatically regardless of weather conditions outside
temperature; and when all the heating coils have been cut out,
and the chilling action of the water spray is not sufficient, a
cooling solution is admitted to the coils. A humidistat controls
the humidity with the same exactness.
Distribution of the conditioned air is by means of ducts out-
letting at such points that there are neither dead zones nor over-
lapping of service. Usually the outlets are Y-shaped. This is
for the purpose of reducing the velocity of discharge, by abruptly
144
FITTING UP THE BUILDING
doubling the channel, so that the outflow will occasion no dis
comfort and yet be sufficiently vigorous to effect a thorough
mixing with the air of the rooms, and so that it will impart to
the air the agreeable breeze-like movement which carries away
odors and moisture from the body. Where closely peopled rooms
with low ceilings are served, the velocity of discharge is limited
to six hundred feet per minute. Foundries require greater
velocity.
The main ducts are a maximum in diameter nearest the fan,
which sucks the air in through the conditioning coils and propels
it through the system to the various outlets. From that point
the ducts gradually reduce in size until at the extremes they are
no larger than the outlet branches. A uniform diameter would
not answer because, as the volume of air is lessened by successive
outlets, the velocity of flow would soon sink below the minimum
allowable. A large capacity is also necessary to offset the friction
loss. To keep down this loss, as well as the heat loss by radiation,
which in a very long line would reduce excessively, the one the
velocity and the other the temperature at the extreme outlet, it
is necessary in adapting the system to a building of large extent
to lay it out in duplicate or triplicate.
The ducts are located sometimes overhead, being suspended
from the ceiling or roof trusses, or underneath the floor, coming
to an outlet in some partition or alongside the columns. The
outlet in the one case is located about eight feet above the floor,
which with a downward discharge has been found to give best
results. In the other case, where the discharge is upward, the
outlets must be placed as close to the floor as possible. Control
of the individual outlet is in the one case usually by means of a
damper; in the other, by means of a register.
Both overhead and concealed-duct systems are open to objec-
tions. In the overhead system, the ducts, because of their large
size, often are a serious obstruction to the natural lighting.
Moreover, it is seldom possible to place them in just the right
location because of their interference with shafting or craneways.
In fact, interference with craneways sometimes makes the use of
the overhead system impracticable. Then, too, because of their
size, dust collects on them quickly, and from time to time becomes
dislodged by vibration or by its own weight and slides down on

Ford puts his heating plant on the roof. Pent houses and tops of covered ducts through "which
heated air is forced down inside of hollow building columns are shown in the upper picture. Clean,
wholesome air conditions are maintained in a forge shop (middle left) by piping off gases from fires,
and in a foundry (below) by louvers, doorways and sash. Steam or hot-water pipes (middle right)
can be set on pillars to save space and provide better distribution of heat

Placing the lamp units relatively high and properly spacing them insures an equality of light intensity
and a minimum of shadows, as shown in the top picture. In contrast is the specific lighting of
machines (bottom). Mercury-vapor lamps are used in this inspection room of a plate glass mill
(middle left), and to reveal scorches and glosses in a clothing factory
AIR CONDITIONING
147
the heads of workmen or upon product which may be thereby
more or less seriously damaged. The concealed-duct system is
free from these objections, but is disadvantageous in other ways
which more than offset its value. For one thing, it is more
costly. Then the registers are continually being blocked up with
materials stored against or over them. However, this trouble has
been largely overcome in some cases by equipping the outlets
with guards or fenders, and by the strict enforcement of rules
defining how close to an opening materials may be piled.
Hot water, live steam and exhaust steam variously are em-
ployed to heat the air at the intake, depending on the sources of
power in the plant. If the power is generated on the premises
by steam, then the ideal arrangement, from the standpoint of
economy, is to circulate the exhaust steam from the engines
through the heating coils. If the power is purchased, it becomes
necessary to generate live steam or hot water especially for the
purpose. A hot-air furnace is another means.
Air is sometimes taken exclusively from the outside, in cases
simply recirculated, again partly recirculated and partly taken
from the outside. Perhaps the ideal arrangement is the one which
permits the air to be taken in any desired proportion both from
outdoors and from within the factory. It is desirable, of course,
to take the air from outdoors as largely as possible; yet in
the coolest weather to use only outside air would considerably
add to the expense of operation, and oftentimes seriously impair
the efficiency of the system. At such times the air should be
taken as largely as practicable from within.
Two other reasons, if not more, are advanced in favor of tak-
ing of air from within entirely or at least in part; one, that so
doing keeps up a circulation throughout the building without
the use of an exhaust system; the other, that it permits the
air within to be washed frequently to keep it free of dust.
SWEETENING THE AIR WITH ELECTRICITY
IN CROWDED FACTORIES
IN N even the most densely peopled factories, air from within
may be used repeatedly after proper treatment. A little
electrical device is sometimes stationed in the intake, and by
means of successive electrical discharges, ozonizes the air.
148
FITTING UP THE BUILDING
small way the operation simulates the electrical discharge that
takes place in a storm between two oppositely charged banks of
clouds, and the effect produced is akin to that produced by the
lightning flashes-the air is clarified and "sweetened." What
takes place is simply a change in the molecular form of the
oxygen, three molecules of ordinary oxygen of two atoms each
combining to make two molecules of ozone or oxygen of three
atoms to the molecule. The extra atom of oxygen is then held
in very loose combination and on coming in contact with any
organic matter such as breathed air is laden with, promptly
breaks away and forms an affinity with the organic matter, thus
oxidizing it.
Another quality of the air, the importance of which has only
of late received the attention it deserves, is the moisture content.
There is a certain degree of humidity which is most comfortable
and most beneficial to the human organism. More than this
amount produces a sticky feeling and induces lassitude; less,
an undue stimulation and a drying action on the skin, resulting
in crazed" cheeks and "cracked" lips. Moreover, with too
little humidity, a higher absolute temperature is needed to give
the same degree of comfort. With the proper humidity, sixty
degrees Fahrenheit has been found comfortable and more con-
ducive to sustained efficiency than seventy degrees Fahrenheit
with too low humidity (Figure XXXIV). Here is exhibited
the economy of humidifying. In the actual saving of fuel alone,
it pays, as many factory managers have discovered.
Seldom is the natural humidity found right. Surprising as
it may seem, the natural humidity of the average factory interior
is about as low as that of a desert. Even in England, where
the climate is unusually moist, the cotton mills have found it to
their advantage to install humidifiers because the air is too dry
for their goods. Factories heated by steam are particularly
handicapped in this respect. Steam heat exerts quite a drying
effect on the air. In one large plant in the Middle-West, because
of this fact, several thousands of dollars have recently been
spent in changing over the system of steam heating to hot water,
which gives a milder and more humid heat. If they had rebuilt,
the probabilities are this company would have used neither
steam nor hot water, but the air-duct system, for with this
AIR CONDITIONING
149
GRAINS OF MOISTURE PER CUBIC FOOT OF AIR
alone is it possible exactly to control the degree of humidity.
It is fairly well determined that the proper degree of humidity
should be between sixty and seventy, with temperature sixty-five
to sixty-eight degrees Fahrenheit. The figure used to express
the degree of humidity is the per cent of saturation; that is,
13
12
HOW HUMIDITY AFFECTS
"SENSIBLE TEMPERATURES"
11
10
∞
(
5
♡
50
20
30
40
WET BULB TEMPERATURE
58 60′
70-
8.0
909
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
PER CENT SĂTURATION
20 25 30 35 40 45 50
55 60 65 7072 75 80 85 90 95 100 105
DRY BULB TEMPERATURE
FIGURE XXXIV: This chart shows the lines of equal sensible or wet bulb temperatures corresponding
to different actual temperatures and humidities. For instance, sixty-five per cent humidity gives a
sensible temperature of fifty-eight degrees or the same sensible temperature as produced by an actual
temperature of seventy-two degrees with forty degrees humidity, corresponding with the indications
of the thermometer
a humidity of seventy means that the air is carrying seventy
per cent of the moisture it is capable of carrying at that tempera-
ture. The higher the temperature the greater the absolute
amount it can carry, and conversely. Hence, in cold weather,
when the air is taken from the outside, unless there is some
provision for humidifying, the air when warmed will be ex-
cessively low in humidity. Its effect would then be unfavorable
on the efficiency of operatives and also on the product in process,
if that is of a nature like cotton, candy, wood or dough, which
may easily be damaged by too dry air.
150
FITTING UP THE BUILDING
In the duct system, humidifying is provided for as follows:
By warming the cold entering air to a certain temperature
(usually about forty degrees Fahrenheit) and then passing it
through a series of water curtains, so that every particle of the
air has to come in contact with water, not only is it washed
thoroughly, but given all the moisture it can carry. When
immediately afterwards the air passes through a second series
of heating coils and has its temperature raised to the desired
degree sixty, sixty-five or seventy degrees Fahrenheit, as the
case may be, the moisture-carrying capacity of the air is in-
creased, the ratio of saturation decreased and the desired
humidity achieved. Varying the temperature of the initial
coils determines the quantity of moisture absorbed, and thus
the degree of humidity in the delivered air.
Between the water curtains and the final heating coils an
"eliminator" usually is necessary. This removes surplus mois-
ture and particles of dust that are not removed in the washing
process. An eliminator is simply a series of baffle plates, to
make the passing air wind in and out and thus drop any lading
which its velocity at that point enables it to bear. The water
used in washing is usually caught in a drip pan, filtered and
recirculated by means of a little centrifugal pump. When thus
used, the water usually is passed through coils containing a
freezing solution, in order to keep it chilled sufficiently. In
many instances the washing operation during the hot months,
when the heating coils are off, is relied on to cool as well as
clean the air. It can thus be cooled to the wet-bulb or dew-
point temperature which is ten to twelve degrees lower than the
outside temperature.
It is important, for the best working of this system of air-
conditioning, that sole dependence be placed upon it at all times.
In summer the tendency to open windows is strong from mere
force of habit. Operatives have been known to complain that
the air was close and hot and to want the windows raised, when
the air within was degrees cooler than that outdoors. In one
instance by actual test it was found that the air within was
nearly ten degrees cooler; yet the workers (mostly girls) com-
plained and were not satisfied until the windows were raised.
AIR CONDITIONING
151
Then, although the temperature was raised several degrees, they
breathed a sigh of relief.
When the windows are opened, the mechanical system does
not work as well. When the building is made as thoroughly air-
tight as the impermeability of building materials will permit,
unless the same air regularly can be used over and over again,
it becomes necessary to provide an exhaust system. Sometimes the
exhaust is omitted and dependence is placed upon special shafts
and other openings for the escape of depleted air. In this case
the factory is put under a slight pressure, and for this reason
the duct system, when used without an exhaust, often is known
by the term plenum.
An advantage claimed for the plenum system is that cold air,
by the pressure, is kept from entering through crevices in the
walls, and thus a more comfortable interior is provided. This
is probably true for buildings poorly constructed, full of heat-
leaks. In a well-constructed building, where it is not feasible to
recirculate the air, however, more satisfactory results as a rule
are obtained by mechanical exhaust.
XV
LOW COST FACTORY
LIGHTING
F
ULLEST use of all the light nature affords naturally is
the first consideration in working out the best lighting
of a factory at the lowest cost. It is impossible to get
too much daylight into a factory. Strong sunlight, of course,
is objectionable, even as it is out-of-doors, and the factory interior
should be carefully protected against it. Perhaps the ideal con-
dition of lighting for work requiring the steady use of the
eyesight is that found in the shade of a tall, amply foliaged
tree on a bright, sunny day. This is the condition, therefore,
that should be approached as nearly as possible in the factory.
The fact, however, that every conceivable precaution has been
taken-in location, design and construction, and in operating
and maintenance measures-to secure the maximum use of day-
light, does not lessen the provision necessary for artificial light-
ing. This must be adequate to cope with the maximum condition
of darkness, and, so far as it is practicable with the means at
hand, to reproduce daylight conditions.
A few years ago this would have been out of the question.
But now, with the ordinary tungsten bulb, the nitrogen-filled
tungsten lamp and the flaming arc light, in connection with
suitable reflectors, it is not only possible but practicable very
nearly to reproduce daylight illumination. Gas arcs, too, have
been perfected, which give an excellent quality of light. Nor
has this progress been made at the expense of a greater consump-
tion of either current or gas, but through the more efficient
utilization of electric energy in the one case, and in the other
through the realization of more perfect combustion.
LOW COST LIGHTING
153
Tungsten lights cost more than the old-style carbon filament
incandescents, are more delicate and require greater care in
placing and handling. But for the same consumption of current
they give at least three times the intensity of illumination, not
to mention a much better quality of light. In timber-mill build-
ings it is advisable to use shock absorbers on all large tungstens
hung from the ceiling.
The nitrogen-filled tungsten lamp gives a still whiter light,
by comparison with which the vacuum tungsten luminosity
appears quite yellow. Twenty-five to fifty per cent greater
candlepower for the same consumption of current is the result,
but the light is so intense-like that of an arc-that this lamp
is suited for use only in indirect reflectors or in high-studded
areas. The filament in the nitrogen lamp is coiled in a small
compass at the focal point of the bulb, not strung out as in the
ordinary tungsten bulb, and this approximates closely the ideal
point-source condition. In consequence, the nitrogen lamp is
much more effectively reflectored and is especially satisfactory
for indirect lighting.
When the difference in efficiency is taken into consideration,
not only the better quality but also the greater quantity of light,
and the reduced number of individual lights required to give
the same intensity of illumination, no doubt should exist in the
mind of the factory man as to what light to choose, nor any
hesitancy, if he is dissatisfied with the service his carbons are
giving him, about replacing those with tungstens.
For general use, the sixty-watt tungsten lamp is recommended,
but some prefer one-hundred-watt fixtures with wider spacing.
Whichever is selected, it is often advisable, for the sake of uni-
formity, facility in making repairs and renewals, and simplicity
and compactness in stores, to hold to the one unit throughout,
securing the varying intensities required in different situations
by closer spacing or by grouping two or more units in a single
reflector. Clusters, however, have many objectionable points.
Great emphasis is placed upon providing in all cases suitable
reflectors, which may be of either metal or glass. A naked light
is like an unnozzled hose. By means of a suitable reflector, the
efficiency of a light may be increased two or three hundred per
cent. Not only does a reflector give direction to the rays of light
154
FITTING UP THE BUILDING
emanating from an incandescent filament, preventing waste in
directions where light is not needed, but by diffusing the rays,
it makes possible more uniform illumination.
Reflectors for single bulbs are made in two general shapes,
which may well be described as "shallow bowl" and "deep
bowl." The first is especially adapted for low ceilings or low
suspension and close spacing; the second, for high ceilings or
high suspension and fairly wide spacing. Both may be used
to provide general illumination. In either case, the spacing of
the units should be such that there is a generous overlapping
of light at the average level of vision.
As between general and specific illumination, although there
are points on both sides, it cannot be gainsaid that if day-
light conditions are to be reproduced general illumination is
absolutely essential. So it is fairly safe to establish as a criterion
that the first consideration in laying out an artificial lighting
system is to provide for good general illumination in any event.
And numerous examples of abundantly satisfactory results with
this alone can be found. Specific illumination will then be nec-
essary only in peculiar situations where artificial lights close
to the work would be needed even at midday. Where this is
required the lights should be so equipped with reflectors and
so located that the light is on the work, not in the eyes of the
operator. For specific illumination-that is, the light close to
the work-a conical, shallow bell or parabolic reflector is more
suitable than the types previously mentioned.
Again, unless there is good general illumination, it is practi-
cally impossible to avoid eye-strain, with its adverse effects on
the health and efficiency of the operatives, the frequency of
accidents, the proportion of seconds and culls, and the quantity
of work accomplished. Men must be able to look up from their
work, or enter a room from another room or from the outside,
without great change in the accommodation of the eyes.
Opposition to general illumination arises from the charge
that it is wasteful of light and specific illumination is favored
because it is believed to be more economical. Such it may be
in actual cost of current, but when all the factors are taken into
consideration the balance of economy will usually be found to
swing the other way. Nor is light wasted in the general system
LOW COST LIGHTING
155
simply because the fixtures are placed high. Under proper
arrangements, the same amount of light reaches the plane of
work, but like spray from a nozzle, it is finer, and more diffused
if farther from the source. By avoiding glints, glares and
shadows, this diffusion is often positively conservative of light.
INDIRECT LIGHTING, MERCURY VAPOR AND
FLAMING ARC LAMPS
BULBS with frosted tips serve the same purpose, but the
maximum elimination of points of light is secured through
an indirect or semi-indirect system of lighting. This system is
growing in popularity for hotels, auditoriums, clubs, even office
buildings; and it has been installed in a few factories. When
the ceiling is suitable and the panels are large and properly
white-coated, the indirect system is both efficient and economical.
It effects ideal diffusion of the light, approximating daylight
illumination more closely than any other kind of lighting.
Sometimes, to counteract the suggestion of darkness below
the level of the indirect fixture, an illuminated bowl is provided.
This effect may be secured by means of a small extra lamp, but
the more economically by allowing a little of the light from
above to leak through and be spread by an opal glass diffuser.
A pleasing bowl of soft luminosity is thus obtained. This is not
to be confused with the so-called semi-indirect fixture which
is of translucent glass, allowing the larger part of the light to
descend directly and which really classes as direct lighting.
On account of the splendid diffusion of light in the indirect
system, and the entire absence of points of light, one can see
to read or to do close work with remarkable ease, in spite of the
seeming slight gloom. There is as much light in the room as if
the same lights were employed in a direct system, but it is not
so concentrated. The pupil of the eye, in accommodating, as-
sumes the size which will relieve the muscles of any strain.
The light condition produced is really similar to the ideal
suggested, that found in the shade of a tree on a bright mid-
summer's day. Another advantage of the indirect system of
lighting is the comparative absence of glare and shadows. Thus,
this system possesses so many good points that it would seem
worth while to consider it wherever conditions are favorable.
156
FITTING UP THE BUILDING
The mercury vapor also possesses to a considerable extent the
agreeable qualities of indirect illumination. The light is so
diffused that the eye, without discomfort or injury, can endure
gazing directly at it. Moreover, it is economical, in cost of
installation, maintenance, and current consumption (Figure
XXXV). Owing to the fact, however, that it is deficient in
certain wave lengths, whence its greenish hue, it has not been
regarded as satisfactory for some kinds of work. On the other
hand, there are processes where this deficiency is a help. In
inspecting piano keys and in garment pressing, for instance,
the mercury light discloses imperfections which cannot be de-
tected in any other way.
The flaming arc is a development of the old carbon arc and
still makes use of carbon electrodes; but the mechanism is such
that larger carbons can be used and a much wider are produced
which has none of the disagreeable flickering characteristics of
its predecessor. Encased in a milky white globe, the effect is
TOOL ROOM
FOREMAN'S
OFFICE
၁
O O O O O O O O O O O
BENCHES
MACHINES
MACHINES
O
70 FEET
10
10
O
10
BENCHES
175 FEET.
O O O O O
1
10
FIGURE XXXV: Instead of lighting this machine shop by incandescent lamps, hung on swinging
cords, this equipment was replaced by mercury vapor lamps located as shown in solid black discs.
The difference in the number of lamps and in their arrangement is evident. The tubes for the mercury
vapor lamps were suspended from the ceiling near the windows so that the artificial light from the
shop came from the same general direction as the natural illumination
that of a ball of moderate luminosity. Integral with the fixture
is the reflector designed to shed the illumination outward and
downward.
Flaming arcs will burn continuously for one hundred and
fifty hours without retrimming, and meanwhile there is no
diminution in efficiency. Although the individual fixture is
LOW COST LIGHTING
157
costly, relatively so few are required that the upkeep compara-
tively is low and with its high efficiency this type of light is
second to none in total economy (Figure XXXVI).
One of the best examples of the use of flaming arcs is found
in the Bridgeport plant of the Crane Company, where a room
How Lighting Costs Were Cut 64%
ITEMS
ORDINARY
FLAMING
CARBON ARCS
ARCS
Number of lamps
15
4
Watts per lamp
660
550
Total watts per hour
9900
2200
Life of carbons per pair in hours
100
17
Cost of carbons per pair
$.024
$.17
Carbon cost per lamp hour
Current cost per hour
Total carbon cost per hour
Total cost of light per hour.
.00024
.01
297
..066
.0036
.04
.3006
.106
Total cost of light per 100 hours
30.06
10.60
FIGURE XXXVI: In a machine shop, two hundred and fifty feet by fifty feet, four flaming arcs
hung midway down the shop replaced fifteen ordinary arcs. Figures are based on three cents per
kilowatt hour for current. Net savings for every hundred hours the arcs burned were $19.46
50 feet wide by 352 feet long is lighted exclusively with ten
flaming arc lamps, equipped with cone reflectors, hung just
below the lower chord of the roof trusses-a distance of 32 feet
6 inches above the floor.
Flaming arcs particularly are well adapted for illuminating
foundries or other rooms where the atmosphere is more or less
smoky, because the light is strong in yellow wave lengths, which
are most effective in penetrating haze.
For lighting yards and outdoor passages or working places,
the flaming are also is well adapted, although the larger sizes
of tungstens are perhaps equally satisfactory, no more costly
and burn from 1,500 to 2,000 hours without renewal as against
150 hours for the arc lamp.
High location of lights is a disadvantage principally on
maintenance grounds. When lamps are hung at a height
which even an exceptionally tall man cannot reach without
equipment, the attendants must of course carry stepladders
158
FITTING UP THE BUILDING
around with them, and this means slower work, hence greater
maintenance cost. In case of are lamps, the rigging may be
such that the lamp can be lowered for cleaning and retrimming;
but usually working conditions underneath do not make this
practicable. Hence, in the typical installation, walkways must
be provided at the level of the lamps, if the suspension is above
the reach of an ordinary stepladder.
All things considered, high location-as high as the ceiling
or roof construction permits-is advantageous. The higher
the suspension, however, the stronger the individual light must
be. For instance, the light given off by a sixty-watt tungsten
might suffice amply to illuminate an area ten by ten if the ceil-
ing height were eight feet; if ten feet, then probably 100-watt
lamps would be needed to give equal intensity; but a propor-
tionately larger space, twelve by twelve, would be served by the
one lamp, so that a less number would be required.
Again, high suspension means greater safety against breakage
and petty stealing. One of the weightiest points against specific
illumination, which means low suspension, is that the loss from
these sources is so heavy. When, too, the lamps are hung out of
ordinary reach, the men are not tempted to tinker with them.
Managers have found that when lamps are within reach it is
almost impossible to keep men from handling them. The result
is much lost time, and if each workman has not a private lamp,
there is continual interference, with the inevitable delays and
disputes. At times the presence of overhead fixtures and belt-
ing seriously impairs the efficiency of high suspension and
requires numerous additional lamps, hung low, to piece out the
illumination at individual machines.
A still further advantage of high suspension is that lamps
may be grouped in any sized circuit desired, large or small, and
the common switch (or switches) located so that a particular man
-it may be the foreman-can be made solely responsible for the
timely turning on and off of the various circuits. This is
economical from the standpoint both of installation and opera-
tion. When it is left to the individual workman to turn on and
off his own lamp, the turning-on they will do, but the turning-off
they almost invariably forget. When one man is responsible,
the matter is easily arranged.
LOW COST LIGHTING
159
A mechanical device which has great merit in this connection
is the no-voltage release switch. In one plant where this was
tried, the first month it was installed a saving of over ten per
cent was shown in the cost of power for lighting. When the
switchboard attendant or engineer opens the main switch and
immediately closes it again, all the lights in the factory go out
and stay out until the individual switches again are closed. The
no-voltage release device automatically has opened all switches
and they stay open until closed individually by hand. Thus
the foreman is relieved of any responsibility in the matter and
if anyone requires light out of the regular hours, he is obliged
to go over and close his switch. Then, if on quitting he forgets
to open it again, the watchman reports him on his next round
and he is taken to task. By centering the responsibility for safe-
keeping of individual lighting features in somewhat the same
manner, managers have cut down very largely the loss due to
breakage and theft.
CLEA
HOW SOAP AND WATER HOLD DOWN
LIGHT EQUIPMENT COSTS
LEANING of lamps, bulbs, globes and reflectors, is as im-
portant as cleaning of windows and walls. A lighting
expert was called in to investigate the conditions in a factory,
with a view to recommending changes. A new equipment of
lamps of stronger candlepower was thought to be required. It
took the expert less than ten minutes to discover that the chief
trouble was slovenly maintenance. Some of the fixtures looked
as if they had not been cleaned since installation. Also the walls
and ceiling, originally white and glossy, were now dark and
dingy. So the consultant called for some washers and set them
to work to clean up one small department. Walls and ceilings,
as well as the lighting fixtures, were tackled. When the job
was done the manager was called in to look. So great was the
change in the brightness of the room that for the moment he
was dumbfounded. When he learned that the miracle had been
accomplished by the liberal use of soap and water he felt some-
what abashed. The expert said: "All you need is to keep your
lamps and walls and ceiling clean. Your present equipment,
1
160
FITTING UP THE BUILDING
with possibly one or two exceptions, is adequate as it is; only
maintain it properly." And so it turned out.
Another important detail to provide for is a record of the life
of each lighting unit. When a lamp gives out, by consulting the
record, it can at once be seen whether the failure is a natural
one or not. The system should also provide for timely replacing
of lamps, based on their hours of actual service. In the case of
arc lights, which need retrimming at fairly regular intervals,
this is a much easier matter to regulate than in the case of
filament lamps. The larger the individual unit, the more de-
sirable it is to operate a close record, because the more money
is involved in a single renewal.
One manager handled the situation by placing tags on each
fixture, upon which a record was kept of the dates of installa-
tion, repairs, if any, and renewal with reasons. The fixtures
were numbered according to a plan and each fixture carried a
little metal tag with its number. The manila tag then took this
number, and when a lamp was replaced its tag was sent in to
the office as a report and a fresh tag was attached to the new
fixture. The tags coming into the office were promptly scrutinized
by one of the executives, and if an unusual circumstance was
noted, a special investigation was ordered. Replaced lamps,
too, were required to be returned, with their tags, to the electrical
storeroom and tested by the electrician before being scrapped.
The electrician then added on the tags his comments. In this
way promiscuous renewals were almost entirely avoided and the
suppliers checked up on the performance of their wares, and if
there was any especially unsatisfactory performance they
promptly heard of it.
Another manager has a tag placed on a lamp when it goes out.
In case of replacement the lamp must be returned. The tag
enables the company to demand replacement when the lamps turn
black, as they are guaranteed against this defect.
XVI
WATER FOR INDUSTRIAL
USES
W
ATER is not unlimited and without price. As an item
of expense, therefore, its supply and distribution for
the various uses about the factory is one of those "little
things" that determine the profits of the future.
In building the factory the time to consider the question of
a suitable supply of water is at the start-before location is
definitely settled upon. Two factors enter into the problem:
first, quantity; second, quality. An abundance of pure, soft
water is the thing desired. Many factories have to contend with
a supply which, while adequate, is unsuited in its natural state
for many purposes. Water, for instance, which would do for
sanitary, fire-protection and general purposes about the factory
would not be suitable for steam-making or manufacturing proc-
esses, nor safe for drinking. So it becomes necessary in many
factories either to provide a separate source of supply for one
or more of these purposes or to install a water-purifying plant.
In a particular instance, the only way to determine the num-
ber of sources necessary is to have a chemical analysis made of
samples from the existing source or sources of supply. Many
waters that are as clear as crystal yet contain dissolved mineral
matter which utterly unfits them for boiler use; may unfit them
for some manufacturing purposes, such as washing dye-stuffs,
and may even unfit them for drinking purposes, because of their
unfavorable physiological action. Only a chemical analysis by
a qualified expert can decide the question authoritatively.
A public supply is often the only supply available, and in
small cities and towns this supply is apt to be fairly pure, satis
162
FITTING UP THE BUILDING
factory for manufacturing uses and good enough for drinking.
In any event, however, an independent source of supply
for drinking water is desirable, as the best of town water, unless
the town operates a purification plant, is apt in seasons to be
contaminated. In some cases it may be found advisable for the
factory to install its own purification plant. A number of good
filters are on the market especially for factory use. However,
if there are water-bearing strata underneath, an artesian well is
preferable. In the first place, by going down far enough-1,000
to 2,000 feet-a very pure supply is obtainable-fresh from
nature's own purification plant. In the second place, artesian
waters are usually of an even coolness the year around, just
about right for drinking, saving the trouble and expense of
icing in summer. And, in the third place, it is likely to be more
economical—costing nothing save for the expense of original
drilling, and costing no more to pump than to filter, if as much.
Factories located in large cities seldom find it practicable to
operate a private supply, and dependence must be placed on the
public supply. If the city water is not good, a private filter
plant needs to be installed pending that time when the city will
assume the task of purification for all consumers. Even then,
with city-purified water, it may be desirable for the factory
to have its own plant. The Link Belt Company, of German-
town, Pennsylvania, drawing its water from the city of Phila-
delphia's filtered supply, again filters and sterilizes privately
every drop of drinking water it uses. This company has found
that in the one point of absences cut down these added pre-
cautions pay for themselves.
CUTTING DOWN LOSSES BY PROVIDING AN ADEQUATE
SUPPLY OF PURE DRINKING WATER
FILTERING the water eliminates the distasteful, and very
largely the pathological qualities; but it does not entirely
eliminate the elements that react unfavorably on the human
organism under factory working conditions. Every time a man
is out, production is to an extent interrupted. Not only the man
but the company loses by each absence. In a season, this loss
in a large plant would mount up heavily. And the more highly
organized a plant is, the more would this be true. Where every-

Tiled floors and walls, bubbling fountains, and individual lockers with peaked roofs are part of
sanitary equipment in the wash and locker room (above) in a German factory. In the Ford
foundry concrete mezzanine floors support the toilet room equipment (middle), from in front of which
a partition (arrows) has been removed in order to make the photograph. Roomy lockers are ar-
ranged in widely spaced rows and located close to lavatories in the National Lead Company's plant

TO DRY HANDS
XLASE FRICK HELS
Sanitation includes provision for injured employees. Dispensaries of the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car
Company (above) and the General Electric Company (below) and a "first aid" case are shown. A
substitute for towels is a hot air blast arrangement which operates by electricity, and thoroughly dries
the hands in from thirty to forty seconds; a foot lever controls the blast
WATER FOR INDUSTRIAL USES
165
one has a duty he is expected to perform each day, and his
neglect to perform that duty either throws an extra burden
on somebody else or leaves the duty unattended to, substituting
for absentees is not so easy. So we find alert managers, in their
unceasing endeavor to hunt down the very last elements of
inefficiency, going to the extreme of sterilizing even filtered
water.
Only secondary in importance to a proper supply of water
for drinking purposes is the means for dispensing it. The
common drinking cup is distasteful and insanitary. Sanitarians
charge that many diseases of the mouth, throat and lungs are
communicated by it. So much in disfavor is the common drink-
ing cup that the laws of almost a score of states, following the
lead of Kansas in 1910, now prohibit its use in public places,
and it is expected that other states will rapidly follow suit.
Factory managers, however, are not waiting to be compelled
by statute to remedy this evil. They believe that in the better
class of help they are able to attract and hold, and in the reduc-
tion of absences traceable to common cups, they reap ample
returns on the investment involved.
Bubbling fountains are preferable to individual paper cups
for a number of reasons, chief of which is that they are more
economical. The type of fountain which runs all the time, how-
ever, is wasteful of water; yet it is preferable to the turn-on-
and-off type if running will give the necessary coolness, for far
more time will be wasted by the men waiting for the water to
run cold than is offset by the saving in water. If the water will
not run cold, then artificial cooling should be resorted to.
This may take the form of a central icing or refrigerating
plant, which cools the water for the entire plant, or individual
coolers at each fountain. From a maintenance point of view,
the central cooling station is preferable; but there are cases
when the individual cooler is better. If artificial cooling is
necessary, the turn-on-and-off type of fountain, with automatic
shut-off, is the one to adopt in connection therewith.
A proper quality of water for drinking is not more important
than a proper quality for boiler use. Certain waters, other-
wise pure, are impregnated with mineral matter which on evap-
oration is deposited, forming an accreting crustation on the
166
FITTING UP THE BUILDING
inside of the boiler tubes-commonly called "boiler scale." To
cure this trouble and check consequent fuel loss "boiler com-
pounds" have been invented. These act to loosen the deposit
but do not prevent its forming and it is doubtful if they are
of much avail. So factory managers who have scale-forming
waters to contend with, install "water-softeners" to remove the
"hardness" which causes scale.
Feed-water heaters are only partially effective. A complete
water-softener plant, however, effects the removal of practically
all of the scale-forming matter and renders the water not only
"soft," but slightly alkaline, which is a desirable condition coun-
teracting any tendency to corrosion. Rain water is soft, but it
nearly always contains some acid gathered on its flight through
the air which would corrode the boiler tubes, and thus is unfitted.
SOLVING THE PROBLEM OF WATER SUPPLY
FOR FIRE PROTECTION
WATER for fire protection purpose is in many respects the
most important consideration of all. Here it is not a case
of quality, but of quantity and pressure. Particularly is this
the case if a plant is independent of a city supply and of
city protection. But even in the heart of a city the factory
finds it to their advantage to be independent in this respect,
owing to the ever-present danger of a conflagration which may
deprive the plant of its supply just when it is needed the most.
There is also the very practical reason of lower insurance rates
-the surer the water supply, the more favorable the rates, and
the corresponding saving capitalized will of itself very nearly
pay for the added investment to be absolutely safe.
Water for manufacturing purposes, particularly in textiles
and tanneries, where large volumes are used daily, is a subject
for special consideration in each instance. The source of supply
may be the same as for other purposes, but a separate storage
and distribution system is usually needed. About the same
quality of water is needed as for boiler use. In textiles and
tanneries, particularly, the water must not only be clean but
free from "hardness," as this quality has been found to react
unfavorably on both dyes and tans.
Softening the water absolutely prevents wastes due to such
WATER FOR INDUSTRIAL USES
167
reaction. It also effects a large saving in the quantity of soap
required in all washing processes. On the other hand, in some
processes it may be desirable to leave certain of the hardening
chemicals in the water, even on occasion adding other chemicals,
in order to produce a helpful and desirable reaction.
Water for general purposes-flushing toilets, cleaning floors
and windows, sprinkling the lawns and so on—is chiefly a ques-
tion of quantity and pressure. The raw water, from the city
mains or private basin, is all right-it remains merely to furnish
the pressure. Where the city water is available and the pressure
sufficient, the factory needs only to be piped with it. Where
the city pressure is insufficient, at least on the upper floors, or
there is a private supply, a special tank is required. This is
supported at a suitable elevation either on a separate tower or
on the stairwell tower, which is kept filled by a pump in the
engine room. This pump automatically connects in when the
supply is low. It is a good plan in any event to have such a
tank as city pressure frequently is more or less erratic.
For cleaning purposes, it has been found quite desirable to
have special hydrants located at convenient places about the
factory and the yard. These permit of hose being attached or
water drawn off in pails.
For sprinkling lawns and flower beds, if at all extensive, the
most convenient and, in the long run, most economical arrange-
ment it has been found, is to gird the lawn with pipes, which
come to an outlet at the surface at intervals. To these, sprink-
lers may quickly be attached and water turned into all of them
at once. With the arrangement described, one man without
a hose can accomplish more in one hour than he can with one
in a day.
In laying out the piping system, provision must be made at
the outset for all future demands. The mains and trunk lines,
at least, must be ample for the life of the construction.
When piping passes through the yard or under buildings, it is
a pretty good plan to lay it in concrete conduits, with convenient
manholes at intervals. Then troubles may be quickly located
and readily repaired. The same channel may be utilized for
other than water piping-air pipes, gas pipes, electric conduits,
and so on. The different kinds of pipes should be distinguished
168
FITTING UP THE BUILDING
in some way-painting on in white or red letters what they are
has been found preferable to painting the pipes different colors,
as where there are several different kinds of piping, a color
scheme leads to confusion. If, however, there are only two or
three different kinds, the color scheme is probably preferable.
The nearest valves should be indicated by arrows painted on the
pipes and the valves should all be clearly indicated as to purpose
and operation, and be located in suitably sheltered but easily
accessible places.
If piping is buried in the ground, it needs to be three and
one-half to four feet below the surface in order to be safe against
freezing in winter. Water pipes in unheated storages are subject
to the same danger, and should be suitably insulated or paralleled
with steam pipes, or both.
At all times keep on file in the vault an up-to-date and accurate
plan of the piping. The advantages of such a system are self-
evident to all who have had troubles with piping, and it is the
system followed by such carefully managed water works com-
panies as the American Water Works and Guarantee Company,
Pittsburgh, owners and operators of more than forty plants.
The plans of this company are so maintained that any valve, tee,
elbow or other connection can be located almost to the inch both
in position and in depth, though it has been buried for years.
Planning and accurate, immediate and reliable records have an
exceedingly important value in equipping a factory with a water-
works system.
XVII
FACTORY SANITATION
F
INGER-NAILS must be cleaned before workmen eat at
noon, was the order which the manager of an enamel
producing factory found it necessary to issue. He had
trouble because of illness among the men. This had been due
to lead poisoning, as many of his employees handled large quan-
tities of white lead during their work. By providing hot and
cold running water and requiring the men to wash thoroughly
before eating, he greatly reduced the number of cases of poison-
ing, but they did not entirely cease until cleaning of finger-nails
was also required. The foremen now act as inspectors to see that
this regulation is faithfully observed. To make the reform
effective, it was necessary also to forbid the men to bring their
lunches into the workrooms, and lunching at indiscriminate
times. Men are now required to leave their lunch boxes in their
lockers and may eat only after they have passed inspection.
This is, of course, an extreme case. Nevertheless, it illustrates
the new viewpoint of many managers. They believe that it pays
in all instances to be careful, whether poisonous materials are
handled or not. A better class of employees, an improved moral
tone, better health and greater individual and collective efficiency
have been found to follow the introduction of modern sanitary
measures.
The viewpoint of manufacturers, both large and small, has
been rapidly changing. Refinements are being introduced in the
matter of toilets and urinals, lavatories, lockers, drinking foun-
tains and disposal of sewage, which a few years ago would have
been thought ridiculous in the factory. The general idea of
170
FITTING UP THE BUILDING
O
GALLERY OVERHEAD
ENTRANCE
FOUR FOOT PARTITION
FIVE FOOT PARTITION
MAIN AISLE
O
BIG STRUCTURAL SHOP
BUILDING A. 4 STORIES
COURT
CONNECTING PASSAGE WAYS,
LAVATORIES AND LOCKER ROOM
BUILDING B. 4 STORIES
FIGURE XXXVII: In arranging the sanitary equipment in the center of a big machine shop two
metal partitions were built parallel to the main walls. In the plant at the right ventilating ducts ran
from the basement to the top of the building. A fan draws the air through the ducts
adequate sanitary equipment in a factory, until the last few
years, seemed to be the grouping of two or more closets, a small
urinal, a wash bowl, possibly of enameled iron, and a roller towel
which had to do for a whole week, regardless of the season of
the year, or the number of the men using it. Such things as
drinking fountains, shower baths and lockers were not thought
of. Soap was conspicuous by its absence.
Now all happily is changed. Today scrupulous sanitation is
very commonly regarded by enlightened managements, as of
paramount importance. Progress toward better sanitation began
first in the offices of factories. The advent of women into offices,
as stenographers and clerks, gave the movement a sharp impetus.
As better accommodations were provided for women, men
began to feel they were entitled to as good. The result is that
today it is almost impossible to find a modern factory office or a
well-kept one of the older type where sanitary conditions are not
as good for one sex as the other, and as good for both as in most
modern offices and high-class residence buildings.
Improvement of sanitary conditions in the workshops came
more slowly, but it came as surely. One does not find many
factories yet, even the most modern, that are all that could be
desired; but almost everywhere conditions are vastly better
than they used to be. Managers have not been actuated by
humanitarian impulses primarily, although they may have been
incidentally. What influenced them chiefly was the considera-
tion of greater efficiency. They saw that good sanitation, like
good heating, ventilating and lighting, pays.
FACTORY SANITATION
171
SECOND FLOOR
MILL BUILDING
SHOE FACTORY AND TEXTILE MILL
FIRST FLOOR
8 FT.
TOWER
HEIGHT OF BUILDING
LAVATORIES
ELEVATOR AND STAIRS
MEZZANINE FLOOR
竹
​FIGURE XXXVIII: In a mill building, the equipment is placed conveniently on a mezzanine floor,
swung about seven and one-half feet from the floor above. Space is taken near the elevator on each
floor of a shoe factory for the economical placing of sanitary equipment
What constitutes good factory sanitation? And what does it
embrace? These are the pertinent questions. In common under-
standing, sanitation is synonymous with plumbing. Broadly
speaking, it includes all equipment designed to secure or pre-
serve the health of the workers-dust removers, air purifiers,
vacuum cleaners, and smoke consumers, as well as toilets, wash
rooms and shower baths, lockers for workmen, drinking foun-
tains, devices to condition the air, apparatus to freshen and
revitalize the atmosphere, sanitary receptacles for waste and
other refuse, sanitary instruments and accessories for giving
first aid to the injured or emergency medical aid to those
suddenly taken sick; in fact, a hundred and one practical
devices around the factory, kinks in construction, lighting
facilities, noise eliminators, clean and attractive places for the
men to eat their lunches, and so on, all of which have a direct
influence on the comfort and convenience and, therefore, health
and efficiency of workmen.
SANITARY LOCKERS AND LAVATORIES MEAN
BETTER WORK AND MORE OF IT
THE sanitary locker is the locker open to the air, made of
smooth-coated metal with no wood or other material in its
make-up to absorb filth or constitute a fire hazard, with a locking
device to make it difficult for anyone to break in, and equipped
with steam or hot water pipes to dry damp clothing.
The need for this kind of equipment is apparent from a visit
to any shop where lockers are not provided. If the management
172
FITTING UP THE BUILDING
does not provide lockers, the men will, in the shape of soap boxes
nailed to the walls or rigged up on stands alongside machines
and benches. In one such shop, the men had the space so
blocked up with improvised "lockers" as seriously to interfere
with the moving of the product. The walls were everywhere
disfigured with similar make-shifts, unsightly to say the least;
in some instances an obstruction to passageways, and in all
instances insanitary, unsafe, and a distinct fire hazard. When
suitable lockers were provided, grouped together in a room parti-
tioned off for this purpose, a noticeable gain in efficiency resulted
almost immediately. The shop took on a new tone. Production
space was gained. Production flowed through more smoothly.
FOUNDRY.
DRESSING ROOM
I
MACHINE SHOP
HHH
CLOSETS
LAVATORIES
UP
RAISED FOUR FEET
ABOVE FLOOR
SHOWER BATH
FIGURE XXXIX: Shower baths, dressing rooms and other conveniences for the workmen are located
along the side-wall in the center of this foundry. In a machine shop the toilet room is raised four
feet above the floor to give it a central location with respect to all the departments of the shop
Operatives took more interest in their work. In fact, very
soon one man, then another, then several more, then most of the
men came to work in better clothes. A decent place in which to
keep their belongings became an incentive to dress more decently.
Thus the old employees went up a notch in the scale of manhood
and men of a better class were attracted.
Shower baths, particularly for men who work under such
conditions, in foundries and the like, enabling them to wash up
all over at the end of the day and get into clean and dry under-
wear, have a similar beneficial effect. A higher class of men
are willing, with such conveniences, to do work they otherwise
would not. It is by no means an uncommon sight at many fac-
tories to see a molder emerge from a foundry at the end of his
day's work as neatly attired as a clerk from the office.
FACTORY SANITATION
173
Lavatories are in some industries absolutely essential, in all
desirable and worth while. Eating with dirty hands, while
seldom an actual source of ill health, though always uncouth,
does not tend to improve men's moral tone. Individual enameled
wash bowls are usually best for the factory as they are for the
office. They are not only more sanitary, less wasteful of water
and generally more serviceable, but they cater to the desire for
privacy innate in all men and thus exercise a healthful moral
stimulus.
TOILETS THAT HELP WORKMEN TO
RETAIN THEIR SELF-RESPECT
THE sanitary toilet is the one easy to keep clean, inoffensive
so far as possible to the finer instincts, bright and attractive,
well ventilated, and lighted, with due privacy, automatic flushing
devices so as to negative the habits of forgetfulness and careless-
ness on the part of men and furnishing no breeding place for
disease germs-mental, moral or physical.
Many different types of sanitary closets and urinals are in
use, from the continuous trough or range closet, with automatic
periodic flushing, to the individual closet system. The former
is the less expensive, the latter the more sanitary and in general
more satisfactory to the workingmen. The individual closet
system, however, is seldom used in the shop; on the other hand,
it is almost exclusively used in factory offices, and the same
reasons that make it desirable for the office make it desirable in
the shop. In some organized shops, employing high-grade labor,
the preference is given to it. But in the average plant it might
be hard to justify the greater investment involved. The range
´closet, with dividing partitions and doors, and automatic flushing
tank, thoroughly ventilated, is the next best thing-in fact, in
many instances, answers every purpose, and, because well venti-
lated, offers really very little offense.
The same principle applies in regard to urinals. The stall
arrangement giving privacy is decidedly preferable to the un-
divided urinal, with its open invitation to petty nuisances. To
be thoroughly sanitary, the stalls should be ventilated, top and
bottom, flushed with water running continuously or intermit-
tently, and paved for at least a foot in front with a solid slab of
174
FITTING UP THE BUILDING
slate or glass, offering at no point lodgment for fluids to make
a nuisance. If properly ventilated, and sanitary in every respect,
there is no reason for odors and hence little need for deodorizers
and disinfectants.
Urinal stalls are usually placed along the wall, dividing the
wall space with closet stalls. About half as many urinals as
closets are provided. If the toilet is a through room, that is,
accessible from either end, half the stalls of one kind are placed
at one end and half at the other, so as to minimize the travel.
Another arrangement leaves the wall space free, placing the
closets in one or two rows back to back and the urinals either
likewise or in hexagonal groups. The hexagonal urinal is both.
a convenient and economical unit. The economy arises from the
fact that a central discharge and a central ventilating hood
serves six stalls.
As to the best place for sanitary equipment, a favorite prac-
tice is to group it in abutting wings, so as not to encroach on
manufacturing space (Figures XXXVII-XXXIX). Other
advantages are gained by this arrangement. More light and air
can be provided; it is easier to wash up and keep sweet and
clean. Fire doors give it isolation from the factory and thus
afford additional security to men's belongings. The same wing
may be made to support sprinkler tanks as well as flush tanks,
and the basement forms a convenient and safe place for pipe
valves.
An arrangement adapted to broad, single-story buildings, is
to put the comfort station under ground. This is objection-
able in that it compels men to use stairways. But it affords them
far less opportunity to loaf systematically and is not distasteful
to anybody on account of its conspicuousness. These are the
objections advanced against placing comfort equipment on a
mezzanine floor, as is sometimes done.
As to the disposal of sewage, if the factory is located on a
public trunk line, the problem is simple. All that needs to be
done is to lay out the factory sewer system with due reference
to the public main, converge all branch pipes into a main and
connect into the trunk. Efficiency managers locate all piping
in strict accordance with plans prepared after a survey of the
site has been made and keep a record which shows exactly where
FACTORY SANITATION
175
every line of piping is with the location and depth of inter-
sections. The factory main, of course, should be of liberal size,
so as to provide for anticipated growth.
For sewer piping, if only small pipes are required, vitrified
clay tile is in common use although cement tiles are also now
much favored. For large sewers, concrete conduits laid continu-
ously and reinforced with steel are more satisfactory. Only a
very large plant, however, would require such a sewer. Piping
when carefully laid to grades given by a surveyor assures an
interrupted flow of sewage by gravity to the point of discharge.
If no public mains are available, as is usually the case when
a factory is located in a suburban or rural district, two courses
are open: (1) To extend the factory main to the nearest running
body of water into which it is not forbidden to discharge
sewage; (2) to purify the sewage in septic tanks and discharge
the colorless and odorless effluent through drain tile, or use it
to irrigate nearby farm land. Another manager collects the
purified effluent, runs it through his water purifying and soften-
ing plant, and uses it over again for steam making, fire protec-
tion, sanitation and for all purposes, indeed, except drinking.
This manager has available a public main; but he chooses not
to use it, preferring to reclaim his water as he reclaims other
wastes of manufacture. The sludge he also uses, compressing
and drying it into cakes which he disposes of as fertilizer.
Thus the modern factory man carries the principle of waste-
utilization to the point of making something of sewage, ordinarily
conceived of as worse than worthless, but as this manager has
demonstrated, of large value as a by-product of an effective
sanitary system.
XVIII
CUTTING DOWN THE
FIRE HAZARD
N constructing a new administration building of brick,
IN
reinforced-concrete and wire-glass, a manufacturer installed
no fire-fighting equipment or apparatus. He supposed that
his building was safe from fire. But he failed to give due weight
to the fact that the wooden doors, trim and partitions with which
it was fitted constituted a dangerous fire hazard.
One night a clerk who had been working overtime carelessly
threw, as it is supposed, the butt of a cigarette into a basket full
of waste paper. Fire broke out, and by the time the watchman
on his next round discovered it such headway had been gained
that, in spite of the efforts of the firemen, the building was
gutted.
The structure was not seriously damaged, but all the woodwork,
including filing cases filled with records, was reduced to charred
embers. A large sum of money was required to restore the
interior, and the financial loss in records was inestimable.
Now, however, this manufacturer not only replaced wood with
metal or other fire-resisting material wherever he could, includ-
ing metal filing cases and fireproof partitions, but he installed a
complete automatic-sprinkler equipment. Had he taken these
precautions in the first place, when the extra cost would have
been comparatively slight, he would have saved himself many
thousands of dollars.
To be prepared for the worst is the truly conservative position
for the manufacturer to take with regard to fire hazards when
it comes to building and equipping his factory. However un-
burnable it may be in materials of construction, and however
CUTTING DOWN FIRE HAZARD
177
ttin
Make this the high-
est point of the live
steam pipe and from
here slope pipe down-
ward slightly to re.
Turn pipe
Discharge pipe
Reduce size of pipe
to lin. At this point and
return to Boiler Rm
lia
12in
2in. horizontal nailing strips
spaced about 3ft. apărt
Discharge
Pipe.
Steam Pipe.
Zin. Air Space.
2in Air Space.
Zin Air Space.
FIGURE XL:
to the boiler room.
2 Thicknesses of tarred. paper
around each box except outside
in. Tongued and
grooved sheathing
At the left is a cross-section of a gravity tank, showing a steam pipe with return
At the right is a method to prevent freezing of either the supply pipe or down-
comer pipe for a tank on a trestle or elevated above a roof
scientifically designed to minimize fire hazards, some danger
always remains-if not to the building itself at least to its
contents.
In a woodworking plant the danger is perhaps greatest; in a
metalworking plant, generally it is least. Yet in the latter
case, so long as machines need oil and waste and other inflam-
mable fabrics must be kept in the open, even though there is no
wood in the construction of the building, fire hazards will still
remain. And the hazard increases as the product of the factory
is more combustible in its nature, or subject to explosion-as are
flour and other grain products, for example. If the building
also is of burnable materials, conditions are at their worst and
the equipment and apparatus necessary to prevent disastrous
fires needs to be elaborate.
A very great advance was made in the art of fire protection
when the automatic sprinkler was perfected. This device actu-
ally makes fires put out themselves. When a factory is thoroughly
equipped with sprinklers, a stream of water constantly stands
guard over every square foot of floor space, in instant readiness
to drown any incipient blaze and able to pour forth its flood over
areas difficult to reach otherwise.
Valuable as is the automatic sprinkler, however, it has its
limitations. One of these arises from the fact that a high
temperature (180° F.) is necessary before the soft-metal strut
178
FITTING UP THE BUILDING
1in steam pipe
12in.
Check Valve
12in
Check Valve
1in. Steam pipe
through bottom
of tank.
1
FIGURE XLI:
Unless check valves are placed in steam pipes entering tanks water will be drawn
back by siphon action when the steam is shut off. The steam pipe may be taken through the bot-
tom of the tank or through the side as shown
which locks the sprinkler head fuses and permits the water to
rush forth and drench the cause of the heat beneath. Before
this degree of temperature is reached a fire may gain large
headway and require several sprinkler openings to extinguish
it when perhaps a bucket of water or a chemical extinguisher,
if used in time, would have been ample. Even then, it is the
water rather than the fire damage that is serious. If, for
instance, the fire happens in the night or during a holiday, it may
be some little interval before the discovery is made. In the
meantime the water continues to pour forth even though the
blaze has been promptly quenched. Far more damage, thus,
may be occasioned by water than by fire.
SAFETY MEASURES THAT KEEP A SPRINKLER SYSTEM
ALWAYS IN WORKING ORDER
NEARLY all the other limitations of the automatic sprinkler
are deficiencies, not of the equipment itself, but in its
installation and upkeep or in the water supply. The automatic
sprinkler has been the mainstay of fire protection for more than
a generation; and in proper working order, and with a sufficient
supply of water in reserve, it has seldom failed to perform its
duty with dispatch.
In one instance the system failed to act because the valve had
been turned off while repairs were being made to some piping
and heads, and when the repairs were finished no one had thought
CUTTING DOWN FIRE HAZARD
179
FF
Strip.
Make this joint.
tight by calking
Bent
Make this joint
tight by calking..
Nail into
plank & not
Iron strap,
Iron strap.
Into staves.
Cut to fit
close to staves
FIGURE XLII: Two methods of making tight joints around the top of an exposed water tank
are shown. For economy in heating during winter and as an extra precaution against inblown
leaves and nesting by birds a double conical cover is often provided
to open the valve. In another instance, the fire happened at a
time when the system was out of commission for repairs. In
still another case the supply main was frozen. In a fourth, the
down-flow pipe from the tank was similarly affected (Figure
XL). Again, the pipes within the factory were frozen, due to
the policy of the management not to operate the heating system
during the night, and before these were in working order once
more the fire was beyond the control of the apparatus.
Such failures as these have led to the adoption of stringent
rules by fire insurance companies, covering the protection of the
sprinklers against the agency of frost; and installations which
are not guarded in accordance are either not accepted or penal-
ized with a higher rate. These rules require valves located
without the building to be housed in heated chambers; the
heating of outside tanks (Figure XLI) with steam jets; the
paralleling of water pipes with steam pipes until within the
shelter of the heated interior; the continuous heating of inte-
riors, preferably throughout the winter, but especially over night
when the probabilities are that the outside temperature will sink
below a point which will result in a freezing temperature within
-the guarding, in fact, of every possible point of attack by frost.
What is said with reference to the desirability of never allow-
ing a factory interior to cool off does not, of course, apply to
shipping and other structures which it is not customary or neces-
sary to heat at any time. Where such buildings need fire
180
FITTING UP THE BUILDING
protection a departure from the ordinary form of sprinkler
becomes necessary in order to avoid freezing. What is called
the dry-pipe system has been developed to meet this need. In
this water is not admitted to the sprinkler pipes within the
building, but these are kept full of air under slight pressure.
B
id
Et
G
A
F
F
B
P
FIGURE XLIII: In this straightway dry-pipe valve,
gate A closes the vertical pipe at the right. Water
bears against the gate from below. Air pressure from
the pipes above is exerted against A and diaphragm B.
When the air pressure is released, water lifts the valve
and fills the intermediate chamber. Piston D is forced
to d, leaving the passage clear for water
Where the water enters, a valve is placed enclosed, if necessary,
in a frost-proof chamber. In event of fire the sprinkler heads
open as ordinarily, the air pressure is relieved and the valve
opens admitting water to all parts of the system. It is, of course,
a little later in reaching the opened head or heads, but the delay
is so slight that the efficiency of the system is regarded as
practically the same as the ordinary system and the insurance
companies give it equal recognition (Figures XLIII and XLIV).
To be absolutely safe as regards the adequacy of the water
supply, three separate sources should be provided: a tank sup-
ply, which gives the immediate pressure and water enough
to quench any ordinary blaze; an auxiliary reservoir supply

DESJARDINS & ERICSSON
ROUGH DRESSED LUMBER
How "drenchers" protect a building is shown in the upper picture at the left. Space between fire
partitions is used for air-ducts at the Eastman Kodak plant. At the same plant, in case of fire,
employees in the film department can escape across open air balconies into a solid concrete tower
(arrow) containing stairs and elevators. Two such towers are provided

EXIT EXIT
Standard fire doors, built of oak, tin-covered, hung on inclined ways, held open cnly by a fusible
link, with ample lay-over, and easy to reopen, are shown above. Heat quickly melts the link, letting
the doors close. Exit signs can be read from any direction. Below is shown a sprinkler head in
operation immediately following a fire, which has charred the pillars and floor
CUTTING DOWN FIRE HAZARD
183
introduced into the system, upon the exhaustion of the tank
supply, by the automatic operation of a brass-fitted fire pump
located in the power house; a connection with a public main
which, if the pressure is sufficient, automatically feeds the system
upon the exhaustion of the tank supply, without calling the fire
E
5
2
छ
P.
V
FIGURE XLIV: By the flow of the water through the alarm valve (at the left) the clapper 3 is
raised from its seat, thus closing a magnetic circuit and ringing the alarm. The water also passes
through the pipe P (at the right) and operates the water motor I, which revolves the axle V and
rings the gong R, which sounds even if the circuit is broken
pump into action, or cuts in only when the reservoir supply, too,
has been exhausted or the fire pump is for any reason inopera-
tive. Nearly all plants have at least two sources-either the
tanks and the fire pump with a reservoir, or the tanks and a city
supply. The insurance companies encourage two or more inde-
pendent sources by making important concessions in the rates
and the heaviest concession, of course, is made for the three
sources.
A fire pump as a rule is more reliable than a city main, if
a good sized private reservoir is back of it; for, as has been
shown in several instances, city pressure is not always to be
depended upon-it may fail, for one reason or another, just
when most needed. In one case the arrival of the city fire
engines, and their coupling on to the same main, resulted in
the sprinkler system being almost entirely deprived of water;
yet the sprinklers were in a far better position to continue the
battle with the flames, given a sufficient supply of water, than
the firemen with their hose streams.
As it is nearly always feasible to provide a reservoir, even
184
FITTING UP THE BUILDING
STAIRS
RING SPINNING,
(DRIVEN FROM_BELOW!
RING
SPINNING..
CARDING
düili
WEAVING
WEAVING
WEAVING
PICKERS
HARNESS
ROOM
PICKERS,
ENGINE
JENGINE
FOUNDATIONS,
ETC.
FIGURES XLV and XLVI: Wooden belt enclosures designed to prevent drafts from floor to floor
proved ineffectual in retarding the spread of fire in a cotton mill. In rebuilding, the belt-ways were
enclosed with plaster on expanded metal, these greatly reducing the cost of insurance.
Such en-
though it must be an underground cistern beneath the power
plant, it would seem the wise policy to place the main reliance
on a plant fire pump. If location in the power house is likely
to be inconvenient, then the pump should be placed in a separate
fireproof building. The utility of a private reservoir or cistern
is not limited to fire protection. It can be, and usually is made
an integral part of the power plant outfit, serving as a condenser
for the engines, and even as a swimming pool for employees.
Ordinarily gravity tanks serve every purpose of a quick supply
of water at a fair pressure, but in some cases pressure tanks also
are advisable. These come first into action, furnishing a limited
supply of water at a high pressure. As they are emptied the
pressure gradually is reduced until it is no greater than that
furnished by the gravity tank. At this point, both the air and
the water supply are automatically renewed.
Of great importance is the pressure available. The higher
this is up to the point where the piping and connections are not
strained, the more effective the action of the sprinkler heads.
But not less than ten pounds should be available on the topmost
sprinklers. And this is another reason for not placing secondary
CUTTING DOWN FIRE HAZARD
185
STAIRS
RING SPINNING
(DRIVEN FROM BELOW)
RING
SPINNING
CARDING
WOOD
PLANK TOPS
PLASTER ON EXPANDER
'METAL
GALVANIZED IRON.
PICKERS
WEAVING,
HARNESS
ROOM
PICKERS
WEAVING
WEAVING
ENGINE
ENGINE
FOUNDATIONS,
ETC.
closures have been suggested by insurance companies in preference to isolating belts in fireproof
towers. In this mill the stairs are enclosed in an isolated brick tower which is built high enough to
accommodate water tanks and provide extra space for storage
dependence primarily on a city supply, for in the case of a
multi-story factory the city pressure may at its best not reach the
minimum required on the top floors. Of course, if high pressure
city service is available, direct connection of the sprinklers to
the high pressure service can be made advantageously.
Effective as is an automatic sprinkler system, and without
peer as the main dependence for fire protection, sole reliance
should by no means be placed on it. The building will be better
safeguarded if it is fitted with an independent system of pipes,
with outlets at strategic points to which are permanently attached
lengths of hose neatly coiled upon a rack or wound on a reel in
instant readiness for use.
HYDRANTS FOR OUTSIDE FIRE PROTECTION
FOR BUILDINGS AND MATERIALS
O UTSIDE the factory, if the plant is large and stores of
lumber and other inflammable materials are scattered here
and there about the yard, constituting dangerous fire risks-
particularly if sparking locomotives pass close by-hydrants with
186
FITTING UP THE BUILDING
hose connections are necessary at convenient points. The usual
practice is to place these in small houses, which can be kept above
freezing temperature in winter, with little care or expense, and
which furnish storage for lengths of hose, extra nozzles, fire
axes, spanners, buckets, lanterns, and other fire-fighting ap-
paratus. At least one hundred feet of hose is kept permanently
attached to the hydrant, on a reel or neatly coiled ready for
instant use, and close at hand is a wrench to operate the hydrant.
If hydrants are not housed they should at least, during the
cold months, be provided with protecting hoods. Many a fire
has gained disastrous headway through inability to draw water
from frozen hydrants. Many a fire, too, has gained the upper
hand through improper coiling of the hose, or through its being
in such condition as to prevent the passage of water. Frequent
inspections and actual fire drills are the only way to insure that
hydrants and hose connections are always ready for instant
service.
FIRE
HOW BUCKETS, BLANKETS AND EXTINGUISHERS
REDUCE INSURANCE COSTS
IRE-FIGHTING equipment of a factory is not complete with-
out its due complement of buckets, chemical extinguishers,
and even woolen blankets. Many an incipient blaze has been
smothered by blankets, more effectively by far than with water
or other agency. Where fire is likely to be caused by inflammable
liquids, like gasoline, either blankets or buckets of sand are
preferable to buckets of water or chemical extinguishers.
The insurance companies also show by further concessions in
rates, that they appreciate the worth of every measure in factory
housekeeping to guard against fire hazard, such as providing
metal cans and buckets with automatic closing lids to receive
oily waste and other inflammable rubbish and strict enforcement
of their use; scrupulous cleanliness in all parts of the factory,
prohibition of smoking and the use of any but safety matches
within the buildings; systematic inspection and zealous mainte-
nance of fire-fighting equipment; generous watchman service;
and thoroughly organized factory fire departments whose effi-
ciency is maintained by frequent unexpected drills.
The factory which-all other things being equal-most thor-
CUTTING DOWN FIRE HAZARD
187
oughly safeguards itself receives the maximum concession. The
saving in insurance thus realized may be small, compared with
the other expenses of the establishment, but small as it is com-
paratively, when capitalized it usually will be found ample to
justify going the full limit with the measures of advance
protection (Figures XLV and XLVI). Emphasis may be placed
on the fact that the smaller the fire area for any one hazard, the
better is the building from an insurable standpoint. Hence the
wisdom of enclosing stairways, elevator shafts, belt-ways and all
small areas holding a hazard, becomes apparent.
Your system of cutting down the fire hazard in new or old
buildings is incomplete without its provision for investigating
the causes of fires and promptly acting upon the lessons thereof.
The method wants to be kept quickly responsive to the latest
and best expert knowledge and thought on fire prevention.
XIX
MOVING IN
AND STARTING UP
W
HETHER newly equipping a new plant entirely, or
using old equipment, the management can accomplish
much by moving in accordance with a carefully formu-
lated plan. If equipment is to be transferred from a plant in
operation, the thing most desired and the hardest to achieve, is
to make the transfer without seriously interrupting production
or laying off hands and with the least expense. If new equip-
ment is being used, it is equally desirable to get the departments
in shape for business in the order of processing at the earliest
possible moment and at the least possible expense. The sooner
the new factory starts to produce, the sooner the capital invested
will begin to come back, and the less the cost of installing each
piece of equipment, the less the equipment burden tax on the
unit of output.
In either case, it is almost indispensable to have a well worked
out plan (Figure XLVII) whereby the moving-in operation may
proceed in an orderly manner. Planning pays rich dividends
in this as well as in other fields of factory management, so
managers who have had the problem to meet have found.
One manager, who fully appreciated the advantage of moving-
in by plan, originated the following way:
The new plant was located some eight miles from the old.
His problem was to arrange for the removal of each piece of
equipment in the various departments of the old factory, in the
order of processing, and its installation in the new factory in
the same order, without breaking off production in the old until
it could be resumed in the new, or laying off any help.
MOVING THE BUSINESS
189
His first step was to prepare the departments in the new
factory, as fast as they were delivered by the constructor, for
the orderly receipt of the equipment slated for each. He as-
signed each department a distinctive color. Then at the entrance
to each department he had placed a placard reading—
"All equipment marked so-and-so color, in this room."
On the floor he caused to be painted, in conformance with care-
fully worked out location charts, markings indicating the exact
location of each machine, with the location number and old num-
ber of the machine painted in the center. The machines, as fast
as they were dismantled, he had tagged, with the department
color and the new location number stamped on the tag. This
insured positive location. To aid the movers in finding the vari-
ous departments promptly, at the door to the shipping room
through which all equipment had to pass, he had posted a direc-
tory of departments and their colors (Figure XLVIII).
Dismantling of the equipment in the old factory took place
during the noon period and after hours. As each piece was re-
moved and sent to the shipping room, there to be transported by
car or van the next morning to the new factory, it and its parts
and accessories, including shafting, belts and pulleys, were given
their proper tags. Just before shipping, an inspector looked
over all pieces ready for transport to see that each bore its proper
tag. He also operated a tally-card upon which the equipment
was listed by departments and checked off each piece with a blue
pencil as it left the old factory. The same tally-card was used
to check off the receipt of the equipment in the new factory, this
time with a red pencil, and when located it was finally checked
off with a green pencil (Form II).
If a piece of shafting happened to be revolving when the equip-
ment under it was moved out, its mark was chalked on the ceiling,
and later, when the power was off for the day, it was taken down
and tagged in accordance with the chalk mark.
Boxes, barrels, kegs and bundles were marked in their proper
colors with stencils. Thus the identification of each piece to be
moved was made plain.
The manager himself walked through the old plant each morn-
ing and tagged the machines or other articles he wished moved
that day.
190
FITTING UP THE BUILDING
Equipment dismantled one day was transported the first thing
the next morning, either by van or car. While it was en route
the foremen and men who had charge of the moving of that par-
ticular lot made their way to the new plant by trolley. The
vans arrived about noon, and were generally unloaded by the
time the cars were switched in around two o'clock. Thus the van
loaders were usually able to turn to and help unload the cars.
Then they returned, in the early hours of the evening, to bring
another load the next day.
As soon as the equipment was unloaded it was taken to its
designation. If a machine, workmen at once began to set it up.
In this way the entire moving operation was accomplished in
a couple of weeks without injuring a workman or damaging a
machine, and without seriously affecting the output of any de-
partment.
No special difficulty was encountered in moving any of the
equipment excepting some massive oak cabinets loaded with small
parts, which were on the sixth floor of the old factory. These
were found both too large and too heavy to take down the ele-
vator. To have removed the drawers and taken apart the cabi-
nets would have required too much time.
A very ingenious solution was worked out by the manager.
He had each cabinet lettered in red, starting with A. Then
he had the drawers removed and on the right-hand side of each
the letter placed indicating to which cabinet it belonged, as well
as the number of the drawer. The space from which the drawers
were removed he had numbered to accord with the drawers. He
then had the drawers sent to the shipping room and stacked up
in piles, each pile representing a cabinet.
Next he had the elevator blocked up in the pit, so that the
cable slackened and could be drawn to one side. This made it
possible to rig a tackle over the beams, and with this tackle the
cabinets were lowered to the ground floor. Then they were put
on skids, the drawers replaced, and the complete cabinets loaded
on the vans and sent forward.
Just ten hours were required to complete the transfer, while
perhaps weeks would have been required if the drawers had been
packed up separately and moved. Furthermore, the transfer was
MOVING THE BUSINESS
191
What to Do at the Old Shop
Moving the Factory
What to Do at the New Building
Keep a Careful Record of Every
Moving Expense
List Manufacturing Processes in Order
Schedule Dates for Removal
of Departments in Same Order
Assign a Tag Color to Every Department
Number Every Machine
and All Equipment by Departments
Dismantle Equipment and Tag with
Colors and Location Numbers
Inspect Shipments, Checking in Blue
on Tally Sheet
Before Equipment Arrives
Mark on Floor the Location of All Equipment
Hang Color Placards at Department Entrances
Post Color Directory at Entrance to Building
Have Power Plant Ready
After Equipment Arrives
Check in Red When Received
Route to Respective Departments
Check in Green When Located
Set Up and Inspect Equipment
Test All Electrical Circuits
Start Up In Order as Departments Are Finished
Keep a Careful Record of Every Moving Expense
FIGURE XLVII: Lowest moving costs are possible only when a comprehensive plan is worked out
for moving on scheduled time. This diagram outlines a simple but effective plan, which is fur-
ther explained by Figure XLVIII and Form II
accomplished without the loss or displacement of a single one
of the 70,000 odd pounds of small parts.
The way this manager handled his moving problem indicates
admirably the system to be followed. Exactly the same plan
might not work out in another instance, but the principle illus-
trated is the correct one to follow in any instance.
The power plant, in this instance, was not moved, but a new
one installed. It was tried out and in good working order, ready
to couple on to the machinery as soon as the latter was in place.
If the power plant had required to be moved also, the prob-
192
FITTING UP THE BUILDING
lem would have been considerably complicated, and it is doubt-
ful if the moving could have been accomplished without a shut
down of several weeks' duration at least.
A case, however, where it would be desirable to move the power
plant would be extremely unusual. So rapid has been the de-
velopment in power producing equipment that a manager moving
into a new factory would probably find it to his advantage to
abandon his old power plant and install an improved one.
In this particular instance, too, the stock bins were allowed to
BLUE
BY VANS
BY CARS
TALLY SHEET Aug 18, 1912
RED
CHECKED OUT QUANTITY MACH: NAME POSITION NO.
MACH. NO.
EXTRAS
TOTAL
CHECKED IN
Bander
23
Four Sider
Rip Saw
18
273 4
52 32 5
5
6
14
Swing
Cut off Saw
Z
463 3
28 6
4
4
2
FORM II: On this tally sheet an accurate record of all machines passing out of the old plant, arriv-
ing and assembling in the new plant, was kept. As each machine left the shipping room it was
checked out with a red pencil. A blue pencil check marked its entrance to the new plant and
when finally erected a green pencil mark designated the completed job
run down almost to nothing during the last few weeks of opera-
tion in the old plant, so that there was practically no material
to transport, but arrangements were made so that a small stock
of materials and supplies were on hand at the new plant in ample
season for beginning operations there.
C
GUARD AGAINST UNNECESSARY EXPENDITURES
ON FACTORY MOVING DAY
AREFUL track of all expense incurred in moving should
be kept and charged up to general manufacturing expense.
If any new equipment is installed, however, account of the cost
of setting up should be kept separately and added to the de-
livered cost of the piece, thus becoming a part of the original
investment.
During the operation of moving in, there almost invariably
MOVING THE BUSINESS
193
develop things that need fixing about the building-a little altera-
tion here, a forgotten detail to be finished off there—and for this
reason it is desirable to have a portion of the construction force
linger around until the installation of equipment is complete.
For this reason, too, it is desirable that the installation of equip-
ment begin at the earliest moment possible, before the construc-
tion force has been entirely disorganized, so that any shortcom-
ings may be developed while they are still on the ground.
Before attempting to start up, it is the master mechanic's duty
to inspect all machines to see that they are properly assembled,
firmly anchored, true to line and plane, oiled and properly geared
up, and that the small tools, wrenches and so on, necessary to
operate each machine, are on hand and in good order. Par-
ticularly is it necessary to test all circuits to see that there are
no short-circuits and that the rheostats are working properly,
lest when the motors are started they run away and throw things
out of line. If this inspection be not carefully accomplished,
DIRECTORY
1st Floor
North Wing Basement East End Press Room
Yellow
1st
West " Shipping Room
Purple Cross
+
2nd
North Wing M
ALL MATERIAL TAGGED
RED
TO BE PLACED IN THIS ROOM
23
6 Work
27
74
25
Work Desk
206
CABIN
Markham
Offices.
FIGURE XLVIII: Posted at the entrance of the new building and in the departments of the old plant
the directory card furnished a simple means of keeping posted on locations for all parts. The variously
marked tags and the colored location cards, formed with the directory card all the necessary means
of identifying both machines and groups of them
there are innumerable little things that will go wrong, which
will seriously inconvenience operation until they are straight-
ened out. In the meantime they will eat up a lot of money. If
194
FITTING UP THE BUILDING
things do not move right from the start, it is quite likely that it
may take weeks and months to get them going right, whereas a
thorough inspection before a wheel is turned will probably insure
smooth operation from the first.
It may pay to duplicate some of the old equipment, or buy
new equipment of a more improved type to take its place, rather
than risk delay in getting started. It is not always, nor usual,
that a manager can arrange to move each and every piece of
equipment without interrupting production, as did the manager
whose experience has been cited. If moving some one piece of
equipment is going to occasion a considerable hitch in the pro-
gram, the chances are it will pay to buy a new machine to take
its place. Particularly would it pay were the old equipment of
an obsolescent type.
Among the many golden opportunities to place production on
a more efficient and economical basis, moving into a new factory
offers none greater or more worth seizing, than to bring the equip-
ment thoroughly up to date. If, in addition, moving an old piece
of equipment would impede production, the greater is the reason
for taking advantage of this excellent opportunity to supplant it
with the most improved machinery on the market.
Moving will be facilitated, and more leeway provided, if
scheduled to come during a holiday period. One manager took
advantage of the yearly shut down for a week between Christmas
and New Year's, and during this week so far effected his removal
that he was able to start up the primary department the first
day after the holidays, and the other departments in order at
intervals of two or three days. A few of his men-those not
needed to help move-lost in this way an average of only a week
apiece, besides the holiday week, but as it was the slack time of
the year for this line of manufacture, the business did not suffer
particularly and the men for the most part did not regret the
extra vacation.
Part IV
FACTORY MAINTENANCE
AUTHORITIES AND SOURCES
FOR PART IV
Chapter XX. Contributed by Mr. Porter; relates to his
working experience and inspection in more than a score of
plants.
Chapter XXI. Contributed by P. Russell Boswell, C. E.,
of the United Shoe Machinery Company, Mr. Porter and other
staff members; from the practice of the United Shoe Machinery
Company, Elgin Watch Company, Kohler Company, and the
Indiana Manufacturing Company.
XX
KEEPING BUILDINGS
IN CONDITION
N
OTING the proportion of overhead expense due to upkeep
of his plant, a manager paused to reflect that, after all,
manufacturing is largely an unceasing struggle against
deterioration in one form or another. Taking this philosophical
view of the situation, he was reconciled to the fact that money
spent to keep his buildings in first-class condition is a necessary
part of the cost of production, and that the only solution to it is
"A dollar in time saves nine."
Factories begin to deteriorate from the day of completion.
How rapid is the deterioration depends largely on the character
of maintenance. If a factory is neglected or begrudgingly main-
tained, either because of carelessness or because the management
"hates to spend the money," the deterioration will be rapid.
Then one day extensive rehabilitation will be necessary, and
when it comes it means the lump expenditure of several times as
much as would have been required altogether during the inter-
vening years to keep the plant shipshape. A further disadvan-
tage is that the expense hits the business all at once, to say noth-
ing of the loss due to interruption of production while over-
hauling is in process and the increased costs of production all
the years for neglect of plant invariably shows itself in the
shape of higher costs.
In many ways extensive rehabilitation, managers have learned
to their regret, is poor business. Inasmuch as rehabilitation
cannot be avoided, can only be put off, and the longer put off the
heavier the expense, why not have it commence the day the plant
is occupied and go on without ceasing, which is the least expen-
198
FACTORY MAINTENANCE
sive, and, at the same time, the most effective kind of rehabili-
tation?
While certain phases of the upkeep must go on constantly,
particularly that necessary to keep the factory clean, any exten-
sive repairs, alterations and additions are best taken care of
during the slack season, which usually occurs in the summer
months. If they should be taken care of during the busy season,
production is bound to be more or less interfered with and to
hold this interference to a minimum, overtime and Sunday work
-that bugbear of men and managers alike—becomes necessary.
If, however, this work is reserved mostly for the slack season,
not only may it be done during ordinary hours, without inter-
fering with production, but regular men, who would otherwise
have to be laid off, may be utilized for it, and the quota of special
repair and construction men needed the year around reduced.
The factory manager who utilizes the opportunity the summer
months afford to put his plant in first-class condition, is the one
who reaps the benefit of lessened production costs the year around.
One manager, who adopted this policy, found that, as a result
of giving his buildings and equipment a thorough overhauling
one season, instead of laying his men off, as he had been in the
habit of doing, his power available, for one thing, was increased
thirty-five per cent-this without any greater cost. For another
thing, he found his manufacturing expense showed a decreasing
tendency throughout the ensuing year.
Moreover, there was not a single shutdown for temporary
repairs, as against the intermittent service of previous years.
Fewer repair men were found necessary; one was let go and the
rest put on other work. Most noteworthy were the results that
showed in the costs, which were reduced no less than twelve per
cent. Units on which the cost had been 3.2 cents were cut to 2.8
cents. And in every way the results obtained were more satis-
factory than the manager could have anticipated. That busy
season the factory ran in tune for the first time in years.
The manager, whenever a repair was requisitioned, had an
investigation made and if it was of such a nature that it could
go over for a while, he filled out a card, noting the nature of the
repair. These cards he filed according to the time limits.

AT TH
$3
Before the forge shop of the Philadelphia Navy Yard was cleaned up and rearranged, the upper picture
was made. The new conditions are shown in sharp contrast in the lower picture, made one year later.
Both original photographs were taken at noon on a bright day, and the difference gages the money
value of cleanliness in terms of daylight

t
How white paint or whitewash improves lighting conditions is shown in the picture at the top; the
white area is a painted section of the roof, not glass. At the Cincinnati Milling Machine Company's
plant (middle right), white lines on the floor help maintain an open aisle and crane-way. Com-
pressed air blows machinery clean at the Western Electric Company's plant. At the Brown & Sharpe
factory every morning finds the grinding room in the careful order shown, ready for the day's work
SEASONAL REPAIRS
201
Next he made out a list of the material needed for each repair,
and if not in stock, put through an order for it.
In case his repair gang was not particularly rushed some days,
he put them to work on whatever was next on the card list. Thus
he was enabled to keep his repair men steadily busy and, at the
same time, hold most of the repair work back until the next slack
season.
HOW FAILURE TO KEEP BUILDINGS IN CONDITION
PROVED TO BE COSTLY MISMANAGEMENT
EW managers purposely neglect or postpone the work that is
necessary to keep their plants in first-class condition. It is
rather a case of lack of system; first, in bringing needed repairs
and changes to attention, and second, in following them until
they are tended to. The plan this manager used solved one phase
of the problem nicely, and it is a plan any manager might well
adopt. Some kind of follow-up is needed, at any rate.
It does little good to bring bad conditions to light if no action
is taken. In one instance, the foreman of the grinding depart-
ment of a foundry reported the burning out of certain circuits
in his department during a summer electrical storm. No atten-
tion was paid to his report and either because inattention was
the usual order of things in this factory or the foreman con-
sidered his duty done when he reported once, he did not take
it upon himself to report the matter again. The months dragged
along. The busy season arrived. Overtime work became neces-
sary. The lighting was so poor that the overtime men had diffi-
culty in seeing, and their efficiency in consequence was greatly
curtailed. An investigator, going over the cost records and
noting the low output of the men working overtime, stayed late
one night to find out why. He found out. The next morning
he rousted out the electrician in a hurry to repair the burned-
out circuits. When detected, this condition of affairs had existed
for nearly two months, and the money loss represented mounted
up to many hundreds of dollars.
The factory, at the time, had neither systematic inspection
nor follow-up; but as a result of the disclosure, both were ar-
ranged for in a hurry. The manager was wroth. Not only were
all foremen immediately given positive written instructions, put-
202
FACTORY MAINTENANCE
ting the responsibility squarely up to them for conditions in
their own departments, but a clerk was detailed to handle repair
and construction orders exclusively, and an inspector was ap-
pointed whose duty it was in each month to make a complete
round of the works, reporting on conditions in each department
and about the plant as a whole. These reports served as a check
on the foremen and mechanicians, and, in addition, disclosed
many things not otherwise brought to light. They were gone
over in conference and then assigned to the clerk above men-
tioned with instructions on what to act at once and what to take
up at some future time.
One of the things the inspector picked up on his first monthly
round was that the fire-doors were badly in need of attention.
Practically every one had something the matter with it which,
in the event of fire, would have prevented it from acting. The
company was a member of a factory mutual and enjoyed very low
rates. But if the insurance inspector had happened around
about that time, the chances are his unfavorable report on the
observance of fire-preventive measures in this plant would have
led to a less favorable rating the next year.
Now the factory manager, when this condition was brought to
his attention, was much concerned and issued emergency orders
at once to have the fire-doors thoroughly overhauled. He could
not understand why the matter had caught nobody's attention
before, not even his own, although he was in the habit of making
daily trips through the plant from one end to the other. But
the point is plain: "What is everybody's business is nobody's
business." If the factory is to be kept in good condition, it must
be some particular individual's duty to keep an eternal watch on
things. And it must be the particular duty of some other indi-
vidual to keep everlastingly after things brought to attention
until they are tended to properly. In this instance these duties
were cared for as described.
AN EFFECTIVE SYSTEM PROVIDES FOR USE, REPAIRS AND
SEASONAL CONSTRUCTION
KEEPING the factory in good condition is more than keeping
it clean, making timely repairs to buildings and equipment,
renewing the paint and varnish, and so on. It consists also in
SEASONAL REPAIRS
203
making timely additions or alterations to remedy defects in the
original construction, which use develops, and without which no
factory is yet built. And it consists in promptly making such
extensions or modifications of the original layout as changing
manufacturing conditions or an expanding business require.
That is, in addition to use-upkeep, there is remedial-upkeep and
modernizing-upkeep. These three phases of the problem, the alert
factory manager will make provision for in shaping his methods
of management.
The way obviously to keep the upkeep expense at a minimum
is, not to slight or postpone the work, but to build right at the
start, and here is where foresight in planning the factory and
in deciding the details of construction plays a big part; since
the more carefully the layout is planned, the less remedial and
modernizing upkeep is necessary and the easier and more cheaply
additions can be made; and the higher the grade of construction,
the less the deterioration and the less the use-upkeep.
In the light of these facts, the superior economy of the all-
concrete factory building stands out sharply. Unlike every other
type of construction, it grows stronger, not weaker, with age, and
barring periodical brightening up of the exterior, repeated white-
coating of the interior, and occasional renewal of the wearing
surfaces, the expense of keeping it as good as new is virtually nil.
Frame exteriors, brick walls and any kind of wall with plaster
facing are all less unsatisfactory in the long run. Concrete alone
is lasting, and if the surface is left rough and vines are trained
up it, not only is the expense of occasionally renewing the fresh-
ness of the surface saved, but a pleasing effect is obtained which
has its beneficial reaction on the efficiency of the operatives.
Even a bonus plan may advantageously be hitched onto the
maintenance system. By handling repairs and construction
work under this method truly surprising results have been ob-
tained. In one instance, the adaptation of such a scheme during
the first year reduced by more than half the average outlay for
several years past. The Government, in its Navy and War De-
partments, handles repair work in much the same way.
Of course, it is a lengthy process to build up records of repair
cost and time taken; and even with plenty of such information
as a guide, clever estimating is necessary to make such a plan a
204
FACTORY MAINTENANCE
complete success. But the knowledge that limits are set, that
records are being kept and that the work is expected to be done
with dispatch and at lowest cost, in itself is a powerful factor
in energizing the maintenance crew to put forth their best. And
planning to see that materials and tools are on hand, so as not
to delay work once begun, has its direct and immediate effect on
the cost and speed of this as well as on the regular work of the
factory. When the records are complete enough to permit of
close estimates on most of the repair and construction jobs, the
payment of suitable bonuses for beating the estimates completes
the incentive to endeavor and places this work on a rock basis
of economical management.
While systematic upkeep in all particulars is not to be neg-
lected or slighted at whatever cost, there is a wide latitude for
skillful management to show itself in keeping this cost to a mini-
mum. You will find just as much room for efficient management
and fully as much necessity for cost-cutting methods of control
in keeping your building in condition as in the management of
your output and selling departments.
HOW TO PLAN FINANCES FOR SEASONAL
REPAIRS AND CONSTRUCTION
SPECIAL provision is necessary for the financing of seasonal
repairs. Routine repairs need no such provision; they are
simply absorbed into the cost month by month. But to tax any
one month with the cost of exceptional repairs would be unfair.
Some managers distribute the burden over a number of months.
Others maintain a Repair Reserve Account on their books, setting
aside at the beginning of each fiscal year a certain sum out of the
surplus to carry them through the year. This is absorbed into
the costs in uniform amounts monthly. In other words, it is
handled precisely like a fixed charge. Expenditures are then
held as closely as possible within the allowance and any differ-
ence is handled through an adjustment account.
Repairs that change the value of building or equipment, of
course, fall in a different class. They are not absorbed directly
into the cost, but charged to betterment accounts and make their
way into the costs in the shape of investment and depreciation
charges. Alterations, extensions and replacements ordinarily
SEASONAL REPAIRS
205
fall into this class. In case of the latter, if the scrapped item
has any value, it becomes a credit to the Depreciation Reserve
Account. Replacements, however, to take the place of things
worn out by use, are usually classed as repairs and handled
through the Repair Reserve Account.
Depreciation, as here used, and as ordinarily considered by
discriminating managers, is confined to natural deterioration in
value, as against use-deterioration. It means the lessening value
due to obsolescence. Any other depreciation is properly a matter
of maintenance. Charging a certain per cent of the value into the
costs regularly to cover depreciation is simply a device to dis-
tribute investment which is swallowed up by annuating over
as many years as possible.
Good maintenance costs money-but it is money well spent.
And money so spent comes back to you in many ways. Good
maintenance shows itself in decreased productive costs and in-
creased profits. Well-maintained plants attract and hold a better
class of help; as a rule they turn out a higher grade of product.
Plants that are well-maintained also have, as a rule, less difficulty
in borrowing money. Bankers seem far more inclined to extend
the limit of credit to a zealousy maintained plant than to care-
lessly maintained ones. And such a plant has the advantage in
the market for sale. So all in all, keeping your factory in first-
class condition is pretty good business policy.
XXI
FACTORY HOUSEKEEPING
VIST
ISITORS at the factory of a large middle-western watch
company have frequently commented on the neat and trim
appearance of the operatives, especially the girls, as they
left the factory. "These factory girls!" one visitor exclaimed
to an official with whom he was going to the plant. "I should
have guessed that I was witnessing the exodus of a downtown
city office building." On going in, he was struck by the extreme
cleanliness and orderliness of the place. Then he saw the con-
nection. Here was a management that appreciated the value of
cleanliness-saw its indissoluble relation to operational efficiency.
Time was when the average factory was a dirty place. Either
the management failed to appreciate the importance of cleanli-
ness as an efficiency factor or felt the expense of keeping clean
to be not warranted. Now, fortunately, a different attitude pre-
vails, and even in factories where scrupulous cleanliness is not a
requirement of manufacture, emphasis is placed upon it. For
managers are establishing a new principle in manufacturing;
namely, that cleanliness is profitable.
Even dust and dirt have value. If no other value exists, they
always have a nuisance-valve; that is to say, it pays to get rid of
them. Some dusts and dirts have also a reclamation value which
more than justifies, on an investment basis, the cost of the equip-
ment necessary to remove and reclaim them. Moreover, clean-
liness in the factory can be standardized like any other operation.
The United Shoe Machinery Company standardized and also
saved money by a contract arrangement for janitor work. The
price paid for doing specified cleaning at specified times was
HOUSEKEEPING ROUTINE
207
based entirely upon the amount and the location of the work
to be done.
"We want to continue keeping our toilets, locker rooms and
wash rooms in proper shape, but can't we do it at less expense?"
This question was asked one day by our superintendent, says Mr.
Bosworth of that company. The contract department was re-
quested to go over the matter thoroughly, with the result that
the force was reduced and it was possible to use a higher class
of help. This, of course, called for higher wages, but these could
be paid and still make a saving by contracting the work.
This contracting idea applies only to the janitor service and
is only a part of the whole job of keeping the factory clean. All
the wash rooms, locker rooms and other rooms of that nature are
in connecting buildings between the main buildings, as are also
stairways.
The janitors have under their care the wash rooms, locker rooms
and toilet rooms. The locker rooms and wash rooms are on one
side of the passageway, the toilet rooms on the other. They also
have the fire-doors at either end of the passageways, also the stair-
ways from the ground floor to the top.
The contract price for these rooms is based entirely upon the
number of bowls, urinals, showers, lockers and wash-bowls which
each department contains.
In putting the prices on these rooms, the question of difference
in cleanliness of the work in adjacent rooms in taken into con-
sideration. For instance, for the wash room used by the help
from the screw machine department where there is considerable
amount of oil and dirt, the janitor is allowed more than in a de-
partment used by the help from the pattern-making.
A list of specified duties was compiled, and the frequency with
which they should be performed was indicated. This list repre-
sented the least work which would be accepted from the janitor
at the price paid, although it was understood that the place was
to be kept looking neat at all times.
As regards the wash rooms, the floors are to be washed twice
a week. The wash-bowls are to be scoured out twice a day.
Shower baths are to be cleaned once a week provided they have
not been used, and if they have been used they are to be cleaned
immediately after each time. The walls of these rooms have a
208
FACTORY MAINTENANCE
hard sanitary finish to a height of about seven feet. These are
washed once a month and at any other time that it is necessary.
In the locker rooms, which contain nothing but individual
metallic lockers, the floor is to be washed twice a week, the walls
to be washed once a month, and the tops of the lockers to be
dusted every day. The tops of the lockers to be washed once a
month; the bottoms of the lockers, where the janitor's mop in
washing the floor stains them, to be kept clean at all times.
Lamps and shades in all departments under their care are to be
cleaned once a month.
In the toilet rooms the floor is to be washed every day. The
slates around the urinals and around the hoppers are to be washed
thoroughly once a month; to be kept generally clean at all times.
All nickel and brass work is to be cleaned once a week. The
walls are to be cleaned and washed once a week. The urinals and
hopper bowls and seats are cleaned thoroughly every morning.
The fire-doors at the ends of the corridors are to be washed
once a month, and at other times if found necessary; the corridor
walls to be brushed down twice a year and kept free from dust.
All corridors are to be washed twice a week. All stairways are
to be washed twice a week. The sides of the stairs up to the
banding, which is approximately six feet above the stairs, to be
washed every two weeks. Above the band, the stairways are
brushed down three times a year.
The janitors have under their care as follows: 113 hoppers,
69 urinals, 1,565 wash-bowls, 78 shower baths, 3,952 lockers. The
total floor area covered by these is 44,364 square feet.
The corridors which the janitors wash twice a week are swept
once a day, and refuse cans which are placed at both ends are
emptied once a day by the sweeper. He also has seven corridors
to sweep and keep clean in two other connecting buildings, as well
as two flights of stairways. This sweeper also has six skylights,
approximately ten by thirty feet, to keep clean and brushed off,
as well as emptying the cans from three dust collectors. The
total number of square feet which he sweeps, part of which he
washes, is 21,120 square feet.
The offices, drafting room and inventive department each have
a janitor of their own who is continually washing, sweeping,
dusting, polishing brass and keeping the place generally clean.
HOUSEKEEPING ROUTINE
209
As already mentioned, this janitor service is only a small part
of keeping the entire factory in a clean condition. It is, however,
the only work of this nature which is under contract. All other
cleaning is done on the hourly time. Exact attention is given
even to details. Cuspidors made of galvanized iron and filled
with sawdust, for instance, are placed in profusion throughout
the plant. This provision has promoted habits of cleanliness and
has eliminated the objectionable spitting on the floor which is
common in most factories.
TO GEN. SUỆT
DATE
DAILY REPORT
LEMARS MANUFACTURING COMPANY
9-2-14
ALL OF THE EQUIPMENT UNDER MY JURISDICTION IS IN
GOOD REPAIR, AND SAFE RUNNING CONDITION, SO FAR AS I AM ABLE
TO OBSERVE, AT THE CLOSE OF BUSINESS TO-DAY, EXCEPT AS PRE-
VIOUSLY REPORTED, AND NOTED ON REPAIR BLANK OF THE FOLLOW.
ING NUMBERS, HEREWITH HANDED YOU.
NO.
SUBJECT
DISPOSITION
+76
Are #4
Repair
at once
NEXT TO BE CONSIDERED
Fired White
FOREMAN W. S. Fox SUP'T
FORM III: A complete maintenance system is outlined in the four forms shown in this chapter.
The foreman's daily report is made out in triplicate. Original (white) and duplicate (pink) are sent
to the superintendent and the triplicate (yellow) retained
As a further measure toward cleanliness and better lighting,
the factory, inside, is whitewashed, with the exception of the
columns, which are painted to a height of approximately six feet
with a washable paint. This paint is also applied to a great many
of the side-walls where it is found necessary to keep them looking
neat. It is insisted that these columns be kept clean up to the
210
FACTORY MAINTENANCE
top of the band, or, in other words, as high as the column is
washable.
By making cleaning a routine duty and specifying definitely
just what is to be done, in other words, by standardizing such
BLANK
REPAIR BLANK
LEMARS MANUFACTURING COMPANY
REPAIR ORDER
NO. 176
TO GEN. SUP'T.
THE Are light
NO. 3469
#4
HAS TODAY
BEEN FOUND TO BE IN DEFECTIVE CONDITION, THE NATURE OF DEFECT
IS
light sputters badly
BE REPAIRED BY
3p.m tomorrow
DATE 9-2-14 BY Fired White
FOREMAN
AND SHOULD:
Crank_DEP'T_14___na
FORM IV: The repair blank is also made out in triplicate by the foreman. The back of the orig-
inal is white; the back of the duplicate, pink; and triplicate, yellow. All pink slips go finally to the
cost department. A maintenance clerk inserts the repair number
operations, a factory of any size may be kept in a very satis-
factory condition as far as cleanliness is concerned, and at a
reasonable figure commensurate with the work done.
HIGH WAGES DO NOT COMPENSATE FOR
INADEQUATE VENTILATION
AUTOMATIC methods also have their place in factory house-
keeping. High wages did not keep employees of an enamel-
ing plant from deserting to work in nearby beet fields in hot
weather. But the installation of a ventilating and dust-collect-
ing system lessened the desertion the following summer.
The experience of this plant brought out some of the most
HOUSEKEEPING ROUTINE
211
important facts to be considered in dealing with dust from
factory processes. Aside from the direct operational efficiency
resulting from cleanliness in the factory, certain direct benefits.
were found to weigh heavily. Factories where equipment for
the removal of dust and dirt is installed almost immediately
show a picking up in output. The number of accidents also tends
to decrease. Moreover, operatives are compelled much less often
to work along inconvenienced, or lose half an hour or more every
now and then because of stuff getting into their eyes. But per-
haps most important, absences due to sickness caused by breath-
ing dust, which only too often is far more serious in its results
than compelling an occasional stay at home, are lessened.
TO
• Geo-Kaufman
SUP'T'S OFFICE
9-3-14
YOU ARE HEREBY DIRECTED TO MAKE THE REPAIRS, SPECIFIED
after Order No. 3460
ON THE REVERSE SIDE HEREOF,
STOREKEEPERS ARE HEREBY AUTHORIZED TO FURNISH YOU WITH THE NECESS-
ARY MATERIAL FOR THE WORK. YOU WILL BE EXPECTED TO CONSUME NOT OVER
FROM TIME STARTING IN TO COMPLETING THE WORK,
AND IF THERE IS ANY DELAY, OR MORE EXTENSIVE REPAIRS NEEDED, REPORT DE•
TAILS TO THIS OFFICE AT ONCE, AND OBTAIN FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS,
W.S. Fox
SUP'T
THE WORK ABOVE AUTHORIZED HAS BEEN DULY PER.
FORMED AND THE DEFECT
DATE 9-3-14
sputtering light
Fired White
BY
CORRECTED.
FOREMAN
FORM V: This is the back of the original repair blank (Form IV) and is used by the superintendent
in ordering workmen to make repairs. When the work is finished the foreman signs the blank and
it is returned to the maintenance department
Then, too, it has been found that factories that have been
pioneers in installing sanitary dust and dirt removal equipment
seem everywhere to have become Meccas for high-grade help; and,
contrari-wise, those that have lagged behind in this respect, seem
212
FACTORY MAINTENANCE
to have the most trouble in attracting and holding the kind of
help they need and want.
Dust and dirt removal equipment includes suction systems for
removing metal and wood dust instantaneously from the proc-
essing, thus keeping both atmosphere and floor free and greatly
facilitating reclamation or economical disposition; vacuum
cleaner systems, outletted at convenient intervals throughout the
plant to facilitate cleaning of all parts-floors, ceilings, walls,
fixtures, equipment and so on-by means of short lengths of
cleaner attachments or pneumatic dustpans; compressed air sys-
tems, outletted at the several machines, to enable the operators
to blow their machines clear of dust and dirt that could be reached
with difficulty in any other way; attachments to machines, such
as drip-pans to catch oil and turnings, and boxed base-plates to
collect the waste of processing which is too heavy or otherwise
unadapted for a suction system, thus keeping the floor clean and
the offal gathered for convenient and economical disposition.
How these principles developed and this kind of equipment
reacts on employees is shown in the results obtained in the
enameling plant. The process of putting on the enamel consists
of heating up the ware in furnaces to a red heat and then sifting
on the finely powdered enamel. Much of the powder being lighter
than air and the heat rising from the redhot ware increasing
this tendency a considerable portion of the enamel went up in
clouds of dust, to lodge on the lighting fixtures, furnaces, roof
trusses, floors and walls, and to pollute the entire atmosphere of
the room. The powderers, to protect themselves, wore respirators.
Notwithstanding this, there was some sickness, frequent changes
of help, and difficulty in attracting and holding the proper grade
of men. This difficulty greatly increased in the summer time,
when usually there was a general exodus of the enamelers to the
nearby beet fields. This movement went on in spite of the high
wages paid for some of the men earning upwards of ninety dol-
lars a month. Finally the management awoke to the fact that
not only was the instability of their help costing them money,
but the loss on enamel wasted a heavy item.
Closing off the furnaces by a galvanized iron curtain was the
first step by way of remedying the condition. This not only cut
off a great deal of heat, making the room a much more comfort-
HOUSEKEEPING ROUTINE
213
able place to work in, but it prevented the enamel from lodging
on top of the furnaces and behind.
Providing each enameling cradle with a collecting tray was
the next step. Heretofore the enamel that fell off in sifting fell
on the floor, there to be scattered. What portion of it was re-
claimed in sweeping had to be put through a cleaning process—
in fact, practically made all over again—which was expensive.
Providing each cradle with a collecting tray did away with this
nuisance and this expense. The enamel that dropped-what did
LEMARS MANUFACTURING COMPANY
NO-17
TO GEN. SUP'T.
NOTICE OF REPAIRS NEEDED
TO
YOUR REPAIR NEEDED
OATE
MAINTENANCE CLERK
HAS BEEN DULY ENTERED AT THIS OFFICE
NOTICE NO.
IT WAS TODAY BROUGHT TO MY
ATTENTION THAT the east fire door
IN DEP'T
12
Lee Benton
WAS OUT OF REPAIR
WATCHMAN
FORM VI: Watchmen and other employees not making daily reports use this form to notify the
superintendent of such needed repairs as come under their notice, thus calling the attention to those
conditions that may escape the notice of the foreman
not float off-collected in the pan, to be gathered up from time
to time and used over again just as it was. This made for a
big saving and greatly improved working conditions. But it was
not enough. The polluting of the air of the rooms still went on.
Collecting of enamel on fixtures, piping and trusses continued.
Accordingly, to round out the improvements, an enamel dust
collecting, purifying and reclaiming system was installed. This
214
FACTORY MAINTENANCE
consisted of a hood over each enameling cradle. The enamel
collected in this way was drawn to a central centrifugal separator,
where the enamel was thrown down and the air cleansed of its
dust for return to the room.
This greatly improved conditions, but the management went
still further and installed a mechanical ventilating, purifying
and conditioning system, to exclude all dust from the outside,
and regulate the temperature and humidity of the air. A vacuum
cleaner system was also installed and the floors, fixtures, piping,
trusses, and so on, cleaned with it, instead of with brooms as
formerly, creating as it did, in spite of utmost care, an extra dust
nuisance every time the cleaners went into action. This nuisance
was more than an annoyance to the workmen. It was the cause
from time to time of many seconds and spoiled pieces of work.
As a direct result of making these changes, a saving in enamel
was realized which alone, in less than a year, paid for the cost
of the improvement, to say nothing of the great saving due to
reduction in number of seconds and culls, the general improve-
ment in the quality of the ware, and the effect on the mental
attitude and physical well-being of the operatives. The men now
earn more; are sick and absent much less; there is little trouble
in attracting and keeping the right grade of men; and the com-
petition of the beet fields in summer time is no longer a con-
sideration. The first summer after the changes were made the
desertions to the farms were noticeably less, and in another year
the habit was almost forgotten.
In the instance just cited, the buildings were comparatively
new and with all the necessary equipment could have been in-
stalled at the start for a fraction of the sum it latterly cost, not
to mention the loss incurred due to lack of such equipment the
three or four years before it was provided.
HOLDING DOWN EXPENSE BY PIPING DUST
AND DIRT INTO THE FURNACE
IN N the carpenter department of the watch factory previously
mentioned, each machine is equipped with a sawdust collector.
The collector pipes converge in the power house and feed from
a hopper into the furnaces.
Machines and benches where filing and grinding are done are
HOUSEKEEPING ROUTINE
215
fitted with receptacles for the collection of the metallic particles
and are so arranged that the particles, except such as are lighter
than air and float off, cannot fall to the floor, but drop or are
brushed into the receptacles.
Machines like screw machines, using oil in liberal quantities,
are enclosed in such a way that no oil can overflow on the floor,
but must flow into oil-wells from which it is pumped back and
used over and over again.
In another plant, the plan of having the heads of departments
inspect one another's rooms was found to work like a charm.
The plan was not confined to housekeeping-all phases of depart-
ment management came in for criticism. At first, the men were
extremely reluctant to express themselves; but by working on
the more expressive of them, the manager finally succeeded in
enlisting their hearty cooperation, and soon a generous rivalry
sprang up, each head vying with his fellow to make the best
showing the spirit engendered was, "not to let the other fellows
get anything on you.' The fact that the showing of the heads
was taken into consideration in adjusting salaries at the end of
the year also contributed to the success of the plan.
One of the things most commonly neglected in plants is the
windows. Dirty windows are at the least unsightly; at most
they react unfavorably on the efficiency of the operatives, not
only by inconveniencing them with poor light, but by depressing
them mentally. Any kind of dirty and unkempt condition about
the plant has a similar effect.
The only way to insure that the windows, toilets, wash rooms,
and other details, will be kept clean, it has been found, is to ap-
point a man or men to give this work routine attention. In
large plants, one or more men may be required in each depart-
ment, working at nothing else. And in order to insure that these
men do not get slack, which they will if not checked up, some-
body must accept it as a duty regularly to inspect and report
on their work. This duty is variously vested in the department
heads, the shop superintendent, the disciplinarian, or a special
inspector, depending on the size of the plant and the character
of the organization. The cleaners are also in some plants required
to report promptly any whereof repairs they note, as broken
216
FACTORY MAINTENANCE
panes, windows that will not work, toilets that will not flush,
broken fixtures and bad places in floors.
Finally, from the standpoint of profits, an ounce of house-
keeping is worth a pound of renovation. And housekeeping in
its broadest sense means more than well-swept floors and unclut-
tered aisles* and benches. It means maintaining buildings and
equipment as nearly as possible in their original condition, or
improving that condition if it has been found unsatisfactory.
Housekeeping insures that the air throughout the factory at all
times will be sweet and clean, properly moistened and tempered.
It is watching the windows, skylights, arcs and bulbs so that dirt
will not add to illumination costs nor indirectly affect the vision
of workmen. It is safeguarding the health of employees by
keeping lockers, showers, wash-bowls and toilets in a sanitary
condition. It is eliminating every unnecessary chance of fire.
It is increasing the attractiveness of the factory as a place of
work.
Housekeeping the factory means fighting depreciation and
deterioration. These move with accelerated speed unless con-
stantly retarded. A modern factory, fully equipped, represents
a heavy investment. Every building, every machine, every tool
has an equivalent in value of so many dollars. As constructing
and equipping ceases, depreciation and deterioration begin to
absorb the invested dollars. Whether in remodeling or in con-
structing a new factory, whatever offsets depreciation and de-
terioration has a positive money value. For it helps to remove
the numerous obstacles a manufacturer encounters in making
his factory pay.
MAY 2€ 1915
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
GRADUATE LIBRARY
AUG 10 1978
AUG 1 5 1978
DATE DUE
DO NOT REMOVE
OR
MUTILATE CARD
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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