Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/88

68 Sloan's Architectural Review and Builders' Journal. [July, dorsed " (to use their own words) by Messrs. J. McArthur, Jr., John Stewai't, Samuel Sloan, John Frazer, and several other eminent Philadelphia architects. The Corrugated Iron Ceilings are coming into use not only in this city, (though the patents are so recent as May and November, last year,) but in other places. There has been a little talk lately about " Philadelphia going to New York for a pump." Against this is the fact that the Queen Anne County Jail, Md., the Insane Asylum at Harrisburg, and the First National Bank of Chicago are respectively having these corrugated iron ceilings, which are also being put up in the new build- ings of the Tribune Company in Chicago, where Harrison's patent boilers (another Philadelphia invention) are also being erected. The diminution of cost and the access of security are justly regarded as invaluable. Mr. Joseph Gilbert, a practical builder in Philadelphia, is the inventor of the patent iron ceiling. We have not attempted to do more than generalize, in this rapid sketch, of what appears to be the beginning of a great system of almost perfect prevention and Security. From the North A merican and United States Gazette, Philadelphia, March IWi, 1868. The March op Progress. — Across the Atlantic more attention is paid to erecting fire-proof structures than on this side. In Paris, for instance, the fire department consists of but few en- gines, yet large fires seldom occur, because the regulations of Louis Napo- leon's "pet city" are that all large buildings shall be made fire-proof. These grand old European capitals owe to Philadelphia a debt of gratitude, and to their credit be it said, they are not backward in making the justly due ac- knowledgment. The "Gilbert" patent iron ceiling is regarded all over Europe as insuscepti- ble of further improvement, and the sci- entific journals of the Continent have spoken of its advantages. It is something of a feather in the cap of Philadelphia that this invention is the result of the cogitation of one of our own citizens ; and the leading architects and scientific men who have examined it, speak of it with unqualified com- mendation. The space of a newspaper forbids any elaborate or extended de- scription of this remarkable invention. From (lie Chicago Tribune, May 28th, 1868. The public has been made acquainted with the fact that the Chicago Tribune Co. have completed their arrangements, and have commenced erecting a fire- proof building especially adapted to the necessities of their business, which thej T intend shall be in every respect a model of beauty, comfort and convenience, and an ornament to the city of Chicago. The building will be 72 feet on Dear- born street, and 121 feet on Madison street. It will be constructed entirely of stone, brick and iron, and four stories high above the basement. The joists or beams will be of rolled iron, from the "Union Iron Mills," of Pittsburg, Pa., and the ceilings of " Gilbert's patent corrugated iron ceiling," which inven- tion has generally superseded the old brick arches. On the surface of this corrugated iron ceiling will be laid a concrete, filling all parts perfectly solid. The roof will be composed of metal, on a light framework fastened on an iron ceiling, the same as for the floors above described. All the stairways will be of iron. The cost of the building itself will be $175,000. Any further information can be ob- tained from Mr. Gilbert, No. 429 Wal- nut street, Philadelphia.