Standpipes. In large buildings the local fire department can aid the architect by suggesting the most effective location for service pipes to command every corner of every room and passage most effectively and economically.
Lightning. Lightning rods, once deemed so essential, do not seem popular now, but metal standpipes, and steel stacks, well-grounded, would certainly serve to carry lightning down to the depth of permanent moisture. I cannot hear that lightning has ever found stacks attractive.
Water. Leaks are bad for books, and fussy for folks. Roofs and cellars may let in moisture, and a library needs tightness in both. Unless it is well constructed and tested at the outset, the leaks, the seepage of a building are hard to find and to stop. No care and thought should be spared concerning this insidious enemy, from choosing the site to flashing the roof-tree.
Since drafting this chapter, I am reminded by an article in Vol. I of the “Library Association Record,”[219] of certain bookworms or grubs I have found in old books from the damp shores of our gulf states. Mr. Widman of St. Charles College is quoted as saying, “We see the time when we shall have to burn part of our books to save the other part.” But I find no suggestion as to any provisions in building which would check such pests. Rigid exclusion of moisture from foundations and walls would probably be the only palliative.
I have noticed cloth bindings of books, especially public documents from gulf states, badly eaten by roaches.
William R. Reinick, Chief of Documents in the Philadelphia Free Library, has printed results of experiments as to insects that destroy books, in Scientific American Supplements of Dec. 24, 1910, and May 11, 1912. He says:—
“It has been stated that more books have been destroyed by small forms of life than by fire and water combined.”
“Heat, dampness, and dirt deposited in handling books, develop worms, etc.”
“Libraries keep many books in dark places, badly ventilated. Darkness, damp air, and leaving books long undisturbed, favor propagation of small forms of life.”
“Light and cleanliness are the two most important factors in preventing the ravages of insects and also of fungi which grow upon and in books in a damp, warm atmosphere.”