Handbook of the new Library of Congress

by Unknown

FULTON.
BY EDWARD C. POTTER.

Connection with the Capitol.—It is calculated that, by means of the pneumatic tubes and the book-carrying apparatus, it will require no more than six or seven minutes to bring a book from the stacks, from the time it is first called for. Valuable, however, as is the use of machinery in connecting widely distant portions of the Library, it is even more important as a factor in bringing together the Library itself and the Capitol, where hardly an hour passes, during a session of Congress, but some member desires to draw books for immediate use in debate or committee work. The distance between the two buildings is about a quarter of a mile (twelve hundred and seventy-five feet). This is covered by a tunnel having at one end a terminus in the basement almost immediately beneath the Distributing Desk, and at the other end in a room in the Capitol about midway between the Senate and House of Representatives. The tunnel is built of brick, is perfectly dry, and about six feet high and four feet wide, or just large enough for a man to enter and make any needed repairs. An endless cable, kept moving by a similar force to that which supplies the apparatus connecting with the stacks, carries two trays back and forth between the terminals, receiving and delivering books by the same arrangement of teeth as has just been described. The trays are much larger, however, than the others, and are capable of containing the largest volumes, such as bound volumes of newspapers. The speed at which the cable runs is about six hundred feet a minute, delivering a book at the Capitol within three minutes after it has left the Library. In addition to the book-carrier, the tunnel contains the pneumatic tube already spoken of, and the wires of private telephones connecting the two Houses of Congress with the Distributing Desk. So quickly can a message be sent and a book returned, that it is said that a Congressman can get the volumes he desires in less time than it would have taken him when the Library occupied its old quarters in the Capitol itself.

THE BOOK-STACKS.

From the point of view of library equipment and management, however, the three great book-stacks radiating from the Rotunda are the most interesting and remarkable feature of the building. They were entirely planned by Mr. Bernard R. Green, the engineer in charge of the construction of the Library. The word “planned,” indeed, is hardly adequate; “invented” would be nearer the exact fact. The idea of a book-stack, as distinguished from a mere arrangement of bookcases, is so new that such examples as were in existence when Mr. Green entered upon the work were imperfect in many very important points.

PLATO.
BY JOHN J. BOYLE.

The root purpose of a book-stack, of course, is to make it capable of holding the greatest number of volumes in the smallest possible space—always, however, bearing in mind that every book must be perfectly accessible and so placed that it can be easily and quickly handled. The space being limited and the number of volumes large, the old way of arranging cases along the walls, even when the wall space is materially increased by dividing a room into alcoves, has to be abandoned in favor of a more compact system. The modern substitute is to erect the cases in stories, or tiers, with corridors and passages only large enough to give convenient access to the books. Throughout, the aim of the builder is to dispose of every inch of space as economically as possible. Of the three stacks in the Library of Congress, those to the north and south are, as the visitor has seen, the largest, each having a length of one hundred and twelve feet against thirty for the East Stack. All three are of the same width, however—forty-five feet—and the same height—sixty-three feet. The method of construction is the same throughout, and each is absolutely fireproof, the only materials used being steel, iron, brick, glass, and marble. Few things which can be destroyed by fire at all are more difficult to burn than books, and a fire in the stacks, even if carefully nursed by an incendiary, could hardly do more than a trifling injury.

Arrangement and Construction.—The stacks are divided into nine tiers, each tier being seven feet high, and into an equal number of stories the same distance apart. This distance was adopted in order that the books on the highest shelf of a tier might not be beyond the convenient reach of a man of average height, or so far away that he could not easily read their titles. By the present arrangement every book can be handled or its title read without effort.

The stacks begin at the basement story, which is fourteen feet below the level of the floor of the Rotunda. They are sixty-three feet in height—the sum, that is, of the nine seven-foot stories—and are topped by an iron covering, so that any water which might by accident come through the roof would be shed without harming the books. The construction of the shelving is entirely of steel and iron. The unit of construction, as it may be technically called, is a steel column erected on a firm foundation and extending the height of the stack. There are over three hundred of them in each of the two large stacks. At the bottom of every tier above the basement is a horizontal framework of steel bars, running between the columns, the length and width of the stack, and securely anchored to the walls. These cross-pieces perform a double service: they brace the upright columns and prevent them from bending under the weight they bear, and they are supports on which to lay the decks. The cases, that is, do not rest on the flooring, but the flooring on the general system of the cases. It may be added that with the strong and simple framing that is used the stacks might very well have been carried a dozen stories higher without materially increasing the size of the columns.