The ranges—by which is meant the cases for books—are of iron, divided into six compartments by partitions bolted to the columns. They are double-faced, each side being a foot deep, and have no backs. On the front edge of each partition are blunt teeth, and near the back edge is a vertical row of horns, both serving to hold the shelves in place. The ranges are at right angles with the wall, so that there is no opportunity for the occurrence of what are called “dead angles”—waste spaces in which it is impossible to put books.
GIBBON.
BY CHARLES H. NIEHAUS.
The ranges are nineteen and a quarter feet long, and in both of the larger stacks are forty-two in number, twenty-one on each side of the stack, leaving a corridor between every story the length of the gallery. Between them are aisles three feet four inches wide. Near the middle of the stack a couple of ranges are omitted to give room for staircases up and down, an elevator well, large enough to carry an attendant and a truck-load of books; and the shaft or well for the book-carriage service.
The decks themselves are of white marble, two and a half feet wide in the aisles and five and a half in the corridors, set in an iron frame. This leaves a five-inch slit on either side, between it and the range. The space is too narrow and too close to the range for anyone to step through, and in order that any small article may not roll off, the deck is protected by a raised edge. It would, of course, be possible, though difficult, to drop a book down the slit, in which case, however, it would be very sure to lodge long before it struck the basement floor. If found necessary, any such accident could be prevented by protecting the opening with a wire netting. The advantages of an open space are many, however: attendants may speak to one another from deck to deck without the trouble of going to the stairways; light is diffused through it; and it keeps the books on the lower shelves from damage, either by being carelessly struck by the foot or one of the wheeled trucks used to carry books from the shelves to the elevator well.
Ventilation and Heating.—Especially, by allowing a free circulation of air, these desk-slits help to heat and ventilate the stacks. Ventilation is especially important. Books require pure air almost as much as human beings do; if they do not get it they grow “musty,” and gradually decay. As will have been seen, the whole structure of the stack is open; nothing is closed, even the partitions in the ranges being made in the form of gratings. The system of ventilation and heating is one and the same, and both require the freest circulation of air. Air is taken into the cellar through the windows looking out into the court-yards, first, however, passing through filters of cotton cloth to exclude all dust; after being warmed it ascends through gratings to the roof, where it passes out through ventilating flues. In this way the temperature is everywhere kept very nearly even. Electric fans are ready for use in case of any sluggishness in the circulation, and in summer are also used for sending cooled air into the stack.
The Shelving.—The shelves themselves are open, being composed of parallel strips of steel with a narrow space between. The total number of shelves in the three stacks is sixty-nine thousand two hundred. Each is one foot wide and thirty-eight inches long, with a total length of forty and a half miles. They are capable of sustaining a weight of forty pounds a square foot—more than will ever be required of them—with practically no deflection. Nevertheless, though so much stiffer, they are as light as the ordinary board shelf of the same size. They can be easily and quickly adjusted at any height, without the need of pegs or loose screws. Once in place they cannot slip or tip, and being made in a uniform size (with some small exceptions for certain irregular spaces around stairways, etc.), every shelf is available for use anywhere. There are no rough edges or projections on which a book can wear, and the parallel strips of steel are rounded and highly polished by means of the Bower-Barff process of coating with magnetic oxide of iron, so that the surface is as smooth as glass—which not only helps to preserve the books, but can offer no lodgement for dust or insects. The open spaces, also, afford an opportunity for using a workable book-brace, specially devised by Mr. Green.
Furthermore, the shelves can be removed from any compartment as desired, and space thus made for a table, a cabinet, or a desk, as needed; or an extra corridor can be at once opened for any distance. Then again, in case of the extra large books, sufficient space may be made by placing the shelves of both sides of the range on a level.
THE ROTUNDA, LOOKING EAST.