Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

8 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. Fig. 15.—AT WORK 570 FEET ABOVE STREET LEVEL. acquire terrific momentum during a drop of some hundreds of feet. A drift-pin weighing 3 lbs. rolled off a plank on the highest story of the “ Metropolitan Life.” It struck a flange on the thirty-ninth story, hurtled out into the air, and fell on the roof of a car in the street below with such force as to pass clean through the car, skinning off the side of a suit case en route. Long before the steelworkers have finished their job, an army of masons, bricklayers, carpenters, and electricians have begun to construct walls, partitions, and Walls and floors, and to make the edi- fice habitable. Their progress is assisted by several tiers of scaffolds slung from wire ropes, to enable work to proceed at several floors simultaneously. It often thing permanently snug. They are wonderful folk these aerial workers. Apparently care- less, and ready to take risks such as would stagger ordinary humanity, they tread cir- happens that some of the offices are ready for occupation before the roof is on, or that a story is finished while those below are still open steelwork, owing to delay in the delivery of the necessary materials. (See Fig. 19.) cumspectly and attend closely to what they The speed at which these skyscrapers rise do, for upon each one of them may depend the lives of sev- eral of his fellows. Cool, steady nerve is their chief asset. Their apparent unconcern only masks a constant watchful- ness, born of guarding against the never-ending danger of certain and sudden death. The result is that the death- roll, despite the perilous con- ditions, is extremely small. Some of the tallest skyscrapers have been erected without the loss of a single life. The ut- most care with regard to pre- venting the fall of tools, Fig. 16.—GRILLAGE FOUNDATION PLAN FOR COLUMNS CARRYING THE ENTIRE WEIGHT OF THE RITZ HOTEL, LONDON. [e] rivets, etc., must be taken, for even a small object will