Setting America's Largest Columns
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A COT TTMN RTCT AND TITO BIO HALF OF ANOTHER IN POSITION FOR ITOT8T
A SnoS how tue column IS DWARFED BY ITS SURROUNDING
(Copyright, 1904, by T. a McClure.)
O END of trouble ha been caused
to all concerned by the eight
largest column In America,
which are destined to form the
choir of the Cathedral of St.
John the Divine, New York, the largest
religious edifice to be started since the
middle ages, when thousands of sealots
worked their lives away rearing Europe's
famous cathedrals.
The period of trouble and anxiety
Stretches over six years, from the time
these enormous blocks began to be quarried
down Maine way to the present day, when
they are being set on foundations In every
way worthy of them. These foundations
of granite are eight feet square, stand
twenty-six feet above the surface and go
down seventy feet to a rock ledge. It may
be truthfully said of these columns that
they have the eternal rock Itself for foun
dation. Anything short of Buch a foundation
would scarcely do. The lower half of each
column, placed In front of the average
three-story suburban house, would over
top It; it Is thirty-eight feet long and Its
weight Is the staggering one of 180,006
pounds, or ninety tons. In addition six of
them are capped by an extension sixteen
feet long, with a weight of forty tons,
while two support stones two feet longer
and weighing four tons more. These caps,
which are extremely "hefty" In them
selves, were quarried as parts of the bases,
for It was the original intention to have
monoliths Instead of columns. But it was
found Impossible to turn so big a Mock In
the great lathe, which was especially con
structed for the work of polishing the
monoliths and represents the last step In
such machinery. Three of the monoliths
whllo In the lathe broke from the twisting
strain due to turning, deaplte.all that hu
man agency could do. Then the contractors
and the cathedral authorities, surrendering
to the Inevitable and sinking their disap
pointment, cut all the monoliths In two
Where the three had broken off while
botng turned. Of course, the monoliths
could have been saved Had they been
polished by hand, but that would have
taken years, and the cost would have
been something enormous. Bo the mono
liths were out of the question.
Tills was Just one of the troubles In
cident to the securing of the great columns,
each of which weighs ISO tons, or 260.000
pounds. Placed side by side along the curb
of a New York street they would com
pletely hide from view tw four-etory
and barement brown stone front houses,
for each column Is fifty-four feet long and
six feet In diameter.
Yet these mammoth columns are being
t with an ease that is astounding to the
layman. The big half of the first column
to be set was lowered Into potiitlon In an
hour and forty minutes, while the cap was
raised and set in a, few minutes, and only
Six men, under W. F. Ilowland, the vet
eran stone setter, who Is known all over
the country by men similarly enguv
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are employed on the work.
The setting of these stones and the pre
paratory work are by no means the least
Interesting features In the history of tna
columns.
Straddling a foundation Is a derrick of
the trunks of two Oregon firs, each ninety
six feet long and twenty Inches through
at the top. Mr. Howland spent two weeks
selecting these logs and In choosing them
he gave no other test than that of sight.
"How did you know merely by looking at
them that they would support such a great
welghtt" he was asked.
"Well," he replied, "I've been setting
stone a good many years and I've learned
to size up a piece of timber by what
weight It will stand."
After the derrick is placed and the cables
properly stiung a roalter of a week's
steady work cribbing is laid to ono of
the big stones and a track of equally heavy
timber to the base of the foundation. This
track Is heavily soaped and then the stone
Is rolled upon Uie cribbing and over it
on to the track by means of what riggers
term par buckling, its butt resting on a
shoe that has a tenon fitting Into a groove
in the track, so that there will be no
danger of the shoe leaving the track.
On the end of each of these big stones
is a projection of several Inches, on which
great wooden clamps are set. This gives
a shoulder to lift against, for the cables
are fastened around the clamp and the
shoe put under the butt so that nothing
will touch the polished surface, which
would be marred by the slightest contact
with a cable.
When the atone is In this position Its
wooden casing la stripped off 15,000 feet of
lumber were required to encase the sixteen
stones and it Is slid upward along the
soaped track to the base of the foundation.
Then it is all ready to be lifted.
Two engines are used in this task, and
their combined horse-power is increased iu
effect to 880 by doubling the cables at
tached to the stone. While the end is
hoisted up the butt Is kept steady by
means of a winch, holes being drilleed in
the butt for the Insertion of hooks on
which to fasten cables. Then as the stone
swings upward the winch gives and takes,
as necessity requires, until the stone is
poised about two feet directly above the
foundation. It took just ten minutes to
get the first monolith Into this position.
While the stone Is thus poised in mid
air the base Is given a thick coat of ce
ment and sheet lead, about twenty-five
pounds of the latter being used to even
the Joint Last thing of all it Is eased
into position by lowering off on the which,
a matter of a few minutes work.
The small stones are set In practically
the same method, except that they have
no projection at the end, and so what are
known as Lewis Irons, Instead of the
wooden clamp, are used In lifting them.
These Irons fit Into a hole that Is larger
at the bottom than at the opening. They
consist of three pieces of the width of the
hole's bottom. . The ouUlde pieces are
MAMMOTH BABES FOB THE BIQ COIXTMNa
put In the hole first, then the middle one,
and the greater the pull the more secure)
the Irons In the hole.
But while very little time is consumed,
in the actual work of setting a column
the preparatory work seemingly stretches)
out Interminably. Six weeks were spent
In preparation for hoisting the first col
umn to bo set, and the men worked stead
lly every work day. In view of this clr
cuniBtance, Mr. Howland thinks he will
be lucky If he finishes the Job before cold
weather sets In.
So far no untoward event has Interfered
with the setting, but when Mr. Howland
hauled the columns . to the cathedral
grounds he had trouble enough.
They brought them from the quarries ta
within two miles of their destination by
water; no railroad could have carried
them. As Mr. Howland naively puts It.
"they'd have demoralized the roadbed.'
The machinery was ripped out of a ferry
boat, two of the small stones were placed
In the hold for ballast, two large ones
were rolled from the water front on to
the deck and shored up, and so they were
towed to New York.
Here they were rolled out upon the pier,
which had been strengthened, and then
Mr. Howland undertook to transport them
to their destination upon a wagon specially
built for the purpose. It weighs l'io tons.
Its hind and front axles are eight and
six inches in diameter, respectively. The
steel tires are twenty Inches wide and
are of two thicknesses. The wheels are of
blocks of wood with the end grain on the
axle, to get the greatest strength. The
length Is forty feet, and four months and
about 3.000 were required to build it.
But while the wagon eventually got the
stones to the cathedral grounds, a ISO
horse-power engine hauling It by means of
purchase blocks, there were times when it
looked as If they would prove too much for
their conveyance.
Once one wheel was sunk by the great
weight two feet below the street level, and
a half day was spent in jacking it up. The
steel tires were frayed and torn a.t if they
hud been pieces of cardboard, and stveral
thousand feet of three-Inch planking, laid
in the cathedral grounds for a roadway,
were reduced to kindling wood by one
stone passing over It, a new roadway being
necessary for each block.
As for the two miles of street over which
the stones were hauled, they were put in
a highly disreputable condition. Stone
crossings were ground to powdr Re'gtan
blocks suffered the same experience and
smooth asphalt streets were made to look
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W. P. HOWLAND. TKB VETERAN"
STONE SETTER, STANDING BY THB
BASE OF ONE OF THE BIQ COLUMNS.
like a strip of a relief map of some highly
mountainous country.
The City of New York has been so un
fortunate as to have to pay the cost if re
pairing. When permission for hauling the
columns through the thoroughfares was)
asked of the authorities they readily
granted it, confidently adding that their
streets could sustain any weight, no mat
ter how great, put upon them. They know
better now, and Mr. Howland thinks they
should also be grateful to him for his at
tempts to crease out the ridges made by
the asphalt and asphalt blocks bulging up
on either side of the wheels. Whenever
a ridge made by a previous pa"' age was
reached Mr. Howland would run the
wagon over It and thus materially lessen
Its height These ridges were often eight
and ten Inches In helcht.
Five days were spent on an average la
moving each stone. The task, however,
stretched out over six months, owing to
the fact that it was begun In the fall and
could not be pursued in winter, when the
streets were in bad shape on account of
snow and Ice.
When the columns are finally erected they
will repreetnt an expenditure of $200,000. or
13,000 for each column. As they lay on thai
ground awaiting retting they look as It
they cost at least that much; but those al
ready set are to dwarfed by the great arch
and its flying buttresses now erected which
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