USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Newton > Town of Newton annual report 1882-1883 > Part 30
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the cellar, and a new No. 8 Magee furnace with brick casing put in the place of one worn out. The total cost of the work was $2,019.27.
On Aug. 23, 1883, a contract was made with Alfred Hop- kins for $748 for putting in water-heaters for the outbuild- ings of the Claflin, Hyde, Jackson, and Prospect schools. The apparatus consists of a cast-iron dome or coil set inside the furnace, and a circulation-pipe run to a coil in the out- building, with a 3-inch expansion-pipe run up through the roof, with a glass water-gauge. The supply from the house- main is connected to the return-pipe inside of the cellar. The coils are of 2-inch wrought-iron pipe of the following lengths : 95 lineal feet at old Prospect School, 72 lineal feet at new Prospect School, 99 lineal feet at Hyde School, 162 lineal feet at Claflin School, and 106 lineal feet at Jackson School. All pipes exposed to the outer air in passages are boxed in. The contract calls for apparatus sufficient to heat the coils to 200°, the outside temperature being 20°. The total cost of the work was $748.
On July 17, 1883, a contract was made with Richard J. Morrissey for $875 for repairs and improvements at the stables of Steamer No. 1. The old stalls and floor were removed, also the attic-stairs. A new under floor was laid with tarred paper, and an upper floor of maple. The floor- joists were straightened and levelled, old ones replaced, and new posts set. Five new stalls were built with patent iron and maple floors, with iron gutters and railings; also a bedding-room with iron grating for drying and ventilating bedding. New attic stairs and closet were built, wash-bowl and urinal relocated, and connected to drain running from stalls and floor cesspools to a new cesspool built in the yard. A new harness-closet was built, and windows cut through on west side. A dust-shoot was built from attic to cellar for floor-sweepings, with double trap-doors to keep effluvia of cellar from the attic. A line of soil-pipe was run below foot of stalls, and set with Y-branches so as to catch the flow of the gut- ters when the floors were washed, but set far enough away
PLATE I.
Cold Air Shaft
Stairs.
Cold Air Shaft.
C.
Wood.
Coal.
2
Well.
I
Closet.
Coal.
D.
B.
1
Closet.
Cold Air
Cold Air Shaff
Shaft
F. L.Preble Del.
PLAN - Heating & Verklaring Apparatus, - BIGELOW SCHOOL,- Wardy, Newton. Scale 16 Feet to linch. Note. -
H. Hot air pipes. F . Smoke Flues. A. "4 Plan at and below Basement Floor level. B . /4 " a little above " C. /4 " about 5/2 Ft. above " D. " " just below Ceiling
PLATE II.
W
H.
S
School Room.
Hall Way.
Coat Room Master's R
School Room.
H.
Hall Way.
Goal Raam. Teacheris R.
- M
Cold Air Shaft.
F. L.Preble, Del.
HALF SECTIONS ON SHAFT.
Showing Registers &
Radiators.
Showing Shafts & Pipes.
Scale 16 Feet to 1 inch.
Note.
S. Summer Ventilators. W. Winter " H. Hot air pipes &c. R. Radiators.
I. R. Indirect Radiators.
M. Manhale.
1. Cold air inlet.
-+
PLATE III.
F
S
R
W
I
100
H +
c
FL. Preble Del.
~ HALF SECTIONS ACROSS SHAFT .- -
Through Hot Air Pipes. Through Ventilation Pipes. Scale 16 Feet to lino.
Note.
C. Cold air shafts. R. Radiators. H. Hot air pipes. W. Winter Ventilators. S. Summer " F. Smoke Flues.
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to allow ordinary drippings to fall on the manure-heap, thus keeping the floor-washings from the cellar. The total cost of the work was $1,041.20.
On July 17, 1883, a contract was made with C. H. and A. F. Ireland for $2,579 for the carpentry work, and with George K. Paul & Co. for $6,335 for steam-heating and ventilating the Bigelow school-building. The four old fur- naces were removed, also the two chimneys connected with them, and the partition-wall across the middle portion of the cellar. Two cold-air channels were excavated across the cellar, 4 feet below the cellar-floor, 4 feet wide in the clear, and lined with concrete from 4 to 6 inches thick.
The material being shaly rock in sloping strata, it was necessary, where the excavation neared the brick piers of the retaining-walls across the cellar, to carry these piers down in brick-work to the bottom of the excavation, first taking off the pressure of the building by cross-timbers run through the old piers. The cold-air channels were bricked over on cast-iron L-beams at a level with the cellar-floor. At each end a wooden shaft was run up to the first floor to form an air-inlet, having two windows to each inlet covered by wire cloth. A swinging wooden flap was hung in the corner of each inlet, so as to shut off one or the other inlet by the effect of the wind, and to prevent its blowing through the two windows without striking down into the channel.
The cellar, between the cold-air channels, was excavated from 3 to 5 feet in depth for the boilers and fire-pit, and lined with concrete and brick-work along the sides of the cold-air channels. Four brick heating-chambers were built to the full height of the cellar, with cast-iron cleaning-out doors, and connected by channels with the cold-air chan- nels. A ventilation-shaft was run up through the old coat- rooms, where the brick chimneys were removed on each side of the building, 3 by 10 feet, and connected on third floor into one single shaft 10 by 10 feet, which projects 6 feet above the ridge of the roof, with movable blinds on each side. A passageway was built on the first and second
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floors, between the front and rear hallways, with doors re- moved. Coat-rooms were built on each side, opening into each hallway with swinging doors. A room for a teachers' water- closet was built over the entrance to the cold-air channel, on the second floor, in one of the old teachers' clothes-closets. A master's room was partitioned off from one of the large coat-rooms. No fixtures were set in the teachers' water-closet. Cast-iron enamelled basins, with faucets, were also set in each schoolroom, trapped and ventilated, and waste-pipe run to cesspool. All the above work was included in the contract with C. H. and A. F. Ireland.
The contractors for the heating and ventilating sublet the galvanized-iron work on the flues, etc., to Moses Pond & Co. The heating-apparatus consists of two steel boilers 42 inches by 14 feet, with thirty-eight 3-inch tubes in each, set in brick- work, with all the necessary valves and fixtures, and Peerless damper-regulators. In the heating-chambers, which are lined in galvanized iron, and each divided into two sections corre- sponding to each schoolroom, are set stacks of 1-inch wrought- iron pipe-coils 8 feet long, giving 403 to 433 square feet of heating-surface for each room. These stacks are each divided into four sections, with independent valves; so that one- quarter, one-half, three-quarters, or the whole surface may be heated as required. A vertical-tube radiator of 50 square feet surface is set in each hall on first floor. Eight double-row radiators of 80 square feet surface are set in the large hall in the recess of the windows, with closed foot and a cold-air inlet from the outside. An indirect pipe-radiator of 100 square feet surface is set under each lower hall in a galva- nized-iron box with registers on first floor, to be used as foot- warmers. The cold air is brought to these from the cold-air channels by galvanized-iron pipes. The main steam-pipe is 6 inch from the 8-inch drum on the boilers until it is branched to the radiators. Valves are set so that all the heating can be regulated from the cellar, but each direct radiator has also valves to be worked from the rooms. All the return-pipes are brought together with the blow-off pipes
55
from the boilers, and run to the old well situated in the cellar.
The ventilating-shafts are tin-lined throughout: each con- tains a 16-inch cast-iron smoke-flue set on a brick pier in the cellar, and connected to the furnaces by wrought-iron pipe. All the hot-air flues from the heating-chambers are brought up inside of the ventilating-shaft, and enter the rooms 8 feet above the floor. At the bottom of each is a box with a branch from the cold-air channel, with movable hinged valves which can be opened from the schoolroom, thus tem- pering the hot-air delivered in the room. This valve closes the hot-air connection as it opens the cold-air connection ; so that in summer it will deliver cool air which has passed under the cellar through the cold-air channels.
Each room has two openings into the vent-shaft for ventila- tion, - one at the top, 8 feet from the floor, for summer ven- tilation ; and one at the floor-level, for winter, when the hot air is coming in above. The openings are closed by board valves worked by a cord and catch. In the upper hall there are three upper and three lower ventilation-openings. There is also a door, giving access to the vent-shaft, where there is a space for setting a small stove to create a draught in the shaft during hot weather. All the openings in the shaft have a galvanized-iron hood, to give an upward current to the air, and to obviate any entrance of air from the lower rooms into the upper rooms. The coat-rooms are ventilated by 12-inch square flues built in the corner of the room, con- nected at the top with the vent-shaft, and heated by a line of 1-inch pipe run up from boiler and returned. All main steam-pipes in cellar are covered with hair felting and duck. Wherever pipes pass through the walls, they are set in a sleeve.
It is thought that one boiler will be sufficient, except in the very severest weather. According to the outer tempera- ture, the supply of heat can be regulated by the section- valves in the cellar, and also by the cold-air valve, which is regulated by the teacher, from the schoolroom. In winter
56
the upper-vent register would be closed : otherwise the hot air, which comes in by the side of it, would be drawn into the shaft before heating the room. The total cost of the work was $9,091.62.
PARKS.
JOINT STANDING COMMITTEE ON PARKS.
ALDERMAN JOHN Q. HENRY, Chairman. ALDERMAN DAVID T. BUNKER. ALDERMAN J. WESLEY KIMBALL. COUNCILMAN WILLIAM B. YOUNG.
COUNCILMAN JAMES H. NICKERSON.
COUNCILMAN WILLARD G. BRACKETT.
COUNCILMAN WILLIAM PIERCE.
PARKS.
The laying-out of the park in Ward Seven, known as Far- low Park, early engaged the attention of the Joint Standing Committee on Parks. Surveys and an outline plan of the park were made. The park contains about 3-76% acres, and is bounded by Vernon, Eldridge, and Church Streets, and lands of heirs of J. A. Cleaveland, and of John C. Chaffin.
Two plans were submitted to the committee for laying out the grounds, - one drawn by George F. Meacham, archi- tect, contemplating grading with a very irregular surface, the construction of winding and covered paths, rockeries, cascades, ponds, and a playground containing about 32,500 square feet; the second, designed by George M. Shinn, archi- tect, had principally in view the laying-out for athletic sports. A playground elliptical in shape, containing about 61,500 square feet, occupied the central portion of the grounds : this was surrounded by a bicycle-path 12 feet wide. It was proposed to lay out the rest of the park with but a few paths leading from street to street.
A modification of these two plans drawn by Mr. Meacham was finally adopted by the committee. It contemplates the construction of a playground elliptical in shape, containing about 49,000 square feet, extending from near the corner of Church and Eldridge Streets, diagonally across the grounds. It also contains the features of Mr. Meacham's original plan ; but by special vote of the committee these features have only been partially executed.
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Mr. Meacham also submitted several designs for a stone- curbing, or fence, around the park. The plan accepted con- sisted of a granite rail 20 inches deep and 8 inches wide, with a split face and top, and a marginal line 1} inches wide around the face and top. Between each rail is set a stone post dressed 12 inches square, with split faces, and a 12-inch marginal line. The posts are square for 6 inches above the rail, and end in a pyramidal top 3 inches in height. The contract was awarded to Alexander McDonald of Cam- bridge for furnishing the curbing at $1.20 per running foot, including the posts. The grading of the paths and grounds, and the setting of the curbing, were performed under the direction of this department.
Surveys and plans were made, and titles examined, of the tract of land between Cabot, Blake, Mill, Hull, Highland, Valentine, Homer, Walnut, Beacon, Pleasant, Morton, and Cedar Streets, and through the Colby, Edmands, and Shan- non estates to Cabot Street. The tract contains about 375 acres, and comprises 50. estates. Hearings were attended, appraisement schedules made, descriptions of the various propositions and calculations of the areas made for the pro- posed Central Park. The numerous changes in the limits of the proposed park, requiring the lines located for each, represent a large amount of work for which no results have apparently been attained.
The northerly shore of Crystal Lake, Ward Six, being in a ragged and unsightly condition, the attention of the City Council was called to it by the Newton Centre Improvement Society ; and an appropriation of $600 for widening the street to its full width was made from the general appropriation for highway widenings and improvements, and another appro- priation of $500 was made from the general appropriation for parks. The sum of $550.01 was subscribed and paid by the Newton Centre Improvement Society, and citizens living in the immediate vicinity, for its further improvement. A granite-capped wall about 1 foot high above high-water mark was built in the lake from 15 to 20 feet from the
61
street line : a gravel-path was made just inside of the wall, and the balance of the space between it and the street graded and sodded. A light iron fence was erected on the street line. The total cost of the work was $1,637.69.
HEALTH DEPARTMENT.
BOARD OF HEALTH.
ALDERMAN JAMES R. DEANE, President.
ALDERMAN HENRY E. COBB.
ALDERMAN J. WESLEY KIMBALL.
ALDERMAN ELIJAH W. WOOD.
ALDERMAN DAVID T. BUNKER.
ALDERMAN DWIGHT CHESTER. ALDERMAN JOHN Q. HENRY.
EXECUTIVE OFFICERS. NATHAN MOSMAN, Agent.
ALBERT F. NOYES (City Engineer), Inspector of Plumbing.
-
BOARD OF HEALTH.
As directed by special order of the Board of Health, the inspection of all plumbing-work, so far as it came to our notice, was continued through most of the year. Finding the rules of the Board were too incomplete to give the best results, their revision early engaged the attention of this department. A new set of rules were carefully prepared (adapted as far as possible to our special conditions, and the best practice of the day), and criticisms of the same by some of our best sanitarians were invited.
While the action of the Board of Health in this matter has worked a radical change for the better in the character and design of the work performed, there is still considerable reluctance in complying with that portion of Rule 17, relat- ing to the filing of plans and specifications, and the giving of notice when the work is ready for inspection. While this may seem a hardship, and unnecessary to some, it is of the highest importance to the inspector. The knowledge of just what work is intended to be performed prevents numerous visits which would otherwise be necessary; it also prevents a wrong conception of the rules, and has in many cases saved considerable unnecessary work. It requires, further, a more careful study or laying-out of the work than is usually or would otherwise be given before commencing the work.
For the most part, I have found the general desire is to do good work ; but the contracts are not always drawn in full
66
compliance with the rules of the Board, and in such cases I find a reluctance to do more than the contract calls for. Such a condition of circumstances has a tendency to divide the responsibility between the plumber and the owner.
In order to get the best results, I am convinced that each plumber performing work in the city of Newton should be licensed, and held strictly accountable for the work per- formed. This is now done in many cities, and is attended with admirable results. I would therefore recommend that the necessary steps be taken, empowering the Board of Health to make such rules as may be necessary for the examination and licensing of such plumbers as may pass said examina- tion and properly qualify.
SEWERAGE.
In accordance with the recommendations of his Honor Mayor Ellison, a Joint Special Committee on Sewerage was appointed to consider the question of the construction of sewers in the city. The committee appointed consisted of Alderman Dwight Chester, chairman; Alderman Elijah W. Wood; Councilman William B. Young; Councilman Eben Thompson ; Councilman Henry A. Thorndike.
Several consultations were held in regard to the question of a sewerage system adapted to this city; various works were examined with his Honor Mayor Ellison, and the chairman, Alderman Chester; and the committee reported, recommending a more careful study of the question in gen- eral, with special reference to the economic adaptability of the separate system to our city.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.
In closing, I would respectfully tender my acknowledg- ments to his Honor Mayor Ellison, the Water Board, and the various committees of the City Council under and for whom the services of this department have been rendered ; to the various heads of departments for courtesies shown,
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and to the assistants in this department for their hearty co-operation in every undertaking; to William E. Worthen of New York, consulting engineer, A. Fteley, principal assistant city engineer of Boston, and to Hon. Nathaniel Wheeler of Bridgeport, Conn., for their warm interest in the results of the various works under my direction, and their valuable suggestions in its execution.
Respectfully submitted.
ALBERT F. NOYES, City Engineer.
16a 8353
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