Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 26, no. 652: September 11, 1880

Text version:

Real Estate Record AND BUILDERS' GUIDE. Vol. XXYI. NEW YOBK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1880. No. 652 Published Weekly by C^« Heal #stah Hetarb ^ssodalbn, TERMS. ONE YEAR, in advance.. ..$10.00. Communications should be addressed to C. W. S\irEET, No. 137 Broadway The subscription books for the Interna¬ tional World's Fair wiU not be opened on the fifteenth instant, as was originally agreed upon, the executive committee having de¬ cided to defer their opening for a mohth. This decision, we are informed, was arrived at by the committee, after thoroughly can¬ vassing the situation and ascertaining that many persons anxious to aid the enterprise would be absent from the city until that date. In the meantime the suggestion here¬ tofore made by The Eeal Estate Record not to ask for money subscriptions until the site is selected, has also had its due weight with the executive committee, and there is hardly any doubt now but the wisdom of this suggestion has been endorsed by a ma¬ jority of the executive committee. If capi¬ talists and property owners know, before they put down their money, where the exhi¬ bition is to be located, matters wiU. run on smoothly immediately after. Let us know the locality and money without stint wiU be forthcoming; until this question is settled the entire matter wUl be bereft of the proper spirit of local enterprise. At the same time we urge once more upon the projectors of this enterprise the importance of placing General Grant at the head of the Board of Of&cers. His name alone will be worth thousands of dollars to those who desire to see the World's Fair of New York eclipse all of its predecessors. the Mayor signed the ordinance he confer¬ red with Commissioner Campbell, and that official consulted Mr. G. S. Chesbrough, of Chicago, one of the most eminent engineers in the country, who declared the Prall system to be " very satisfactory and economical for heating buildings, cooking, etc." Experi¬ ments made in Harrisburg, have been very successful, and the conversion of the super¬ heated water in the converting chamber into steam appears to be all that can be desnedfor the supply of power and heat. A large manu¬ facturing concern in said city speaks in the highest terms of the experiments there made. Mr. Robert Cartwright, of Rochester, a gen¬ tleman well known in connection with the Hghting and watering of towns, considers the Prall system far superior to any other, for heating purposes, and is anxious to co¬ operate with the new organization. In a very few weeks the Prall Union Heating Company wUl be placed more prominently before the public, the conditions imposed upon the company by the authorities will be complied with, and shortly after work will be begun upon the first square mile of streets lying north of Fourteenth street. HOW NEW YORK IS TO BE HEATED. The franchise granted by the city authori¬ ties, and now approved by the Mayor, to the Prall Heating Company, is not for the pur¬ pose of conveying heat and power by steam, but by means of superheated water. The mains will range from three to six inches in diameter, will be covered with packing and enclosed in a wooden box, thus preventing loss of heat by radiation. The temperature of the water will be maintained from 350 to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and by means of converters and dissipating valves, wiU. be regulated to make steam at whatever pres¬ sure may be desired by the various buildings using the system, which would average about five pounds for private houses. Before PRESERVATION OF TIMBER LANDS. The fact that foreign countries are endeav¬ oring to get possession of our hardwood timber, as was shown the other day in these columns, by the purchase of 150,000 acres in Wisconsin, by an English company, and the increased consumption of this material in this country, for furniture purposes—now amounting to two thousand million feet— has revived the discussion in regard to pre¬ serving and cultivating our forest supplies. In addition to this, the periodical destruction of timber by forest fires, in various sections of the country, has given strength to the arguments of those who insist that some leg¬ islation is necessary to protect future sup¬ plies. In various European countries, governments of states and municipalities, now publicly express their regrets that in times past no legislative enactments, prevent¬ ing the destruction of forests, were engrafted on their statute books. Here, in what may be called a virgin country, we find a body like the American Association for the Ad¬ vancement of Science, already preparing a memorial to the governors of States call¬ ing their attention to the danger of a de¬ creased forest supply in the future. This action cannot be called permature, now that we have the experience of European coun¬ tries before us, and that we see the enormous destmction of forests going on all over the Union. It wOl be shown ere long, however, that this subject of forest preservation musit be studied like everything else, not in accor¬ dance with the precedents of the past, but in accordance with the demands of an ever in¬ creasing civihzation. For instance, neither England nor any other country, would to-day be so anxious to possess themselves of Amer¬ ican hardwoods, if, during the last twenty years, they had not seen abroad the excellent furniture made from our American timber. Not only at the universal exhibitions held in London, Paris and Vienna, have Europeans seen and studied the merits of these hard¬ woods, but in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Lon¬ don there are to-day branch houses of Amer¬ ican furniture factories .which sell our products in that line with profit and advan" tage. It is singular, however, that just about the time that Europe, attracted by the excellent walnut used to great advantage in our American dwellings for years past, is trying to imitate us by securing ti.e greater part of our hardwood products, that at the same time our own builders and architects are turning more and more their attention to mahogany, which is slowly but steadily taking the place of the walnut of the past. This, however, shows only the more how the equilibrium of consumption is steadily kept up, by either local preference or foreign taste, and this changeable demand does not detract in the least from the effort sought after by the American Society for the Ad¬ vancement of Sciences to inaugurate some legislation that wfil put a stop to the des¬ truction of our forests. The Department of Public Paiks, not hav¬ ing complied with the provisions of the law enacted last winter calling for the filing of plans for the improvement of Morningside Park within a specified time, the West Side Association, under the lead of its energetic president, Dwight H. Ohnstead, is now pre¬ paring to take action against the Commis¬ sioners in the civil as well as in the criminal courts, for non-performance of their official duties. A marked contrast to the neglect of the Park Department has been displayed during the present season by the Department of Public Works. Encouraged by the Mayor and Board of Aldermen, Mr. Allan Campbell has placed a number of up-town streets in excellent condition for immediate building improvements. The West Side has been greatly benefited by this, the absence of these public works having been the main ob¬ stacle to building operations in the past. Now the good result of such work is already in part before us, and Mr. Edward Clark's example is being steadily followed by other