486 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1903, 



States. In the public library it has meanwhile been recognized that 

 the reason for the ineffective working of the apparatus lay, among other 

 things, in the insufficient speed of the fans, and it is decided to replace 

 the motors by more powerful ones, as well as to set up two new spray 

 chambers. Perhaps, too, the air could not be sufficiently cooled by the 

 existing machines, since by proper apparatus for passing it over ice it 

 may be kept at a temperature of 18'- F. lower than the external air. 

 As I have already mentioned, in speaking of the New berry Library, the 

 system works excellently in the Library of Congress at Washington. 

 Further experiments in the Chicago Pu})lic Library will, however, be 

 important, for if the system should ultimately be perfected it may be 

 introduced into museums in smoky cities, such as Dresden, where it 

 would bring about an extraordinary improvement, for there is now no 



Fig. 65. — Chicago Public Library. I'iirt oi iroTi book stack. 



end to the cleaning and renovating. Some of the collections are even 

 closed twice a year for a fortnight for thorough cleaning. 



The books themselves are installed in a most complete manner. 

 They are placed directly behind the delivery room (see Plate 30, where 

 behind the arches two rows of book stacks may be seen), in whose 

 immediate neighborhood are placed 75 per cent of the books in 

 most demand, so that mechanical devices for service at the stacks, 

 such as I expect to describe in the Washington and Boston libraries, 

 can be dispensed with. The stacks are of iron and are made b}'^ 

 the Art Metal Construction Company (former Fenton Metallic Manu- 

 facturing Company) in Jamestown, New York, referred to above, 

 which firm also made the excellent repositories for the library of 

 Columbia University in New York (see p. 371). The stacks stand with 

 interspaces of 40 inches, and are arranged in from 3 to 6 decks, each 

 7 feet to 7 feet 6 inches in height. Thov are 1 foot 3^^ inches wide and 



