Sketch Showing 



Of>ro'lon of 



MOITAN AIR Lock 



THE FOUNDATIONCOMPANY 

 NYC.r 



. 



AIR LOCK 





FIG. 1 



FIG. 2 



FIG. 3 



and out of a bucket, or of the men from the outside 

 air to the caisson, or vice versa, without excessive 

 loss of compressed air, an air lock or air chamber, 

 invented by Daniel E. Moran, C.E., vice president 

 of The Foundation Company, is used. This air lock 

 surmounts the top of the shaft leading to the working 

 chamber, and by its use it is now possible to sink 

 caissons through quicksand and water, close to ad- 

 joining buildings without causing flow of material 

 from under the latter, which, if allowed to occur, 

 would settle and crack them. This is the invention 

 that has made poible the construction of the sky- 

 scrapers in Ixnver Manhattan. The operation of 

 this air lock is described as follows: 



When a man desires to enter the working chamber, 

 he first goes into the air lock, closing the outside door 

 tightlv behind him. Compressed air is then admitted 

 to the lock until the pressure in it and in the working 

 chamber is equalized. The door between the latter 

 and tin- air lock then opens by its own weight. The 

 reverse operation of coming out is equally simple. 

 The man climbs up into the air lock from the working 

 chamber, whereupon the lower door is closed tightly. 

 The valve is then opened, which permits the gradual 

 pe of the compressed air from the lock, and when 



I 



the pressure has been reduced to that of the out- 

 side air, the upper or outer door opens and the man 

 steps out. The same description applies to the oper- 

 ation of the bucket, as shown above in Figures -' 

 and :5. 



In the old days of pneumatic caisson work, before 

 the invention of the Moran air lock, the material 

 was carried out in bags of canvas by the men, or 

 was blown out by air pressure through a 4-inch pipe. 

 By means of the recent improvements in this air lock 

 Mr. Moran has made it possible to use a bucket of 

 half a cubic yard capacity almost as freely between 

 the excavation chamber and the outer air as if the 

 work were done in the open. 



In fact the bucket has been taken in, filled, 

 brought out, emptied and returned to the air chamber 

 twenty times an hour. 



The cement in the foundation was brought 

 to the building in 151,315 bags of 90 pounds each. 



QUANTITY If tlie concn ' l< ' ma(lt ' will) tllis 



OF CFMFNT cement W(MV a11 l<>:i<l< v <l "" two- 



horse trucks, it would make a con 

 tinuous line of 10,180 trucks, 38 



miles long, or twice the distance from the Singer 



Building to Yonkers. 



18] 



