THE BUILDING FOR THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 629 



iiig is about 2,500,000 volumes, making the total ultimate capacity of the 

 building 4,500,000 without encroaching on the exhibition halls or any 

 of the spaces needed for the work of the Library or for special reading 

 rooms. The small book stack is devoted to the Smithsonian collection. 



From a point in the basement just below the center of the reading 

 room books of any size are transported in a few minutes to the Capitol 

 and returned by means of an underground endless cable driven by an 

 electric motor. The Capitol terminal of this apparatus, located in a 

 small room east of the statuary hall, is in further communication with 

 the Library by means of a pneumatic message tube, electric bells, and 

 a telephone. 



Every part of the interior of the Library building, excepting the 

 basement of the rotunda and stair hall, receives daylight most abun- 

 dantly through some two thousand windows and skylights, and this is 

 favored by the great width of the four courts and the reflecting quality 

 of the light cream-colored enameled bricks with which their walls are 

 faced. 



Some of the larger hall spaces are not yet assigned and occupied by 

 the Library, the collections having but recently been placed in the 

 building and not yet fully arranged, but in the main the first or Library 

 story will contain the executive offices of the Library proper, the private 

 reading rooms for members of Congress, and the cataloguing, manuscript, 

 l)eriodical, and Smithsonian rooms, together with the Toner collection 

 and Washingtoniana, and perhaps the music and map rooms 5 that is to 

 say, the first floor will be the Library floor xDrox)er, not ouly for the great 

 public reading room before described, but for all principal collections, 

 executive offices, and the main entrance ball of the Library. At least 

 one-half of tlie second or upper story, which is 29 feet in clear height, 

 is to be occui)ied for the exhibition of graphic art and curiosities of 

 bibliography and literature. The first story has a height of 21 feet, 

 floor to floor. The basement story, on the ground floor, is for the offices 

 of superintendence and maintenance of the building and grounds and 

 disbursements for the whole Library, the extensive copyright dej^art- 

 ment, reading room for the blind, book binding, mailing, packing, 

 receiving and delivering, storage, etc. This story is 14 feet high from 

 floor to floor. Each of the six pavilions — being one at each corner of 

 the building, and two in the east and west fronts — contains an attic 

 story well ventilated and lighted and suitable for safe storage and 

 various kinds of subordinate work. In that of the west center pavilion 

 there is a convenient restaurant for the accommodation of the Library 

 attendants and visitors. 



The cellar, or subbasement, extends throughout the area of the 

 building and is occui^ied by the warming and ventilating apparatus 

 and most of the machinery. The boiler battery, steam jmrnps, coal 

 vaults, ash hoist, etc., are located under the east approach outside the 

 building. No fires are required within the building and all discomforts 

 of the proximity of the boiler room are avoided. There are sixteen 



