ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 

 BULLETIN 



Published by the New York Zoological Society 



Vol. XIX 



NOVEMBER, 1916 



Number 6 



HOPE FOR IMPROVEMENT OF THE AQUARIUM 



By C. H. TowNSEND. 



IT IS four years since the Zoological Society 

 completed plans for a larger building for 

 the Aquarium, and the City is still financially 

 unprepared to undertake improvements on the 

 scale proposed. A part of this Bulletin is 

 devoted to the presentation of a substitute plan, 

 which, although costing but a fraction of the 

 original plan, will do much for the relief of 

 an institution that has always existed under 

 unfavorable conditions. 



The Aquarium is a museum of which the 

 public makes constant use, but its equipment 

 is such that the demands made upon it have 

 never been fully met. It is deplorable that 

 while other museums, which stand in the same 

 relation to the City of New York, have all been 

 increased in size and scope through city ap- 

 propriations, and have extended their fields of 

 usefulness, the development of the Aquarium 

 has been arrested for lack of space and equip- 

 ment. 



The situation is remarkable when we con- 

 sider the fact that the Aquarium has always 

 been far in the lead of the other New York 

 museums as an attraction for the people, hav- 

 ing for many years had more than two millions 

 of visitors annually. 



The improvements proposed would place the 

 mechanical department of the Aquarium on a 

 safe and sanitary basis, afford adequate space 

 for the storage of coal, allow some increase 

 in space for exhibits, and provide a little more 

 office space. 



The extensive heating, pumping, filtration 

 and refrigerating plant at the Aquarium has 

 been in operation for twenty years. It is not 



only out of date and costly to operate, but is 

 unsanitary and dangerous to the health of those 

 who use the building. The Aquarium has al- 

 ways lacked suitable coal bunkers, and the 

 engineering department depends for its supply 

 on deliveries made every four days. A pro- 

 longed blizzard such as occurs every decade 

 in New York, would make deliveries of coal 

 temporarily impossible, and such a disaster 

 would cause the loss of the entire marine col- 

 lection, the maintenance of which depends up- 

 on the continuous running of steam pumps. At 

 high tides the fire room and the small coal bun- 

 kers are invaded by the sea, and sometimes are 

 under water to a depth of one and a half feet. 

 The tidal water at such times penetrates 

 throughout the pipe galleries under the main 

 floor, making them temporarily inaccessible. No 

 branch of the municipal service would tolerate 

 such conditions. The Zoological Society is as- 

 sured by its engineer that it will be possible 

 to remove the entire mechanical department 

 from the section which it now occupies, to the 

 north side of the building. Suitable quarters 

 can there be provided for all machinery, by 

 reconstruction of the basement. 



By the purchase of electrical power and by 

 reducing the steam plant, the amount of coal 

 used annually and the cost of operation, can 

 be considerably reduced. The removal of the 

 machinery from the south side of the building 

 will permit of the reclaiming of all of that sec- 

 tion for much needed exhibition space, and will 

 permit of the construction of a number of tanks 

 of much larger size than any now in the build- 

 ing. 



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