CONSTRUCTION AND FIRE PROTECTION OF COTTON WAREHOUSES. 3 
out from the opposite side. The design of buildings with reference 
to size and proportion of compartments, story height, and number 
of stories should be based upon all of the foregoing facts considered 
in conjunction with the relative cost of various types of construction 
and the resulting rate of insurance. 
SOME TYPICAL WAREHOUSE PLANTS. 
The selection of the type of construction and design of the 
buildings used is a matter for the decision of the management, as it 
is not possible to state that any one type of construction and design 
is best regardless of the conditions to be met. 
A single-story warehouse of semi-slow-burning construction — -that 
is having a heavy timber roof, light frame exterior walls, and 
brick division fire walls — is shown in Plate I. This plant is well 
removed from exterior fire hazards so that the construction used 
is safe and economical. It is used for storing cotton for large 
producers and the uncompressed bales are tiered five high during 
the time deposits are heaviest. A story height of 16 feet is used 
and the building has five compartments with a combined capacity 
of 5,000 bales of uncompressed cotton. 
A large export plant, also of semi-slow-burning construction, is 
shown in Plate II. Here the buildings are 100 feet wide and are 
cut into compartments by division fire walls spaced at intervals 
of 50, 75 or 100 feet. The buildings are arranged in pairs with 
receiving or delivery courts 100 feet wide between, to provide the 
necessary isolation and give space for operations of firemen if need 
arise. Plate III, figure 1 shows a court used for receiving cotton 
from cars; there is also shown the depressed tracks and the hose 
houses. In alternate courts the central area is paved and the tracks 
are omitted. Here the cotton leaving the warehouse for the com- 
press or for shipment by water is handled on low flat trucks drawn 
by electric storage battery tractors. 
In this plant reliance for protection in case of fire is placed in 
the system of yard hydrants, a complete automatic sprinkler system 
with ample sources of water supply, and an adequate watchman 
service. 
Plants in which the buildings present exposures to each other, 
or plants subjected to dangerous exterior exposures (including a 
passing locomotive) should not depend entirely on fire-protective 
equipment, but should offer in themselves a strong resistance to 
fire. It must be remembered that congested handling of cotton in 
courts between warehouses causes such buildings to present a hazard 
to each other that may be very serious. An inexpensive method of 
securing protection from such exposures is to use masonry for the 
