638 INDUSTRIAL AND E,VGINEERING CHEMISTRY Vol. 16, No. 6

Mason Hall of Chemistry at Pomona College' By Edward P. Bartlett

POMONA COLLEGE, CLAREMONT, CALIF.

N ACCOUNT of the ever-broadening popular interest in A feature of the stock room is the arrangement of the storage science since the war, educational institutions throughout shelves. Each shelf is a tray, which may be used in the trans- the country have felt greatly increased demands upon portation of apparatus. The basement store room contains a

their scientific departments. Former equipment has become well-equipped laundry for glassware and steel buffer for cleaning entirely inadequate or obsolete. A large program of building is ironware. A large concrete and steel vault for the storage of under way and already many spacious structures, equipped with valuable chemicals opens off the store room. The receiving and the best in modern conve- unpacking room connects di-

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iences, have been dedicated to the cause of scientific training and investigation. In this group stands the new Mason Hall of Chemistry a t Pomona College. It is hoped that a description of this building will be of interest to those planning commercial labora- tories, as well as to those who are charged with the design of laboratories for college use.

In designing the Mason Hall

rectly with the store room and with the caretaker's office.

Several rooms in the build- ing are for special purposes. A large cold room is pro- vided with refrigerator and shelves for crystallization. A double-walled constant tem- perature room, a seismograph room, an assay laboratory, a series of three photographic dark rooms for student use, and a carpenter and machine

of Chemistry, consideration MASON HALL OF C H E M l has been given to the following points.

1-The interest of the undergraduate student is paramount. Probably 90 per cent of the workers in the laboratory will belong to this group.

2-The instructor must have every encouragement to do per- sonal research. On account of the many calls upon his time and energy, the teacher in a small college has little opportunity for original study.

3-A limited number of graduate students should be given opportunity for research. From this group both student and teacher derive mental stimulus.

4-Investigators working upon local problems should be pro- vided with space. It is the duty and the pleasure of the college to act the part of a good neighbor.

The building is of reinforced concrete, with red tile roof, and of fireproof construction. The partitions, other than structural, are of metal lath and plaster and may be easily removed in case rearrangement of the rooms is desired. The two floors and basement, with about 38,000 square feet of floor space, provide ample room for 600 students. The first floor is primarily for the freshman courses and the second floor for the upper division work. The north end of the basement is used by the Department of Geology. Rooms designed for special purposes occupy the south end of the basement. The five office-private laboratory suites provided for instructors are distributed throughout the build- ing a t points convenient to the studeet laboratories.

The largest lecture room, built in amphitheater style, seats 145 stu- dents. The smaller rooms provide space for 45 students each. Each lecture table is equipped with many conveniences for demon- stration. Permanent aluminium projection screens and balanced blackboards are features of both small and large lecture rooms. Preparation rooms, near a t hand, furnish ample equipment for the building and storage of demonstration apparatus.

The arrangement of the building has made possible the use of a single stock room. This is centrally located on the first floor of the building, and is plentifully supplied with shelf and drawer space and with a long slate table for the preparation of solutions. This room is connected by dumb-waiter and elevator with the floor above and with the basement and store room directly below.

There are three lecture rooms and one recitation room.

1 Received January 2, 1924.

WRY, POMONA COLLEGE shop are found in the basement. There is also a museum room

for the Geology Department in the basement and a similar room for the Department of Chemistry on the second floor. Each of the departments has its own library.

The well-lighted laboratories give the impression of spacious- ness. The aisles are 5 feet in width and each student has working space approximately 4 feet by 2 feet. The lockers in the freshman laboratories are built for the use of two sections. With the ex- ceptions of the organic and qualitative rooms, each student labo- ratory is provided with a large balance room. There is a labora- tory for combustions in connection with the organic rooms, a fume room in connection with the qualitative laboratory, and the physical chemistry laboratory is provided with a fully equipped dark room. Especial mention should be made of the two large research rooms, which will accommodate four students each.

Mains for gas, air, vacuum, hot water, cold water, and steam are carried in neat parallel lines by stirrups attached to the ceiling beneath the laboratories. The second floor rooms are entirely free of exposed piping. The drain conduits are of extra heavy cast iron. Duriron is employed in the less accessible places. The drop lines from the upper floors are carried in chases with easily removable paneled fronts. (Originally, ordinary vitrified tile drop lines were used, but on account of their porosity it was nec- essary to replace them.)

Floor drains are provided in each laboratory, and the cement floors are laid with a slight slope toward the drains. For the student desks and in the research labortories there are clay sinks of especial design. These sinks are baked a t very high tempera- ture and receive their waterproof glaze through actual fusing of the clay. Each sink is self-trapping and its outlet extends 8 inches below the sink, making direct connection with the cast- iron drain conduit. The large sinks provided in each laboratory, certain side tables, and the hood bases are of slate. Drain out- lets in the slate sinks and hoods are of Duriron.

An experimental steam line furnishes dry steam a t any de- sired pressure up to 15 pounds to each research laboratory, to each student desk in the organic laboratories, and to the steam- heated water baths. Hot water is provided for in each research laboratory and at the large sinks in other rooms.

Open plumbing is used throughout the building.

June, 1924 INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEiVISTRY 639

Distilled water is distributed through more than 600 feet of block tin pipe to all parts of the building. A steam still furnishes an ample supply of distilled water to a 200-gallon. reservoir situated in the attic.

An automatically controlled air compressor maintains a pres- sure of between 50 and 100 pounds in a large storage tank, I t s capacity is 25 cubic feet of free air per minute. The’air can be distributed to the laboratories a t any desired pressure between 1 and 10 pounds. Each student desk, with the exception of those in the qualitative laboratory, is piped for compressed air.

The vacuum system is likewise automatically controlled and is generanly set to maintain a vacuum between 15 and 25 inches of mercury in a 300-cubic foot reservoir. The pump, however, is capable of producing a higher vacuum and can be easily adjusted. The pump capacity is 20 cubic feet of free air per minute. Vacuum outlets are provided at each work table in the building.

To prevent vibration and the telephoning of sound, all rooms in the basement which contain power machinery are provided with floating floors.

The building is equipped with over 2l/2 miles of electrical con- duit pipe concealed in walls and partitions. Ten miles of wire are necessary for the distribution of the alternating and direct current electricity to the 225 plug outlets and the 300 lighting fixtures in the building. Outlets for the 110-volt alternating current are furnished at the side tables in each laboratory and a t every student desk in the upper division rooms. Direct current from a 32-volt storage battery system is distributed from a “private branch exchange” switchboard on the second floor. Twenty-two separate circuits radiate from the central board to all laboratories in the building and to the lecture rooms. Any voltage or amperage within the limits of the system can be furnished at will on any circuit. A Tungar rectifier, controlled from Ihe switchboard, is used for charging. The upper divi- sion laboratories have an outlet at each student desk.

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A CORNER OF THE ORGANIC LABORATORY Space is provided for 188 lockers of this type for the use of upper division

The sliding drying shelf and the space at the left of the locker students. for tall apparatus are conveniences.

Each student desk is furnished with a ventilating hood made of asbestos wood. These are built after a carefully planned design with a minimum of exposed metal. Down-draught conduits of heavily asphalted galvanized iron connect these hoods to powerful suction fans in the attic. Eleven fans, provided with remote control switches located in the laboratories, take care of the ventilation in different parts OF the building. Each labora- tory is also equipped with one or more large hoods for special experiments. The fan capacity is such that all dampers in the hoods may be open a t the same time. The system is very effec-

tive in keeping good air in the laboratories during even the busiest hours of the day. The lecture rooms are heated and ventilated with washed air bylthe indirect system.

U BFlSrMrNT P L A f l

S C ~ L F ) R rcrr 6 Sooa n 0 a 20 i n * o $ 0 6 0 w

FLOOR P L A N 0F:MASOX HALL OF CHEMISTRY. THE BUILDING IS APPROX- IMATELY 230 X 60 FEET

Not all of the beauty of the building lies in its utility. The exterior of the building is in complete harmony with the campus architecture. ’I’he interior woodwork is finished in black wal- nut and the walls are tinted a light fawn color. The entrance hallway is particularly attractive, with its vaulted ceiling and sub- stantial pillars and its Tiffany finish. The library will, when furnished, make a very pleasant club room. Several of the offices have been handsomely furnished by a friend of the college.

The interest which has made this building possible and the reason for its construction is best expressed in the words appear- ing on the large bronze tablet in the entrance hallway:

MASON HALL THIS SPACIOUS BUILDINQ

HAS BEENERECTED A N D ENDOWED BY WILLIAM SMITH MASON

A COXSTANT AND BOUNTIFUL FRIEND OF THIS COLLEQE I N THE H O P E THAT I N THIS

HALL OF CHEMISTRY AND THROUGH THE KNOWLEDGE OF THIS SCIENCE

MAY BE RICHLY RESOURCED TO THE WELFARE OR THE WORLD

THE SPIRIT OF LABOR AND SERVICE

Our Chemical Exports-Chemicals and allied products ex- ported from the United States during the first quarter of 1924 reached an aggregate value of $32,580,385, which was 4 per cent below the corresponding period of 1923, but 10 per cent above the first quarter of 1922. Of the three months March, 1924, sales were the smallest. Essential oils recorded the largest ex- pansion, 75 per cent in value, followed by crude drugs, 47 per cent; coal-tar products, one of the few groups to continue its growth, 14 per cent; and pigments, paints, and varnishes, 11 per cent. In contrast to these gains, naval stores, gums, and resins decreased 26 per cent; industrial chemicals, 8 per cent; and per- fumery and other toilet preparations, 4 per cent; while explosives, which dropped 9 per cent in value, rose 2 per cent in quantity, and fertilizers and fertilizer materials fell 4 per cent in value but rose 11 per cent in quantity.