THE STEELE CHEMISTRY BUILDING
The latest addition to the equipment of the college is the Steele Chemistry Building, the erection of which was facilitated by the original interest and by a subsequent bequest of Sanford H. Steele of the class of 1870, Trustee from 1918 until his death in 1920: a bequest in memory of his brother, Benjamin H. Steele, of the class of 1857. The use of this building begins with the present college year.
The Department of Chemistry, being assured in the fall of 1919 that serious attempts would be made to do away with the handicaps under which students had long suffered in the mediaeval gloominess of Culver, set itself with enthusiasm to the task of planning a new structure. It was felt at the start that, while efficiency should be the first aim, this should and could be obtained with the maximum of simplicity; and this principle has been the guiding one throughout the period of planning. At the same time it was determined that the building, either in itself or through enlargements planned in advance, should be adequate to care for any reasonable future growth of the College. It should be said that, in a period of rapidly mounting costs, when all estimates were left far in the rear, the President and Trustees made no requests involving the elimination or limitation of any item which seemed to the Department of vital importance. The building, therefore, is completed substantially as first planned, and is believed by the Department to fill all the requirements of a modern chemical laboratory.
The Department feels that the College was especially fortunate in the choice of architects for the structure, in the firm of Larson and Wells, of Hanover. We met the general complaint from chemists in other institutions that they have been unable to convince architects that utility should not be sacrificed to pleasing appearance. We encountered no such difficulty, and the result seems to show that it is possible to unite the two without loss to' either.
After preliminary inspection of some twenty of the more modern chemical laboratories in the east and middle west by various members of the Department and by Mr. Larson, the plans were ready and work was started in June, 1920. The site selected was that of the house long occupied by Professor John K. Lord on College Street. The building marks the. proposed northern limit of college construction, and forms with Wilder and Wheeler three sides of a quadrangle. The main front is to the south, with the end to the street. The type is Georgian, to harmonize with the better of the older college buildings. The center of the structure is four stories in height, with side wings of three stories (capable of sustaining an additional story if need arises) at the east and west. In the center of the rear a two-story projection houses part of the lecture room. The total length is 154 feet; the width 73 feet; with a floor area of about 36,000 square feet. The material is red brick, with trimmings of Indiana limestone. A heavy cornice runs around the center of the building above the third story, supported by four Corinthian pilasters marking the entrance, and continues as the roof cornice of the wings. The interior is of steel frame construction, with partition walls of hollow tile, and floors of. concrete overlaid with hard wood. The structure is as nearly fireproof as can be designed.
On each of the four floors a corridor runs through the length of the building leaving to the north a space 31 feet wide. In this space are located the large laboratory rooms, having as their main source of illumination the north light. To the south of the corridor is a space 16 feet wide (31 feet in the wings). Here are placed smaller rooms, offices, private laboratories, etc.
The building having no basement, the first floor serves, to a certain extent, for storage, and offers the unusual advantage of well-lighted rooms for this purpose. , Here are found, in addition, the main delivery and stock room, lecture preparation room, museum, unpacking room, two coat rooms, dark room, a shop, storage battery room, and a room for janitors. The most attractive feature of this floor, however, is the lecture room, opening from a large lobby. This room accommodates 250, the seats sloping at the back to a height of nine feet. Oak paneling covers the walls to this level. To the rear of the sixteen foot lecture table are two sliding blackboards, behind which are chemical cupboards and a vitrolite lined hood. The room is equipped with projection lanterns, and dark curtains, automatically raised and lowered.
The second floor contains two laboratories for beginners: the two accommodating 144 men working at one time, and containing 266 lockers . A delivery room is between these laboratories. On this floor also, are a small lecture room, seating 84; a recitation room, seating 40; the general departmental offices; two office and laboratory suites for instructors ; and a room for the students' chemical society, Delta Chi Sigma.
The third floor, for the most part, is given over to courses in analysis. The qualitative laboratory accommodates 84 students at one time, and contains 154 lockers. The quantitative laboratory accommodates 40 students, each with a double locker. Here also are a balance room; delivery room; three laboratory and office suites; a conductivity room; a laboratory for advanced quantitative analysis; a laboratory for physical chemistry, accommodating 20 students; and a large, well-lighted library.
The fourth floor is the home of the organic courses. The organic laboratory accommodates at one time 70 students each being provided with a double locker. The laboratory for physiological chemistry, 30 students. Here also are a balance room, one office and laboratory suite, an advanced organic laboratory, and a room for organic analysis.
The equipment of the building is believed to be adequate to meet all reasonable requirements. The laboratory furniture was constructed by the L. E. Knott Apparatus Company of Cambridge, Mass., from designs worked out by members of the Department. We feel under great obligation to Mr. W. E. McGowan, of this firm, for his care in putting our rough designs into shape for construction, and for his general interest in co-ordinating various details of installation. The tables are of oak, with tops and sinks of alberene soapstont,, treated with oil. Ventilating systems are likely to be the weak point of chemical laboratories, however carefully planned. It is hoped that the particular attention paid to this detail will have a successful outcome, in the present building. In the beginner's and qualitative laboratories goose neck ventilating hoods are provided, one to each two students, directly on the working tables. In other laboratories wall hoods of special design, working on the baffle plate system, are installed. All ventilating conduits and flues are made of Robertson metal, a variety of steel specially coated to protect it from corrosion by acid fumes. Eleven electrically driven fans, of varying size, are required for these hoods. In addition two large fans, working through a separate flue system, introduce air, heated by being passed over steam coils, to replace that drawn out by the exhaust fans. Cold water is piped to all rooms; hot water to 4 those in which it is required. Lack of city gas is overcome, as well as may be, by gasoline vapor, supplied by a 300 burner gas machine, run automatically by a water motor. Compressed air, the pressure kept constant by a tank supplied by an automatic, electrically driven, pump, is piped through the building. A gas heated boiler supplies steam at twenty pounds pressure to those rooms in which there is occasion for its use. In each room are wall outlets for the 220 volt current, and in the majority of rooms are other outlets for a ten cell storage battery system. An electrical water still, of a capacity of two gallons per hour, is installed on the fourth floor. The distilled water is. collected here in a 125 gallon tank, and is led through block tin pipes to each floor below. An automatic elevator, electrically driven and controlled, connects the main stock room on the first floor with each of the floors above. An intramural telephone system connects the various offices, stock rooms, etc.
New apparatus, purchased at an expense of about $6,000, together with that already in the possession of the Department, makes possible a complete utilization of the building.
The formal opening of the building took place on October twenty-ninth and is described in another part of this issue.
The Main Lecture Room
CHEMISTRY BUILDING DARTMOUTH COLLEGE HANOVER NEW HAMPSHIRE LARSON WELLS.ARCHITECTS & ENG'RS
CHEMISTRY . BUILDIING DARTMOUTH . COLLEGEHANOVER . NEW HAMPSHIRE LARSON & WELLS ARCHITECTS ENGRS.
CHEMISTRY BUILDING DARTMOUTH COLLEGE HANOVER NEW HAMPSHIRE LARSON & WELLS ARCHITECTS & ENGRS
CHEMISTRY BUILDING DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. HANOVER NEW HAMPSHIRE
General Inorganic Laboratory
PROFESSOR LEON B. RICHARDSON '00 Chairman of the Department ofChemistry
