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| PAINTING THE GREAT BUILDINGS - When
Superintendent Allen, of the Color Department, began his task of
painting the Exposition, he figured on one hundred and seventy acres
of surface which must be covered with paint or calcimine. His first
order was for fifty thousand feet of rope, fifty-six swing-stages, two
hundred and fifty jacks, five hundred step-ladders, five thousand feet
of especial planking, fifty thousand pounds of white lead, five
thousand gallons of oil, and five hundred barrels of whiting. But
when the forces of painters reached the Manufactures Building, there was found one
space of calcimining which measured thirteen acres, filled with joists
and obstructions, and highly destructive of brushes. At this
discouraging juncture, Mr. C. Y. Turner, the assistant of Chief
Millet, produced the Electric Painting Machine which is represented in
the picture. By means of this movable dynamo and its apparatus, three
men were able to do the former task of twenty, with a total salvage of
the brushes, as it is to be seen that the force-pump machine sprays
the paint, or calcimine, or thin plaster on the surface which is to be
coated. By one of three double catapults of paint, three hundred
squares were finished in eight hours. It required ten of the machines
and thirty men for ten days to paint under the galleries of the
Manufactures Building. Upon the successful termination of this
undertaking, the painting of the entire interior was ordered, and in a
fortnight more, six hundred barrels of whiting were spread, thus
accomplishing by machinery what otherwise would not have been
undertaken. |
