In order to insure a perfectly round tank, each course was erected against wooden templates accurately centered and fastened to the inside scaffold. The tank is the ordinary type of light steel, the lower course being 3/16-in., the next, No. 8 B. w. gauge, the next, No. 10 B. w. gauge, and the remaining four, No. 12 B. w. gauge.
Work on the foundation was started on August 15th, 1908, and the tower was not completed until April 1st, 1909. Much time was lost waiting for the delivery of the steel, and also owing to a period of very cold weather which caused entire cessation of work for about one month.
The tower as completed presents a striking appearance. In order to obliterate rings due to the successive application of the forms and to cover the efflorescence so common to concrete structures, the outside was given two coats of neat cement wash applied with ordinary calcimining brushes, and, up to the present time, this seems to have been very effective in accomplishing the desired result.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--(Full page image)
Irregularities due to forms are unnoticeable at a distance of 200 or 300 ft., and the grouting gave a very uniform color.
The application of two coats of cement wash cost, for labor, $97.68, and for material, $15.18, or $1.32 per 100 sq. ft., labor being at the rate of $2.25 per 8 hours and cement costing $2.53 per bbl. delivered on the work.
The tower was designed by Arthur L. Adams, M. Am. Soc. C. E., under whose direction the plans for all the work of remodeling the water-works system were prepared and executed. The forms, scaffolding, etc., were designed by the writer, who was also in immediate charge of the erection.
Tenders received for the construction of the tower covered an extremely wide range, and indicated at once the utter lack of knowledge on the part of the bidders of the cost of a structure of this kind. Inasmuch as none of them had had previous experience in this class of construction, the engineer deemed it the part of wisdom and economy to retain the construction under his immediate supervision, and, therefore, the work was done by days' labor.
Table 1 gives the cost of the structure. The total herein given will not coincide with the total cost as shown by the city's books, for the reason that various items not properly chargeable to the structure itself have been omitted, the principal ones of which are the cost of the site, the laying of about 600 ft. of sewer pipe to connect with the overflow, and considerable expense incident to the construction of a wagon road to the tower.