The Harvester World: Volume 2, number 6, March 1911

              The Harvester World

The necessity of space for the storage of tractor engines and for automobiles used for demonstrating purposes is one of the needs of the business which has developed in the last year, and, where possible, tractor sheds have been constructed, thus saving storage space as well as danger from fire by having tractors and automobiles stored in the warehouse.
Ample trackage, large and substantial shipping plat¬ forms, and high speed elevators,  all  contribute in no
The New General Agency Building at Denver, Col.
small degree to the easy, rapid, and profitable handling of goods. Canopies or roofs over platforms are desirable features, not only affording additional storage, but protection to the working force in inclement weather. They are also economical, as by shielding the platform from .sun and rain, they add to its life and save fre¬ quent, expensive renewals. It is unfortunate that the canopy roofs over platforms are frequently sacrificed to bring the building within the limit of the appropria¬ tion granted.
The increasing variety of goods handled by the International Harvester Company of America has a very pronounced effect on the storage capacity of general agency warehouses.
It is questionable whether the ratio of two to three, as between factory and general agency storage, can be any longer maintained. The variety of goods prevents compact packing and makes more aisles and passage¬ ways necessary in order to have access to the various kinds. We are, therefore, learning that houses, which a few years ago were rated at one hundred and fifty cars caj^acity, now have difficulty in storing one hundred cars. Sometimes, perhaps, the general agent is to blame for this, although as a matter of fact, it is a "condition and not a theory" which confronts him. The increase in the line of manufactured goods also calls for an increase in space allotted to the storage of repair parts, and the display of samples of machines.
Not many years ago showrooms were thought un¬ necessary. Now that we handle engines, wagons, cream separators, automobiles, and tillage implements, the necessity of a space to exhibit them is apparent and there is a growing demand for neat, roomy, well-lighted display rooms, and in some of our buildings constructed during the past season, these requirements have been met in a manner apparently satisfactory to all con¬ cerned.
The brick walls of the eleven buildings owned and
built by the International Harvester Company of America, during the past year, would enclose a four- story building thirteen hundred feet square or build a four-story wall one mile long; the combined floor area is equivalent to about twelve acres, and a freight train nine miles long would be required to fill them at their estimated capacity.
It is a source of great satisfaction to know, although "touching wood" while the statement is being made, that, through the extensive operations in general agency construction, covering both the seasons of 1909 and 1910, involving the erection of eighteen buildings,
1st. Not one report was made of serious injury or accident to workmen.
2nd. Not one collapse or failure of any kind occurred as the result of defective design or construction.
3rd. Not one lien was filed nor one dollar spent for litigation.
This would undoubtedly be pleasing to a person building for himself, but to one "building for others" it is doubly gratifying.
It requires constant study and the most watchful interest to keep pace with the wonderful development of modern building construction. We marvel at the improvements constantly being made in all its lines and branches, in electricity, light, power, elevator service, heating, plumbing, and ventilation — in fact all that goes to make up the modern building. We wonder at the height and magnitude of fire-proof office buildings; we are amazed at the use to which cement is being put to in this so called "concrete age"—yet with all our science, with all our advancement in modern construc¬ tion ideas, the moSt scientific men, the most brilliant and capable engineers of this remarkable 20th century cannot tell us nor give us the faintest conception of how the Peruvian Indians, hundreds of years ago, quarried stones of such size and dimensions that the modern builder with all his ingenious hoisting devices of steam and electricity could never hope to move. More wonderful still, these immense blocks of stone were transported for hundreds of miles over rivers and '
The New General Agency Building at Albany, New York
valleys and mountains and finally laid in the walls of their temples with thin knife-blade joints. And, al¬ though there is no record that they constructed any general agency warehouses, yet they did erect build¬ ings for the storage of grain, and as builders we must certainly, in a great many respects, take off our hats to the ancients.