Facts Concerning The Heating, Lighting, Ventilating, And Plumbing Facilities Of The Moody Church

The first part of the new building to be constructed was the foundation of the section adjoining the alley at the north which has been spoken of as the Sunday School building. It was on this basement that the Temporary Tabernacle was constructed which has now been demolished to allow the building operations to proceed. While for convenience the church section has been spoken of as the church building and the Sunday School section as the Sunday School building, in reality when the builders have finished their task the whole will appear as a single huge edifice covering the ground from the south wall to the alley on the north and from Clark Street to LaSalle.

How is the building to be heated?

Two boilers have been installed in the basement above mentioned; each of them is eighty inches in diameter, twelve feet long and twelve feet high. They are described as self-contained, horizontal, tubular boilers. Their steel side walls which house the furnace are part of the water heating service and take the place of the brickwork built around ordinary boilers.

Each of these boilers will carry 20,000 square feet of radiation (as represented by radiator surface), and will give 100,000 cubic feet of heated air per minute.

An important point concerning the boiler room, which is below the water line, on the level with the main Clark Street sewer and therefore subject to dampness unless provided against, is that it has been water-proofed so that dampness is eliminated, together with plumbing charges.

Next in order comes the equally important question of ventilation. What provision has been made in that direction?

To begin with, it is interesting to know that the volume of air normally filling the church auditorium is 1,000,000 cubic feet. That indicates the great size of the auditorium, but nevertheless the large audiences would soon seriously contaminate the air if proper ventilation were not provided. There will be thirty-six large windows in the auditorium but none of them will be used for ventilating, hence there will be no drafts to jeopardize the health of either preacher or hearers. Through the ventilating system installed by the engineers the entire air content of the auditorium, during services, will be changed every six minutes.

Furthermore the air supplied will be filtered to make it ninety-seven per cent clear, free of dust, etc., headed to the right temperature and likewise humidified (charged with sufficient moisture), so that an average comfortable condition will be provided for all. Variation from the level of comfort is provided against in the fact that the important factors of the ventilating system are all automatically controlled, and maintained.

Not only the auditorium but the large basement assembly hall, the dining room, the kitchen and all toilets are equipped for mechanical ventilation.

Furthermore the ventilating system is divided to suit the occupational requirements and each section equipped with automatic campers so that any section not in use can be closed off; and the major control for the ventilating equipment is at the head usher’s station in the auditorium.

It is provided in the engineering contract that every year for five years the automatic equipment throughout the building will be inspected and repaired by the manufacturer without expense to the church.

The provision for lighting of the auditorium is also of interest. There will be seven main fixtures of the semi-indirect type, each seven feet in diameter, with a bowl eighteen inches deep, and each fixture sixteen feet high.

The lamp capacity of each fixture is 5,000 watts; the lamps are divided into four circuits for each fixture, allowing four different intensities of illumination, all under the control of the head usher.

The pastor’s platform will be flood-lighted by a special concealed projector, control of which will be handled by the choir leader; and the choir loft is also specially illuminated with concealed lighting.

A separate independent system provides for the lighting of all halls, corridors and stairways, and the sexton’s apartment is equipped so that he can control this entire emergency system in part or whole.

The electrical requirements are served from a vault in the basement adjoining the boiler room where are installed power transformers of seventy-five kilowatt capacity and lighting transformers of the same capacity, which are fed from the power company’s system underground.

Another important point is that the structure is fully equipped for the installation of a radio broadcasting station if required; and facilities are provided also for loud speaker equipment.

Persons affected with deafness will be interested to know that one section of seats in the auditorium will be equipped with head phones to facilitate their hearing.

The plumbing requirements are still to be spoken of. First, provision has been made in all deep basements to keep out standing water, a duplex bilge pump unit having been installed to handle the toilets and any flood water conditions. The underground system is of the best extra heavy, cast iron soil pipe construction which will last as long as the building will stand.

The provision for toilet rooms is ample, also drinking fountains will be found at all points of convenience—a dozen or more; and in the Sunday School section will be a fountain specially set for small children. All the fountains are of the type from which you can draw water or drink from the bubbler.

A complete hot water circulating system has been provided for all lavatories, slop sinks, and the baptistery. The baptistery tank is located in the rear of the choir loft, with adjustable dressing rooms adjacent, on the second floor.

Mr. Moore’s Career

Mr. John R. Moore, senior member of the engineering firm of Moor and Neely, the new church contractors for the heating, lighting, ventilating and plumbing, was born in Lebanon, Illinois, in 1876. After securing his technical education at Armour Institute, he was employed for three years by the General Electric Company in gold, silver and coal mining work in the Rocky Mountains; including ventilating of mines and installing electrical power.

Thereafter, coming to Chicago, he worked successively for the General Railroad Company, the International Harvester Company and the Central Leather Company (the leather trust) as consulting engineer in electrical and mechanical work. Then for a time he was with Frank A. Chase as mechanical engineer, after which he went into partnership with Mr. Neely.

Among the larger enterprises he handled was the building of three tanneries for the Central Leather Company, one of the largest in the world, which was used during the war in the manufacture of shoe leather for the Government. He built the power plant for the W.T. Rawleigh Company of Freeport, Illinois, the largest manufacturing medical company in the world; also the largest cigar factory in the world at Evansville, Indiana.

He was consulting engineer for the Kellogg Company at Battle Creek, Michigan, on their paper mill; also for the Bunte Brothers Candy Company and Sugar Refinery for the H.W. Caldwell plant and that of the Link Belt Company, also the world’s largest plant of the kind, and the new power plant for the Agar Packing Company and many others.

Mr. Moore’s grandfather was a Methodist circuit rider in Illinois and Indiana. His father was also a minister. He is a member of the Rogers Park Baptist Church.

His partner, Mr. W. J. Neely was born in 1890 at Ottawa, Illinois, where his grandmother was instrumental in building a Methodist Church of which he is a member.

He secured his technical training at Lewis Institute, Chicago, and took post-graduate work at the University of Wisconsin. For seven years he was employed at the Commonwealth Edison Company in the operating and engineering department and handled the engineering work of several of their largest sub-stations and three generating stations. Then for three years he was with Frank D. Chase, architect, as mechanical and electrical engineer.

During the war he was in the United States service as engineer officer and instructor at Washington in the Searchlight Division of the Anti-aircraft school.

Mr. Neely remarked that in their work for the church special pains have been taken to avoid any extra expense; the ideal in view being a balance job adapted to economical operation.