REMODELING OLD COLLEGE LABORATORIES1 J. E. CAVELTI Allegheny College, Meadville, P e ~ s y l v a n i a
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MonERN college laboratory building is essentially a large piece of chemical equipment wrapped about with brick or stone. It is designed with care to surround and support properly the necessary number of appropriately designed work tables, arranged in rooms of the proper size, grouped together in convenient fashion. Lecture and classrooms, preparation rooms, stockrooms, library, and offices are allowed for, and all are specially related to each other so as to secure maximum convenience and reasonable economy of space. Ventilation is of the utmost importance and is provided in accordance with careful calculations of fan power and of air velocities in ducts, across hood faces, and in rooms. Gas, water, air, and electrical outlets are lavishly provided. Illumination is installed, truly adequate intensity and suitable in quality. The object is to provide students and researchers with the best equipment and conveniences a t the right places. Lecture rooms and large elementary laboratories are placed on the first floor to avoid long streams of noisy pedestrian traffic, and laboratories for advanced classes and research work are located on the second floor, and sometimes in the basement, where disturbance may be avoided as far as possible. The library is located near as many of these laboratories as possible. When some designer has the will power to exclude all telephones, utopia will have been approached. Good design saves time in work, and as our science expands time becomes increasingly precious. The building is designed by chemists; the architect provides for structural details and decoration. Those of us who have inherited old buildings, even ones of adequate floor space, find it difficult by any possible ingenuity of redesigning to approach attainment of the convenience and efficiencyof a modem building. Most of the older buildings were built on the general model of a classroom or office building. Steelwork was often strangely distributed, fine brick supporting walls immovably placed in locations now found awkward, windows spaced with a view to exterior adornment, magnificent open spaces provided in hallways, stairway wells arranged for efficient combustion, second floor partitions off-set from first floor ones for the joy of plumbers, and so on indefinitely. Chemists had not yet considered laboratory design seriously, and architects were unacquainted with laboratory problems. It is often impossible to rearrange the interior of such a building so as to make it comparable in step-saving
' Presented before the Division of Chemical Education a t the 111th meeting of the American Chemical Society m Atlantic City, April 14-18, 1947.
convenience with a modern kitchen. We have to do the best we can. If, as often happens, a first floor longitudinal hall is set about with steel risers which support the second floor but do not rise above it, it will be necessary to leave the large lecture room and elementary-course laboratories on the second floor. The almost unbearable noise of multitudes of shuffling feet which penetrates to the offices and laboratories on the first floor may be deadened by the application of mastic flooring or other sound-deadening coverings. At least, in such construction, second floor partitions may usually be moved a t will, so that redesign of the lecture room, reduction of hall area, and redistribution of laboratory space become possible. Frequently, an unnecessary amount of space was provided around laboratory desks. Unfortunately, the desk space per student was often too small. Careful designing, both of laboratory d i e n sions and those of new furniture, can often accommodate more students in the same space and still give a larger working space to each. Immediate access to the attic a t any ceiling point is a great advantage in the installation of modern hoods in the top-floor laboratories. Duct lengths are cut to a minimum, and bends, always leading to pressure drops, are avoided. Transite pipe, in properly calculated diameter, furnished a satisfactory, easily installed, and relatively inexpensive duct material. Locating the library on the second floor of an inverted building like the one under consideration has the disadvantage of relative inaccessibility from the offices. and advanced laboratories on the first floor. It has the great advantage, however, of avoiding overhead water mains and drain lines, thus averting possible disaster to the books. At all events, the importance of having the entire chemical library in the building cannot be overemphasized. Attention may also be called to the fact that a number of runs of journals, expensive and diffi: cult to obtain in book form, are less expensively available in microfilm. Where suitable space for the library is not available, the almost insignificant storage volume of microfilm may be important. Except for abstract journals, microfilmed runs of journals will be found reasonably satisfactory in the small college department. In a building like the one described, a frequent dash from the. second floor to the main stockroom in the basement is one of the ordinary forms of exercise. The basement, when reached,,often proves to be largely above ground along the rear wall. About half the floor space, in this case, is available for laboratories. In
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JULY, 1947 old buildmgs it was often ineffectively utilized and provides most acceptable room for expansion during remodellipg. It is often necessary to mine into the concrete floor in order to lay new drains, or even to find where the original ones are located. Also, it is often difficult to find a partition line which maintains itself through all three stories so that hood ducts may be run along it, and the ducts will be long, and bends unavoidable. These disadvantages, however, are relatively minor. Offices and classrooms of acceptable appearance may also be built on the lighted side of the basement, thus avoiding the difficulties mentioned altogether. The dark, or nearly dark, half of the basement space is, of course, quite usable for the main stockroom, storage of case lots of acids and glassware, etc. Photcgraphic and optical dark rooms may also be built here. In fact, the basement floor space will be found as useful as any in the building. Assuming that the lecture room, largest class laboratories, and the library are on the second floor, and that a classroom, the main stockroom, and one or more of the medium-sized class laboratories are in the basement, the first floor is left for laboratories in advanced courses, staff offices, and private laboratories, and perhaps a small, informal classroom. If there is a longitudinal hallway, the ends of it may often be partitioned off for offices or balance rooms. If vibration troubles are serious, it is quite easy to support the balance tables on brick piers running down to concrete footings. Of course, it is still easier to do this if the quantitative laboratories can be located in the basement. Frequently, however, natural lighting in the basement is inadequate for quantitative work, for which natural lighting is still to be preferred to artificial. S i c e many small laboratories, nearly a l l requiring hoods, will be assigned to this floor, it is important, and difficult, to plan such an arrangement of space as will make possible exhaust ducts which run as directly' as possible to individual fans in the attic without emerging in inconvenient locations on the second floor. Where the design of the attic makes possible running these ducts up the outside walls of the building, the problem is much simplified. Often, however;the attic roof and floor meet around the entire attic periphery, giving no room for duct work. This means that the ducts must run along interior walls, and the floor plan laid out with special thoughtfulness. Since hoods are not required in. offices and in the physical chemistry laboratory, these rooms can be assigned to areas to which it would be unusually difficult to run duct work. Standard types of laboratory furniture are not required in the physical chemistry laboratory nor in a laboratory designed for instnumental analytical work. Areas of a size and shape which would not accommodate standard tables efficiently will often be found quite satisfactory for these laboratories. Semimicro scale work also requires less storage space, and probably less working space, than is ordinarily assigned per student. In departments making use of graduateteassistants
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working for their master's degrees, much thought should be given to the design and location of laboratories for their research work. Areas unsuited to regular class laboratories may often be well adapted to this purpose, but the graduate students should not be assigned merely to odd nooks of space for which no other use has been found. Some prefer a single, rather large laboratory in which all the graduate research is done; others smaller laboratories for one or two students each. In remodelling old laboratories this decision is apt to be forced by the exigencies of the $tuation a t hand. Certain general problems and services require much thought. Some of them will now be listed and briefly discussed. Size of Laboratories: Here the realm of prophecy must be entered. Many colleges have a deliberately restricted enrollment, which simplifies this problem somewhat. It must be borne in mind, however, that an improved laboratory will always attract more students. If the college plans for a permanently increased enrollment, this fact must be even more sharply emphasized. It is the experience of most departnients which have either built new laboratories or effectively remodelled old ones that their estimates of increased student population have not been sufficiently optimistic. The overcrowding of all colleges under present conditions and the fluidity of the required curriculum reduce the forecasting of the future to nearly pure guesswork. It may be estimated that if 150students are to be provided for in the elementary course, the organic laboratory should be designed to accommodate 60 students, qualitative and quantitative laboratories 40, and advanced course laboratories 25. In the latter two cases the figures should be revised upward in a given institution if a high proportion of premedical students take more chemistry courses than are absclutely required or if it is the experience of the department that a higher proportion of the students in elementary chemistry ordinarily major in the department. Of course, most desks in the elementary labcratory are arranged to be used by four or five shifts of students and in other laboratories by two shifts. The necessary floor space for laboratories to accommodate any given number of students is easily calculated when the size of the unit table and the width of aisles have been decided upon. The Stockroom System: If space is available on the first floor for a large service stockroom, the entire laboratory can be adequately sewiced from this one room. Additional space in the basement will usually be required for gross storage. If the main service stockroom must be in the basement, a smaller room should be provided on the second floor, stocked to handle all ordinary requirements for the laboratories located on that floor. A solution room should be planned as part of the stockroom system and suitably equipped for the preparation and storage of all reagent solutions used in any considerable volume by the laboratories.
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
Few old. laboratories have an elevator, and it is often impossible to install one without using space that cannot be spared or confusing the entire plan of the building. If possible, however, the solution room, storerooms, and each floor of the building should a t least be connected by a reasonably large dumb-waiter device. This convenience, once installed, will be greatly appreciated by teachers, assistants, and stockroom staff. The Electrical System: In most old laboratories the original system of wiring and panel boxes is hopelessly inadequate and has been expanded by illogical additions until it consists of a hodge-podge of boxes controlling a maze of overloaded lines. There is no satisfactory solution to this problem other than the installation of a completely new system, intelligently planned, with the use of over-size conduits and wiring to allow for increased consumption of power in the future. Fuses should be replaced by circuit breakers. In case the old system must be put up with for some time, an installation of fluorescent lighting will lower the load on some of the lines while providing more adequate illumination. In most old laboratories the level of illumination is far below the modem standard. Distilled Water: In many old laboratory buildings there is still no piping system for distilled water. If stills and a suitably large storage tank cannot be located in the attic for structural reasons, it may be possible to provide an elevated platform in the second floor stockroom, on which the stills and reservoir can be placed and from which the water can he piped even to the second floor laboratories. In place of the block tin pipe formerly used, aluminum and certain plastics are now available for distilled water piping. Consideration should also be given to the use of "de-ionized" water to replace the distilled product, especially in hard-water regions where stills are difficult to operate and a relatively large volume of purified water is used. De-ionized, decarbonated water is satisfactory for most student uses. A smaller supply of high-quality distilled water should be available but need not be distributed through a piping system. Steam: The availability of steam for organic and other laboratiries and for operating the main water still is a matter which, in most colleges, depends largely on the weather and is therefore fickle. A gas-fired boiler of great enough capacity to provide for the laboratory services is a great convenience. It can be located in the basement, serviced by the stockroom man, and is not unduly expensive to operate, especially in naturalgas regions. It need only be run when steam is not available from the general college service. Drains: Ceramic or duriron drain piping is undoubtedly the most permanent. It is, however, expensive both to buy and to install. Cast-iron pipe with a fair chromium content is less expensive, easier to install, and seems to be working out well in service. Hydrogen Sulfide: With the advent of semimicro techniaues, the hydrogen sulfide ~roblemis beiue bvpassed-in 'many iaboratories. where distribution hf
the gas to certain laboratories is still desired the following considerations may be taken into account. For distribution from tanks, ordinary iron gae pipe is satisfactory. No thoroughly satisfactory outlet cock has yet been made. The small, right-angle, needlevalve compression cocks used for hoth gas and water on some furniture installations are fairly satisfactory for hydrogen sulfide. When they eventually leak or stick they are best simply replaced, being inexpensive. Reducing valves, especially designed for hydrogen sulfide, have been available for some time. I t has been our experience that they work well for some months, but eventually cease to function and pe'rmit full cylinder pressure on the lines. At present it takes an inordinate length of time for repairs to be made, and it is necessary to stock more than one spare. The older oil-scaled gasometer device is probably more satisfactory. I t should be located under a ventilating hood, preferably in part of the stockroom system where the stockroom attendant can take charge of filling it on request. Glass-blowing Equipment: A well-equipped glassblowing bench should be provided for the use of faculty and graduate students. If it is desired to train undergraduates in the art, a separate place and set of equipment should be provided. Hoods and Ventilation: The hood has long since ceased to he a Pandora's box from which things escaped outward. The laboratory furniture concerns now know how to design hood, duct work, and fan so as to give thoroughly good and predictable results. Probably the most satisfactory hoods for general service are the openface type with baffle-plate back, giving suction through slits or slots hoth a t top and bottom, and provided with a collecting box on top of such size and shape as to insure uniform distribution of the pressure drop across the entire width of the plate. Multi-blade centrifugal blowers are generally used to operatelhese hoods, and it .is important not to underestimate the size of blower required. For elementary and analytical laboratories where the purpose of the hood is merely to remove fumes from boiling liquids in flasks and beakers, small canopy hoods of various types are available. These may be located directly on the work table. They are unsuitable for the trains of apparatus which are often set up for work in preparative chemistry, either organic or inorganic. An adequate provision of hoods in the laboratories will usually solve the entire ventilation problem for a college building. If, however, fumes persist in finding their way into corridors, it is usually easy to install a false ceiling behind which a metal ventilating duct may be concealed. Openings from this through the false ceiling at suitable intervals will eliminate stagnant air and fume collection in the corridor or hallway. Laboratory Furniture: If possible, a standard design of student laboratory table should be decided upon. It will be less expensive to select one of the stock models. However, where furniture has to be adapted to available space, dimensions of the units may have to he varied
JULY, 1947
somewhat, from room to room, and it may not be possible to arrange units of any stock design effect,ively. Furniture built to order is always more expensive, but since it may be planned to fit the particular needs of .a given laboratory and may include individual ideas, there is great satisfaction in it. In conclusion, it may he said that if an old building has large enough floor area and is reasonably well-built, it can be remodelled into a satisfactory laboratory for modern times, although it will almost inevitably lack
the unity of design of a good new building, and some of its conveniences. The remodeling and refurnishing will usually cost more than the entire original cost of the building, but usually not more thanbne-fourth the cost of a new one. It cannot be too much emphasized that if rimodelling is done by gradual stages, not even the smallest alteration should be made until plans for the final result have been drawn, criticized, and accepted. The most important problem I have, of course, left out. Who's got the money?
