Laboratories of the Best Foods, Inc. H. W. VAHLTEICH, Best Foods, Inc., Bayonne, N. J.
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H E new research and development laboratory of the Best Foods, Inc., is a 21/~storyrectangular brick building about 50 by 80 feet. It was designed by Lockwood Greene Engineers, Inc., in cooperation with the laboratory staff, which is also responsible for the special features and equipment layouts. Its purpose was to consolidate previously scattered laboratory operations, to supplant outworn and outmoded facilities with up-to-date equipment, and to provide room for expansion. Extensions on one or more of three sides may be made with a minimum of inconvenience. In a number of practical aspects the design is unique for a rectangular building-for example, the main entrance is a t one corner. This corner is built in the form of a semicircular tower, a feature which permits the following practical applications: Four stories are provided in the tower; a low basement level for a darkroom, a ground-level entrance foyer, and offices on each of the two upper floors; a pleasant circular effect in the offices and foyer as a relief from the usual straight-sided rooms; shorter halls inside the building with resulting economy of working space ; and a complementary inside circular rotunda, facing which are a library, a model kitchen, and an experimental bakery. The object is to facilitate tours of consumer visitors who can, without being wearied by complicated laboratory equipment, gain a general impression of the organization’s care in providing for technical control of its products. Large curved plate-glass windows are set in the glass-block walls of the rotunda lobby to permit an unobstructed view of technicians a t work. Another unique design feature is the safety balcony, extending along the north and west sides of the building, which provides means of egress from all rooms. Headroom on the top floor is 12 feet, on the first floor 13 feet, and in the basement 14 feet; hon-ever, a 20 X 20 foot bay in one corner of the basement is 4 feet below floor level, providing 18 feet of headroom for tall pilot-plant equipment, and in one corner of this bay steel reinforcing in the concrete is omitted from a 5 X 5 foot ceiling area to permit easy removal should an apparatus column up to 31 feet be desired. Tile walls are used throughout all laboratories to avoid expensive repainting, and plywood forms for all laboratory ceilings gave a ceiling sufficiently smooth to paint on directly without the use of plaster. Hauserman steel partitions carrying glass above 3 feet are used to section off working space and simultaneously permit easy inspection of working spaces from a distance. Handrails and doors are of similar metal construction. Floors are concrete with a 0.75-inch dressing of steel-gray cement, with the exception of terrazzo in the hst-floor passageways, kitchen, bakery, and entrance lobby. 284
Lighting, which has received special attention, in all rooms is of the high-intensity indirect type, a circular hanging 6xture with plastic shields and reflecting globes having been used. Glass brick has been used freely for both interior and exterior walls, and this, together with large windows, affords well-lighted rooms and laboratories. Throughout, steel sash and casement-type windows have been used, while wire glass instead of plate glass in many instances provides an additional safety measure. Offices, library, and corridors have acoustical ceilings. Under the roof is a 2-inch layer of cork, which, together with the high headroom, minimizes discomfort due to heat in summer. To prevent water from entering electrical outlets when rooms are flushed in cleaning, all sockets have been placed 2 feet above the floor. The electrical sgstcm is 4-wire polarized, making available a t each outlet 120- and 208-volt, 1- and 3phase current. Every room has a master panel which controls individual outlets on benches and work tables. Laboratory benches are also provided with 110-volt direct current. Ceilings purposely have been made high to aid ventilation, and to remove piping from the line of vision. Pipes in the walls are readily accessible, being housed behind removable metal partitions. Instead of a sprinkler system, the A. D. T. system of fire detection has been installed. Primarily, this method of detection relies upon the pressure increase of air, within a fine copper tube, as the temperature within a room increases. Sudden increases will cause an alarm to sound, but slower changes due to normal conditions have no effect, as provision is made for the escape of gradually heated air. The laboratory furniture and equipment, like the building, were designed to meet a variety of special requirements. The furniture is steel of the double-wall type, lead-coated and finished in laboratory green. Alberene stone tops are used throughout. Drawers are on roller bearings and the ends of all benches include recessed sinks and waste cans. Interiors of all furniture have been lacquered in white to facilitate finding things, a feature found practical from previous trials. In providing for about 70 lineal feet of hood space it was also necessary to provide for properly distributing and heating the incoming air when the hoods are in operation. This has been done by means of Trane Torridor units, synchronized to operate automatically when the hood fans are turned on, and thermostatically controlled to provide uniform room temperature in cool weather. Both features are achieved by means of a Johnson system of control. The hoods have the usual dual control system, providing equal ease of operation from within and from the front of the hood when the glass doors are down. The large hoods are in three sections separated
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by transoms, and may he operated as one hood or in three sections as desired. One end section of each hood is provided with two flush hot plates, one steam and the other electrically heated. A large hood in the organic research laboratory is provided with one low section to facilitate the handling of tall apparatus. All hoods are provided with steam-heated cabinets and Transite-lined cabinets for corrosive liquid containers, All hood ducts lead to the roof, are of Trausite lined with pitch, and the Transite sections are removable. All laboratories are provided with a t least one safety shower, as well as with modern equipment for fighting small fires. One laboratory with hood space has been set aside for analytical work requiring idammable solvents. Here there are no electrical switches and no gas whatever is provided; all heating must he done with steam. All electrical equipment in this room is of the explosion-proof type (lights, unit heater and hood motors, mercoid control, etc.). The usual doorknob is replaced by a special device as an additional reminder that smoking is not permissible.
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Another special laboratory has been set aside for unusually dusty or dirty work. The basement has been largely reserved for pilot-plant work. It also houses the photographic darkroom with a convenient light lock for passing in and out without disturbing work in progress. Four constant-temperature rooms, two cold and two warm, are also provided in the basement, as well as a large storeroom, filing space, and housing for the freight elevator and compressed air machinery. Vacuum is widely used throughout the building, but is supplied by individual electrically driven pumps. There are also an experimental bakery, a model home kitchen, a permanent “setups” room for small-scale hydrogenation equipment, a small-scale edible oil deodorization system and oil-refining equipment, a bacteriological laboratory, etc. The apparatus-washing facilities are largely concentrated adjacent to the analytical laboratory on the second floor, where they are most needed, hut special washing facilities are also provided in the organic research laboratory. Dis-
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tilled water is produced adjacent to the analytical laboratory and piped to the first floor. One end of the analytical laboratory is walled off to provide a room for housing instruments. Here the chemist may work in relative quiet and is also provided with a means for darkening the room when using such instruments as the polariscope. Services to laboratory benches (including fume hoods) include hot and cold water, live steam! gas, electricity, and air. Stainless-steel steam baths are provlded in several locations on the benches and hoods. A Schwarte sectional system in
the analytical laboratory houses hundreds of samples of all sizes and shapes out of sight and yet readily available. The organic research laboratory is provided with a special low bench of modern design. The library, one side of which forms the curved glass-block wall of the rotunda, has bookcases built by a laboratory furniture company like conventional laboratory glassware cabinets, but grained in a walnut finish and provided with plate-glass doors having narrow stainlesssteel trim. A special telephone system is provided to ease the service load on the switchboard.
