New Research Laboratory of Standard Oil
Company of California R . A . H.iLLOR.iX, Standard Oil Company of California, San Francisco, Calif.
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behind the wall benches or along the middle section of the central benches. Each laboratory contains a fume cabinet, provisions for sample storage and chemical supplies, and shelves for incoming or outgoing samples. The walls are equipped with fittings that permit setting up a wide variety of small or large apparatus without marring the wall or making it less serviceable for future installations and without building special bases or stands. The second floor contains thirty private and general offices arranged around the outer walls. Typewriter noise is reduced in the general stenographic office by a soundproofed ceiling. The central portion of this floor is occupied by a sound-proofed conference room, two electrical and physical laboratories, a photographic laboratory, a spectrochemical laboratory, and the air-conditioning and ventilating system. The ventilating system draws air from outside the building through a water-spray washer situated on the roof. Washed, tempered air is circulated by three blowers delivering a p proximately 16,000 cubic feet per minute to the second story and 29,000 cubic feet per minute to the laboratories and other first-floor rooms. Air exhausted from the laboratories is not recirculated. Each laboratory is provided with independent control, so that room temperatures may be regulated in accordance with the varying amount of heat generated by gas burners and other heat sources.
K' DESIGNIKG the research laboratory building, the first requisite was the greatest possible working area for a given floor space. This required relatively narrow and long laboratory rooms, a type of construction which is difficult to light and ventilate. The decision to depend entirely upon artificial light introduced the problem of removing the heat generated by the electric lights necessary to provide 20 footcandle, shadowless illumination. Since the ventilating air would require cooling to absorb this heat and provide an even room temperature, it was decided that washing the air would justify the additional expense. Temperature regulation is facilitated by the use of few windows, the resulting economy of construction helping in part to offset the expense of the ventilating system. The first floor includes a library and reference room, two low-temperature rooms, one operating at 32" F. and the other at -20" F., a glass blower's room, a locker and shower room, a chemical dispensary, a maintenance and designs office, a glassware washroom, and twelve large laboratory rooms. These are constructed in pairs with an office for the laboratory supervisor between each two rooms. Lead-covered work benches line the two boundary partitions between each pair of laboratories and occupy the central portion of each room. Desks are built into both sides of the partition between each pair of laboratories. All utility lines for the benches, such as gas, air, steam, vacuum, electricity, and water, are concealed
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