Somerville High School - Radiator Yearbook (Somerville, MA)

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SOMERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL RADIATOR 11 hundred cubic feet or three hundred and thirty- three tons of rough granite were quarried to fur- nish the carvers with enough material for this single feature. We do not stop to think what a wonderful piece of work this is, and what patience must have been afforded in its wonderful carving. Now let us go inside this huge mass of masonry. We must, however, remember that positively no wood was used in the construction of the tower. Now we will climb the spiral stairway a few flights, and then take the electric elevator. For the permanent operation of the building of course everything is electric. Our guide tells us that there are four electric traction passenger and freight elevators, ventilating motors, and a pneumatic tube service for further communication between offices, from part of the equipment which aggregates 400 h. p. in motors and a few thous- and lamps. He also tells us that each of the offices will be connected by telephone and will be used for no other purposes than governmental. As we go up in these elevators we stop on the dif- ferent floors and visit the huge offices. Then we wonder at the statement made by our guide that no wood whatever was used in the construction of this Tower, as we look on in wonderment at the beautiful mahogany-like railings and heavy doors. But our guide will tell us that we are mistaken. These doors and railings are not of mahogany, but composed of a huge mass of steel melted and heated to an exact temperature, and then coated on the outside with this wonderful mahogany-like finish. From all windows, different views of the har- bor greet us; but let us now go up to the twenty- fifth story and gaze at the wonderful panorama from the balcony, or even to the “twelve by twelve” room (the twenty-ninth story) where the view is imposing and unbroken. Mount Wa- chusett is outlined among the distant hills in the west, while the State House dome looks scarcely two hundred feet away. Then looking eastward, we see down the harbor, and beyond Brewster’s and Boston lights, the shore-line of Scituate and Minot’s Ledge without the aid of a glass. The tall chimneys of the Edison Light Street station catch our eye in looking toward the Blue Hills, and the landscape as viewed from the north windows includes the pointed shaft of Bunker Hill, 'fhe old monument is not impressive from this vantage point which is now the best observation point in the city. We are quite tired from our long climbing and sight-seeing, but nevertheless, we have enjoyed our trip and will all remember that the Custom House Tower will long be a landmark and a beacon for mariners entering the Port of Boston. Has not Uncle Sam given us a wonderful and majestic gift? Edith’s Lesson CAROLINE COMEY, 1920-R HER, I’ve got to have a new ess,” said Edith, as she came in jm school. “I know dear, but you know I have no money to buy one with,” sighed her mother, as she bent closer over her sewing. “You don’t understand! All the girls are hav- ing new summer dresses. I can’t fix up my last year’s dresses because all the girls will remember them from last summer,” answered Edith, as she slammed her books down on the table. “I don’t see what else you can do,” replied Mrs. Mason, “I cannot possibly do any more work, and there is no other possible way of getting money. The girls all know that your father is dead, and I was thinking we could fix—” “That’s just it, they all pity me because I have no father,” stormed Edith, “and I can’t stand having them do that.” “What will you do then? You’ll have to go to work; that’s the only way I see out of it.” “No, I can’t go to work,” declared Edith, “but I heard Helen say she was going to have a new dress for a dance she is going to, and I thought maybe you could make it for her.” “I have to sit up till one and get up at six in order to get the work I now do done,” sighed her mother, “I could not possibly do more.” “I’ll help you around the house, and do some of your other sewing. I’m sure Helen will pay well for it.” So this is how it happened that Mrs. Mason got up earlier mornings and stayed up later nights

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10 SOMERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL RADIATOR Street waiting for the parade. With no delay Bob led his captive to the very steps of the police sta- tion, and here who should they meet coming down the stairs, but the General himself. He was very much surprised at the sight and followed Bob back into the station. Here the whole story was told in front of the Chief of Police, the General and his staff. The fellow was locked up and Bob drew a long sigh of relief. The General came up to him and shak- ing his hand said, with tears in his eyes, “Well, boy, you have probably saved my life and that of your fellow comrades,” and, pointing to a flag hanging in the room, “That flag is proud of you.” Bob’s face flushed with pride at the tribute paid to him by this great man and resolved in his heart that he would always make that flag proud of him. Some time later, when the parade was over and the news of his adventure had been circulated among his comrades, he was cheered and cheered by the admiring fellows and to crown his service he was presented with a medal of bravery by the General himself. Thus Robert Atkins ended his first adventure in military life. Uncle Sam’s Gift to Boston ELSIE CHRISTINE ANDERSON, 191S-B ■ OSTON can now boast of a skyscraper with the same pride that the New Yorker feels when he glances up a: the colossal structures of the Wool- worth and Metropolitan Life buildings. No directing hand is needed to point to the visitor this new Custom House Tower. It is a huge spire of steel and masonry, its great shaft of gray granite rising five hundred and five feet above the street level, displays its strong and beautiful lines to many of the nearby suburbs, and far down the harbor. This is Uncle Sam’s greatest gift to Bos- ton and will emphatically be the tower. The old Custom House, to which this huge apex has been added, was completed in 1847, and for many years was one of the architectural gems of Boston because of the increasing demands of commerce and traffic the service outgrew its quar- ters many years ago, but not until 1908 was any effort organized to replace or to enlarge the build- ing. After an exhaustive investigation, the com- mittee appointed found that no site could be ob- tained for less than the amount averaging from $ 1,000,000 to $12,000,000. Soon Beekham Winthrop, assistant secretary of the Custom Ser- vice, then in Boston, suggested that the old Custom House be retained, and the addition be carried upward, as had been done by the Citv Bank of New York. This request met with the general approval, and was also cordially approved by the Chamber of Commerce. After a hard fight, Congress appropriated the needed amount and the construction of this wonderful tower was commenced in June, 1910. The tower has twenty-eight stories, each floor having outside dimensions sixty by seventy-five feet, so that it is not as slender as it appears, and its pointed tip will be (for years to come) the topmost roof of Boston. The foundations of the original building were not disturbed, but in the central portion six con- crete cassions were sunk to a depth of one hun- dred feet below the street level. At this point the massive steel framework starts, 3,500 tons in all. The walls of the Tower contain 120,000 cubic feet of granite. The total load, which rests upon the cassions, amounts to 19,008 tons. The great clock of the Custom House Tower comes just below the 24th story. There are faces on all four sides and a dial measuring 2 l feet in diameter. The numerals are copper shell, 3 feet high and set in an 8 inch concrete, each numeral having a glass face. Back of each face is a hemispherical chamber about 2 y2 feet deep, with a glazed, white, reflecting surface. The beacon is illuminated by means of a flood of light in each chamber, from fifty-two 150-watts Mazda lamps arranged behind each of the clock faces. Now let our glance drop to the twentieth story, and there are the four huge stone eagles. Do they not stand as the emblem of our strength and vic- tory? “What a wonderful architectural feature!” we say to our guide. Just think! Nearly four

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12 SOMERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL RADIATOR sewing, so that her daughter might appear as well as the other girls at the High School, who could well afford to dress better. Edith thought that she earned her dresses by working harder at home, and did not realize that the little work she did was not enough to keep her mother from overworking. “O mother! Helen was ever so pleased with her dress. She said she thinks she can get more orders for you! Won’t that be lovely?” cried Edith, coming home two weeks later. “Now we won't have to take the money Uncle Will so be- grudgingly gives us. He’s the stingiest miser 1 ever saw. He thinks he is helping us out a lot, and I’d just like to show him that we can get along without his help.” “You mustn’t talk that way about Uncle Will,” warned her mother, “You know we could not possibly get along without his help.” “Well he’s got so much money and he be- grudges us every cent he gives us,” grumbled Edith. “I’d just like to show him that we can get along without his money.” “But we can’t, Edith, I never could work again the way I have in the last two weeks. I have not very good health and I must take care of it a little,” sighed Mrs. Mason, as she thought of the splitting headache she had had all day. That was only the beginning of it. The next day, when Edith came home, she found a mother too sick to get out of bed. The next day she had to stay at home and the doctor was called. He told her that her mother had been overworked and it would be three weeks and probably longer before her mother would be able to work again. Those were sad weeks for Edith, she had plenty of time to think, and she now saw many things she had never thought of before. She loved her mother, but the trouble was that she had never stopped to think before. She had never realized how her mother had worked and sacrificed for her. I think she would never have forgiven herself if she had known of all the pain and worry her mother went through for her. It was as she knelt each night and prayed for her mother, that she might soon regain her health, and asked our heavenly Father to forgive her and help her to do better in the future, that she realized as never before, that her mother was worth more than all the dresses money could buy. The Manufacture of Chocolate RANDOLPH CHAFFEE, 1D19-B UR1NG the first part of the sixteenth century, Cortez, when he came to America, found the Indians, in a crude way, making cocoa. He carried the idea back to Spain, where it was kept for some time. Later, however, its manufacture spread to France and England, where only the nobility could afford a cup of cocoa, it was so expensive. Th£ cocoa bean pod grows on a tree some- thing like our apple tree, in Venezuela, the Guianas, and West Indian Islands such as Trini- dad. The pod, instead of being suspended from the tip of a branch, projects from the trunk of the tree. Only the ripe pods are picked, for if green pods are mixed in also, the flavor of the chocolate in the end is of an inferior quality. Pickers tell if the pods are green by tapping them or by the size or color. The seeds inside the pod are covered by a very white, delicate skin. All the seeds, about forty-five in number, are sur- rounded by a slimy substance. When the pod is picked it is split through the center. The seeds of beans are scooped out and placed in a huge vat for the process of fermentation, which is not un- like that of a brewery. After six days of fermentation the beans are taken out and placed in a trough, when the hose is turned on, removing the slimy substance and all coarse dirt. During the process of fermenta- tion the delicate white skin is changed to a red- dish-brown shell. After the washing the beans are dried. In olden times the beans were dried in the sun, but later, buildings with movable hip roofs, which could be drawn over in bad weather were used. The latest drying systems use hot air heat to dry the beans. After the beans are dried, they are sent to the chocolate manufacturer, and here, before proceeding to describe the -making of