Windowless Factory

A man who knows how to make a good saw and who was Wartime purchaser of helmets and armor for the U. S. Government, watched the construction of one of the world's strangest buildings last week in Fitchburg, Mass. He was Alvan Tracy Simonds, president since 1913 of Simonds Saw & Steel Co. For him Austin Co., Cleveland construction engineers, is building the first windowless factory, designed to increase the output of manpower 33 1/3%. The structure, one story high, consists of only one large room covering about five acres in which executives may sit undisturbed while saws are machine-made all about them. Roof (the most expensive ever put in a factory--$175,000), walls, floor will be of noise-absorbing material. To eliminate the communication of vibration, all machinery will be insulated where it touches floor or wall. Where irritating noises cannot be controlled by insulation, they will be neutralized by other noises (TIME, Dec. 15). Workmen will hear only enough sound to prevent them from being distracted by complete silence. They will be illuminated by constant artificial daylight containing a small percent of healthy ultraviolet, will breathe air which has been washed, heated, humidified. The ten million cubic feet of air will be changed every ten minutes. Contaminating gases and machine dirt are to be drawn out through hoods into an underground exhaust system.

Orange machinery will glare conspicuously against jet black floors to eliminate accidents. So that his men will hustle, Mr. Simonds is having his factory walls painted light green, a combination of energizing grass green, ultra-violet-reflecting blue, cleanly white. Because manpower tires, lags behind machinepower, the Simonds sawmakers will listen to an interval of stirring music at the fatigue hour (two hours before quitting time). The efficiency, industry, ingenuity of the sawmakers will be graded by men who watch from sus pended overhead walks. A similar building is being planned as a temporary exhibit at the Chicago Fair.

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