(Published In 1895.)

The mechanical and sanitary equipment of the large new Union passenger station used by the numerous railways having their termini in St. Louis, Mo., has been designed to be of corresponding beauty and excellence with the elaborate provision for the accommodation of passenger movement and the rich decorations of all public rooms in the new station, and is complete and conformable to modern advanced practice. Theodore C. Link was the architect and Herbert P. Taussig Chief Engineer of the depot. Adams & Chandler were general contractors and the Abel & Gerhard Plumbing Company contractors for the plumbing, some details of which are illustrated herewith from sketches made by a member of our staff.

The main building is four stories in height, the lower or basement floor and the first floor being devoted to ticket and waiting rooms, emigrant rooms, restaurant, etc. The second and third stories contain the galleries of the main hall, and in the east and west wings over 100 offices for railroad and other purposes. The mail and express, baggage, and other departments are in adjacent separate buildings with individual plumbing equipments. In the depot itself the plumbing fixtures are designed and arranged for the greatest convenience and comfort of travelers and employees, and have been generously allotted, making some provisions not ordinarily found in similar installations. For example, in the special travelers' bathrooms, baths can be quickly furnished to men or women between arrival and departure of terminal trains. The refrigerating system comprehends cooling all the drinking-water at one place without contact with the ice, and piping it thence through insulated pipes to the various drinking-fountains, some of which are elaborately decorated.

The plumbing substantially consists of the drainage and trap vent system, the cold-water supply, toilet-rooms for male and female emigrants and for first-class passengers, barber shop, washbowls, men's and women's bathrooms, hot and cold water and cooking apparatus in the restaurant, dining-room, and kitchen, employees' toilet-rooms, private and public water-closets, washbowls in the offices on the second and third floors, public toilet-rooms in the upper stories, a system of drinking-water fountains, fire-protection lines, and a hot-water heating apparatus for baths and the barber shop.

PLUMBING IN THE ST LOUIS UNION DEPOT.

Figures 1,2, and 3 are diagrams of the different floor plans showing the location of fixtures. The second floor is arranged like the third.

Figure 4 shows the arrangement of bracket wash-stands, one of which is provided on each chair in the barber shop.

Figure 5 shows the center washbowl in the barber shop.

Figure 6 is a cross-section through two of the water-closets in the first-floor toilet-room, showing that passageway between the stalls behind them in which the pipe lines are both concealed and accessible. Figure 7 is an elevation at X X, Fig. 6.

Figure 8 shows the connections of the 5X4-foot Western filter through which all the drinking-water is passed.

Figure 9 shows the Seaman's automatic water heater by which a gas flame is made to raise to a uniform fixed temperature the water in the tank for the barber shop and the bathrooms. The device is arranged to cut off the heat when the temperature of the water rises too high.