De+La+Vergne

​ **De La Vernge: The Greatest Refigerator on Earth! 1893 Chicago World's Fair. **   Originally this building was not supposed to be at the fair but it was decided the fair could not go on without ice and refrigeration so it was put into the plan and ended up being one of the most important buildings in the fair. This building was used for many things at the fair. It was 5 stories high and had a ice skating rink on the fifth floor. The building provided all the ice for the fair and all of the vendors, concessions, restaurants and bars stored their food and beverages in this building, including frozen and fresh meat and produce.
 * __What was this building used for at the fair?__**

**__Who Constructed the Building:__** The Hercules Iron Works was selected by the committee to build the building and it included the concessions, exhibits, icemaking and cold storage systems of Hercules Iron works, Ice and Refrigerating Machine Manufacturers, West Side Artificial Ice Company, and De La Vergne pumps. The building insulation was designed by De La Vergne and the exterior coated with a white stucco so it blended in with the rest of the buldings in the "White City". The only other refrigeration exhibit at the fair was Concession #7 the De La Vergne ice railway.

**__Layout of the building:__** In the center of the building was a two story high machine room that provided electicity to the building. Behind this was the boiler room including tanks to collect distilled water to produce clear ice. In public view on the south end of the building were machines for producing three types of ice which were stored in the 100 by 40 foot 1000 ton ice chamber. The third and fourth floors over these areas had offices and apartments for workers and their families. Three types of cold storage chambers covered four floors on the north side of the building. But, the building was not all work, the fifth floor included a 208 by 54 foot ice skating rink and cafe. There was a statue of Christoper Columbus holding a globe at the main entrance.

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 **__How did it work??__**

Since the building was actually an exhibit for the companies that paid for and built it, they utilized different types of systems to showcase their products. The Hercules "Model Ice Plant" used a steam engine powered by oil burning boilers to drive amonia compressors that chilled a brine that circulated to a block ice tank. Additionally there were three 20 ton ice machines including a plate system, a condensed steam can system and a can system using de-aerated water.  The cold staorage chambers also used three methods, amonia cooled evaporators on the fifth floor circulated cold air to parts of each floor. Some room were cooled by recirculated brine from the Model Ice Plant and some by direct expansion amonia coils. **__FIRE! __** Thats right, the Cold Storage Building, holding thousands of tons of water and ice actually caught on fire during the fair with an estimated 50,000 fairgoers witnessing it. The fire was quickly made much worse by the oil stored inside to run the boilers.

<span style="color: #000080; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;">**__What led to the fire being started?__** <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;">The building required an iron chimney 220 high to exhaust the boilers for the refrigeration units. The designers of the building included an upper section of metal flue that was not built during construction. This left the wooden decorative cupola exposed causing a seriouse fire hazard. In fact, on June 17, 1893 there was actually a small fire that was quickly extinguished and the building was still used.


 * __ The fire: __**

Shortly after 1p.m. on July 10th, 25 firefighters quickly responded to the alert that there was heavy smoke coming from the cupola above the cold storage building. The firefighters did not notice when burning debris fell from the cupola into the open space between the chimney and the inner walls of the tower until flames erupted from the building 50 feet below them. Realizing they had only seconds to escape before the tower collapsed, several firefighters tried to slide down burning hoses and ropes which collapsed and they disappeared into the smoke. However, many firefighters remained trapped and they either jumped to their deaths or perished in the burning debris when the tower collapsed into the building killing 17 people total. $25,000 of the gate receipts from the next Sunday were set aside for a victims relief fund and contributions added andother $75,000.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: center;">__The Vicitms:__

Fifteen Fire fighters, Captain James Fitzpatrick, Captain James A. Garvey, Captain Burton E. Page, Lieutenant Charles W. Purves, Mr. William Denning, Mr. Louis J. Frank, Mr. John H. Freeman, Mr. John A. Smith, Mr. Philip J. Breen, Mr. John McBride, Mr. Paul Schroeder, Mr. John Cahill, Mr. Ralph A. Drummond, Mr. Bernard Murphy, and Mr. Norman M. Hartman and two unidentified victims were killed in the trajedy.

There is a monument at Oak Woods Cemetery, Chicago, in their memory.

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