Tuesday, September 8, 2020 – ALL KINDS OF FUN FACTS ON MANHOLE COVERS

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TUESDAY,  SEPTEMBER 8,  2020

The

151st  Edition

From Our Archives

THE ART OF MANHOLE

COVERS IN NYC

AND OTHER TIDBITS ABOUT

THOSE CIRCLES IN THE STREET

EXCERPTED FROM BOOK BY DIANA STUART (C) 2003
UNTAPPED CITIES (C)
NEW YORK TIMES(C) 
WIKIPEDIA

FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES (C)

About New York; Art Underfoot, And the Angel Who Guards It
By Dan Barry
Sept. 6, 2003

The round-faced sleuth with the orange visor knelt to take a closer look at a circular patch of concrete. Where others might see only Manhattan sidewalk, she saw evidence of a form of art theft: the disappearance of yet another of New York City’s glorious manhole covers. She knew what was missing because she had once photographed it, a cast-iron cover adorned with a five-pointed star and a raucous sea of raised dots. It was the handiwork of the old Liberty Iron Works foundry on 10th Avenue. It had been blithely trod upon for generations, and now it was gone. ”This is one of my real tragedies,” muttered the woman, Diana Stuart. No one could challenge her use of the possessive.

Ms. Stuart has devoted the last decade to the adoration of manhole covers. She has whisked them clean like an umpire tending to home plate, photographed them by the thousands, cataloged their whereabouts, researched the long-gone foundries that struck them, led walking tours in their name, and lobbied without success to have them granted landmark status. So associated is Ms. Stuart with their preservation that she holds unchallenged claim to a nickname that may not be as intriguing as the Woman in Red, but is not quite as unsettling as the Pigeon Lady. She is the Manhole Cover Lady.

OUR LOST MANHOLE COVER

At the south end of  West Road by the entrance to Southpoint Park, this cover was removed when the street was re-paved for the Cornell Tech campus.

2-
But she makes no secret of her crusade to save the ancient manhole covers, coal-chute covers and vault covers that dapple the city surface by the hundreds of thousands, some of them still-active portals to the netherworld. She estimates that a good 10 percent of the 400 covers featured in her book — ”Designs Underfoot: The Art of Manhole Covers in New York City” — have already been paved over or tossed away since its publication in April. To prove that manhole covers equal art, Ms. Stuart conducted a private, head-down tour of Murray Hill, infusing her patter with the urgent tone of someone who seems at constant risk of missing her train.

She strode with the confidence borne of having walked thousands of streets, dodging cars and eluding undesirables, armed only with a camera, a notebook and a whisk broom. As she guided on this rainy morning, she pointed to covers whose raised features may have once had a practical purpose — providing traction for the hooves of horses — but are now the cast-iron expressions of whimsy from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Ship’s wheels and snowflakes, hexagons and honeycombs, chain links and flowers, all meant for more than just horses.
Above
This was photographed in 2009, probably being removed from a construction site.

STEP ON THE ARTWORK

3-
In front of 114 East 37th Street, for example, she spotted a coal-chute cover of an anonymous foundry that sported a raised star, bubble-like dots and a ring of diamond shapes. And on the southeast corner of Madison Avenue and 37th Street, embedded like a jewel in the slate pavement, there glittered — well, not quite — a Jacob Mark Sons cover dating from 1878. Rows of mauve- and gold-colored glass insets, surrounded by an elaborate petal design, lent it a certain grimy class. ”Is it at risk? Yes, definitely,” Ms. Stuart said, her face damp, her voice raised. ”Someone could just come and pierce their equipment right through this.”

Her pleas to the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission have yielded no support. Robert B. Tierney, its chairman, said that while he admired Ms. Stuart’s commitment, manhole covers are impermanent fixtures by design. Giving them landmark status raises the specter of commission involvement every time Con Ed has to change a manhole cover. ”It may not be something that is a landmark priority,” he said. ”But that does not mean that it’s not important. It’s incredibly interesting.” Ms. Stuart, who feels as though she is racing against time, remains committed to her cause. She promotes her slim volume, which has brought her some fame but no money. She conducts her tours. She leads the Society for the Preservation of New York City Manhole Covers. She is, after all, the Manhole Cover Lady. ”O.K.,” she said, again pointing to the sidewalk. ”This is a very important cover.”

WHAT DO ALL THOSE
LETTERS STAND FOR?

Markings
Bell System BECo =
Brooklyn Edison Company BHRR =
Brooklyn Heights Railroad BMT =
Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation BPB =
Borough President Brooklyn BPM =
Borough President Manhattan BQT =
Brooklyn and Queens Transit Corporation BRT =
Brooklyn Rapid Transit BS =
Bureau of Sewers BSBQ =
Bureau of Sewers, Borough of Queens BSBQ =
Borough Superintendent of the Borough of Queens CIBRR =
Coney Island and Brooklyn Railroad Citizens Water Supply Co. of Newtown ConEdison =
Consolidated Edison Con Edison Co. =
Consolidated Edison Conrail =
Consolidated Rail Corporation CT&ES Co. =
Consolidated Telegraph & Electrical Subway Company CWSCo. =
Citizens Water Supply Company of Newtown DCW =
Brooklyn Department of City Works DEP =
Department of Environmental Protection DPW =
Department of Public Works DWS =
Department of Water Supply ECS Co. LIM =
Empire City Subway Company Limited (also abbreviated as ECS Co LTD) EDISON =
Edison EEICo. =
Edison Electric Illuminating Company FDNY =
FDNY GAS =
Brooklyn Union Gas HPFS =
High Pressure Fire Service IRT =
Interborough Rapid Transit JWS =
Jamaica Water Supply Company of New York KCEL&PC =
Kings County Electric Light and Power Company LIC =
Long Island City LIRR =
Long Island Rail Road LIWSCo. =
Long Island Water Supply Company NY&NJTCo. =
New York & New Jersey Telephone Company NY&QEL&PCo =
New York & Queens Electric Light & Power Company NYCTA =
New York City Transit Authority NYCTS =
New York City Transit System NYC & HRRR =
New York Central & Hudson River Railroad NYM =
New York Municipal Railway Corporation NYRT =
New York Rapid Transit Corporation NYTCo. =
New York Telephone Company PSC MRC =
Public Service Commission-Metropolitan Railway Company QMT =
Queens Midtown Tunnel RT NYC = Rapid Transit New York City RT NYRT = New York Rapid Transit Corporation RTS = Rapid Transit System RTS NYC = Rapid Transit System New York City STEALTH COMM =
Stealth Communications WSNY =
Water Supply of New York Water Supply

WHY ARE MANHOLE COVERS 
ROUND?

The question of why manhole covers are typically round (in some countries) was made famous by Microsoft when they began asking it as a job-interview question. Originally meant as a psychological assessment of how one approaches a question with more than one correct answer, the problem has produced a number of alternative explanations, from the tautological (“Manhole covers are round because manholes are round.”)to the philosophical. Reasons for the shape might include:

A round manhole cover cannot fall through its circular opening, whereas a square manhole cover might fall in if it were inserted diagonally in the hole.

The existence of a “lip” holding up the lid means that the underlying hole is smaller than the cover, so that other shapes might suffice. (A Reuleaux triangle or other curve of constant width would also serve this purpose, but round covers are much easier to manufacture.)

Round tubes are the strongest and most material-efficient shape against the compression of the earth around them.

A round manhole cover of a given diameter has a smaller surface area than a square cover of the same width, thus less material is needed to cast the manhole cover, meaning lower cost.

The bearing surfaces of manhole frames and covers are machined to assure flatness and prevent them from becoming dislodged by traffic.

Round castings are much easier to machine using a lathe.

Circular covers do not need to be rotated to align with the manhole. A round manhole cover can be more easily moved by being rolled.

A round manhole cover can be easily locked in place with a quarter turn (as is done in countries like France), which makes them hard to open without a special tool.

Lockable covers do not have to be made as heavy to resist being dislodged.

COAL CHUTE COVERS

Like in London, the original street covers were for coal–and were often originally rectangular in shape. New York City still has many covers that lead to former coal chutes, like the one above in a hexagonal shape. This particular one, found in Brooklyn Heights, is a patented “illuminated cover” invented by J.B. Cornell, an ironworks company founded by brothers on Centre Street.

The patent document from 1856 describes glass panes placed between melted brimstone. John B. Cornell writes that the design will be kept clean from the “friction of passing feet,” and that a light rain shower would remove “any considerable quantity of dirt” from the glass panes. For this and various reasons, Cornell believed “in point of illuminating power, and safety against the entrance of moisture, I believe that my improved illuminating cover for openings in pavements &c. has no equal.”

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EDITORIAL

Art underfoot. Just be careful between mopeds, Citi-Bike, humans
and scooters, it may be safer to look at the photos.

Today we took he ferry to 90th Street and transferred to the Soundview Ferry to the Bronx.  We caught an Lyft and off we were to City Island. Lunch was great under a giant tent (on a former parking lot) with delicious lobster and the sides.  It was great to be in this cute seaside town, only an hour from home.

For an easy return home the bus to Westchester Square and a 6 train ride to 59th Street.

Time to safely get off the island and enjoy this wonderful weather.

Judith Berdy
jbird134@aol.com

Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter  and Deborah Dorff

All image are copyrighted (c)
Roosevelt Island Historical Society
unless otherwise indicated

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