Elevator grilles in iron with a Bower-Barf finish, designed by Louis Henry Sullivan, Chicago 1893-1894.

Richly ornate panels with stylized repetition of geometric motifs in strap iron and small spheres.

These grilles screened the lift shafts from floors 3 to 13 in the Chicago Stock Exchange Building, one of the last buildings designed and built by the firm of Adler and Sullivan before their partnership was dissolved in 1895.

Bower-Barf is a black rust-resisting finish applied to steel and iron only and is not applicable to non-ferrous metals. It is named after two men, Mr. Bower and Mr. Barff, who originally developed the process.

Iron or steel items to be finished are heated in special furnaces to approximately 1700 degrees Fahrenheit, at which temperature they are cherry red in color. While at this temperature, live steam and volatile hydrocarbon liquids are injected in to the furnace for a period of several minutes. The chemical action of the heat, water-vapor and hydrocarbon gases on the iron and steel is such that the surface of the items being treated become oxidized and carbonized. The surface becomes covered and impregnated with a hard, non-porous, grayish-blackish coating. The surface with this treatment practically becomes impervious to moisture. After parts are removed they are dipped in a special oil and wiped off. The finish becomes a dead black and is extremely beautiful and very practical for interior use.

Sullivan, trained as an architect at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the École des Beaux Arts in Paris, developed a rich evolutionary style of ornament which he described as organic. Frank Lloyd Wright, who worked in Sullivan's office from 1888 to 1893, always acknowledged his influence.

M.9 to A-1985