February i. kjcq.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



165 



New York's New Fire Protection System. 



THE great increase in the height of modern business build- 

 ings has made necessary a change in the methods of pro- 

 tection against fire. Hence the development of the new 

 high pressure pumping stations being installed to protect the 

 congested districts of great cities. The fire engine is inadequate 

 in the days of the ."skyscraper." The old hand pump was adequate 

 in the era of the cottage and two story house ; the steam fire ensiue 

 answered for the day of the four and five story buildings, but the 

 twenty story structure needs something more powerful. To 

 reach a fire high up in the air there must be an abundant supply 

 ■of water, there must be sufficient power to force it up, and there 

 must be strong extra heavy rubber hose or iron pipes to carry it. 

 Several years ago, through the suggestions of Mayor George 

 B. McClellan, of New York, backed up by the Merchants' As.so- 

 ciation and the Fire Underwriters, appropriations were made to 

 •establish in the city high pressure pumping stations designed to 

 protect the great business centers south of Twenty-third street, and 

 the congested tenement districts of the east side. These stations 

 have been completed within the past year, and were put mto 

 ■service during the past summer. They are said by expert en- 

 gineers to be models, and of being capable under ordinary condi- 

 tions of putting water to the top of the highest buildings yet 

 constructed. Additional interest in the establishment of these 

 high pressure stations was created in the minds of city officials, 

 business men, and fire underwriters by the destructive fire in the 

 Parker building, a ten story structure of "fireproof" construction 

 which was completely gutted on January lo, 1908. Although 

 there were twenty-five engines, three water towers, and eiglit 

 hook and ladder companies engaged in fighting the fire, the 

 department utterly failed to cope with flames above the sixth 

 floor. It was a pointed illustration that the old types of appli- 

 ances known were helpless when the fire was above a certain 

 height. The pumping stations and mains of the high pressure 

 system were hurried to completion, and will be further extended 

 as soon as additional appropriation can be provided. Ailready 

 ■$3,500,000 has been spent, four pumping stations — two in Man- 

 hattan and two in Brooklyn — have been built and equipped, and 

 sixty-five miles of high pressure mains have been laid. 



The four pumping stations are practically identical in capacity, 

 the two in Manhattan and one of those in Brooklyn being con- 

 nected with the salt water of the harbor as well as with the 

 fresh water mains. While the system is called the "Salt Water 

 System," it is expected that fresh water will be used except in 

 cases of emergency. The duplex water supply is installed as a 

 safeguard against accidents. liach station is equipped with five 

 motor driven multi-stage centrifugal pumps. The mains are 12 

 and 24-inch cast iron pipe, and the two present stations are capa- 

 ble of delivering 30,000 gallons of water per minute at a pressure 

 at the hydrant of 300 pounds per square inch. At a recent test 

 of the Gansevoort station (Manhattan) the firemen connected 

 up a line of 1,000 feet of the new 2j^-inch high pressure hose. 

 Even with this stretch of hose there was a pressure of 125 

 pounds delivered at the nozzle. 



Chief Croker, of the fire department, was delighted with the 

 tests, and calculates that there could be concentrated at any point 

 near one of the present pumping stations a greater volume of 

 water at a higher pressure than could be supplied by all the 

 fire engines on Manhattan island. With but six of the ten pumps 

 at work, it is calculated there could be taken from eight hydrants 

 thirty-two lines of hose that would deliver streams that could 

 be sent without trouble to the top of a twelve story building. 

 Such an emergency will, however, hardly be necessary. Every 

 tall building, under the law, must be supplied with standpipes. 

 and every floor must have serviceable hose easily accessible The 

 policy is always to fight a fire from the inside. 



In actual service it is proposed to handle this heavy pressure 

 from the valve at the hydrant just as the engineer has handled 

 his engine. A stream that would kill a man at 50 feet distance 

 from the nozzle is too strong for any but the most stublwrn 

 blaze. The valve on the hydrant will regulate this so that any 

 pressure desired can be delivered. A system that can turn out 

 a stream as gentle as a garden hose or can throw a column of 

 water on the roof of the seventeen story Metropolis Bank build- 

 ing — as was done in one of the recent tests — appears to be ideal 

 for fire fighting. 



The introduction of such a system, however, has occasioned 

 an entire remodeling of fire hose construction. 'Ihc old q\iality— 

 which frequently burst under the engine pressure, would be 

 worthless under the new system. The fire companies in New 

 York are now being supplied with heavy 3 and 2^-inch hose, and 

 with special wagons for carrying it. The hose wagon answers 

 alarms just as the old engine used to do, and in three of the 

 down town houses the engines have been entirely removed. 

 When loaded with hose, carrying a full complement of men and 

 the necessary equipment of nozzle tripods, pressure gages and 

 connecting appliances, these wagons weigh six tons, or more than 

 the heaviest engine built. 



The specifications for the hose required for the new high 

 pressure system are practically the same as those for other hose 

 ordered by the New York fire department, and are severe. The 

 tests made for the purchases of hose made since the Parker 

 building fire have been rigid, and to succeed in selling the city 

 only the best quality of material can be used. The hue and cry 

 raised against the quality of hose in service at that fire has had 

 the eflfect of arousing the department to the exercise of great, 

 caution, and there is Httle doubt that the $250,000 spent for hose 

 since that time has been for absolute value received. About one- 

 third of this amount is intended for the high pressure service 



The specifications call for a tensile strength for the inner tube 

 of 1,100 pounds per square inch, the calculation being based on a 

 wall of an inch thickness. The inner tube and the cover must be 

 made of at least 65 per cent, chemically pure, best Para rubber, 

 and the cover must have a tensile strength of 950 pounds per 

 square inch. The inner tube must have a thickness of from 1-16 

 to 1-12 of an inch. A two-inch piece of either the inner tube or 

 the cover must stretch to 12 inches, and after remaining stretched 

 for 10 minutes recover its original size. When tested in 50-foot 

 lengths under hydraulic pressure of 400 pounds to the square 

 inch the expansion must not be more than % of an inch, and the 

 twist must not be more than one turn. The elongation of the 

 length tested must not be more than 30 inches, and the friction 

 must not exceed 20 pounds in pressure reduction. The duck between 

 the two casings must be manufactured from the best sea island 

 cotton. The warp must stand a strain of 300 pounds per square 

 inch, and the filler must stand 375. Before the recent purchases 

 40 lengths of hose were given rigid tests, with the result that 

 practically every one of them came within the specifications. 



Speaking of this, the manager of a rubber company which has 

 supplied a large amount of hose to the city of late said: "I do 

 not know how the tests may have been made in times past, but I 

 know that in the recent purchase made by the city, there was no 

 chance for a faulty piece of hose to slip in. The engineers were 

 diligent in their work, and every requirement in the rigid specifi- 

 cations was insisted upon to the letter. The city got good 

 hose, and I do not think there is any likelihood of any trouble 

 occurring on this account. The pressure test, I think, was double 

 what will be required, even in the high pressure service. All of 

 the hose sold is fully guaranteed for four years, and any section 

 which bursts or otherwise breaks down within that period — unless 

 it has been injured by some accident — must be replaced by the 



