February i, 1908.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



137 



OUR NEW LOCATION. 



W-Eo^ 



Published on the 1st of each Month by 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING GO., 



No. 395 BROADWAY. NEW YORK. 

 CABLE ADDRESS: IRWORLD, NEW YORK. 



HENRY C. PEARSON, 



EDITOR. 



HAWTHORNE HILL, 



ASSOCIATE. 



Vol. 37. 



FEBRUARY 1. 1908. 



No. 5. 



8DBSCBIPTI0NS : $3.00 per year, $1.75 for six montbg, postpaid, for the 

 United States and dependencies and Mexico. To the Dominion 

 of Canada and all other countries, $3.50 (or equivalent funds) 

 per year, postpaid. 



Adtbbtisino : Rates will be made known on application. 



Remittances : Should always be made by bank draft, Postoffice or Ex- 

 press money orders on New York, payable to The India Rubbsb 

 Pdblishino Company. Remittances lor foreign suDscrlptlons 

 should be sent by International Postal order, payable as above. 



Discontinoancks ; Yearly orders for subscriptions and advertising are 

 regarded as permanent, and after the first twelve months they 

 will be discontinued only at the request of the subscriber or ad- 

 vertiser. Bills are rendered promptly at the beginning of each 

 period, and thereby our patrons bave due notice of continuance. 



OOPTRIOHT, 1907, BT 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHINO CO. 



Entered at New York postofficc as mail matter of the second class. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS ON LAST PAGE READING MATTER. 



NEW YORK'S POOR FIRE HOSE. 



THE pride which all good New Yorkers feel in their 

 fire department, with its brave and vigilant uni- 

 formed force and its liberal equipment of fire ap- 

 paratus — the heavy cost of which the public pays gladly 

 — has received a severe wound through recent revelations 

 regarding the character of much of the fire hose in use 

 and the conditions under which it has been supplied. O'l 

 the theory that no chain is stronger than its weakest link, 

 no fire department is really well equipped without the 

 best hose than can be bought, and the failure to supply 

 such hose endangers not only the property exposed to 

 ravages of fire, but also — and this is a vastly more serious 

 matter — the lives of the firemen, not to mention the occu- 

 pants of buildings in flames. 



The mayor of New York has ordered a drastic inves- 

 tigation into the quality of the fire hose in use in the city, 

 the alleged insufficiency of the supply, and the conditions 

 under which the hose has been bought. Reports which 

 compel attention are to the effect that many engine 

 oc houses are without a normal equipment of hose in quan- 

 05 tity, and that the quality of much of it is so poor that 

 . the department authorities are afraid to make the period- 

 C<T) ical tests required by the rules lest it fail to stand them. 

 QD The city's hose inventory still includes lengths put into 

 H-1 service 18 years aeo, but the record of hose burst at fires 



THE offices of The Indi.\ Rubber World have been removed 

 to No. 395 Broadway, at Walker street, where larger and 

 better quarters than those occupied hitherto have been 

 secured. The members of the rubber trade and any other friends 

 are always welcome at the new location, the same as at the 

 old place. Please remember that the address is now Xo. 395 L18RAR 

 Broadway. NEW Y© 



~ ' BOTANI' 



makes a worse showing for lots recently purchased than OAUlfc 

 for older lots. 



\\'hat has led to the activity of the mayor in the mat- 

 ter, the first instance of the kind in the history of the 

 mayor's office? Xot the watchfulness or the interest in 

 the matter of any city official, either in or outside the 

 fire department, although the charges made, if true now, 

 have been true for years, ^^■e have just been looking 

 over several annual reports of the fire department, in- 

 cluding the latest, and in these volumes of over 300 

 pages each we find scarcely a single mention of fire hose, 

 and these do not refer to the subjects which now are to 

 he investigated by the mayor's order. That is to say, 

 the city's chief executive, if he has depended upon his 

 subordinates for information, has had no reason to sus- 

 pect that the hose supply is not of the highest efficiency. 



It has remained for the fire underwriters to send ex- 

 perts into every fire house in the city and stud}- the hose 

 question in detail, the result of W'hich has not been pub- 

 lished widely. And the Merchants' Association, follow- 

 ing the disastrous Parker building fire, has supplemented 

 the demand of the insurance people for vigorous official 

 action. Doubtless we shall see many public servants 

 each trying to place the blame on some one else, but the 

 first and most essential thing to be done is to buy more 

 hose and good hose, and create a system under which 

 no other kind can be bought for the city in the future. 



The position in this matter of the fire hose manufac- 

 turers calls for a word of comment. The city does not 

 go to a rubber manufacturer and buy hose ; it draws up 

 specifications which it insists shall be followed by the 

 manufacturers. The result is that many manufacturers, 

 it is said, refuse longer to bid on those specifications, not 

 being willing to guarantee hose made according to them. 

 In other words, the city becomes responsible for the 

 quality of the hose it buys, and not the manufacturers, 

 who have no voice in the quality of the goods supplied. 



New York is about putting into use a new high pres- 

 sure water service, which will call for stronger hose than 

 has yet been ordered, which opens new problems in fire 

 hose construction. But whether for the regular equip- 

 ment or for the new service, it occurs to us that experts 

 in the manufacture should have a voice in the drawing 

 of the specifications and not the fire department officials 

 alone, no matter how capable these ma}- be. 



Prominence is given here to this subject in the belief 

 that the considerations involved may apply in some de- 

 cree to many cities other than New York. 



