220 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[April i, 1908. 



New York City Buys Fire Hose. 



SIX PLY HOSE FOE HIGH PRESSURE SERVICE. 



THE fire department of the city of New York, by way of 

 preparation for the high pressure system soon to be in- 

 troduced on an important scale, has purchased a quantity 

 of hose of a class not hitherto used by this department — 6 ply 

 rubber hose of 3 inches internal diameter. 



The specifications require lengths of 50 feet, with New York 

 fire department standard couplings attached, each length to weigh, 

 with couplings, not more than 100 pounds. Hose to be made 6 

 ply, with 7 ply capped ends, of duck woven from best long 

 staple Sea Island cotton, and the best Para rubber ; to be suffi- 

 ciently pliable to permit easy handling; duck to weigh not less 

 than 22 ounces to the yard when made 40 inches wide ; rubber 

 lining to be hand made, not less than 1/12 of an inch thick, not 

 less than 3 calender, and so firmly united to the cotton fabric 

 that it cannot be separated without breaking or splitting in two; 

 cover of the hose to be made of the same quality rubber ; rubber 

 and duck to be antiseptically treated. The brand name of the 

 manufacturer is to be placed on each length. 



Hose must be capable of standing a test pressure of 400 pounds 

 to the square inch, and to go out straight, without writhing or 

 twisting more than one revolution or elongating more than 30 

 inches per length, or increasing in exterior diameter more than 

 i^ inch at any point. The hose must not contract in length 

 under pressure. In addition to the general test, pieces selected 

 at random will be subjected to this special test: 



"(a) From said length a piece one inch long shall be cut 

 from any part of the hose; this one inch piece shall then be 

 placed on a mandrel, which latter shall be suspended from 

 centres so as to turn freely and a weight of 20 pounds shall 

 be applied at right angles to the point of separation of the re- 

 maining layers of duck, and the layers must not unwind more 

 than y/i inches in 10 minutes. 



■'(6) A piece of tube or rubber lining, which is 1/12 inch thick, 

 shall be taken from any part of the same length of hose and 

 shall have placed upon it marks 2 inches apart; the rubber shall 

 then be stretched until the marks are 12 inches apart and im- 

 mediately released, then re-marked so that the new marks shall 

 be exactly 2 inches apart; the rubber shall then be stretched 

 until the new marks are 12 inches apart, and remain stretched in 

 that position for 10 minutes without breaking, and upon being 

 released and allowed to stand for 10 minutes, the last marks shall 

 not be more than 2j's inches apart, showing a permanent set of not 

 more than Ys of an inch." 



.A. piece of the duck without rubber friction when tested 

 in the piece, with jaws one inch wide, must show a tensile 

 strength of not less than 300 pounds for the warp threads and 

 not less than 375 pounds for filling threads; all yarn used to be 

 not less than ij/i inch staple. 



The hose to be guaranteed by the manufacturer to stand, for 

 the full length of four years from the time it is put in use, a 

 pressure test of 400 pounds to the square inch, together with the 

 ordinary wear and tear and use of the hose, but the guarantee 

 shall not be held to apply where damage may be determined 

 by the department to have been caused by being run over by 

 vehicles or stepped upon by horses, or caused by fire or acids. 



THE LATEST PimCHASES OF HOSE. 

 Bids for supplying hose for the New York fire department were 

 opened on March 3, as announced previously in The India Rub- 

 ber World [March i, 1908— page 203], as a result of which con- 

 tracts were awarded as follows : 



For the Borough of Manhattan: .,.„.. 



30,000 feet 2'/i inch 4 ply rubber fire hose; awarded to the Republic Rubber 



Co., at $1.04 per foot. 

 30,000 feet 3 inch 6 ply rubber hose for high pressure system; awarded to 



The Diamond Rubber Co., at $1.73!^ Per foot. 



For the Borough of Brooklyn: 

 10,000 feet 2'/, inch 4 ply rubber hose, awarded to The Diamond Rubber 



Co., at $i.i3"/'2 per foot. 

 10,000 feet 3 inch 6 ply rubber hose for high pressure system; awarded to 



the Republic Rubber Co., at $1.64 per foot. 



One lot of 20,000 feet of 3 inch 5 ply rubber hose for regular 

 service only brought out two bids, at a price higher than the com- 

 missioner desired to pay, and he decided there had not been 

 enough competition, and ordered new bids. No bids were invited 

 on the date mentioned for cotton hose. 



MILLIONS OF FEET OF FIRE HOSE. 



A LOT of figures regarding city fire department equipment ap- 

 pear in a volume of special reports of the United States census 

 of 1905 — "Statistics of Cities Having a Population of Over 

 30,000." The number of cities under review is 154. The total 

 length of fire hose of all kinds reported by these cities is 4,216,438 

 feet, summarized as follows : 



Feet. 



Group I. — 15 cities, Population 300,000 or over 1,851,644 



Group II. — 25 cities, Population 100.000 to 300,000 7791638 



Group III. — 47 cities, Populaticn 50,000 to 100,000 855,052 



Group IV. — 67 cities. Population 30,000 to 50.000 730,104 



The estimated population of these cities in 1905 showed a 

 gain of about 50 per cent, over the decennial census returns of 

 1900. There has not been a proportionate increase in the amount 

 of fire hose reported, however. iA.t least, a similar report on 140 

 cities in 1898 showed a total of 3,361,160 feet, adding 50 per cent, 

 to which would give a total of over 5,000,000 feet. Since 1898 

 the number of cities having over 30,000 inhabitants has increased 

 to 154, and the total amount of hose reported is only a little 

 over 4,000,000 feet. 



There is no established relation between the amount of hose 

 reported and the estimated population of the cities. To take 10 

 cities at random, we arrive at this average of length (in feet) 

 of hose per 1,000 of population : 



Feet Average 



Cities. Population. Hose. per 1,000. 



New York 4,000,403 494.536 124 



Philadelphia 1,417,062 100,000 70 



Baltimore 546,217 1 13,015 207 



Pittsburgh 364,161 98,050 270 



New Orleans 309,639 40,960 132 



Minneapolis 261,974 54,974 206 



St. Paul 197,023 48,250 240 



Cleveland 437, 114 52,650 120 



Haverhill. Mass 37,830 20,625 557 



Holyoke, Mass 49,934 24,550 491 



The smallest city in the list of 154 is La Crosse, Wisconsin- 

 population 29,078, with 15,050 feet of hose, or 519 feet per 1,000 

 inhabitants. Taunton, Massachusetts, with 30,967 inhabitants, re- 

 ports the same number of feet of hose. Seventy cities report a 

 smaller total amount of hose. The smallest amount of hose re- 

 ported by any city is 3,000 feet, for Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 

 with 54,807 population, or 55 feet per 1,000 inhabitants. 



There is no guarantee of the accuracy of the hose statistics. 

 The amount credited to New York is 494,536 feet, as long ago 

 as 1905, whereas the recent report by the New York Board of 

 Fire Underwriters gave only 5,768 lengths in service in the bor- 

 oughs of Manhattan and the Bronx, giving only 288,400 feet by 

 not considering that some of the length are less than 50 feet. There 

 is considerable hose in service in the other boroughs, but nothing 

 like enough to bring the total up to the census report figures. 



The United States consul at Iquitos reports the beginning of a 

 survey for a British company, to determine the practicability of 

 constructing a railroad 75 miles long to a point on the Ucayali 

 river, accessible by launches, from a rich rubber district, the 

 product of which under present conditions must be transported 

 down the Madeira river to Manaos, thus giving Brazil the bene- 

 fit of export duties on a strictly Peruvian product. 



