118 Protection of Persons from Fire. 
that the death of a single person occurs. The corps is daily em- 
ployed in working the engines, and in infantry and gymnastic exercises. 
Experience has proved that when a fire takes place in a theatre, 
~ assistance arrives from without always too late. * Such places are 
therefore furnished with engines, which are placed in cellars in such 
a manner that those who play them may be sheltered from danger 
during the fire. The water is drawn through a hose from a reservoir 
immediately beneath, which is filled by the city aqueducts. An as- 
cending pipe passes through the vault of the cellar, and leads to the 
fire. ‘This pipe has branches at different stories, through which, by 
simply opening the stopper, the water plays. At each of these stop 
cocks is a screw on which is fixed a hose (boyau,) filty feet long, at 
the end of which is a lance. These are enclosed in a closet, in 
which is placed a bell rope corresponding with a closet below, so that” 
if the fireman in the upper story wants water, he rings to the one be- 
low; the latter does the same, and so on in succession to the cellar. 
‘When the fire i is over, a second ring warns the engineer that it is 
time to stop. 
In each closet is an axe, a hand sponge, another sponge on the . 
end of a long rod, and a long hook for Eating cords and_ pulling 
down inflamed parts. 
Reservoirs are also constructed in the upper stories of the theatre, 
from which pipes descend to the different parts of the house. Hose 
which can be speedily adjusted to these pipes are kept in due order ( 
in the closets. 
Explanation of the Plates and dimensions of the Apparatus. 
PLATE I. ; 
Fig. 1. The height of this apparatus is six inches. ‘The lamp 
should be kept level so that the flame may not vary either in size oF 
intensity. In bringing an iron wire about one tenth of an inch thick 
very near the flame it goes out. 
WS: 2. A wrapper of wire gauze and amianthus into which a fin 
ger is inserted and then held over a lamp, to shew the advantage of 
a glove for handling and carrying hot articles. The amianthus should 
be at least one tenth of an inch thick, and the two cylinders of wit 
gauze (the one inserted into the other,) must be of such dimensions 
that the fore finger may remain at ease in the enclosure. The ¢& 
terior gauze may have sixteen wires to the inch and the interior thirty- 
