286 Securities against Fire, fyc. 



Art. IV. — Supplement to a letter to the Hon. TV. J. Duane, 

 (late Secretary of the Treasury of the United States,) as publish- 

 ed in this Journal, Vol. xxv, No. 2, p. 290; respecting the sa- 

 ving of houses and their inhabitants from fire, and the obtaining 

 supplies of water and warm air. 



1. The interview which I had with Dr. Franklin, as noticed in 

 the preceding letter, occurred at Paris; and probably, at a mo- 

 ment when news had just arrived there of an extensive conflagra- 

 tion in England ; and I remember moreover, that it was late in 

 the evening. Hence, the conversation is to be considered as cas- 



ual, 



& 



ef — It was confined to the great 



in France; and it assigned two causes for this difference; 1st, 

 that the staircases and passages in the houses of the French, were 

 usually constructed with incombustible materials ; and 2il, that the in- 

 terior of their rooms had little exposed wood-work in them, unless 

 such as had mortar or some other incombustible material placed close 

 behind it. Thus the Doctor's conversation regarded merely the 

 spreading of fire from room to room, and from house to house. 



As the object of my letter is more extensive, I add here, from my- 

 self, that the French mode of constructing and of finishing houses, is 

 attended with two other important advantages, besides that of check- 

 ing the extension of fires. First — Life is evidently favored, if a se- 

 cure passage in case of fire, is made from every apartment in a house, 

 down to the ground floor ; since such inmates in the house as are 

 awake, will then take care of themselves; and their neighbors from 

 without may fearlessly enter the house to look after those who are 

 sleeping, and also after others who are unable to assist themselves, 

 (as the sick or infirm, and little children.) Secondly — valuable move- 

 ables, in such circumstances, may easily be carried off and placed 

 out of the reach of danger. — The plan of the French, therefore, es- 

 pecially in a country like the U. States, where so many houses are 



d 



> 



» ■ 



notwithstanding the expertness of their firemen, and their ample pro- 

 vision of fire-engines, ladders, he. and still less is it to be disregard- 

 ed, where these advantages are wanting. 



I may be allowed to add here, that I have conjectured, that at the 

 time of Dr. Franklin's communication as above mentioned, this phi- 



