MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



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Official Orgin of The Michigan Ro*d Maker* Aw 

 SUITE 1*06 MAJESTIC BUILDING 



ind Michigan Foieitry Ai-oaation 

 DLTROIT. MICHIGAN 



Frank E. Carter.. ..Editor 



PUBLISHED EVERY MONTH 



BY 

 THE STATE REVIEW PUBLISHING CO., 



SUBSCRIPTION) ONE DOLLAR A YEAR, 

 PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. 



The Improvement of 



Fire Protection Service 



The large percentage of combustible building-; 

 and the improper conditions as regards safety 

 that obtain in most American cities have finally 

 forced upon the attention of municipal govern- 

 ments the necessity of making provision for an 

 absolutely trustworthy fire-fighting weapon. It is 

 the opinion of fire underwriters and expent en- 

 gineers, says Herbert T. Wade in his article upon 

 "High Pressure Fire Protection" in the current 

 Review of Reviews, that the high pressure ser- 

 vice is most imperative in cities of any great size, 

 that it is the best weapon against fire yet evolved 

 and that its installation should be required in all 

 cities where there are congested and hazardous 

 risks because of the percentage of dangerous 

 buildings in close proximity. 



"During a trasnitional period, as it were," Mr. 

 Wade says in summing up his subject, "when 

 new construction is mainly fireproof or fire-re- 

 sisting, fire protection for our cities is an ex- 

 pensive and important consideration. However, 

 it is the price that must be paid for errors of the 

 past, and the American people cannot compare 

 conditions in their own cities with those of Eu- 

 rope, where for centuries building has taken 

 place with due regard to the danger of fire; so 

 that for American cities with their tall buildings 

 most unfavorably located in congested districts 

 the main fire protection in the future must con- 

 sist in an adequate water supply at a higher pres- 

 sure than the average domestic supply, adminis- 

 tered by fire departments no ways inferior to 

 those of the present day as regards organization 

 and personnel, but even better equipped for meet- 

 ing extraordinary emergencies. 



"For such conditions the independent high- 

 pressure fire service of today is the most useful 

 means that the fireman has at his disposal, and 

 engineers and underwriters believe with all con- 

 fidence that it will so prove in any serious test 

 with an actual fire." 



The writer points out at the outset that an 

 adequate water supply, available a.t any part of 

 the city and to an unlimited volume, is the chief 

 asset in reducing fire losses in American cities. 

 There are very few cities on this side of the At- 

 lantic that have a city water works capable of 

 exerting enough pressure to throw streams of 

 water to the upper stories of high buildings, and 

 fewer yet in whose streets are laid mains large 

 enough and strong enough to carry a volume of I 



water under sufficient pressure to be wholly ade- 

 quate in time of emergency. 



In most cities the mains and standpipes on the 

 buildings were installed in the day of low pres- 

 sure, and even with facilities at hand for getting 

 a strong head on the water used in fire-fighting 

 the weakness of the pipes negatives any attempt 

 at increasing the pressure. 



In too many cities, too, the increase in popula- 

 tion and spread of building have far outdistanced i 

 the limit of usefulness of the water available for! 

 fighting iircs. It is in just such communities, and 

 their number is great, that the insurance men 

 have raised rates to such an extent that far-seeing 

 citizens in control of the government are begin- 

 ning to see that although the expense of installa- 

 tion of a high-pressure system is great, a compen- 

 sation out of all proportion to the first outlay will 

 speedily follow through the reduction of the in- 

 surance risks. 



The city of Cleveland was the first to evolve 

 something out of wlrch developed the modern 

 idea of high-pressure fire service. It was in 1888 

 that the municipality authorized the laying of a 

 six-inch east iron main frrm the river to the top 

 of a nearby bluff, a distance of 700 or 800 feet. 

 Whenever there was a fire in the vicinity of this 

 main a fircboat, one of the earliest of its kind, 

 coupled up to the river end .of the pipe and sent 

 a stream of water up to the spot where this aux- 

 iliary supply was most needed. 



Milwaukee. Detroit and Buffalo later adopted 

 this special fireboat auxiliary. In the two latter 

 cities the original single line of pipe was ex- 

 panded to a system, and now the substitution of i 

 permanent pumping stations to take the place of 

 the fire tugs in insuring a quick and steady appli- 

 cation of high pressure is being contemplated. 

 In Milwaukee a 10 per cent, reduction of insur- 

 ance rates has followed the installation of this 

 adjunct to the water supply and in Buffalo there 

 has been a reduction of 30 cents on each $1,000 

 of insurance. 



The city of Boston was the next to take up the 

 new idea. In 1897-98 there was installed there 

 a permanent system of cast iron underground 

 mains, 5,000 feet in length, which was to offer an 

 auxiliary suply of salt water, pumped from a 

 fireboat constantly at berth at the bay end of the 

 main. This extension of a special high-pressure 

 service over a limited area was extensively imi- 

 tated until first Philadelphia and then New York 

 made the wide step of installing over a large area 

 a high-pressure system controlled by permanent 

 pumping stations. 



In giving an outline of the spread of the high- 

 pressure idea the Review of Reviews writer pays 

 merited attention to the big project that is soon 

 to be put through by San Fraricisco. Having 

 once suffered ^so terribly because its water system 

 failed it in emergency, the Pacific Coast city has 

 bonded itself to the extent of $5,200,000 for the 

 purpose of putting in a new high-pressure fire 

 protection and an auxiliary salt water system. 



For fire purposes it has been decided to install 

 an independent system with mains aggregating 

 over 90 miles in length. These are to be fed by 

 two great reservoirs, each of 5,000,000 gallons ca- 

 pacity, which are to be constructed at a height of 

 755 feet above the lower portions of the city. 



Two complementary reservoirs are to be con- 

 structed at lower elevations, which will supply 

 the ordinary pressure on the city's mains, but 

 the highest reservoirs will be able to keep, 



through force of gravity, a constant high-pressure 

 head upon all the fire mains. This system prom- 

 ises to be capable of throwing from 8,000 to 12,- 

 000 gallons a minute on any single block within 

 the area of the high-pressure service. 



The salt water emergency plants are to be built 

 on rock near the shore of the bay so as to be in 

 as great a measure as possible earthquake-proof. 



Kach of the two stations projected will be fit- 

 ted with oil-burning centrifugal pumps of a maxi- 

 mum capacity of 16,000 gallons a minute under 

 300 pounds pressure. The salt water stations will 

 be independent of each other, so that the failure 

 of one will not impair the work of the other or 

 the system as a whole. 



The writer gives the main outlines of New 

 York's high-pressure system, citing some facts 

 not generally known to the public. Mr. Wade 

 says : 



"In Manhattan the problem was naturally more 

 extensive and complicated [than in Brooklyn], 

 for here was a region of congested risks for their 

 extent and character probably unequaled any- 

 where in the world. It was necessary to increase 

 greatly the fire protection and the amount of wa- 

 ter, especially in certain downtown districts, and 

 accordingly it was determined to install a high- 

 pressure fire main system within the district 

 bounded by Twenty-third Street, Third Avenue 

 and the Bowery, Chambers Street and North 

 River, with two pumping stations, one at Oliver 

 and South Streets on the East River and the 

 other at Gansevoort and West Streets on the 

 North River. 



"In July of the present year this system was 

 put into operation and involves some 63 miles 

 of extra-heavy cast iron mains through which can 

 be forced more water than all the fire engines in 

 the borough can pump, and what is more, this 

 supply can be concentrated on any single block. 

 In other words, when the five centrifugal pumps 

 at each station are working together the com- 

 bined capacity exceeds 30,000,000 gallons a min- 

 ute, and space has been left at each station for 

 installing three additional units. 



"In the Manhattan system great care has been 

 taken to remedy the previous grave defects of 

 the distribution systems and hydrants. The pro- 

 tected district, which amounts to 1,454 acres, or 

 about one-tenth the area of Manhattan Island, 

 is surrounded by ~4-inch mains, while mains of 

 that or smaller size down to 12 inches in diam- 

 eter completely gridiron the district. 



"On these 1,272 hydrants are so placed that 

 there is always one within 400 feet of any single 

 building and in sufficient number to enable 60 

 streams of water, each amounting to 500 gal- 

 lons, to be brought to bear on any single block 

 without employing hose of any greater length 

 (ban 400 to 500 feet in any case. 



"Thus, for the block bounded by Twenty-third 

 Street, Fifth and Sixth Avenues and Twenty- 

 second Street there are available 16 hydrants, 

 from which in one day, with the pumps working 

 at full capacity, enough water could be obtained 

 to cover the block to a depth of 36 feet in other 

 words, 5,760,000 cubic feet, or 43,000,000 gallons." 



SOUND BUSINESS PROPOSAL. 



Discussing the report of the Commission of 

 Inquiry on Forestry in Michigan, the Saginaw 

 Xews says: 



."On the whole the commission's report is 

 a sound business proposal for the best inter- 

 ests of the state. We have no hesitation in 

 saying Michigan would profit immensely by 

 the legislature's carrying out in toto its rec- 

 ommendations. Whether they are enacted 

 into law or not will depend upon how much 

 business capacity and how little political trick- 

 ery there is in the legislature." 



