FIRE-ESCAPE. 



K1RE, GREEK. 



London, Paris, Canada, and the United States, placed between twenty 

 and thirty large engine* in competition, to tact their power* for the 

 satisfaction of one of the juries. 



A few words must be said concerning the Ktam fire-engine. This 

 was Ant employed at a fire at the Argyll Rooms, in London, in 1830, 

 and displayed great power in throwing the water against the building. 

 The furnace and boiler of this engine were similar to those of the 

 ty,' a locomotive engine constructed by the same engineer for 

 railway traffic. The pipe by which the water was jetted turned on a 

 swivel, by which meant the stream could be directed to any quarter. 

 The cylinders were placed horizontally, and the steam-piston was con- 

 nected with the water-pump plunger by a rod working through two 

 stuffing boxes. This engine, the total weight of which did not exceed 

 45 cwt., consumed 3 bushels of coals in 5 hours, by which expenditure 

 it wan enabled to throw out from 30 to 40 tons of water per hour, 

 which it propelled to a height of upwards of 80 feet, and on one occa- 

 sion to yo feet. Another engine, on the same construction, by Mr. 

 Braithwaite, possessed 10-horse power (the former being about 6), and 

 ejected the euormous quantity of 90 tons of water per hour. In 1 832 

 a steam fire-engine was made for the king of Prussia by the same 

 engineer, in which the steam could be got up in 20 minutes to a 

 pressure of 70 Ibs. on the square inch. This engine ejected the water 

 through a pipe 1 J inch in diameter to the height of 115 or 120 feet : 

 the number of strokes of the piston was 18 per minute, and the body 

 of water ejected about 1} ton in that time. The power of steam was 

 likewise applied to a floating fire-engine by Mr. Braithwaite, the 

 machinery of which is so constructed, that the power of the engine can 

 be at once changed from propelling the vessel to working the pumps, and 

 thus do double duty. The London Fire Brigade Committee have 

 recently turned their attention to this subject. Their first attempt 

 was to alter a floating fire-engine which had been worked by manual 

 power ; and this was so well done, that the engine poured out 700 

 gallons per minute under a pressure of 70 or 80 Ib. on the square inch. 

 Another was thereupon constructed capable- of throwing 1 400 gallons per 

 minute, and of moving at the rate of eight miles an hour, when pro- 

 pelled by the reaction of two jets 10 inches in diameter, driven by one 

 of Appold'a pumps. The vessel built for these engines is 130 feet 

 long, with pumps and engines placed on the starboard and larboard 

 sides of the midships. At Cincinnati large steam fire-engines have 

 I een for some years used; and the good sen-ice they render partly 

 induced the London companies to revive and improve upon the old 

 invention of Braithwaite. Competition trials of steam fire-engines 

 have taken place in New York ; one of them is said, at an extensive 

 fire, to have poured out 15,000 barrels of water in 8J hours. Messrs. 

 Shand and Mason have recently produced a new steam fire-engine in 

 London, for use on land. 



FIRE-ESCAPE. Numerous contrivances have been brought under 

 public notice from time to time for saving the lives of persons who 

 may be in a building while it is burning. Mr. Maseres devised a kind 

 of chair of straps, by which a person could lower himself from a 

 window. Mr. Davis, in 1809, proposed the use of three ladders, 

 which might draw out like a telescope, and might reach from the 

 ground to the upper windows of a house. Mr. Young, in 1813, con- 

 trived a sort of rope-ladder, with iron rounds of very flexible con- 

 struction. Mr. Braby, in 1816, invented a sort of long pole, down 

 which a car or chair might travel from a window to the ground. 

 Mr. Witty, in 1820, introduced a sort of bag or case, which may be 

 lowered from the sill of a window by ropes governed by a person 

 seated in the bag. About 1835, Mr. Ford recommended the use of a 

 long pole, at the upper end of which is tackle for lowering persons 

 from a window ; and soon after, Mr. Merryweather contrived a series 

 of short ladders, which fit on to each other end to end, and can be 

 elevated to a considerable height quickly. 



But the fire-escape which has come most into use in London is a 

 wheel-carriage supporting a lofty canvas shoot or trunk, attached to a 

 ladder or frame ; when placed up against a house, a person can get 

 into this trunk from a window, and slide safely down to the bottom, 

 with the aid of some ingenious mechanism attached to the frame. 

 Many such machine* are kept in public places in London during tlie 

 night, attended by men whose busmen it is to wheel the machines to 

 any spot where life is endangered by fire, and to work the machines. 



A Report was presented to the city corporation in 1840 from the 

 police commissioners, descriptive of thirty plans for fire-escapes, which 

 had been proposed by different parties. They were of three classes : 

 1st. Machines intended for domestic use only, to be resorted to by 

 inmates of houses in cases of fire ; 2nd. Machines to be used from the 

 outside, and made to combine the security of property with the pro- 

 tection of persons; 3rd. Machines exclusively for the protection of life 

 from fire, to be used out of doors under the responsible direction 

 of the police. Among the thirty were Davis's effective but rather 

 ponderous machine ; WivcH'n, with the canvas trunk ; and Gregory's 

 sliding ladders on a carriage. It was considered that, whichever may 

 be the best form in wide thoroughfares, the common fire-ladders 

 carried with the engines of the London Brigade are the most generally 

 useful in courts and confined situations. A suggestion was made in 

 1858, that it would be a good plan if in every house was kept a strong 

 board with a hand-rail, and a hook at each end ; by hanging one end 

 vutnide the window < t a burning house, and the other to the win.li > of 



an adjoining house, a temporary bridge or balcony might be formed. 

 Independent of other difficulties, however, there would always be the 

 uncertainty of such it contrivance being in the right place at the right 

 time. Another suggestion has been made, that each street or group of 

 houses should possess a wire basket ; that there should be a bracket 

 fixed at the top of every house-front . projecting two feet; and that 

 the police should be provided with some kind of rocket to send a rope 

 over the bracket, and thereby haul up the basket. A third suggestion, 

 of recent date, is that of Mr. Moakin ; he proposes to fix two wire-ropes 

 to strong hooks in the front wall of a house, to raise a kind of cradle 

 on these ropes by means of pulleys, and then to govern the dcs 

 the same cradle by the same ropes and pulleys. 



None of the modern suggestions, however, as remarked above, are 

 regarded as of equal value with the long ladder and canvas bag, used 

 by the Society for the Protection of Life from Fire. The services 

 rendered by this society can beet be shown in reference to the nature 

 and extent of London fires. Mr. l-'..tln-rpll. of the Westminster 

 Insurance Office, read a paper before the Institute of Actuaries in 

 1857, in which he presented a tabular view of all the Lond. i 

 for twenty-four years, from 1838 to 1858. His object was to ascertain, 

 if possible, the relative intensities of the causes of fire in each par- 

 ticular trade or occupation ; with a view of rendering the return of 

 annual fires by the London Fire Brigade Establishment in some way 

 useful to the office-inspectors and surveyors of risks. His labours were 

 much thwarted by the fact that two-thirds of all fires are attributed 

 to "causes unknown." In those 24 years there had been 17,816 fires 

 in London, or 742 per year on an average, or about 2 per d;i; 

 these, in about 4 per cent, the premises were " totally destr. 

 30 per cent. " much damaged ; " and 66 per cent, "slightly damaged." 

 Among the assigned causes of the accidents,, some of the most 

 peculiar were " thawing water-pipes " "bottle of whiskey burst"- 

 " sealing a letter" " frying fish " and " hunting bugs." The extent 

 of the insurance principle may be illustrated in reference to the year 

 1856, when there were 1115 fires in London; of these, 318 had the 

 buildings and contents insured, 106 the buildings only insure- ! 

 the contents only insured, and 347 wholly uninsured. 



The society above named has provided fire-escapes in variou 

 of the metropolis. The operations first eomin.-n v<l in IS.'tii, -iiir<> 

 which time fire-escapes have been established in new districts every 

 year. There are now upwards of 70, situated about half-a-mile a]iart. 

 each attended throughout the night by a conductor. Of tin 

 number of fires (1114) in 1858, more than 500 were attended by the 

 society's fire-escapes, and 57 lives saved by their means. At one of 

 these fires one man saved no fewer than 9 lives. In the preceding year 

 (1857) the society's men saved 73 lives ; and in the whole period of 

 operations 497, a useful work for a society resting on no other basis 

 than that of private subscriptions. The society nas published the 

 following description of the fire-escape employed, with sundry improve- 

 ments lately introduced : " The main ladder reaches from 30 to 35 

 feet, and can instantly be applied to most second-floor windows by 

 means of the carriage-lever. The upper ladder folds over the main 

 ladder, and is raised easily into position by a rope attached to its lever- 

 irons on either side of the main ladder ; or, an recently adopted in one 

 or two of the escapes, by an arrangement of pulleys in lieu of the lever 

 irons. The short ladder, for first-floors, fits in tinder the carriage, and 

 is of the greatest service. Under the whole length of the main ladder 

 is a canvas trough or bagging made of stout sail-cloth, protected by an 

 outer trough of copper-wire net, leaving sufficient room l>ctween for t In- 

 yielding of the canvas in a person's descent. The addition of the > o|iper- 

 wire is a great improvement ; as, although not affording an entii 

 tection against the canvas failing, it in most cases avails, and prevents 

 the possibility of any one falling through. The soaking of the 

 in alum and other solutions is also attended to; but this, whil 

 venting its flaming, cannot remove the risk of accident from the tire 

 charring the canvas. The available height of these escapes is about 

 46 feet; but some of them carry a short supplementary ladder, whieh 

 can be readily fixed at the top, and which increases the length to 

 50 feet." 



FIRE, GREEK, an invention of the middle ages which was often 

 employed in the wars of the Christians and Saracens. This subject 

 has given rise to much inquiry and excited much di.~m i.,n; the 

 obscurity by which it is enveloped has been greatly increased by many 

 causes, and especially by the love of the marvellous. 



According to Gibbon the deliverance of Constantinople in the sieges 

 of the 7th and 8th centuries "may bo chiefly ascribed to the n..\. -li\ . 

 the terrors, and the real efficacy of the Greek fire. Tin' important 

 secret of compounding and directing this artificial flame was imputed 

 by Callim'ciiB, a native of Heliopolis in Syria, who deserted from 1 1 ie 

 service of the caliph to that of the emperor." 



It is justly observed by Gibbon (' Dec. and Kail, eh. ."-!>. that "tin- 

 historian who presumes to analyse this extraordinary comjioftition 

 should suspect his own ignorance and that of his Byzantine 

 so prone to the marvellous, so careless, and in this instance so 

 jealous of the truth. From their obscure and perhaps fallacious hints, 

 It should seem that the principal ingredient of the Creek fire was 

 naphtha, or liquid bitumen, a light, tenacious, and inflammable oil 

 which springs from the earth, and catches fire as soon as it comes 

 in contact with the air. The naphtha won mingled, 1 know not by 



