FIRE 



2179 



FIREARMS 



the rate of three miles a day. At the end of 

 a year every building from one end of the 

 highway to the other would be destroyed, and 

 the spectator walking down the scene of deso- 

 lation would come upon an injured person 

 every thousand feet and a human corpse every 

 half mile. 



The ruin pictured in this supposed case is 

 reproduced every year in the United States, 

 where, in 1915, the damage from fire amounted 

 to $184,989,100. The loss in that year was the 

 smallest since 1905. In 1914 the damage 

 amounted to $235,590,000. Besides the loss in 

 property, about 5,000 persons are killed and 

 about 50,000 persons are injured by fire each 

 year. It has been shown that nearly seventy- 

 five per cent of these fires are due to prevent- 

 able causes. Statistics show that the fire losses 

 in the United States and Canada from 1877 

 to the end of 1915 amounted to the tremendous 

 sum of $6,049,817,000, or an average loss of 

 $155,122,000 a year. It is in order to prevent 

 this enormous waste that a campaign for fire 

 prevention has been started in recent years, 

 an important element in which is the education 

 of the people to the losses caused by fires and 

 to the means of preventing them. 



Causes and Means of Prevention. The loss 

 caused by fire averages about $2.50 a year per 

 head of population in the United States and 

 Canada, while in Europe as a whole it averages 

 only $0.33. The great fire waste in the United 

 States and Canada as compared with European 

 countries is due to a number of causes. In 

 Europe buildings are usually of brick or stone, 

 while in the United States and Canada, where 

 the growth of the cities has been so rapid, the 

 chief material has been wood. The building 

 regulations, too, are more stringent and more 

 rigorously enforced in Europe than on the other 

 side of the Atlantic. In Europe, either in the 

 country or the city, a heap of paper or rubbish 

 is seldom seen, even in the poorest neighbor- 

 hoods, for the person responsible for its exist- 

 ence is liable to a severe fine. Again, almost 

 every clump of trees worthy the name of for- 

 est is either privately owned or is under state 

 protection. Lumbermen and campers are re- 

 quired to exercise the greatest caution in build- 

 ing fires and removing debris. 



Another and perhaps more important factor 

 has been that intangible element, the national 

 temperament of the American people. Amer- 

 icans are inclined to be careless and wasteful. 

 The average American has a feeling that any- 

 thing destroyed can be easily replaced. The 



average European, on the contary, who has 

 long felt the pressure of economic forces, and 

 has been made to realize not merely by law 

 but by bitter experience that waste is harmful, 

 has a far better understanding of his duty to 

 prevent needless losses. As a result of a far- 

 reaching campaign of education the American 

 people are beginning to exercise better care, 

 both in factories and in homes, and to show a 

 greater readiness to comply with the pre- 

 cautionary measures against the outbreak of 

 fires. Other measures have been the adoption 

 by many states, provinces and cities of laws 

 and regulations for better and safer buildings, 

 as well as better inspection and increased 

 supervision of buildings by members of the 

 fire department. 



Comparison of Fire Losses. The annual 

 losses by fire per head of population average 

 about $2.40 in the United States; $2.75 in 

 Canada; $0.50 in England; $0.65 in France; 

 $0.20 in Germany; $0.15 in Switzerland; and 

 $0.10 in The Netherlands. The losses by fire 

 per head of population in a number of Amer- 

 ican cities in 1915 were: New York, $1.44; 

 Chicago, $2.46; Philadelphia, $1.68; Boston, 

 $4.06; Pittsburgh, $3.10; Washington, $2.21; 

 and Cincinnati, $1.74. In Canada these losses 

 were: Halifax, $6.73; Vancouver, $5.47; Lon- 

 don, $3.62; Hamilton, $3.08; and Winnipeg, 

 $2.34. In some European cities they were: 

 London, $0.60; Birmingham, $1.25; Birkenhead, 

 $1.13; Cardiff, $0.55; Leeds, $0.84; Sheffield, 

 $0.23; Belfast, $0.46; Dublin, $0.22; Paris, 

 $0.61; Bordeaux, $0.61; Marseilles, $0.79; 

 Frankfurt, $0.16; Milan, $0.48; Florence, $0.17; 

 Basle, $0.19; The Hague, $0.07. See FIRE DE- 

 PARTMENT. T.R.W. 



FIRE 'ARMS, a term generally applied to 

 all weapons which are discharged by gunpowder 

 or other explosive. Although they are sup- 

 posed to have originated in the East and to 

 have been used by the Chinese 2,000 years be- 

 fore the birth of Christ, firearms as we know 

 them date from soon after the invention of 

 gunpowder, in the thirteenth century. The 

 first firearm was undoubtedly a cannon, and it 

 was probably some time before it was discov- 

 ered that such a terrible explosive could be 

 used in small weapons held in the hand. The 

 effect of even the first crude cannon used in 

 warfare was so terrible that a complete change 

 of military tactics was necessary". Armor was 

 of no further use; knight and man-at-arms 

 were made equal on the battlefield; the castles 

 that had easily withstood the attacks of men 



