Popular Science Monthly 



251 



lip the winding into numerous separately 

 insulated coils, was first utilized by 

 Ritchie, the famous instrument maker, 

 in Boston, as early as 1846, and then 

 copied in the well-known RuhmkorlT 

 induction coils, and now a common 

 affair with all builders of transformers, 

 but the application of the principle in 

 this million-volt winding demanded a 

 refinement of details not heretofore 

 calletl for. Of course the whole struc- 

 ture refiuired that its windings be pro- 

 tected from absorption of moisture. 



A Railroad Which Fights Its 

 Own Fires 



THE Transcontinental Railway of 

 Canada is going to fight its own 

 fires in the future. This is saying a 

 great deal, since every other railroad in 

 this country and Canada depends on 

 available city firemen when railroad 

 property catches fire, and when city 

 firemen are not handy allows its property 

 to burn up, helpless to save it because 

 of lack of eciuipment. 



When fires had destroyed valuable 

 timber lines along its right of way and 

 threatened to wipe out whole counties 

 if something was not done to find an 

 efficient means to combat it, the Trans- 



continental Railway placed an order 

 with the Canadian Government Rail- 

 ways' Shop at Moncton, New Bruns- 

 wick, for a fire-fighting api)aratus. The 

 car illustrated herewith is the result, and 

 it is now in operation. 



The apparatus consists of a large 

 water tank of more than ten thousand 

 gallons capacity mounted on a flat car 

 in order that it may be transferred to 

 any point on the system where fire may 

 be threatening. A steam-dri\'en duplex 

 fire i^unip which has a capacity of three 

 hundred gallons a minute is mounted on 

 the tank. The steam supply for operat- 

 ing the pump is taken from the car heater 

 of the locomotive to which the car may 

 be attached, and by setting the car 

 heater regulator of the locomotive at a 

 pressure of one hundred and twenty 

 pounds per square inch, a water pressure 

 of about one hundred pounds is obtained 

 at the nozzle tip. 



Before the apparatus was sent to the 

 Transcontinental Railway the device 

 was tested and found to be capable of 

 throwing two one-inch streams of water 

 a distance of about two hundred feet 

 to either side of the track. This will 

 enable the fire-fighting railroad company 

 to extinguish all fires which occur with- 

 in its right of way. 



The fire-fighting apparatus is Icept under steam so that it can be quickly transferred to 

 any point on the railroad's system where fire may be threatening property worth millions 



