1904 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



181 



thrown high into the air from the loco- of the boiler extension cylinder, to be 

 motive itself, and, carried by the wind, raked out at the end of the trip, 

 alight at some distance from the line, The seasons for forest fires are the 

 there to start a fire which may result in spring and fall, and it has been found 

 the loss of millions of dollars. through long observation that all of the 



Various remedies have been suggested large fires occur during one or the other 

 and devised, but they are not real reme- of these two seasons, with the prepon- 

 dies. Legal pressure has been brought derance in the fall, especially in the 

 to bear, and in many places, notably on Western states. In the Eastern states, 

 the railroads which trav- 

 erse the Adirondacks, 

 spark-arresters are re- 

 quired by law ; but the 

 terrific fires which raged 

 along these lines last year 

 are sufficient proof that 

 the spark-arrester belies 

 its name. 



This arrester consists 

 generally of a coarse 

 screen so placed that all 

 cinders which are drawn 

 through the fire tubes in 

 the boiler must come in 

 contact with it in their 

 course toward the smoke- 

 stack. Most of the iron 

 netting used has a mesh 

 not finer than two and 

 one-half openings to the 

 linear inch, or five-six- 

 teenths of an inch square, 

 and railroad men say that 

 the steam-making capac- 

 ity of an engine is crip- 

 pled by using a mesh of 

 smaller size ; yet live 

 coals as large as a pea can 

 be thrown by the exhaust 

 through a screen of this 

 size. The screens are not 

 placed in the stack, as 

 many suppose, but are 

 bolted firmly in the for- 

 ward extension from the 

 boiler, under the stack. 



The sparks and live coals first strike a however, the spring is almost as danger- 

 solid iron deflecting plate, which slopes ous a season as the fall, and last year's 

 forward at an angle of forty- five degrees Adirondack fires were in full swing by 

 and causes them to glance toward the the beginning of May. 

 bottom of this extension. Such as are Now, with the fire season upon us, 

 carried up by the draft around the lower and the spark-arresters avowedly inade- 

 edge of the plate (and that means most quate for the purpose for which they are 

 of them) strike the wire screen, and the intended, it seems wise to look for some 

 smaller ones pass through, while the device to aid them in performing the 

 larger ones drop back at the very front work for which they were designed. 



FRONT VIEW OF OPEN SMOKE-BOX, SHOWING IN ORDER FROM 



BOTTOM, ENDS OF FLUES, LOWER PART OF DEFLECTING 



PLATE, AND WIRE SCREEN. 



