322 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Oct. 17, 1884, 



sists of two curved hollow arms, one at each side of the 

 closed end of the i)ipe. Upon the hub of each of these is a 

 pinion engaging with a gear on the pipe. When water 

 under great pressure is sent through these arms, they are 

 rapidly revolved upon their own axes and at the same time 

 about a common axis, so that they send a shower of water 

 in all directions. 



Water tower No. 3 is located in the same house with 

 Hook and Ladder Company 3, on Thirteenth-street. Few 

 people have any conception of the number of implements 

 forming the equipment of a hook and ladder company, and 

 fewer people still have any understanding of the uses of 

 these tools. The truck here referred to carries the following 

 tools, the use of which we briefly mention : — Two Bangor 

 extension ladders, one 65, the other 45 ft. long, so con- 

 structed that they may be made any length up to the 

 extreme ; two ladders 35 ft. long, one 33 ft. long, one 25, 

 one 20, one 15, one 12, one hook 20 ft. long, one 15, one 

 12, two 10, and six G ft. long. Two Babcock fire ex- 

 tinguishers, used upon small fires when required. One 

 battering ram weighing C4i lb., and formed with a thick 

 wooden section terminating in an iron shoe at one end, and 

 having a short rod at the other; this is manned by six men; 

 its use is apparent. Six tubular hand-lamps, four rubber 

 buckets, seven forcible entrance tools. The iron shutters and 

 doors upon the buildings of New York, being secured upon 

 the inside, are most serious obstacles placed in the way 

 of firemen, who, in order to effect a quick entrance, are sup- 

 plied with crowbars and jimmies made of the best steel and 

 after the most approved pattern. One 10-pound steel maul. 

 Four cotton hooks, four hay forks, and two shovels for the 

 removal of loose material. Four axes for cutting through 

 floors, roofs, and partitions, and two picks for entering 

 walls. One crow-bar, ten wrenches and belts, including a 

 gas-pipe wrench for shutting off' the gas when necessary ; 

 one roof rope 125 ft. long; two horse blankets ; one whip. 

 One respirator, by which the wearer is enabled to enter 

 dense smoke and to encounter noxious vapours. One dis- 

 tributor, described above. One four-way connection. One 

 length 3|in. combination hose. One copper pipe 3| in. 

 Three nozzles. One iron pipe holder. One calcium 

 light, with oxygen and hydrogen tanks and fittings. This 

 is found most useful in lighting up the scene of opera- 

 tions. Two danger flags, to signal trains upon the elevated 

 railroads, one patent horse-shoe, one butting-stick, one 

 brass gong, two cushions. One cellar pipe, lij-in. nozzle, 

 which is used to direct a stream to any part of a cellar, up 

 or down, when thrust through a lower window, and which 

 is of the utmost advantage in situations where the ordinary 

 nozzle could only be made to deliver a downward stream 

 One cross bar and chain. Three scaling-ladders of the 

 following lengths and weights : 16 ft., 35 lb. ; 18 ft., 39 lb. ; 

 and 1-1 ft., 271b. These are wooden poles backed with a 

 strip of iron, and having steps at about every fourteen 

 inches. To the upper end is secured a right-angled arm, 

 which is notched upon the under side, and which ends in 

 an angle piece. The hooks so formed are long enough to 

 extend to the inner side of the widest window-sills. The 

 ladder is raised and the hook thrust through the window 

 when the fireman ascends. Another ladder may be handed 

 to him and by him hooked in the second window, and 

 another in the third window, until a string of ladders 

 reaches the roof, or he may support himself upon the sill, 

 raise the ladder he came up by to the second wiudow, and 

 so on to the roof. One life-line, 150 ft. long, and three 

 coils of life-saving rope. The total weight of the tools is 

 2,7181b., and these, together with the twelve men who go 

 with the truck, and the truck itself, weigh 9,756 lb. — 

 Scientific American. 



^fbttitiS* 



Analysis of Milk, Condensed Milk, and Infanta' Milk 

 Foods. By Dr. N. Gerbek. (London: Tiiibner k Co.) — 

 This laboratory guide to exhaustive analysis of all kinds of 

 milk derives, if possible, additional interest and importance 

 from a recent decision of one of the London Police 

 Magistrates, refusing to fine the vendor of tinned Swiss 

 milk which was found to be deficient in cream. Dr. 

 Gerber's book furnishes the most explicit instructions for 

 the testing and analysis, chemically, microscopically, and 

 physically, of every kind of milk — human, animal, con- 

 densed, preserved, and in the form of so-called milk-foods ; 

 treats of milk as the cause of disease ; of Government con- 

 trol over its supply, ic, &c. This is a book which should 

 be in the hands of every analyst and sanitary inspector in 

 the kingdom. 



The Safe Use of Steam. By An Engineer. Fifth 

 Edition. (London : Crosby, Lockwood, k Co. 1884.) — 

 The ignorance exhibited by a far too great proportion of 

 those in charge of steam-boilers is something awful ; and 

 that what the author of this most excellent and practical 

 little work before us rightly speaks of as " the appalling 

 results " of steam-boiler explosions are not even more fre- 

 quent than they unhappily are, may well excite the wonder 

 of all who have ever seen how those belonging to thrashing- 

 machines and traction-engines in agricultural districts are 

 attended to. With the very plain and explicit directions 

 contained in this small pamphlet, once mastered, a boiler 

 accident ought to be, humanly speaking, impossible. 



Comic Readings, English and American. (London : W. 

 Kent <t Co.) — Performers at " Penny Readings " (a form 

 of entertainment still surviving in some agricultural 

 districts) will find suitable subjects for their elocutionary 

 efforts in this little volume. 



Architecture and Public Buildings. Their relation to 

 School, Academy, and State in Paris and London. By 

 William H. White. (London : P. S. King k Son.) — 

 Among the things which " they manage better in France " 

 the author of the work before us would give a very promi- 

 nent place to the supervision of the erection of public 

 buildings. He attributes the artistic superiority of Paris 

 to the existence of the Academy and of the School of the 

 Fine Arts there, and to the fact that a State hierarchy of 

 direction and control, consisting mainly of architects of 

 position, has the ■\artua! superintendence of every public 

 building and monument in the French metropolis. He is 

 very severe upon our own Royal Academy for its derelic- 

 tion of duty in the matter of architecture, and essays to 

 prove how dismally our Department of Public Works and 

 Buildings breaks down in the absence of competent, dis- 

 interested, professional architectural advice. He endeavours 

 to show that were the Government only to appoint a species 

 of consultative council, to be drawn (although Mr. White 

 rather implies than asserts this) from the Royal Institute 

 of British Architects, public buildings would be erected 

 better, more economically, and, above all, much more beau- 

 tifully and artistically than they are under the present 

 system. He tries to discuss his theme more or less judi- 

 cially, and to keep his personal proclivities in the back- 

 ground, but here and there they peep out, as in his ill-dis- 

 guised expression of contempt for the Gothic revival. On 

 the whole, though, his book is worth reading by all who are 

 concerned for the beauty and utility of our Government 

 buildings, and his c.rpos'e of the utterly irresponsible cha- 

 racter of the supervision supposed to be exercised over 

 their erection may well be laid to heart by the British 

 taxpayer. 



