Popular Science Monthly 



257 



Detecting Fires in the Holds of 

 Transatlantic Liners 



BY means of an apparatus which is 

 now found on many of the large 

 trans-Atlantic steamships, the officer on 

 duty on the bridge can instantly de- 

 tect any fire which breaks out in any of 

 the holds or compartments. 



This efficient indicator con- 

 sists of a set of pipes extending 

 from each of the holds directly 

 to the wheelhouse. At the ter- 

 minals in the wheelhouse is a 

 set of electric fans which draw 

 air from the holds into a glass 

 case to which the pipes lead. 

 Should a fire start in a hold, 

 some of the smoke would be 

 drawn through the tubes into 

 the glass case, and would be no- 

 ticed by the officer. 



As soon as the fire is discov- 

 ered, the officer opens the case 

 and fastens to the open end of 

 the tube a steam pipe, which 

 sends live steam through the 

 tube into the compartment and 

 smothers the blaze. 



This device has met with con- 

 siderable objection among ships' 

 officers, because it was claimed 

 that the noise of the electric 

 fans was found very disturbing 

 to the officer on duty, and also 

 that the apparatus took up a 

 large amount of space, particu- 

 larly on large steamers with 

 numerous compartments to be 

 protected. 



In order to overcome these 

 objections, the inventor, Will- 

 iam Rich, an American, living in Liv- 

 erpool, England, has taken out pat- 

 ents for improvements over his orig- 

 inal device. A set of small glass cases, 

 one serving for several compartments, 

 is located on the bridge, or wheel- 

 house, while the remainder of the appa- 

 ratus is located in a more convenient part 

 of the ship. In the terminal comjjart- 

 ment for the tubes is a set of fans which 

 draw the air from the holds, and an- 

 other fan which serves to send a smaller 

 amount of air from each of these tubes 

 through pipes into the device in the 

 wheelhouse. Each of these smaller 



tubes leads into a bottle or container 

 which is filled with lime water. 



If a fire should break out in a hold, 

 the smoke is drawn into the tenninal 

 box for the tubes as before, but is im- 

 mediately drawn on until it reaches the 

 glass jars containing lime water on the 

 bridge or in the wheelhouse. The car- 



The moment a fire breaks out in the hold, it is 

 detected by the officer in the pilot house and by 

 the watchman on deck, by means of the system 

 of tubes and fans indicated, which carry the 

 smoke to the bridge or the deck 



bon dioxide carried up with the smoke 

 turns the fluid to a milky color. The 

 officer can then order live steam turned 

 into the tubes to smother the fire. 



With this new device, all the fans and 

 the cumbersome apparatus are located 

 in a distant i)art of the ship, while only 

 the small set of glass cases is found in 

 the wheelhouse, where saving of space 

 is of more importance. 



The chief advatages in the system ob- 

 viously lie in the fact that a fire can be 

 discovered immediately, and can be ex- 

 tinguished quickly by means of the same 

 apparatus. 



