and of obtaining supplies of water and of warm air. 293 



under the consideration of Mr. Bulfinch, the late national architect, 

 with this view. — This resource, however, in order to be complete, 

 should be accompanied with some very large syringes, for throvs^ing 

 water with precision, force and dispatch, into every quarter where 

 water shall be requisite in case of fire. — It will be advisable also to 

 attach, permanently, to every large edifice a very small fire-engine ; 

 and Mr. S. V. Merrick, of Philadelphia, has furnished such for only 

 one hundred dollars each ; a hundred feet of hose, (of a proportion- 

 ate small diameter,) being added at a separate, but moderate, ex- 

 pense. One of these httle engines has, under my own eye, been 

 found to be particularly useful, as being quickly brought forth for 

 use, and very readily managed ; and it serves both for extinguishing 

 fires at their earliest commencement, and also for keeping buildings 

 wetted on their outsides, when exposed to the action of flames raging 

 in a neighboring building. The small size and small weight of this 

 engine will admit also of its being carried into court-yards, alleys 

 and lower rooms ; and it may even be hoisted into any of the win- 

 dows of an upper floor, properly prepared beforehand for receiving 

 it. In all cases, the use of one of these httle engines will prevent 

 the breaking up of the lines of persons who are occupied in handing 

 buckets for the supply of the larger fire-engines, which ought to be 

 occupied at great fires on more serious objects.* — More will be said 

 in the postscript on the subject of cisterns and reservoirs for holding 

 water to be used for the above purpose, particularly as derived from 

 rain, (whether collected from the roofs of buildings or otherwise.) 



* The following addition may be considered as a note, in this place, to the original 

 communication. 



Establishments of various kinds have been made for supplying fire-engines with 

 water. Sometimes, for example, pipes filled with water are laid under the pave- 

 ment of the streets, and in mountainous countries open aqueducts are provided, 

 from which, at fires, little pools of w^ater are formed in the streets ; each engine 

 being furnished, by means of a leathern pipe of its own, with water, out of these 

 pools. — Sometimes they have, as at Philadelphia, what they term a hydrant, to 

 supply water under the operation of pressure, which, when wan'ed at a fire, is al- 

 lowed to rush into leathern pipes or hose, under the direction of hose companies, to 

 throw it upon buildings in fiames ; the same being imitated on a smaller scale in Bos- 

 ton. — Sometimes too water is thrown by forcing pipes into cisterns placed aloft in a 

 building, as at Purfieet, in England ; and they are able to do the same, with great 

 ease, in Boston. — But still these expedients will not always supersede the use of 

 syringes and of the little engine mentioned in the letter above. Nor perhaps will 

 cisterns from rain water, placed^ in the upper part of a building, be always to be 

 despised, whether as regards economy or convenience. 



