104 NINTH REPORT OF THE 



the locomotives on the regular trains. The Chief Firewarden, Mr. L. S. Emmons, 

 while watching one of these construction engines, saw two fires start up behind it 

 immediately after it passed by. On its return he stopped it, examined the stack, 

 and found it without a screen of any kind. He compelled the engineer to put 

 one on before going any farther; but he could not arrest the man, because the 

 section in our fire law relating to railroads makes no provision for any such action. 

 Under the law he could only sue the engineer in a civil action, and, if successful, 

 recover $100. But he would have the railroad company to contend with instead of 

 the individual as the actual defendant, the case would be appealed to the higher 

 courts, and years might elapse and thousands be expended by the State before he 

 got the hundred dollars. 



Although the railroad officials claimed 'that every locomotive was properly 

 screened in compliance with the law, there were nights when the usual quantity 

 and size of the coals thrown from some stack could be plainly seen in the 

 darkness, and indicated that the appliance was not in good condition. 



On the other hand, we had cases like this : A fire was started May thirteenth 

 near Colby Pond, Franklin County, by sparks from Engine No. 683 of the New 

 York Central Railroad, which destroyed several hundred acres of timber. A forestry 

 official immediately obtained permission to examine the screen of this engine, but 

 he found it unbroken and in proper condition. Most of the iron netting used 

 for locomotive screens has a mesh five sixteenths of an inch square, or two and 

 one half openings to the linear inch; and experts assert that a locomotive cannot 

 "make steam" with a mesh of smaller size. Still, live coals as large as a pea 

 will be thrown by the exhaust through nettings of this pattern. The screens are 

 not placed in the stack, as many suppose, but are bolted firmly to a framework 

 in the forward extension of the boiler. The sparks and live coals from the flues 

 or tubes first strike a solid wrought iron shield, which slopes downward at an 

 angle of forty-five degrees, and are deflected to the bottom of the smoke box, 

 after which such as are carried upward by the draft strike the screen, which 

 slopes upward and forward, and, with the exception of the smaller ones that go 

 through this netting, fall back. But in the little engines used by the contractors 

 on construction work — such as the ones just referred to — the screen is in the stack. 



On the nineteen miles of the Raquette Lake Railway, running through the 

 State forest from Clearwater to Durant, no fires occurred, because in granting a 

 charter for this road the Legislature stipulated that the locomotives must use 

 petroleum for fuel. 



The railroad officials expressed themselves as anxious to do everything practicable 

 to prevent the starting of fires by their locomotives, as the company is legally 



