fire-clay 
2229 
fire-guard 
melt, nor even perceptibly soften when exposed able property, or to use means for the extinc- 
to a high temperature. Th 
" 
he most important articles 
made of tire-clay are fire-bricks and crm-ililes. Much of 
the clay associated with the coal of the i !arbonUerou> se- 
ries is sufficiently refractory to be used for this purpose. 
Stourbridge, Woirestersliire, England, is a locality fa- 
mous for manufactures of this kind. In New Jersey a 
belt of rocks of Cretaceous age extends across the State, 
from Staten Island sound southwest to the Delaware, with 
which are associated clays of various kinds. Along this 
belt the manufacture of tire-bricks and crucililes is a busi- 
ness of importance. 
fire-COCk (fir'kok), n. A cock or spout to let 
out water for extinguishing fire. 
most important articles tion of fire. It consists of an exterior light armor of 
metallic gauze, and of an inner covering of a material fi fppjpr ( (IT' fe" <1<>T) II 
which is a slow conductor of heat, such as wool, cotton, n 
etc., immersed hi certain saline solutions. 
fire-eater (fir'e'ter), . 1. A juggler who pre- 
tends to eat fire. 
I took leave of my Lady Sunderland. She made me stay 
dinner at Leicester House, and afterwards sent for Rich- 
hclore it lias been clneil. ./{Itnirmsll. 
An apparatus for 
feeding the fire of a furnace. 
A properly constructed Fire-feeder, which would supply 
the furnaces without involving the necessity of opening 
the tilv-iloors. 
It. Armstrong, in Campin's Mech. Engineering, p. 254. 
ardson, the famous Krf-eater. He devoured brimstone, on fire-fiend (fir'fend), n. 1. Fire, as of a con- 
glowing coals before us, chewing and swallowiii] em; flagration, personified as an evil spirit of de- 
struction. 2. An incendiary. [Colloq.] 
he melted a beer-glass, and eat it quite up, etc. 
Evelyn, Diary, Oct. S, 1072. 
fire-finch (lir'fiuch), . 
fire-cracker (fir'krak'er), . A species of fire- 
work consisting of a paper cylinder filled with 
a preparation of gunpowder, etc., stopped at j,- e nchurch-street fire-eater. 
each end, furnished with a fuse, and discharged AU par( . ic8 j j ne d in this measure : the fire-eaters to pro- 
for the sake of the noise of its explosion. It is 
of Chinese make. 
We celebrated the termination of our trouble by setting fire-eating (fir'e"ting), a. Having the dispo- 
off two packs of fire-crackers in an empty wine-cask. They gjtion or spirit of a fire-eater, in sense 2 ; rcck- 
made a prodigious racket. V. B. Aldrich, Bad Boy, p. 89. legsly defiant au(1 fiery . 
firecrest (fir'krest), re. The fire-crested wren fire-engine (fir'en"jin), n. If. An early name 
of Europe, Regains ignicapillus. for the steam-engine. 
fire-crested (fir'kres // ted), a. Having the crest First That veasel in whlch the powers of steam are ti 
of a fiery color: as, the fire-crested wren, 
fire-cross (fir'kros), n. The fiery cross (which 
see, uuder cross^). 
What is this, but to blow a trumpet, and proclaime a 
^ ^^-^^s^ecisi^; ^r' =E3Sia 
fire-fishing (fir'fish"ing), n. 
partizan. 
= v Fishing by fire- 
light, as when blazing"torches are used to at- 
tract fish to a boat or to the side of a stream, 
Thackeray, Newcomes, xxix. so that they may be caught or speared. Also 
called torch-fishing. 
mote secession, the Unionists to thwart it. fire-flag (fir'flag), . A flash or gleam of light- 
The Century, XXXVI. 76. n jn g . [Rare and poetical.] 
The upper air burst into life ! 
And a hundred fire-fiags sheen. Coleridge. 
fireflare, fireflaire (fir'flar), n. Same as fiery- 
flare. 
fire-flaught (fir'flat), n. [Sc., also written fire- 
JUmoht; < fire + flaught, flaucht: seeflaughtf.] 
be employed to work the engine, w'hich is called the cylin- - " -- 1 - * " ---- :a__n.. a.^i 
der in common fire-engines, and which I call the steam- 
vessel, must, during the whole time the engine is at work, 
be kept as hot as the steam that enters it. 
}f a tt, quoted in Encyc. Brit., XXII. 475. 
and exploding, on ignition, when mixed with 
atmospheric air. Explosion takes place when, as is 
often the case, the gas given off by the coal consists 
largely of marsh-gas (light carbureted hydrogen). The 
composition of the gas evolved from coal is, however, very 
variable ; in connection with the marsh-gas, oxygen, car- 
bonic acid, and nitrogen seem to be always present. Fire- 
damp is a source of great danger to life in coal-mines. See 
davif 1 . 
fire-department (fir'de-part"ment), n. A de- 
partment of the government of a city, town, or 
village charged with the prevention and the ex- 
tinction of fires ; also, the entire force of men 
employed in this service. 
fired-off (fird'of), a. In brick-mannf. , noting 
the condition of a heated kiln immediately after 
the fire has expended itself. Also called burned- 
off. 
If it is desired to admit hot air to the upper part of any 
kiln, this may be done by opening the dampers . . . at the 
top of a fired-o/ kiln. C. T. Davis, Bricks, etc. , p. 284. 
fire-dog (fir'dog), n. Same as andiron. 
The great iron fire-dogs, at least four feet in height, 
were connected from shaft to shaft by a chain, in gro- 
tesque suggestion of the Siamese twins. 
Harpers Mai}., LXXVI. 212. 
Fire-engine. 
Fire-engines are of three principal kinds: hand-power, 
gleam, and chemical, according to the power employed. 
Hand-power fire-engines consist in the main of a pair of 
single-acting force-pumps, mounted on wheels, and worked 
by hand. They have been generally superseded by the 
application of steam. Steam fire-engines consist essen- 
tially of a pair of single-acting suction- and force-pumps 
operated by steam, the whole apparatus being mounted on 
wheels and drawn by horses, or sometimes self-propelled. 
The chemical fire-engine is a large form of fire-extinguisher 
mounted on wheels and drawn by horses. Floating fire- 
boats and steam fire-engines are used in large ports, for the 
protection of shipping and the water-fronts. 
1. A flash of lightning; specifically, a flash un- 
accompanied by thunder. 
The flamb otfyreflaucht lighting here and thare. 
damn Douglas, tr. of Virgil, p. 105. 
Even Goneril has her one splendid hour, her fire-flaught 
of hellish glory. Swinburne, Shakespeare, p. 173. 
2. The northern light, or aurora borealis. 
fireflirt (fir'flert), . Same as firetail, 2. C. 
Sxaiiison. [Local, Eng.] 
firefly (fir'fli), . ; pi. fireflies (-fliz). An in- 
sect which has the faculty of becoming lu- 
minous; a lampyrid or elaterid beetle which 
emits phosphorescent light from organs in some 
part of the body. One of the commonest American 
species is a lampyrid, Phatinus pyralis, vulgarly called 
liffhtmay-bui. Its larva lives ill the ground, feeding on 
earthworms and soft-bodied insects, and transforms to the 
pupa in an oval earthen cell in June, issuing as a beetle ten 
days later. In the genus Phaturis the larva is luminous. 
The larger tropical fireflies belong to the elaterid genus 
Pyrophrm/s, and are known as cucujidx. One of the most 
brilliant is P. noctilucux of South America and the West 
Indies, emitting such luminosity from two eye-like fe- 
fire-door (fir'dor), . The feeding- or charging- fire-e^ape(fir'es-kap^ 
door of any form of furnace. 
firedrake (fir'drak), . [< ME. fin-drake, < AS. 
fyrdraea(=G.feuerdrachen),<fyr, fire, + flraca, 
drake, dragon : see drake"*, dragon.] If. A fiery 
dragon or serpent. 
By the hissing of the snake, 
The rustling of the fire-drake. 
Drayton, Nymphidia. 
It may be 'tis but a glow-worm now ; but 'twill 
Grow to a fire-drake presently. 
Fletcher, Beggars' Bush, v. 1. 
Here [Masjid el Jinn] was revealed the seventy-second 
chapter of the Koran, called after the name of the myste- 
rious firedrakes who paid fealty to the Prophet. 
R. F. Burton, El-Medinah, p. 472. 
2. A fiery meteor ; an ignis fatuus. 
Fiery spirits or devils are such as commonly work by 
blazing stars, fire-drakes, or ignes fatui. 
Burton, Anat. of Mel., p. 120. 
So have I seen a fire-drake glide at midnight 
Before a dying man to point his grave. 
Chapman, Ca:sar and Pompey, iii. 1. 
3. A kind of firework. 
structure designed to enable persons to escape 
from the upper windows of a building in case 
of fire. Portable fire-escapes consist generally of lad- 
ders, often mounted on wheels for ease in transportation, 
and capable of being extended like a telescope ; permanent 
fire-escapes consist usually of light iron ladders and land- 
ings attached to the outside of a building. 
fire-extinguisher (fir'eks-ting'gwish-er), n. 
An apparatus designed for immediate and tem- 
porary use in putting out a conflagration by 
means of a small stream of water or of water 
Common Firefly (Photintts fyralis}. 
ft, larva ; ft. pupa in its earthen cell ; c. beetle. (All natural sizes.) 
rf, *,/, leg, under side of segment, and head of larva, enlarged . 
nestnc on the thorax that small print may he read by this 
light. The insects are sometimes used to afford light for 
domestic purposes, several of them confined together emit- 
ting light enough to enable a person to write. The glow- 
worm is, however, a lampyrid. The lanteni-fiy ia a homop- 
terons insect of a different order. 
Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising thro' the mellow 
shade, 
Glitter like a swarm atfirr-jlies tangled in a silver braid. 
Tennyson, Locksley Hall. 
mingled with carbonic-acid gas. In the common- fire-fork (fir'fork), n. [< W&. fyyr forte ; < fire 
eat form water is placed in a metal holder or vessel, and + /"orA'.] A fork-shaped implement used for 
above it, within the holder, is placed a smaller vessel con- * 
gilding process 
pparatus. An rtrhpl> ciipmieai emnmnniv Koninrn nicar- in wiiieii me KUIV* *o uutj vju IAI the tOTTO OI f 
bonate, is also i 
set free it c 
acid gas, 
opened, carrying the water with it in a strong stream. 
Such extinguishers are usually made portable, to be car- 
ried in the hand or upon the back, or are mounted upon a 
above it, within the holder, is placed a smaller vessel con- piling fagots upon a fire, 
taining a chemical, as sulphuric acid, that maybe set free ' _n JiJS., /JJ> llMl., \ ,, A rrilrli 
by the turning of a handle or screw on the outside of the fire-gilding ( gil ding), li. A gildi 
apparatus. Another chemical, commonly sodium bicar- in which the gold is put on in the t 
is also placed in the apparatus. When the acid is amalgam of gold and mercury, and then heated 
it combines with the sodium, setting free carbonic- in mu ffl e- The mercury escaping leaves a 
a, which, by its pressure, escapes when a npzle is . , , 
light truck to be drawn by a horse ; but they are also made 
film of gold. 
Fire-gilding may furnish gilding with a bright or dead 
lustre, scratch-brushed, ormolued, and also with different 
shades. Wahl, Galvanoplastic Manipulations, p. 239. 
I>> **S& ttaaa ' whe " the y are commonly called chemical gj-g.gj^ (fir'gilt), a. Treated by the process of 
That fire-drake, did I hit three times on the head and fir e t e 've7fir'n, n. One of the South American fire-gilding: as, & fire-gilt vase, 
three times was his nose discharged against me ; he stands ^f^,, ; ' Formieivora (Pynglena) leuco),- fire-god (fir'god), . The power of fire personi- 
fied as a spirit ; a god of fire. 
If we are to derive the notion that Jahveh is a "fire-pod 
there, like a mortar piece, to blow us. , . ~ - 
Shak., Hen. viii., v. 3. tera : so called from its red eyes. 
fire-eyed (fir'id), a. Having eyes of fire. [Poet- 
How many oaths flew toward heaven 
Which ne'er came half-way thither, but, like jirr-ilrnkc*, 
Mounted a little, gave a crack, and Ml. 
Middleton, Your Five Gallants, iii. 2. 
4f. A worker at a furnace or fire : an allusive 
use. 
That is his firr-ilmkr, 
His lungs, his Zcphyrus, lie that puffs his coals. 
B. Jonmn, Alchemist, ii. I. 
ical.] 
They come like sacrifices in their trim, 
And to the fire-eyed maid of smoky war, 
All hot and bleeding, will we offer them. 
shak., i Hen. iv., iv. i. fire-grate (fir'grat), . 
fire-fan ( fir'fan), . A blast-apparatus of small 
size, suitable to be used at a small or portable 
forge. 
fire-dress (fir'dres), n. An invention used as fire-fanged (fir'fangd), a. [= Sc. firefamjil: < 
a protection against fire, with the view of en- fi rc + fanged, pp. of fang, take, seize.] Dried .. 
abling the wearer to approach and even to pass upa sbyfire. Specifically -() Applied tomanim-wim-h fire-guard (fir gard), . 
through a fierce flame, to rescue lives or valu- has assumed a baked appearance, from the heat evolved placed m front of a nreplace as a pio 
from such language as : "Thou coverest Thyself with light 
as with a garment" (Ps. civ. 2), we may as well attribute 
the same idea to Paul, when he describes God as " dwell- 
ing in light unapproachable." Edinburgh Rev., CXLV. 514. 
ire-grate (fir'grat), . The grate to hold the 
fuel in common use in domestic fireplaces and 
in many forms of heaters and furnaces. 
The furnace itself is. as already stated, the ordinary one, 
only in place of the fire-grate, passages are built for the 
admission of gas and air. l'iv, Diet., IV. 383. 
