F I 
pounds. And to prevent fires, workmen in the city of 
London, &c vnuft eredl party-walls betw een buildings of 
brick or done, of a certain thicknefs, &c. under penalties 
inflifted by various fedtions of the aid. On the breaking 
out of any fire,.all the cunftables and beadles (hall re¬ 
pair to the place with their (laves, and be adding in put¬ 
ting out the fame, and caufing people to work. By the 
(aid dat. 14 Geo. III. c. 73. rewards for affiftance are pay¬ 
able to the fird turncock ten (hillings ; to the fird engine 
not exceeding thirty (hillings ; the fecond not exceeding 
twenty (hillings ; the third ten (hillings; to be paid by 
the churchwardens or overfeers, but not without the ap¬ 
probation of an alderman or judice of the peace. The 
churchwardens, &c. to be repaid by the inhabitant, if 
the fire begins in a chimney. Infurance offices may lay 
out the infurance in rebuilding the premifes, if the party 
differing does not give fecurity to do fo ; or in cafe of difa- 
greement, not fettled within lixfy days. Firemen are ex¬ 
empt from being impreffed. Penalty on fervants firing 
houfes by negligence, one hundred pounds, or eighteen 
months imprifonment. 
FIRE-EATER, f. One who pretends to eat fire ; a 
(how-man who pradtifes the deceptive arts. See the ar¬ 
ticle J UGG LER. 
h i RE-ENGINE, f. A machine for extingnifiiing acci¬ 
dental fires by means of a dream or jet of water. The 
common fire-engine confids of a lifting-pump placed in a 
vefiel of water, and wrought by two levers that aft alter¬ 
nately. During the droke, the water raifed by the pidon 
of the pump fpouts forcibly through a pipe joined to the 
pump-barrel, and made capable of any degree of eleva¬ 
tion by means of a yielding leather-pipe, or by a ball and 
focket turning every way, ferewed on the top of the 
pump. The vefiel containing the water is covered with 
a drainer, to prevent the gravel, dirt, &c. which is often 
poured in with the water, from choking the pump-work. 
The melancholy and deftruttive confequences of fires 
are fiich, particularly when they happen in the night, 
that the utmod ingenuity of man, in almod all countries, 
have of late been mod laudably exerted in the invention 
and improvement of fire-engines, and other contrivances, 
for counteracting the extenfion and rapidity of the flames. 
Not the lead valuable among thefe inventions, particu¬ 
larly on the fcore of fimplicity, and the ready accommo¬ 
dation which it offers to almod every houfekeeper, is an 
apparatus that might be added to any common pump, 
and by which it immediately anfwers the purpofe of a 
fire-engine, either on land, or on-board of (hips. This 
contrivance owes its origin to Mr. Benjamin Dearborn, 
who fird publifhed it in the Tranfaftions of the Ameri¬ 
can Academy of Arts for 1794. A drawing of it is given 
at fig. 1, in the annexed Engraving; and the following 
is a deferipuon of its parts: A BCD reprefents a pump 
in the form of a common (hip-pump ; E its fpout; F a 
dopper. I)d is a plank-cap, fitted with leather under it 
to the pump, and (crewed down by the (crews ab, hav¬ 
ing a hole in the centre for the (pear of the pump to pafs 
through, round which a leather collar is made, as at c; 
g is a nut for the ferew b ■, f is a fquare piece of wood, 
nailed acrofs one end of the cap, the ferew a pafiing 
through it and the rap ; through this piece and the cap 
a hole is made, communicating with the bore of the 
pump. GG is a wooden tube (of any required length 
or number of joints) made fquare at the lower end, and 
hollowed to receive the cock, the upper end being made 
with a nice (boulder; t is a wooden cock, which opens 
or fliuts the communication between the pump and the 
tube, having a handle on the oppolite fide, with a lock, 
if neceffary ; hh are ferrules to prevent the tube from 
fplitting; HH are braces, each of which mud have an¬ 
other eroding it, as nearly at right angles as may be. At 
ii are irons in the form of a ftaple, going round the tube, 
and through the braces, having holes in their ends for 
forelock. IvLMN is a head, made of five pieces of wood; 
klnin, a fquare piece, with a hole in the lower end, to re- 
R E. i 391 
ceive the end of the tube, and refts on the (boulder op ; 
on the lower end of this head a leather is nailed, having 
a hole in its centre, (imilar to the whole in the wood. 
Another leailier, of. the fame form, is put on the top of; 
the tube, and a circle of thin plate-brafs between them, 
the two leathers and ihe brafs being prefled between the 
lower end of the head and the (houider of the tube ; 
their edges are reprefented by op. KN and I.M are the 
edges of two pieces of plank, which are as wide as the 
head, and nailed faft to it, each of them having a tenon 
going through a mortice in the end of the piece OP; 
each tenon has a hole for a forelock at <7. OP is a piece 
of plank, as wide as the fides, having a hole in its centre 
through which the tube pafles, and a mortice in each 
end for the tenons to pafs through. NM is a cap ; rr are 
two pieces nailed on the fide of the tube, with a truck 
in the lower end of each, to leflen the fridlion of the 
head in its horizontal revolution ; qq are forelocks to 
wedge the head down, and prevent the water from find¬ 
ing a paffage out at the joint op. QR is a wooden con¬ 
ductor, the end Q^being folid, the end R bored with a 
fmall augur; /'is a bolt, going through the conductor 
and head, fecured on the back with the forelock or nut; 
this bolt is rounded near the head, and fquare in the mid¬ 
dle ; tuzox is a piece of iron, or brafs, to prevent the bead 
of the bolt from wearing into the wood. SS are ropes to 
direCt the conductor. 
TT reprefents the head without the conductor : abed 
is a thick brafs-plate, perforated to prevent dirt from 
clogging the conductor, and nailed with leather under it 
to the head. The fquare hole in the centre as made to 
the fize of the bolt, and prevents it from turning. The 
conductor has a hollow cut round the bolt on the infide, 
as large as the circle of holes in the brafs; round which 
hollow, on the face of the conductor, a leather is nailed, 
which plays on the margin of the brafs-plate when the 
conductor turns. Mr. Dearborn has raifed a tube of 
thirty feet on his pump, by means of which any (ingle 
perfon can throw water on the top of a neighbouring 
building, full thirty-feven feet from the pump, and be¬ 
tween tiiirty and forty feet high. 
To the fame gentleman the public is indebted for a 
new portable fire-engine, the utility of which, in every 
country relidence where immediate aid is often at a difi- 
tance, mud be obvious. This machine is reprefented in 
the fame Engraving, at fig. 2. AB CD are the extremi¬ 
ties of two planks, confined together by four bolts ; ab 
and cd are two cylindrical barrels; in each of thefe bar¬ 
rels a pifton, with a valve, is fattened to the fpear e, and 
is moved up and down alternately, by the motion of the 
arms EE. Under each, barrel a hole is made through 
the plank AB, and covered with a valve. The arms EE 
are hung on the common centre f; arms parallel to thefe 
are on the oppolite fide; gg are the ends of handles 
which are fattened acrofs the ends of the arms. A bolt 
at h goes acrofs from arm to arm ; to this bolt the piece 
ik is fattened, and plays upon it; the lower end of tiiis 
piece is fattened to the top of the fpear e. Gif is a ttand- 
ard to fupport the arms; another anfwers to it on the 
oppofite fide, and botli are notched into the edges of the 
planks, where they are fufficiently fecured, by one bolt 
going through them at l, which has a nut or forelock on 
the oppofite fide. HI, HI, are fquare braces, which an- 
fwer the purpofe of drifts, through which the water ad 
cends from the barrels, patting through the plank at m. 
KL, KL, are irons in the form of a ttaple to confine the 
braces; the lower ends of thefe irons meet, and are fe¬ 
cured with one bolt going through them and MNm, 
which is a piece going up through a mortice in the cen¬ 
tre of the planks. This piece is fquare, from the lower 
end upward, as high as the top of the braces ; . from them 
to the top it is cylindrical, the upper end being bored 
hollow, far enough down to communicate with the braces. < 
OP is.an iron ring, going round ihe lube, having two 
(hanks patting up through the head, with lerews on tires 
1 top 
