Fire Engine

a machine for throwing a stream of water on a fire. A steam fire engine is an essential part of a modern city equipment for extinguishing fires. It stands in the engine house, under head of steam, fires burning, ready for instant use. Fireman under pay are ready for service day and night. When the electric signal is turned in, though the hour be midnight, the gong sounds, the stall chains drop, trained horses spring to their places at the pole, harness suspended in readiness drops on their backs, and an attendant fastens collar and bellyband with a click. In the meantime the men have thrust their feet into jackboots, clapped on their fire helmets, and, putting on their rubber coats as they whirl down a slide, take their places,--driver, fireman, and engineer,--on the engine. The bar at the door rises, the horses are away at a gallop. Ere seconds have grown to a minute, the powerful, hissing engine, glowing like a fire-breathing dragon, is off and around the corner on its way to the fire. A hose cart, galloping with equal speed, lays hose from the nearest reservoir or hydrant to the scene of the fire. A stream of water is turned on with the utmost haste, for a minute's delay at the beginning of a fire may mean hours of work later and the destruction of a for tune. What with engines, hose carts, ladders, water towers, streams of water, leaping flames, and falling walls, the chief shouting hoarse commands through his trumpet, the line of obedient men, and the curious, anxious crowd of onlookers, a large city fire, with its attendant scenes, especially at night, is a sight well worth seeing.

In its essential features, the fire engine is a huge syringe or force pump, worked by steam. The larger portable fire engines are expected to throw from 900 to 1,400 gallons of water per minute. The smallest of the high type engines is designed to discharge 400 gallons a minute.

Though but recently brought to so high a degree of efficiency, the fire engine is not a modern invention. Hero of Syracuse, who flourished 150 B. C., described a force fire-pump operated, of course, by hand. Pliny, the Roman, wrote of the pumps used in that city to put out fires. Chemical fire extinguishers have been in vogue for centuries. The immediate predecessor of the steam fire engine is the hand engine or hand brake worked by two horizontal bars, after the manner of the hand car used by section men on a railroad. Many of the smaller towns still depend on a fire extinguisher of this kind, while in the large cities the automobile type is coming into favor.

A recent invention designed for the protection of firemen is a silk hood supplied with air from a reservoir carried on the back. One fireman provided with this headgear is said to have worked for fifty minutes in sulphur fumes.