The Sun.
London, England, 1848-01-27 00:00:00

EXTINCTION OF FIRE.
An admirable contrivance for speedily extinguish-
ing fires has been adopted by Mr. Alexander Annan-
dale, at his large paper. mill at Polton, near Edinburgh.
The following is an account of this ingenious appara-
tus :—The apparatus may be said to combine, in itself,
a complete fire-brigade. It consists of two pumps,
with capacious air-vessels, one of these pumps
being worked by a steam-engine, the other by a
water-wheel. These being the movers of the
machinery of the mill, are consequently in con-
stant action and always ready for the accident
of fire. The original objects of these pumps was
to raise water from the river into a reservoir for
the supply of the mill ; but, by the addition of
a valve, the desired results are effected. On the
orifice of the pipes connected 'with the pumps,
where it delivers the water into the reservoir,
is placed the valve, which is equal in diameter
to the pipe. It has the ordinary lever which is
generally attached to the safety-valves of steam-
boilers, and indeed resembles them in every
respect. This valve can be loaded to any extent,
by moving the weight along the lever, but is
regulated so that it will open before the pipes or
pumps are subjected to such a strain as may
endanger their bursting. Attached to the pipes
from the pumps (and in such a situation as may
command with ease every portion of the works),
are the means of fixing a number of leather
hose-pipes, with their conductors. In one shut.
tion in front of the building six of these bogie
pipes can be attached. , On lifting a wo4en
Cover, which is level sith the ground; we find
t4llii -nozzles, ftith -water-tight caps screwed
upc4i- them, which are removed to gi%e place to
one or snore of the hose-pipes, when wanted. A
slide-cock admits the water at once to all those
nozzles from the main pump pipe. Two of these
leather hose being brought out and fixed upon
this pipe, the weight drawn s long the lever of the
valve and the slide•cock opened, an unbroken jet
of water from each of the nozzles is projected
over the highest part of the building, equal in inten-
sity, and superior in steadiness, to that of any two of
the best fire-engines. But this is not all ; at the same
time the other four hose•pipes can b.! attached
and brought to act in the same manner, and
%%WI the like efficiency, and the mill may be thus
speedily deluged, The whole operation does not
occupy two men five minutes. Had such an ap-
paratus been in existence two years ago, the whole of
this valuable property,
,which was then buret to the
ground, might have been saved, In many places,
advantage has been taken of the water-supply pipes,
RS a means of extinguishing fires, and where a
competent head
,of water can be obtained,
and the pipes are of sufficient capacity, and
laid for that purpose alone, nothing more
need be desired ; but this cannot always be
obtained but at an immense expense, and in
some situations not at all. The finest feature of the
Polton Mill apparatus is its applicability to towns as
well as mills; for any desired pressure may be given
to water without resorting to the expense of having
elevated reservoirs. Take for example the city of Edin-
burgh, which has many sources of water in its neigh-
bourhood, which might be made available for the cleans-
ing of sewers, streets, closes, and other sanitary pur-
poses, as well as for the extinction of fire. An
engine placed at the canal basin, and a train of pipes
laid through the principal streets, with the necessary
means of attaching leather hose-pipes, might be used
for these objects. The engine could be made to work
a number of pumps, discharging water into one large
air vessel, the safety-valve as it may be termed, or a
series of valves, to be placed, not at the remote ex-
tremity of the pipe, but at the pumps under the
control of the engineer. Supposing the whole train
of pipes filled, and the pumps discharging a small
portion of their water through the safety-valve,
which may be loaded to such an extent as may
be equivalent to a head of water, limited only by
the power of the engine and the strength of the
material, it is evident that such pressure and
such
quantity of water as the pumps can deliver will
be transmitted through the whole train of pipes,
subject only to the deouction arising from the friction
in the pipe, and that the load on the engine will
always be equal to the load on the valve and the
quantity of water delivered; and this need never he
more than what is necessary for the purpose in hand.
To any one at all conversant with the principles of
hydraulics all this will be .vident. To render the
whole arrangement complete for a large city, might
not the electric telegraph or some concerted signal be
introduced to transmit intelligence from any distant
locality to the engineer at the engine, when instantly
the pumps could be set in motion. The system has
already been adopted at the Liverpool Docks, where
nine miles of pipe for fire extinction alone have been
laid. It is even projected to carry such pipes through
the whole streets, with a hose connexion at every
''Lamp-post.—Scotsman.

REVIVAL OF GREAT GRIMSBY PORT.—In the reign
of Edward the Third the pert of Great Grimsby sup-
plied eleven vessels for the armament against Calais;
but it gradually sank into extreme insignificance until a
railway was projected to it. The mere prospective
advent of :the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire
Railway, which will be opened to IGreat Grimsby in the
present spring, has been to raise the Customs revenue
from 3,9291. in 1843, to 70,0731. in the last year, 1847.
ANOTHER VICTIM TO Till GAME LAWS.—In the
last month, John Heiman, of the parish of Colaton Ra-
leigh, a most quiet, harmless, and inoffensive old man,
set a rat-gin without any bait, but lightly covered over
with earth, in a rabbit run in his own field, and to his
great surprise, on visiting the gin, he beheld a pheasant
caught by the head. The keepers were watching the
rat-trap; it was enough, they pounced upon him, the
case was heard before the Woobury Bench, the poor old
man was committed to the county bridewell, where he
ariosh, bait that
was the pheasant was
died on Monday last. It is the general belief in Colaton,
andplallacedin the girt, the surrounding
because
there, and had it
been taken in the act of running or digging, it certainly
must have been caught by the legs.— Woken limes.
P n
A ludicrous scene occurred, not very long ago, in
a certain small chap,l, situated in one of thoFe rote:Antic
and secluded volleys for which West Cumberland is so
celebrated. The minister, who was a man by no means
aver- e to the enjoyment of the good things 01 this world,
was engaged in catechising the juvenile portion of his
flock, and on putting the usual question" What is thy
name?" to the girl who stood highest, a strapping wench
of thirteen, the only
daughter of the villape Boniface,
received no r 4 ply. '"What is thy name ?" said the
minister in a more peremptory manner. Girl—' Nin
u' yer fun, parson ; ye kna me neame varra wee!.
l)uont ye say, when ye're at our house on a neet, ' Bet,
bring in another pint o'yeh I' " It is needless to say
that notwithstanding the sacred nature of the place in
which they were assembled, the congregation was on a
broad grin. Ilia reverence looked daggers.—Lancaster
Guardian.
ENNISKILLEN, JAN. 21.—The Rev. Mr. Moore,
who had been confined in Enniskillen gaol for debt, has
committed suicide, by cutting his throat from ear to ear.
—Dublin Freeman.