The New York herald., 1877-09-06
water supply OF New York.

neglect ana q duty III OuSnt Eot 10 PostPohe'
1t is, indeed, rather the distribution than
the supply of water which is of such I'M
perative urgency; but as the supply in par
ticular streets--the supply to fire engines
fighting a hagration-depends on CO.
pious distribution through mains of ample
size, tho question of distribution is really
question of supply. The ground OF
anxiety now is not what 1t was
in the autumn of last year, when pro-
tracted drought caused apprehensions OF
water famine. The deficiency then was in
the supply to fill our receiving reservoirs.
The storage reservoirs at Croton Lake had
run SO low as to threaten exhaustion,
and that danger stared US in the face until
the rains of later autumn brought relief.
That peril does not confront us now, and We
are not likely to encounter it again. The
immense new storage reservoir, then in
insures an ample supply of water for quite
a period TO come even in seasons OF severe
drought. The points of solicitude are not the
storage reservoirs outside the city, nor the
receiving reservoirs within the city, but the
small and utterly inadequate size of the
mains through which the water is distrib-
uted in our avenues and streets. The city
is rs insecure as if it were built on the crust
of slumbering volcano, although the
fires which threaten it are not subterranean,
but sleep for spark to awaken them in our
combustible buildings above ground. God
grant that it may not require the terrible
experience Of Chicago or OF Boston to rouse
us from foolhardy apathy We are in daily
and nightly danger of having that blazing
lesson taught us in our own city.
We have the best fire department in
America perhaps the best in the world
The promptness with which it appears on
the ground in quick response to every
warning; it's disciplined intelligence in
getting into action its heroic daring in
frequently sacrificing the lives Of its mem.
bers in attempts to save property and rescue
imperilled people from the flames, have so
often been put to the proof and so uniformly
stood the test that our citizens recognize
the efficiency of this noble department with
equal admiration and gratitude But
of what avail is the best fire depart
ment without supply of water? With
out water it is like brave army
equipped with guns of the most approved
patterns, but destitute of ammunition. AS
the most fatal OF all faults in the adminis-
tration of an army is to lead it into battle
and let it discover on the field that it has
not been supplied with cartridges, so the
most fatal of all faults in protecting q city
against fires is q neglect to supply sufficient
water to the fremen who are called to ex-
tinguish confagration. This is precisely
what happened at the late fire, and what
is liable to happen again ut any time in fires
that may get greater headway.
AS to the proper remedy for this state of
things there cannot be two opinions. The
old inadequate six-inch mains in q large
portion of our streets must be replaced by
mains Of a larger size. Since the six-inch
mains were laid two revolutions have oc-
Cured in the city-a revolution in the mode
of building and revolution in the ma
chinery for extinguishing fires. Buildings
have become much larger on the ground,
and ore carried up to far greater heights,
six, seven or eight stories being not uncom-
mon instead of the old three, four or fve-a
change promoted by the use Of elevators for
easy ascent. This change in the extent
and height of buildings tends to render
fires more unmanageable and to re-
quire greater amount of water for
their extinction. A fire starting in
a small building is obstructed and is more
or less confined by exterior walls But in
a large building there is nothing to arrest
the immediate spread Of the flames through
out it's whole interior. The heat created by
SO vast mass of combustibles not only re-
uuires floods Of water to subdue it, but is
more liable to penetrate by its intensity
through the conAning walls and kindle
adjacent structures. 1t is obvious that
supply Of water in the street mains which
might have been suited to the old mode
of building is utterly inadequate when
one structure contains as much space and
as much woodwork as eight or ten
Of the old pattern. The substitu-
ton of steam engines for hand engines re-
inforces this consideration. The old fire
engines had nothing like the same prompt
capacity to exhaust small main. The six
inch mains, which did very well when build
ings were small and hand engines had not
been supplanted by steam, are altogether
unsuited to the condition of things since
the great revolution in building and the
equally great revolution in the machines for
a
tive urgency that mains Of larger dimensions
be substituted in all the numerous streets
where the small ones remain. With the fate
Of Chicago and Boston so recent, and a fresh
warning nearer home, it would be insanity
to postpone the needed change and thereby
court destruction.
The laying OF new mains would require
y7,ontbc af osf .bo,