The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1883-08-30
Chemical Appliances for Extin-
gushing Fires.

read the following and see hol
their little chemical engine is e:
teemed in the great cities and b
the underwriters, and then let theI
demand that the town authoritie
put it to use:
1t hardly seems to be an ope
question concerning the value G
apparatus intended to extinguis
fire through water impregnated by
gases antagonistic to combustion
In the earlier days of chemistry il
was discovered that carbonic acit
would extinguish flame, and in one
form or another the principle wai
applied in Europe.
When William A. Graham fileC
at Washington his caveat for fire
extinguisher, the patent officials
were unable to determine whether
this was u new invention. A special
act of congress was passed author
izing the issue of the patent, dated
July 8, 1878, emitting his admins
traitor to manufacture, use, and sell
apparatus for extinguishing fires
by the use of carbonic acid gas
Under this patent seven licenses
granted, yet ali but one of these Ii
censes were allowed TO lapse This
has, ccasioned a tedions lawsuit,
which ended in a very positive de
cision, May 9, 1888, by Judge r.
w Hughes, presiding over the
United States circuit court in the
western district of Virginia, snstain-
ing in every point the claim of the
patentec, and giving the sole right
to Charles L. Holloway to manufac-
ture or to sell apparatus for extin-
gushing fires by the use of carbon
lc acid gas.
This long legal fight and clear
decision have brought chemical ex-
tinguishers into greater prominence,
though they should be familiar OBJ
jects to every observant man. 1t
would seem as though Brooklyn, as
a great oil refining center, would pa
tronize largely the manufacturers
of chemical apparatus, yet the Spec
tator Year Book report'It as having
no eXtinguishers in its fire depart
ment. Brooklyn has nineteen
steam fire engines, and last year
$ll, 600 were raised by taxation to
add new apparatus. Over five
months ago the fire commissioner
asked the aldermen tor authority to
buy two chemical engines. Tue re-
quest was referred to the sewerage
and drainage committee and has
laid there five months. A testimo-
ny to the value of chemical appa-
ratus was signed by officers of New
York insurance companies repre-
sentipg assets to the amount of for
ty-five million dollars. Meantime
the committee has not drained a
dollar into their pockets, and the
bill remains under duress. This
condition of affairs seems remarka-
BILE, and to the present time not
even a common extinguisher be-
longs to the fire department of
Brooklyr.
Buffalo, with less than one quar-
ter of the population of Brooklyn,
has five chemical engines; Albany
reports twenty-five chemical ex-
as belonging to the fire
and Chicago possesses
five chemical engines and eighteen
chemical extinguishers, besides
those carried by Ben Bullwinkle's
fire patrol. Boston has seven chem
ical engines and thirty eight chemi-
cal eXtinguishers, and the enter
prising town OF Weymouth, Mass,
owns a chemical engine and seven
ty-fve chemical extinguishers. De
troit has two chemical engines and
six entinguishers in the depart
ment, while Cleveland reports ten
extinguishers. Philadelphia is not
credited with any chemical appli-
ance, but lately it has reused from
slumber and sent a liberal order for
these adjuucts to steam fire engines.
New York city has nine chemical
extinguishcrs in the department,
and at every fire there is a race be-
tween the fire laddies and the pa
JlOl DOD . W StC WIZ Sudll Dc LIe
first to get into a building with an
eXtinguisher, which is frequently
used with good effect. New Or
leans has five chemical engines, and
the Pennsylvania railroad owns
eleven chemical engines and numer
Gus eXtinguishers. The Baltimore
fire department used chemical ex-
GS4 times in 1881 and
S13 times in 1882, putting out
large proportion of all fires without
using water from the fire plugs or
engines. Outside of that city, in
the hazardous manufacturing dis
trict Of "the belt,' one efficient de
partment has been organized with
chemical apparatus only, having
nine engines and many portable eX-
tinguishers. Its efficiency was well
tested at the explosion of two stills
in n coal oil refinery, January Z,
1882, when two chemical engines
checked the fire, to the surprise of
all spectators. Water will not eX-
tinguish burning coal oil; besides,
every gallon in a chemical tank is
as elective in checking an ordinary
fire as forty gallons of water.-Insur-
ance World.