The Portland daily press., 1883-10-22
PoRTLAND.FIRE DEPARTMENT.
A Very Successful and Satisfactory Trial
of the New Silsby Engine.

Saturday afternoon the new Silsby steam
IRE engine, wi ich had been received the night
before at Portland No. Us house on Munjoy
Hill, where it will bs stationed, was subjected
to thorough trial of its powers.
The new engine, which is from the Silsby
Manufacturing Company, Seneca Falls N. Y,
is OF the third size manufactured By the COM
pany, two sizes larger than the one purchased
by Old Orchard, and the exact duplicate in
size and general make of the engine purchased
by the town of Somerville, Mass, which
threw stream of water 1926 feet on recent
trial. 1t is very elegantly finished, being full
nickel plated. One feature in particular
ELECTED favorable comment from men whose
practical knowledge of such matters makes
their opinion of value, and that is the arrange
ment of platform springs instead of the clip.
teal springs as upon the other makes The
crane neck permits the engine 10 turn within
its own length. The engine has two indepen.
dent ways of feeding the tank with fresh water
while drawing and throwing salt water.
Among those present at the trial SATURDAY.
were Chief Littlefield, the Board of Ensinee,s
members of the city government, representa-
tives from all the other fire engine companies
OF the city, With large number of firemen
from Bath, Biddeford, Saco aud other cities
and towns within radius of 40 miles. En-
ginerrs Skillings and jackson and x-Eppineer
A. II. Rogers we're the committee on measure
mehts, ard Mr.. Charles H Holland, of the
Portland Company, inspected the steamer and
its action.
The steamer was stationed at the reservoir
nearly opposite ths Shailer school on North
street, ard five minutes after the torch was an
Piled the steam gauge registered 25 pounds
pressure.
Time OF steaming from cold water: s lbs.
2 minutes 80 seconds; 10 lbs, 3 mir. 20 sec
10 lbs, min.; 20 lbs. 4 min 80 Sec; % lbs. 8
min.; 30 lbs, min. 40 sec. Engine started in
six minutes.
There was great unanimity OF favorable
opinion expressed by the fremen present in
regard to the working of the engine, especial
|, IN the feature of absolute steadness, or alb
sence of oscillation and swaying of the en-
CINE itself. This stesdiness we are informed.
can only be secured by the rotary action of the
machinery--a popularity of this make of en-
gnes.
Al all lh0 tt6tS INC steamer worked admlra-
bly, In the four-stream test, it was hard for a
spt ctator to realize, from the size and proiec-
ton of the streams, that there we're not four
engines at work instead of but one The capa-
city of the steamer in this respect is a recon-
mendatlon for its employment by towns too
small to afford more than one engine.
Another convincing demonstration of the
powerof the rotary pump was the extraordinary
distance reached by streams of such great
diameter as Il to IL inches, " hich exceeded
anything heretofore accomplished in this city
In every test one hundred feet of hose were
used except in the last when there were one
thousand feet
In the taouisted report of the several tests,
given below, no complete record appears of
the water pressure, which is due to the loss of
the gauge pin early in the trial:
Hose