Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1884-10-25

ONLf Ine 1OllOWlng ABOUT our
Water Works failure this week From
the Baltimore Sans article entitled
"The Crisfeld Fire and its Losses"
The first condition of an efficient fire
service is an adequate supply of water,
as the Sun has frequently urged, and
for this supply number of Maryland
towns have made of late years due
provision. For the necessary supply
Easton is now considering the proprie-
ty of sinking artesian wells. Camb-
ridge depends on the river, whilst
Salisbury is so traversed by water
courses as to needno artificial supply.
On the Susquehanna, Port Deposit has
steam fire engine which draws its
water from the river, and q short time
ago did good service in assisting to
subdue fire that had broken out at
the Principle furnace some miles dis
tant by railroad. Havre de Grace has
reservoir constructed at so high an
elevation that the pressure on the
mains is sufficient to throw water from
plugs over the houses in the town in
case of fire. Ellicott City draws its
water from the Patapsco, but depends
in case of fire on one small hand engine.
The mills have appliances for flooding.
Towsontown and Waverly, having no
water supply, have had to resort in
case of fire to the chemical fire ap-
paratus. Woodberry has no water
supply other than Jones' falls and
private wells, and no engines except
those of the mills. Annapolis has
water works, and has now ordered a
steam fire engine, after losing by fire II
year ago property to the amount of
ninety thousand dollars. Hagerstown,
Frederick, Cumberland and West
minister are provided with reservoirs
and steam fire engines, and Emmits-
burg is building water-works. Turn
ing again to the Eastern Shore, Elkton
depends on it's wells and water from
the river and hand fire engine.
Chestertown has voted for supply of
water. Centreville is considering the
subject. Princess Anne has only wells
and Snow Hill the river. None of the
towns on the western shore of the bay,
with the exception of Annapolis, have
any water supply but that derived from
wells or intersecting rivers, and
wherever there is fire apparatus it is
of the old hand-engine pattern. The
pleasant town of Belair is also behind
the times in this respect, while the
mining town of Frostburg, in Western
Maryland, has just voted down pro
position for constructing a reservoir,
preferring to depend on private COM
pany which derives its supply from a
strong spring that, like all other
springs, loses a considerable part OF
its volume of water in the long
droughts to which, in some seasons, We
are subject. We have thus passed
under review the water supply Of the
principal towns of Maryland, looking
at the matter, not in its industrial OIL
sanitary aspect, but purely in the view
of the protection from fires. 1t is
gratifying to know that considerable
progress in this respect has been made
of late years, and that other towns are
awakening to the Importance of the
subject. AS a sanitary agent, al
abundance of pure water is one of the
conditions of health, but when with al
abundance of water there is also the
means of promoting many industries
as well as of protection against fires
in communities where nearly all the
buildings are of wood, it is only those
who are welded to old ways who can
be Indifferent to the improvement OF
their condition and of adding to the
well-being Of their families.
The SIN is partly in error as to
our present means of supply. but not
enough to impair the lesson it reads us.