Morning journal and courier., 1886-09-16
NEW ENGINE HOUSE TRICKS.
Sleight of Hand is Slow Compared With the Fire Laddiess Work.
 4l,a AInuzN N-or.lrG l


 The sharp clang of the big alarm gong rang through the cosey quarters of Captain Rafferty's fire patrol No. in West Thirtieth street on Friday night. Instantly the horses dashed to the patrol truck shafts with a swift chatter, and just as swiftly Driver Abram Lyell was in his seat and had the heavy reins grasped tightly in his brawny hands, His appearance in his place was so sudden that it looked like magic. The gong had struck but single stroke of the alarm when he sprang from his bed on the second floor and came slap bang through trap door in the ceiling, just like harlequin in the pantomime. It took him less than nine sec onds to leave his bed and start the horses out with a rush from the patrol house. Driver E. S. Root, who rides with him, was just as swift in dropping down beside him. The beauty of the performance was that 1t wasn't an exhibition test either, but bona fide an swer to a call to 8 fire at Tenth avenue and Thirtv-seventh street.
 The wav Drivers Lyell and Root leap through the trap door every time there is 6 fire is an improvement in speedy preparation for responding to fire calls that is at present exclusively the proud feature of Captain Rafferty's wide awake company. The trap is out in the ceiling immediately over the dri- yers seat on the heavy truck. It is sur rounded on the floor above by a polished brass railing four feet high that shines like a mirror. The drivers beds are right beside this railing. When an alarm sounds at night they spring from their beds together, seize the railing and let their bodies drop horizontally through the trap. The instant the door opens they let go and catch a sec- ond brass bar fitted into the ceiling, like an acrobat dropping from one trapeze to anoth- CT. This second bar balances them and pre- vents them from falling forward in their five foot drop to the truck seat. weight at tached to a pulley rope shuts the trap door with a bang the moment they disappear through the trap. The whole device works so smoothly and quickly that it is only question of time when the trap Will De 1n- trodueed in all the engine houses in town. It saves some seconds of time lost in shin ming down the brass sliding poles and clam bering to the seat on the engines. In exhi- bition drills Drivers Lyell and Root have been able to drop to their seats and started the truck in less than two seconds, which is away head of anything done in the patrol truck manning.
 Every day the brave fire laddies of Gotham are getting to be more expert in swiftly answering fire alarms, and are on the lookout for improvements that will cut down even shorter the few seconds at present occupied in hitching up horses and
  their way to the fire. The sliding pole was an improvement on the old fashioned pell nell rush down the stairs that saved nearly minute of preparation. Quick dressing is one of the features of fire laddie activity nowadays that fills every layman with amazement. The laddies have got the business down to such a science that they literally jump into their clothes. Every fireman goes to bed with his red fire shirt on. His trousers are always kept tucked into the legs of his heavy rubber boots. and when he retires he simply lets the trous- CTS slide off him and down over the boot leg and then steps out of the boots. When he wants to dress he steps back into the boots again, anks the trousers up around his waist, fastens them with spring buckle and makes dashes for the sliding pole quick as a wink, completely dressed. When patrol 3 went to the fire on Friday night, Lieutenant Hewson and Patrol Sergeant Smith jumped into their clothes so fast that the Sun report CT couldn't time them.
 "Twelve seconds is the average time it takes fireman to dress when an alarm starts him out of bed at night" Sergeant Smith said, ''and I'll bet one hundred dol lars to one dollar as many times as anybody