Smyrna times., 1890-04-16
FOR FIGHTING FLAMES.

FOR FIGHTING FLAMES.
Among the many appliances for sub
DUNG cOnhagratiOns, none is more
useful than the modern water-tower.
1t is comparatively new invention.
and 1t was brought into being from the
necessity of having a more eficacious
instrument for coping with fires in the
higher floors of tall buildings. When
1t Is recOllected that there are in this
city at least score OF buildings from
ten to fourteen stories high, and over
hundred where seven stories is ex-
ceeded. it will be seen that the old
fashioned hOse-pipe, which can only
throw stream of water as high as an
ordinary hve-stOry building, was in
adequate. And this is getting to be
more the case every day; an eighteen
story building is now almost complet-
ed, and twelve stories are growing
common. Of course all these new
buildings are practically fire-proof. and
have stand-pipes erected on their walls
but these have been proven INSULT
cient.
A water-tOwer is an immense tele-
scopic stand-pipe, affixed to a heavy
four-wheeled truck, and raised per
pendicularly to the height needed
The towers now in use by the New
York fire department are from forty to
fifty feet high. A new one, to be the
largest in the world, is now being
built, and will be sixty feet high. II
consists of an iron construction some
what like a small Eiffel tower: this
runs up some twenty-five feet, and
telescoped into it is a steel tube which
shoots up until the top is sixty feet
from the pavement. The tower is
worked by chemical power and can be
raised to its full height in about ten
seconds. 1t will take the streams of
four engines and deliver terrific
body of water at almost any angle, or
at any height.
NEW FIRE BOAT.
Hardly less necessary than the
tower to New York, on account of her
extensive waterfront, is the fire boat.
When fire occurs upon one of the
immense covered piers, or in one of
the storehOuses at the river side, it is
sometimes a difficult matter to find
room for enough engines to play on
the flames. This is overcome by the
use of the fre-boat, which renders ef
6cient service.
A new boat, the New Yorker, was
launched few days ago, which en-
bodies the latest improvements in this
class of craft. She is 125 feet long, has
a displacement of 351 tons, and looks
very much like a large sized tug. She
is built of steel throughout, has i'm
proved steam steering gear, and is in
every way a model boat. 1t is expec-
ted that she will attain a speed of nine
teen knots an hour, and she will be
capable Of throwing three streams of
water four inches in diameter, and one
of inches, With the power of all the
pumps concentrated on the one fve-
inch nozzle a stream of solid water can
be thrown five hundred feet, boring
its way through the thickest brick wall
at short range.
Fire-hoats are strictly American de-
vices. The most powerful hitherto 10
existence is the one in use at Boston,
It plays a four-inch stream for four
hundred feet, and was considered a
wonder when brought out year ago.
NEW YoRK's MORALITY.
A great hue and cry is being raised
over an alleged indecent picture by
the American artist Bridgman, for
some timn past a resident Of Paris,
which is on view at a Fifth Avenue
gallery. Although one Of the honor