The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-07-23
FlCHTSFIRE WITH SCIENCE.
How a San Francisco Professor Saved
a Ship.


ly Blaze Conquered in Less Than an
Hour Water Made it Burn the
Harder.
From the san Francisco Examiner
The chief attraction on the water front
yesterday was Prof. Price and the seven
whisky barrels with which he conquered
the big fire on board the British ship Elm
| bank at Union street wharf The COM
bination attracted a large number of peo-
pie to that part of the city front, in spite
of the wind and dust.
The seven barrels were still on the Elm
banks deck, and the three men who were
attending them spent most of their time
in watching the crowd of curious men,
women and children gathered on the
wharf There was no smoke issuing from
the hatchways or ventilators, and it
seemed hard to believe by looking at the
ship that she was a regular vOlcano.a few
hours before. But the fire was out, the
danger over and the good ship Elmbank
was still atioat, in spite of the twelve feet
of water that had been pumped into her
hold, keeping her stern deep down in the
mud and almost lifting her bow out of
water.
One of the first visitors to the ship YES
terday morning was Chief Sullivan, and
he was as much surprised as anybody
when he felt the decks and found them
perfectly cool and not a sign of fire any
where, ana hewarmly congratulated Prof
Price on the success he had attain
ed as fire fighter.
THE PROFESSOR ON DECK.
The professor was still in charge in
spite oil the fact that he had been on deck
all night. Assisted by Capt. Metcalf
he personally supervised the work of
measuring out the acid and marble dust
which were dumped into the barrels
every two hours, in order that the flow of
carbonic acid gas pouring into the hold of
the ship should be continuous.
I'VE don't want pressure so much as d
continuous flow" said the professor as he
poured half bucket OF diluted acid into
one of the barrels and then drove the
bung in tight. There is no fire in this
ship now" he continued, but the sui
phur is hot, and if we relax our efforts
and shut off the gas it may break out
again.
we fought this fire on scientific prin-
ciples, but of course fireman can,hardly
be supposed to be graduate in the
science of chemistry, and that is why
they tried to put out the fire with water
before they thought of sending for the
I
apparatus at work until Monday morning,
| however, and by that time the sulphur
will be cool enough to allow US TO take
of the matches without danger of
the fire breaking out again. The
hold viii then have TO be thoroughly ven
tilated for at least twenty-four hours be-
fore it will be safe for man to venture
down.
The next thing to do will be to pump
the water out, and this will be done by
the tug Fearless on Tuesday. Then we
/ will be able to get an idea of the amount
of damage that has been done. We sent
three Of the chemical engines away as
soon as we got the barrels working, and
! the other went away about O'Clock this
morning, as there was no use in keeping
them here after the hold was filled with
! gas All we had to do then was 10 keep
up the supply, and that was not hard to
do, as each barrel is equal to one chemi-
cal engine SO far as the volume of gas
produced is concerned and the flow is Tar
stcadier.
The engines did not make the gas fast
enough that is why we had to use the
barrels The fire was virtually smother
ed in an hour after we got the barrels to
work, for carbonic acid will not support
combustion and will smother a fire every
time"
CHARGING THE BARRELS.
Inc professor looked at MS WdUcl ana
said it was time to charge up again.
Half a bucket of diluted muriatic acid
and small shovelful of marble dust was
poured into each barrel as quickly as pos
sible, and then the contents of the barrel
were thoroughly stirred up with broom
handle, ito start it going as the profess
sOr explained
MARBLE dust will give out about one
half it's own weight of CarbOnic acid gas"
said l)1sOf price he sat down
another rest. AS fast as the gas is
formed in the barrel it passes off through
that lead pipe you see fastened to the
upper part of the head and so down into
the ships hold.
There is no pressure in the barrels as
there is in the generator of a chemical
engine, for in this case none is required"
When asked if the salt water and the
gas would not iniure the sulphur, Prof.
Price said he did not think so. OF
course u great deal of the stuff has been
sublimed by the heat, and would be found
sticking all over the inside of the vessel,
and more Of it would be found melted to-
gether into n solid mass, but the rest
would be Just as good for making sui
phuric acid as it ever was.
During the day the vessel was visited
/ by large number of merchants, all of
whom We're greatly surprised when they
saw the simple apparatus with which the
fire had been conquered
THE FIRST OF THE KIND.
District Engineer Shaughnessy said the
department had had very little expert
ence in fighting sulphur fires, as this was
only the second in the history of the city.
The first one was on Bay street about four
years ago, when a couple of hundred tons
of the stuff which had been stored in d
warehouse took fire. The building was
fairly surrounded with engines and the
fire subdued in about six hours.
During that time enough water was used
to wash fire. sulphur and all out into the
bay, and the fire went out because the
sulphur was all gone. But this fire was
something entirely different, as the fire.
men could not get at it.
The fire was quite distance from the
hatchway, aud the only thing to be done
was to find the hottest place in the decks
and cut a hole there to stick the pipe in.
Inquiry showed that this was not the
first time Prof. Price had rendered
valuable aid to the San Francisco Fire
department with few barrels, some acid
and a little marble dust. Twenty-Five
years ago the bark Whistler caught fire
while lying at Beal street wharf with a
cargo of lime in her hold It was about
O'Clock on Sunday afternoon, and the
alarm that was sent in soon brought sew
eral fire engines on the scene. The