St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1893-03-02
Correspondence.
MORE ABOUT FIRES.
HowIThey are Distinguished Along the
Waters Edge.


thought one might suppose that q
fire could be cxtinguished very east
" when it occurred along the river
front where there is so much water
to use, but as a matter of fact i'll nc
place are so many difficulties en-
countered. The reason for this Is
obvious. Long piers extend from
the shore out into the water, and
upon many OF them are built large
warehouses; II one of these catch
fire it can beapproached by the shore
fremen from one end only, and while
they deluge that portion with water,
the inaccessible part must inevita-
bly, burn. There was great fire in
this city in 1889 which involved
piers, elevators and other property
on North river above the foot OF seth
street, belonging to the Hudson
River railroad, and the loss exceeded
a million and half of dollars.
Such fires have proven very destruc-
tive in years gone by, just because
the city lacked the necessary appar-
atus for fighting fire from the water.
Now she has the fire boat, which
has shown itself to be powerful
engine in dealing with these fires.
Like the water tower and many
other kinds of apparatus used in ex-
tinguishing fires, the fire boat is a
recent invention. The first one ever
built was the "Havermeyer,"
which was launched in 1875 and is
still doing good work. In COMPARE
son with the fire boat, the streams
of the land fire engines sink almost
into insignihcance, as regards the
volume of the stream and the veloci-
ty with which it is thrown.
The newest and largest fire boat
is the New Yorker" She was de-
signed by Mr.. William Cowes, for
merly of the United States navy,
and is the pride of every citizen of the
metropolis. In form she is very
much like large tug boat She is
1875 feet long, 81 feet wide, IA feet
deep and draws about nine feet of
water. She is built of steel On the
deck are the usual structures, with
the pilot house on top at the for
ward end. There are two boilers,
each powerful enough for transat-
lantc steamer, and triple expansion
engines. Instead of having one
propeller wheel, she has two, one of
them being connected with the rud-
der and the wheel shaft in such
way that it aids in steering, thus
enabling her to dodge river craft
with great agility even when going
at full speed towards fire. But
the pumps are her most remarkable
features. There are four sets, eight
in all, of double acting steam pumps,
with barrels 10 inches in diameter
and an 11-inch stroke. From the
pumps the water is forced into an
air chamber and thence it is driven
through four standing pipes which
rise above the deck, two forward by
the pilot house and two well aft
The end Of each pipe terminates in a
nozzle, which can be pointed in any
direction by means OF proper gear
ing and hand wheel. For ordinary
fires these nozzles have diameter of
three and half inches, but when
necessary the power of all the pumps
can be concentrated on one pipe,
and when this is done a five inch
nozzle is used. The force of such a
stream is uncomfortable. 1t tears
the shingles off like leaves, knocks the
thick boards into thousands of
splinters and even penetrates solid
brick walls What fire can with
stand its fury? 1t is a veritable
Niagara set loose.
The New Yorker lies at pier No. / i,
North River, with fires banked, but
with steam sufficient to set her pro-
pellers going at any moment, and
within three minutes of receiving an
alarm is steaming for the fire at the
rate of 20 miles an hour. The terri
tory that such boat protects is a
water front of more than 25 miles.
1t is interesting to contrast this
powerful engine with the floating
fire boats of London. They consist
OF a little steam pump on scows,
which are tied along the water front
at long intervals. When an alarm
OF fire is sounded the captain of the
nearest scow runs up and down
along the shore in search of tug tc
tow his engine to the fire. Johr
Bull has the idea, but it is crude anc
needs developing.
There is another method of ex
tinguishing fires which has received
little attention from the fremen il