The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-09-05
GUARDING THE BRITISH MUSEUM
 FROM FIRE.


 Some interesting information on this subject was given to representative of the Westminster Gazette day or two since by ex-Inspector Collins, who has just retired amid many expressions of good will, to say nothing of hand some testimonial from his colleagues and fellow officials, after several years service as inspector in charge of the great Bloomsbury establishment. h. deed, in the light of his information, it is difficult to imagine how evil of any sort could befall either the museum or its contents
 In the matter of police, MT. Collins explained that there are twenty-five -an inspector, two sergeants and twenty-t two men--employed exclusively on duty in and about the place, these in addition, of course, to special att tendants of the museum, commission aires etc. Twenty of these are during the day distributed about the building and in various parts, and five during | the night.
 "As to fire" said MT. Collins, "I don't l think it would be possible to make ar engagements more complete. The Brit | ish Museum can never be burned down. | It would be swamped first. Why, there | is enough water stored there in tanks to last for many days continuous pumping, in case by any chance the or dinary supply gave out. One of the tanks in which the water is stored is | right underneath the fore courtyard in front of the main entrance-an egg shaped cistern in this case holding some eight thousand gallons while l further supplies are stored in various other parts of the building. Every po- | liceman, too, is also fireman, being especially trained before he takes up
 his duties, and if you were to be pres ent at one of the fire drills, which are | held every fortnight, you would realize | that a. fire would have small chance
 against the forces provided for coping | with 1t at the British Museum. There 1 is not nook or corner in the remotest
 part of the building which could not be deluged in two minutes if necessity
 arose, thanks to the supply of hose, | standpipes, f1re-cocks, etc, with which
 every part of the building Is equipped" 7" ] ''So there is no chance of the museum
 being burned down?"
 l "None whatever; nor any building near 1t, for that matter. For they look after them, too, hardly less carefully. And the Fire Brigade people were fair | ly astonished only the other day to find
 how promptly a small blaze which oc-
 cured in Montague street had been ex- tinguished by the museum firemen. They were on the spot with their hose
 at work and the fire under control be-
 fore the regular f1remen had even ar rived on the scene; and thieves have | just about as much chance as the fire. ] Such a thing as concealment is out of l the question:
 | Immediately after closing, MT. Col
 lins explained, every gallery and every
 room in the building is gone through,
 searched and locked up, and then the
 whole process is repeated again an
 hour later-this precaution being di-
 rected against fire rather than thieves,
 which latter, indeed, are hardly ever so
 much as thought of by the museum au-
 thoritles. With fire it is different, and
 hence the whole building is searched
 twice. And a lengthy business this is.
 It is full hours hard work, MT. Col
 lins tells you, merely to lock or unlock all of the doors in the building-all of
 them fitted with Chubb locks. upon the perfection of which MT. Collins waxed
 eloquent with all the professional en-
 thusiasm of the ex-policeman.
 'I tell you" he said, with sparkling l eyes, "you should see those locks and 1 doors at the British Museum. Why
 the doors are swung and fitted to such
 a nicety that the smallest speck of dirt
 in them is enough to throw them out of
 gear, while as for the locks. I pity the
 man who did get overlooked in one of
 the galleries. for he might try all night
 without getting out again. West
 minister Gazette