The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-01-10

Bombs Con Be Sent Up at the Rate
of Sixty Per MInute-They Burst
and Put Out the Fire Like Hand
GrenadeS.
Copyright, 1897.
New York, Jan. Sire Chief Bonner,
of New York city. has come out fat-footed
against the sky-scraper. From his view
point it will lower his record as fire chief
and treat his city to a fire by the side of
which Chicago's historic conhagration of
twenty years ago will be a mere bonfire.
Chief Bonner's views are Endorsed by
the fire chiefs of all cities where immense
ly tall buildings are being constructed. Si1
of the fire chiefs, notably those in the
cities where the twenty-story building
are going up, have appealed to the legisla
ture to aid them. Failing to receive hell
there they say they will appeal to the gov
eminent at Washingt ton.
The objections set forth by the fire chiefs
are that, in case of fire in sky-scraper
there will be no way of fighting it, The
most powerful stream of water can hard
ly reach above the eighth story of a build
ing, and here its force is weak and uncer-
! tain
With a fire extinguisher the firemen a
| the present day climb to the tallest avail
| able point of building, and from there di
rect the water upward. They can thus cas-
the stream higher than though using a
hose standing upon the ground in the
| street below.
With fire in a sky-scraper, in any build
ing over twelve stories high, the time con
| sumed in getting up to a top floor would
| be very great. Fifteen minutes valuable
time would be wasted climbing stairs.
| If fireman could step into an elevator
| with a hose on his back and be quickly
| lifted to the twelfth floor he could fight
| the fire easily with the aid of other firemen
| arriving by other elevators. But in time
of fire elevators do not work and hose ar,
not easily carried up. The electric plan
becomes dangerous to handle and eleva
tor operators do not care to trust then
| lives to ropes around which fire is playing
Climbing up, either inside or outside, is
the only expedent left the fremen, and
this is slow and dangerous.
The hook and ladder service, too, fails
with the sky-scraper. Although very ex-
pert in throwing the hook from story to
story and running up patched. ladders, as
they are flung upward from floor to
floor, no man has the head or the strength
to keep on ascending after he has reached
a dizzy hight from the street. More than
that his fire chief would not allow him to
scale up the front of building beyond a
certain number of ladders.
Architects assert that the sky-scraper is
absolutely fire-proof Recently, however,
the Mills building, that perfectly fire-proof
structure off Wall street, where Cleveland
had his law offices and where Henry ClewJ,
D. O. Mills and a third of the millionaires
of New York transact famous money deal
ings daily, took fire, it is said, and three
4 floors were burned through before the
| fla he
fire-proof building.
in the sky-scraper if this were to happen
the fire authorities claim that there would
be a collapse in the middle. The floors
would fall through. If the top floor caugh
fire it would be compelled to burn, as no
water could be carried up to it. Soon il
would give way. Iron safes, heavy furni
ture and Office machinery would crash
dow inward, and then the building would
be doomed. The lower floors could not
stand the strain of the upper ones fallin;
upon them. Before the building could b.
emptied the great loss of life would max
a national horror.
Builders and real estate owners hav,
stirred up inventors to their best efforts t.
bring forth something that would figh
fire beyond the reach of water, and If hal
the things that are in the Office of the fir
chiefs were TO be shown they would max
a museum of fire preventives.
One of these, however, is of the utmos
practicability, and will shortly be tested
1t is the mortar engine for throwing
bombs up to the top story of any building
The bombs are called grenades, and tn,
fire ladies are fire grenadiers. 1t is the
invention of Samuel Lownsdale, of Law
renceburg Ind
The principle is one of hydraulics. Steam
ano compressed air give the motive power
There is a powerful engine mounted on a
wagon drawn by horses and arranged very
much like the present fire engines.
At one side there rises a large, round
cup-like affair which is the mouth from
which the grenades are fired. The schem,
is to load the mortar with grenades an
send them flying into the air at the rate OF
one a second.
The fire grenade is a thing that is nov
universally accepted. Every public place
has it's little rack of hand grenades to b.
broken in case of escaping flames. ThesC
grenades act upon the same principle
They are sent into the air with rapid sue
cession and with great force. Landing
high in the building they explode, and tn
fire gradually subsidies. Meanwhile tn,
fire ladies are fighting it from below
sending up streams as high as they can.
A glass grenade would be too light 70
such use. The danger would be that of ex
| plosion before the hight was reached. The
very force of the expulsion would breal
the glass The strength of the projectil
would sun carry IL wen up IN the air
though broken, and it would fall upon tn
heads of the crowds below, doing grea
damage.
The trouble, which at first was an in
surmountable one has been done ava!
with by making the grenades of aluminium
The shell is filled with the grenade compo
sition. This is a patent liquid warrante,
to subdue flames. The makers guard wei
the secret of its composition.
Cans are fitted to four sides of the gre
made These are not percussion caps, but
quite the contrary. They are hard metal
without a particle of explosives in THEN
makeup. But they are located over thin
spots in the bomb, SO that on striking
they are driven through the aluminium
and thus they lberate the confined fluid
A fusilade as fierce as this bomb-throw
ing mortar is calculated by the inspectors
of the new machine TO eXtingushed fire
with twice the rapidity of water. one
mortar in operation equals in velocity and
fighting quality two large streams OF