The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-08-19
HOW TO GUARD AND SAVE
FIRE CHIEFS DISC USS PROTECTION
 OF LIFE AND PROPERTY.

OF LIFE AND PROPERTY.
 Second Day of Their Quarter Centennial
 Conventiou-A Number of Valuable Pa
 pers Contributed on Matters of Vital
 Interest-Chiefs Driven About the City
 A Sail on the Sound and Dinner To-day.
 The second day of the fire chiefs convention passed off yesterday with nothing to mar the smoothness Of the occasion, although it was feared yes terday afternoon, when the rain began, that it would be necessary to postpone the drive which had been arranged to show the visitors about the city, Coy-
 cred carriages were provided, however, and although the start was made ln
 the rain, the clouds soon cleared away
 and the drive proved most enjoyable
 affair.
 Another large crowd assembled at
 the green last evening to view the il-
 lumination and hear the band concert.
 Although the police force has recently
 been cut down considerably by the lay
 off of men, the few who can be spared
 to do duty on the green are doing good
 service. It is known that there are a
 number of crooks in town, who have come to ply their trade during the con
 vention, but they have been so closely watched that they have been unable to do any business as yet.
 The evening session of the convention was called to order at 8 o'clock last night, with a large number Of chiefs present. There was also a large at tendance of ladies, as it was under
 stood that the evening was to be de- voted mainly to the reading of interest," ing papers. The first paper read was that by Captain Brophy of Boston, on the question as to whether or not cities With population of 75000 or over should organize and maintain an eff cient electrical bureau to supervise new and old installations of electric wires, motors, and generators for the better protection of life and property Cap- tain Brophy is a recognized authority on this subject, and his paper was list ened to with keen interest At the con- clusion of the reading of the paper, sev- eral gentlemen spoke of the great val ue to all chiefs of large cities, of the ] ilnformation contained in the paper, and | 1t was moved by Chief Hughes of | Louisville, Ky, that the secretary be | instructed to have 1000 copies of the paper printed. Commissioner Flood of Boston, however, offered to have print l ed at his own expense sufficient num- I Der of copies of the paper to distribute among all the members of the associa- l ton. His offer was accepted with l thanks.
 1 MT. Flood was called upon for speech and responded in few words l He said that in the course of his work | as commissioner of wires in Boston he 1 had come into contact.with firemen and l was always pleased to do all possible l to assist them. In the course of his re- marks he referred to the other cities of the country as "spokes of the Hub" :" This allusion was greeted with burst of laughter.
 Superintendent of Fire Alarm Tele-
 graph M A. Meade of Pittsburg spoke
 in favor of cities having control of the placing of wires in the streets and of l lights in buildings. He said that Pitts burg had regulations in regard to the
 matter, and that when a building was l being erected each part of the work was examined by inspectors, and if the work was satisfactory certificates were | issued to those having charge. Con- I tractors could not receive pay for work in buildings until they had received these certificates He said that three 1 inspectors were continually employed l by the city to inspect wiring and plac-
 ing of lighting fixtures.
 1 Capain Brophy, who was the repre- sentative of the International Fire En- 1 gineers' association, a committee, which | has been at work for some time formu- lating a national electric code of rules,
 announced that the, committee had completed it's work and that he was
 ready to report. Copies of the code were ready for all chiefs who desired 1 them. The convention voted its en- | dorsement of the code, and Captain
 Brophy was reelected to represent the l Cs Captain Brophy announced that there would be no changes in the code except | by the consent of all the organizations represented on the commfttee
 1 A paper on Self Propelling Engines" was read by Chief Henry J. Eaton of Hartford. Chief Eaton spoke of the great advance made in recent years in
 the construction of self propelling en- zines. In his opinion the use of self propellers was very practicable. He thought that the best engines of this | kind were those in which the power is applied from a crank shaft to center shaft which has more power than l other modes of applying power. He thought that all cities having a popu- lation of 40,000 or 50,000 should have a | self-propeller. He said that where the
 streets are in good condition the pro- pellers fill the bill better than engines l drawn by horses. He said that in all 1 the years the engines have been used in Hartford only one accident has oc- cured, and that was on the occasion of the meeting of the New EngIand Veteran Firemen's association. when
 an exhibition of a propeller was given
 in the streets. He thought that the propellers could be stopped easier than