Norwich bulletin., 1914-07-11

| The triple-action Ameriean-La- France motordriven fire apparatus owned by the city of New London and l in the keeping of Niagara Engine com pan No. l. was put to a very severe and successful efficiency test at the I fire of the Robertson mill, in Montville. last Monday night. It was not a dem onstrative test such as is given when | a new apparatus is subjected to ne- | fore official delivery to the purchaser, when special effort is made to have It's workings fully up to specifications, but was a practical test, for which no prev ious preparation was made That ap- paratus left the fire house in New Lon don at o'clock in the evening and re- turned to the fire house just six hours and forty minutes later and all that | time the engine was kept at work coI- tinuousiy. The run from New London i to the mill fire was about eleven miles, l and although section of the road wss in very bad condition, the Niagaras had two streams of water on the burn ing building within twenty minutes after leaving the fire house.
 In the run to the fire the machine carried just 1850 feet of hose and four teen 1remen. Every length or the hose was laid in two lines up steep hill of long grade and water pumped through an inch and a half, and an | inch and a quarter nozzles for fully six hours. The pumps were worked easily, with pressure averaging about seventy 1 five pounds. being all that the hremen could handle due to the frequent shirt ing of the position Of the hose lines. Although the usual complement or hose for the machine is 1000 feet, still if another line of hose was available, even in addition to the $50 feet extra, the engine would have worked faster and consequently to better advantage. l The water was lifted twelve feet from 1 a sluiceway and was pumped through | the long lines of hose with force suf- i ficient to furnish solid streams that re- quired the services of three pipemen to each stream.
 Just sixteen gallons of gasolene and three gallons of engine oil were used | during, the severe test of endurance and efficiency. About five hundred gallons of water were pumped a min ute, which could readily be increased were it practical under the circum- l stances Although the engine was not run at high speed. still if travelling on
 the highway instead of pumping water; | the apparatus would have traEelcd about 220 miles. No the engine did | not stop for even a second, as the gears | that gave the motive power was shift | ed to the pumps immediately upon ar | back again for the homebound trip. The Niagaras and all New Londoners i have reason to feel proud of this mod ern fire-fghting apparatus
 |
 1 The Niaqaras fs the only triple ao- ! ton fire fighting machine in Eastern Connecticut and ought to be duplicated | in New London, which is gradually becoming a city of motor-driven fire apparatus. With the hook and ladder
 zations in the New London Volunteer 1 fire department and there are five I motor driven. While the disposition seems to be to be up to the minute in l the matter of equipment, there Is l lateness of about twenty minute in not l substituting another triple action ma chine for a combination chemical and i hose wagon. Of the five machines l the city has been given opportunity to | purchase only two, owing to the spirit 1 that prevails in the New London de- | partment and which is the cause of it's general efficiency of the volunteer de- par tment The fremen realize that !. New London, Is not New Haven, or | a Hartford, a Waterbury, or even a.
 Bridgeport, and for that reason some l of the companies have substituted motor-driven apparatus for the hand l drawn and at no expense to the city, | knowing that to satisfy personal pride 1 there would be no justification in hav- | ing the taxpayer bear the burden of 1 the expense of the substitution
 Just the same, every piece of fire
 | apparatus in the city, is under the I absolute control of the chief engineer
 1 and his assistants and the court of | common council. through it's repre- l sentatives, the fire committee. As a I result better service is given the city than could be possibly given by such a paid fire department that small city Ffike New London could maintain with I any degree of efficiency in comparison with the present volunteer fire depart ment. The city has the apparatus and | the firemen. too. as good and as eff1- l cient as in any other city in the land. l and the taxpayer is not round should | cred over the taxation burden that goes to the maintenance of the fire l department.
 There Is now there always has been,
 and there probably always will be just
 a few persons who advocate a paid | department In New London, but as a
 rule their preferences are based on
 pnre jeaiousiy or unfamiharity with
 the real fire department and other To-
 cal conditions. These few advocates
 are not numbered among the many
 1 who pay the freight; not among the I men who have to scratch gravel to
 l meet their taxes and interest periods.
 l or among those who are always in the
 T van for public improvements and who
 stand ready to assess themselves For Il the cost, or rather their proportionate
 I share of the taxation. It is not a. tug I on the purse string to talk paid fire Il department under certain conditions,
 l but in the vernacular of the old whale
 men, Talk is cheap, but it takes money
 l to buy grog." Local conditions may
 change before the millennium, when the
 l tax paying population will insist on
 l increase in the tax rate, or there may
 I come a time when there is deteriora-
 I ton in the efficiency of the volunteer Il fire department. but until there are
 such conditions. there will be no de-
 mand for a paid fire department for
 the city of New London.
 Il The few but persistent advocates of
 I paid fire department for Now London
 1 have planted their little acorn of dis
 l content in the columns of local news
 l papers in the hope that 1t would grow II and strengthen like unto the sturdy I oak, but as a matter of fact 1t has j proven to be of mushroom growth and
 consistency. Every little incident that I happens in the large body of volunteer
 iremen is magnifed and crystalized
 many fold and presented to the read