Year: 1869




We announced yesterday the return of Captain
Shaw, the Chief of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade,
to London, from his tour of inspection Of the
working of the fire departments in the principal
cities in the United States.


He eulogizes in the warmest terms of graft
tude the very cordial and hospitable reception
he had met with in all the cities which he
visited, but he could not disguise his extreme
disappointment at having taken so long, labo-
rious, and expensive a journey with absolutely
no result whatever beyond acquiring know
ledge of the true condition OF the several fire
departments. His hope had been that in each
of the great cities he would have opportunity
of discussing with practical men the details OF
organization, training, discipline, drills, econo-
my, mechanical appliances, and all the
other subjects of interest to those who
had adopted the business rs their
profession, bat he had nowhere been able
to do this except on the smallest possible scale,
in consequence of the existing arrangements.
He was Of opinion that the telegraph makers
had done much for the fire departments, and
that the steam fire engine builders had also done
much but that the officials had done very little
for themselves, either by instructing the engine
builders and makers of their appliances gene
rally as to the real requirements of the service,
or by exercising and practising themselves in the
use of such appliances as they have. Their
Cines can throw water we'll but those in use are
for the most part heavy, unwieldy, and incOnve-
y nient in the extreme; and what is still more re-


uarkable, their new ones are in almost every


Nnt precisely the same as those first made many


US ago. 1t was impossible to doubt that the
lers who originally showed much inge-
A-A ty in the design and construction of their
machines would have been able to alter them to
suit the requirements of the service, had they
been properly advised by practical persons rs
to what those requirements were; but it APP
peared to him that the introduction of politics
into the fire department, particularly in the Sc
lection of their principal executive officers has
been the means of preventing many of the most
intelligent and promising members from remain
ing in charge long enough to acquire such know
ledge of the details OF the profession as to
enable them to point out to the makers of their
appliances what was really wanted and to in
struct their men in the use of them when made.
1t was perhaps not generally known in England
that the chief officers, or as they are called,
chief engineers, of most of the American fire
departments, and the principal assistant engi-
neers, are elected not promoted, and that politi-
cal influence is commonly paramount in the
elections. In some towns the chief and his
assistants were appointed by the mayor, and
this was probably the better mode of the two;
but in whichever way they obtained their places
the appointments generally were only tempo
rary. and varied in duration from one to about
three years, according to local arrangements. 1t
was hardly to be believed that in the midst of a
practical nation like the Americans the chief of
an important department, requiring a cOnside-
rable amount of skill and special training,
should be obliged every year to enter into COM
petition with his own subordinates and Others,
and either to stand continued fresh elections or
10 lose his place Such was, however, the case,
and the effect of the system is, of course, fatal
TO the advancement of the professional work of
the fire departments. Nothing could exceed the
cordial and friendly nature of his intercourse
with the municipal authorities, boards of
fire commissioners and executive officers of
the fire departments wherever he went,
and in reply to their inquiries he had been
those opinions he had not heard so much as one
dissentient voice. He had, therefore, on the
whole, come to the conclusion that the present
system was doomed, and would be one day
altered; and when that day came he had no
characteristic
of the Americans would be brought to bear on
the machinery and appliances OF the fire de-
partment, and weuld have the almost immedi-
ate effect of raising them from their present
dead level to a much higher position.


They had now powerful and weghty ma
chinery and appliances drawn about by large
numbers of horses and worked by enormous
bydies of men, but it could hardly be
supposed that the cities would long con-
tinue to supply funds for the payment Of
heavy expenses rendered necessary chief
~ the want of skill and practice On
compelled to state his opinion freely, that al
though he considered them perfectly justified in
boasting of any institution in which all con-
cerned take very great interest, and also per-
fectly justified in placing political partsans at
the head of any institution they pleased, he
could see no possible justification for combining
the two; on the contrary, that If they wished to
boast they would have to abandon their political
appointments, or if they wished to continue
their elections they would have to cease boast
ing. He had also told them that he had found
among the chiefs some useful, active,
and Intelligent men, but that, so far as
could Judge those men had advanced
themselves not by the system, but in
spite of it, and wherever he had stated
the part of those concerned, it was very sim
gular and unaccountable fact that the Americans,
in their admiration for steam fire engines, had
forgotten or ignored the use of hand-worked
engines, and had abolished them altogether,
thus absolutely depriving themselves of the
means of instantly eXtinguishing fire at their
own doors and so leaving themselves in this
particular point far behind the most backward
nations of Europe. He had asked in every city
why this had been done, but he had not re-
ceiyed as much as one reply giving the slightest
reason; on the contrary. the answer generally
was that hand engines were OF nc
use-a statement quite without mean
ing in the face of the fact thai
some of the principal cities of the world are
still entirely protected by them. He was clearly
of opinion that no city of any description, ano
more particularly no large mercantile city
should be without both kinds of engines; thai
the manual or handworked engines should very
LARGELY predominant in number and that, as
general rule, every station containing steam
engine should be provided with at least one
manual engine in addition, as the latter could b(
rot TO work in about thirty seconds by one man
Whereas il is almost impossible to get steam
on rine to work in less than three or four min
1tes from the receipt of a call even when there
are plenty of hands present. lie found thC
American fire departments OF Doth KINDS Spalo
and voluntary formed on military Dasls, penn
composed of a number OF bodies called compa
niesi 10 a great extent independent OF each other
making their own promotions separately, Du
like several regiments working together, Whel
cal ed on under a superior head. Ihls seemed u
he understood by all concerned, and to work, OF
the whole, rather well; but he was convinced
that n military organization was badly adapteC
md hot ppOnOmX