CINDERS SPRAY

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CINDERS SPRAY

—Contractors and municipal officers will find it to their advantage to read the contracting intelligence in FIRE AND WATER every week. More items of interest to city and town authorities will be found in its columns than in any similar class paper published in the country. The subscription is only $3 per year, $1 for four months.

—Woodland, Cal., wants a fire alarm system.

—Joliet, Ill., will appropriate $2000 for fire apparatus.

—Scranton City, la., is said to need better fire protection.

—Cincinnati, O., will have twenty-five additional patrol boxes.

—Louisville, Ky., will buy a new fire engine at a cost of $4000.

—Seville, Fla., and Toronto, O., will each organize a fire company.

—Brooklyn, N. Y., had eleven fires last week ; the losses were light.

—New hose-houses will be built at Richmond, Ind., and Brainerd, Minn.

—The fire alarm telegraph wires in New York are all to be put under ground.

—The annual inspection of the Montreal Fire Brigade took place October 29.

—At Valparaiso, Ind., a new hose company will be organized and a hose tower built.

—Dubuque, la., has been equipped with twenty-one Gamewell fire alarm boxes.

—Park River, Dak., which had a$50,000 fire recently, needs improved fire protection.

—The town of Kluzin, Poland, has been totally destroyed by fire. Many lives were lost.

—Georgetown, O., will purchase fire apparatus and construct a water supply system.

—Chicago will have a new engine-house and new fire company, to be known as No. 42.

—One of the reserve hand fire engines at Ilallowell, Me,, was recently destroyed by fire.

—Charles Adams has been appointed chief engineer of the fire department of Woodland, Cal.

—Throw flour or a woolen rug over a fire caused by a broken kerosene lamp. Never use water.

—A woman and three children were fatally burned in a Leadville (Col.) boarding house last week.

—E. B. Preston & Co. of Chicago will accept thanks for a copy of their handsome catalogue.

—The ladies of Wolfboro, N. H., are soliciting funds for the purchase of a hook and ladder truck.

—Hooper, Neb., will buy a hook and ladder truck. T. W. Lyman, clerk, can give information.

—John Lestman of the Lake View (Ill.) Fire Department was recently badly injured by a runaway team.

—Moorestown, N. J., has spent $1000 for fire hydrants, and will take steps to organize a fire department.

—The fire commissioners of Hartford, Conn., ask for an appropriation of $10,000 for a new fire engine.

—Two men were recently killed and 3000 olive trees destroyed at Hat bona, Tunis, by the bursting of a waterspout.

—The following named towns will purchase fire hose : Bismarck, Dak., 300 feet; Zanesville. O., 600 feet; Galesburg, Ill., 150 feet; Cincinnati, O., 1000 feet; Fort Worth, Tex., 1500 feet; Newark, O., 500 feet; Brainerd, Minn.

—Thomas Riley, a member of the Amsterdam (N. Y.) Fire Department, was fatally injured at a fire last Sunday.

—At a recent large fire at Lake View, Ill., the fire hydrants were found to have been spiked by some unknown persons.

—St. Louis, Mo., last week purchased 2000 feet of Eureka brand hose from the Eureka Fire Hose Company of New York.

—M. L. Atkinson has been arrested in Ozark county, Mo., on a charge of arson committed three years ago, and has confessed.

—The British steamer Hawarden, from Savannah, October 18, for Rcval, put into Queenstown November 3 with her cargo on fire.

—A new fire company will be organized at Rapid City, Dak., one also at Columbus, Ga., and a new hose company at Fulton, Ill.

—Raoul Charbonneau, charged with committing arson at Montreal, has been arrested at Holyoke, Mass., and returned to Canada.

—The Austrian bark Lussignano, from New Orleans for Genoa with cottonseed oil, has been burned at sea. The crew was saved.

—The steamer Peninah of the Red river and coastline, laden with 1040 bales of cotton, was burned November 1 near Alexandria, La.

—By the explosion of the boiler of a threshing machine near Ellendale, Dak,, October 25, three men were killed and several badly injured.

—The expenses of the visit of Chief Engineer Eaton of Hartford, Conn., to the national convention at Atlanta will be paid by the city.

—The new La France steam fire engine at Peabody, Mass., has been given another and thoroughly satisfactory trial, and has been accepted.

—Lynn, Mass., has bought from the Boston Woven Hose Company a second Boston extension ladder of the ” Junior ” class for inside work.

—Chief Engineer W. H. Newbury of Lincoln, Neb., will accept thanks for back numbers of FIRE AND WATER. WC now have all that we need.

—Goulds & Austin of Chicago are agents for the New York Belting and Packing Company. Their trade in this line is improving every day.

—At Cleveland, O., October 28, a huge boiler of chemicals used in the preparation of paints, blew up. Two men were killed and ten badly injured.

—John Ilodcl of Turnerville, Conn., on Wednesday shot and killed his wife, fired the house and smothered his two children. He has been jailed.

—There is said to be $40,000 insurance on a single piano in New York, the famous jeweled and gem-studded piano owned by the Marquand family.

—Chief Black of St. Paul, Minn., ex Chief Turnock of South Bend, Ind., and ex-Chief Culver of the same city, were recent visitors to Chicago.

—The Montreal city garbage crematory was destroyed by fire on October 30. Only the chimney was left standing. The damage is estimated at $15,000.

—The suspension of the National Rubber Company’s mills at Providence, R. I., leaves 1400 persons idle. There is considerable suffering among them.

—Charles Moore, a telegraph operator employed in the train despatcher’s office at Huntington, Ind., at the time of the Kouts disaster, has become insane.

—Mrs. Henry Ludlow of Haddonficld, N. J., was burned to death last Monday by the upsetting of an oil stove, against which she had pushed a baby carriage.

—The Trenton(N. J.) common council favors the establishment of a paid fire department. The citizens will vote upon the subject at the next charter election.

—The Boston Protective Company No. r has been presented with a fine oil painting of the great Boston fire by Fred E. Phelps, a well-known artist of that city.

—During the week ending October 7, there were forty fires in London against thirty-nine in the preceding week, and forty in the corresponding period of last year.

—A movement is on foot to remove the Union Stock Yards from Ch’cago, or rather Lake, as they are really situated without the Chicago city limits, to Lyons, Ill.

—Waltham, Mass., has contracted with J. Hinman of Boston for a Babcock double sixty-gallon tank chemical engine, to carry a 24-foot Craft extension ladder.

—At Rapid City, Dak., an Indian was discovered firing grain stacks. In defending his property, one of the owners was shot by the Indian. The Indian was then shot and killed, and the building in which his corpse lay was burned.

—The contract for iooo feet of fire hose for the Troy (N. Y.) Fire Department, was last week awarded to the Eureka Fire Hose Company for “ Paragon ” brand.

—E. A. Taft, Western agent of the Boston Woven Hose Company, has recently filled orders for fire hose from Marinette, Wis.; Muscantine, la., and Menominee, Mich.

—Four persons were killed and one wounded on October 31 by an explosion of dynamite at the American Forcite Powder Company’s works at Lake Hopatcong, N. J.

—Four persons were fatally scalded and five others injured by the explosion on October 28 of a battery of boilers at Holden’s fire-brick works near New Philadelphia, O.

—The courts have decided that the Plainfield (N. J.) fire board may not levy or collect a tax for fire purposes. A reorganization of the fire department will be necessary.

—Incendiaries recently fired the Hattie House at Knoxville, Tenn., and stole $1000 from the hotel safe during the confusion. The fire was extinguished with little damage.

—At Milwaukee, Wis., October 28, Lena Geisert, recently discharged, as cured, from the county insane asylum, soaked her clothing with kerosene and burned herself to death.

—At Cedarville, O., October 30, the town hall and several other buildings were burned. The local hand engine broke down. A steamer from Xenia stopped the spread of the fire.

—Chief Swenie of the Chicago Fire Department is after the gas manufacturers for discharging the refuse of their works into the river, endangering property in the lumber district.

—The new steam fire engine furnished to the city of St. Hyacinthe, Ont., by the Silsby Manufacturing Company of Seneca Falls, N. Y., has been tested with highly satisfactory results.

—The fire losses of last week are estimated by The Standard at $1,282,000, making the losses since January 1, $89,539,000, at which rate the fire waste for the year will be $108,577,188.

—The town of Latnonte, Mo., a place of about 800 inhabitants, was nearly destroyed by fire October 30, all of the business part and a dozen residences being consumed. No fire department.

—The Grand Trunk Railway Company will experiment in car heating from the locomotive. It will try the Martin system on the Cornwall branch and the Sewall system on the Ottawa section.

—Lake View, Ill., talks of buying a fire engine, which is much needed, as the water supply is poor and the Chicago Fire Department is always called upon for assistance in case of a fire of any size.

—The Naperville (Ill.) Fire Department has been reorganized and its strength doubled. For first hour seventy-five cents, and twenty-five cents for each succeeding hour, will be the members’ pay hereafter.

—The barns of A. B. Pew, near Mount Holly, N. J., were burned by incendiaries November 1. Five horses and eleven head of cattle with the entire season’s crop of wheat, rye, oats and hay were destroyed.

—Fire Marshal Edward Murphy, the widely known life-saver of the Chicago Fire Department, was struck by a railroad train while driving to a fire on the night of November 3, and received probably fatal injuries.

—Wife to husband—“ I caught Bridget starting the fire this morning with kerosene, John.” “How much do we owe her?” Wife—“Four months’ wages.” Husband—” Well, let her go on with the kerosene.”

—At New Orleans, where sixty-five fires have occurred in corner groceries since January 1, representatives of a number of prominent fire insurance companies have decided to cease writing risks on this class of property.

—Soon will come the cooler season When car-windows all must drop,

And the car-stove, when the car’s stove, Will come out on top.—Puck.

—During a heavy gale on Lake Michigan last Saturday, the steamer Vernon foundered near Sheboygan. Between thirty and forty persons were lost, only one man of all on board being picked up from a raft after sixty hours’ exposure.

—The most powerful land steam fire engine in the world, says The London Fireman, is that built by Messrs. Merryweather for the Liverpool Brigade, and called “John Hughes.” It throws a two and one-quarter inch stream 375 feet.

—The Kearny (N. J.) township committee has passed a resolution providing for the organization of a fire department in the township, under the patronage and control of this committee, and inviting the citizens of the township to meet in the town hall on Saturday evening, November 5, for the purpose of taking preliminary steps to organize a fire department.

—The New England Insurance Exchange has advanced rates at Boothbay, Me., fifty per cent, owing to the lack ot a water supply system. The rates at Augusta, Me., have been reduced because of the completion of the new water-works.

—Superintendent Abbot of the Boston Protective Department reports for September fifty-one alarms of fire. The department was on duty at fires fifty-nine hours and spread 176 covers. The total property loss was $55,500; insurance loss, $32,102.

—At Albany, N. Y., on October 30, fire destroyed Larabee’s steam cracker bakery, a dwelling, a storehouse and a barn and damaged nine other buildings. The losses are estimated at $200,000. A number of firemen were injured by falling walls.

—Trenton, a village near Helena, Ark., lost every business building in the place but one by fire on Wednesday night. On the same night the third destructive fire within two months occurred at Rawson, hear Findlay, O., consuming a number of dwellings.

—The McDonald Fire Escape Company of St. Paul, Minn., with a capital stock of $500,000, has been incorporated by John L. McDonald, Eli Southworth and David L. How, Shakopee ; W. P. Warner and John D. O’Brien, St. Paul. It will make the McDonald fire escape.

—An incendiary fire at Hackensack, N. J., on November 3, destroyed four buildings, inflicting a loss of $17,000. The fire alarm was found to have been tampered with and the lock of the Alert Hose house broken, causing great delay ; the pressure of water was also insufficient.

—The coroner’s jury, in the case of the recent fatal natural gas explosion at Pittsburgh, has brought in a verdict censuring the Peoples Natural Gas Company for employing incompetent workmen, and for making connections with the mains without first shutting off the gas.

—The Central California freight depot at Los Angeles, a building over 600 feet long, was burned on October 28 with its contents. About twenty loaded freight cars were destroyed and four Pullman, besides other passenger cars, partly burned. The loss is estimated at $250,000 ; no insurance.

—A cable dispatch from Vienna, Austria, says that Prince Czartoryski’s historic castle at Justovska, near Cracow, has been destroyed by fire. The contents of the picture gallery, which occupied the whole of the second story, were lost. The gallery contained a valuable collection of art curios.

—Deputy Sheriff and ex-Chief Engineer Thomas Honohan of Frankfort, N. Y., had his leg broken in three places some days since by the fall of a sheet of iron. Mr. Honohan’s many friends in New York State fire circles will hear of his sad accident with sincere regret, and wish him speedy recovery.

— ” Six Lives Lost—Almost a Horror at the Cleveland Insane Asylum Last Evening.” These are qualified headlines found in The Cleveland (O.) Leader of Thursday. Just how many lives must be lost to cause an entire “horror” in the northern end of Ohio is an interesting question.— New York World.

—At the recent fire engine muster at Andover, Mass., the best record in the first class was made by Tiger No. 3 of Lawrence, 276 feet 3 inches ; in the second class by Eben Sutton of North Andover, 227 feet 10 inches ; and in the third class by Joseph Swan of Everett, 192 feet 5 inches—all Amoskeag engines.

—Emile Trelat has reported, on behalf of the French sub-commission on fires in theatres, strongly in favor of the use of chemicals, rendering the stage and all its contents uninflammable, stating that the expense will not be so great as is imagined, and should fall on theatre-goers, who can not grudge an extra charge for safety.

—As a gymnast was performing on the trapeze in a hall at Monterey, Cal., October 15, a scaffolding gave way; a beam struck a large chandelier, the kerosene lamps exploded and the hall was fired. A slight panic followed, but was quickly quelled by some of the cooler of the audience, and the fire was put out with slight damage.

—During the year ending May, 1887, Edinburgh, Scotland, had 456 alarms, of which 100 were for chimney fires and 287 for fires within the city limits. Of these last only one was serious. The manual force of the department comprises 46 men, with 6 hand engines, 2 steamers, 24 hand pumps, 13 hand hose carts and three horse hose carts.

—Chief John Millikan of the Washington C. H. (O.) Fire Department opened bids for 500 feet of hose on October 10 from the Akron Rubber Company, Akron, O.; Ahrens Manufacturing Company, Cincinnati, O.; Hamilton Rubber Company, Chicago ; and the Gutta Percha Manufacturing Company, New York. The last named firm received the contract

—It is noted that the public prosecutor of Paris has ordered that the manager and assistants of the Opera Comique, which was burned some time ago with fearful loss of life, shall be put on trial for criminal negligence. This action is wisely considered a better precautionary measure than any number of patent water-spouts, iron curtains and fire extinguishers if the trial is a means for holding the accused to a rigid accountability. The preventive measures should not be neglected, however.— Western Fireman.

—In his report for the year ending October 1, Chief Engineer E. M. Carell of the Nashville (Tenn.) Fire Department recommends the organization of a new hook and ladder company and the purchase of a chemical engine. The number of fire alarms for the year was 160, and the losses $219,754 ; insured for $933,656. The expenses of the department were $49.”5-

—Joseph Orr, a well-known merchant of Wilkesbarre, Pa., was recently arrested on a charge of firing his place of business. He had previously brought suit against several companies for the insurance. In one of these suits, for $2500, a New York jury has found for Mr. Orr, who was cleared of all the charges made against him, his business reputation being entirely vindicated.

_Newton, N. H., has again aroused itself and appointed a committee to investigate and report next March what is best to purchase for a fire department. If it will take them over four months to ascertain that, will probably take about a year to buy what is recommended, if the results of the recent fire there are not then forgotten and the matter voted down.—Boston Globe.

—Lawrence, Mass., has been divided into four fire patrol districts, one member of the fire department having been appointed to take charge of each. The duty of the patrolmen is to spend at least one hour each day in inspecting sheds, stables, wooden buildings, etc., where the danger of fire is great. Combustible material lying carelessly about is to be brought to the owner’s attention.

—One of the finest fire engine houses in Chicago is that of Engine Company No. 1, located at Fifth avenue near Van Buren street. The building is of brick and stone, three stories and basement, provided with steam heat and all the modern improvements. Besides Engine No. 1 and its hose cart, the stand-pipe and water tower, and Marshall Musham’s cart and horses find quarters there.

—R. T. Whelpley, agent for the White Anchor hose at Chicago, has furnished Michigan City, Ind., with 600 feet of White Anchor hose ; Kansas City, Kan., with 2000 feet; Menominee, Mich., with 1000 feet ; and Quincy, Ill., with 500 feet of the same. Big Rapids, Mich., bought rooo feet of “ Regal ’’ jacket cotton fire hose, and Edgewater, Ill., 600 feet of mill single hose and a hose cart.

_In The Chronicle Fire Tables are recorded 621 fires which occurred in printing and lithographing establishments during the three years 1884 to 1886. The properly loss caused was $4,9°3.5o8 ; insurance loss, $2,977,122. Aside from exposure, the chief reported cause of fire was spontaneous combustion, followed by incendiarism. During the past twelve years the number of fires on such premises has averaged 143 yearly.

works of the kind have met with such favor as Grimshaw’s Steam Engine Catechism, a fifth edition of which hand-book has just been published by John Wiley & Sons of No. 15 Astor place, New York. The work is simple, correct and well indexed, and well adapted for the use of both theoretical and practical men having anything to do with the steam engine, although mainly intended for young engineers. The price is$r, post-paid.

—The Insurance Gazette of Ireland tells of a singular fire which occurred recently in the shop of a Torquay optician. The sun’s rays became focussed through the glass of a pair of spectacles which were suspended in the shop window, and thus ignited a blind. The fire and smoke, filling the window, attracted the attention of a passer-by, who entered the shop and aroused the proprietor. The fire was promptly extinguished, as it had not spread far enough to endanger the premises.

_The constant success of The Illustrated London News (American edition) is not by any means a surprise, when even the contents of a single week is considered. In the issue of October 29, besides an excellent colored portrait of Prince Bismarck, there are pictures of the Nizam of Hyderabad, two pages devoted to illustrations of the St^te of Ireland, another page of Our Troops in Burmah, one of Border Sketches in Kelso, one of Bristol Cathedral, one ol the Death of Caesar and a most attractive picture of a little girl and a dog, entitled Speak.

—Fire Marshal Thompson was recently investigating the cause of a fire in a downtown store. His suspicions were strongly in the direction of incendiarism, and a policeman was called in who had reported certain peculiar transactions on the part of the proprietor of the store What is your idea of the affair ?” “ It looks suspicious,” replied the policeman. “Think it is a case of incendiarism?” asked the marshal. “Well, I don’t go that far,” replied the policeman in a deliberate sort of way. ” I might say I think the place was set on fire.”—Philadelphia Bulletin.

_The repugnance of the fair sex to be seen en dishabille, even under extreme circumstances, was exemplified recently at Exeter, England, at a burning dwelling near the ruins of the temple of Thespia, in a lady who expostulated with those who had entered her room whilst the buildii.g was in flames for the purpose of saving her life—on the impropriety of removing her until she bad assumed her street costume. Without the courtesy of apology, the humanitarian intruders proceed to action, and enveloping her form in a large blanket absolutely abducted her to a place of safety.

—E. B. Preston Sc Co. of Chicago have under way for Seattle, W. T., a steel frame turn-table truck with steel aerial extension ladder. The firm will also furnish a handsome turn-table truck to Council Bluffs, la., and has a contract from St. Paul, Minn., for a steel truck with 90-foot aerial ladder and a city hook and ladder truck. In the shops are also two steel hose carrages for Omaha, Neb., similar to the one recently built for Milwaukee. A handsome first-class hook and ladder truck for W’atertown, Wis., has also just been completed. The business of this firm is large and steadily growing. Among other orders about to be or already filled, is one for a double-tank 50-gallon chemical engine for Omaha, Neb., and two double 8o-gallon tank engines for St. Paul., Minn.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

CINDERS SPRAY

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CINDERS SPRAY

Contractors and municipal officers will find it to their advantage to read the contracting intelligence in FIRE AND WATER every week. More items of interest to city and town authorities will be found in its columns than in any similar class paper puolished in the country. The subscription is only $3 per year, $1 for four months.

  • Cincinnati will buy 2,000 feet of hose.
  • Hose will be purchased for the city hall at Wabash, Ind.
  • Lamed, Kan., will organize a hook and ladder company.
  • Chelsea, Mass., has appropriated $450 for a new hose carriage.
  • Redwood City, Cal., will buy a hook and ladder truck and a hose cart.
  • The fire department of Bay City, Mich., will purchase 1500 feet of hose.
  • The fire engine house at Evanston, III., was recently damaged $500 by fire.
  • Xhe Port Huron (Mich.) Fire Department will purchase 1000 feet
  • of hose.
  • Lake View, Ill., contemplates the purchase of two new steam fire
  • engines.
  • A Callahan shut-off and spray nozzle has just been sold to go to Vienna, Austria.
  • Twenty-two buildings were burned in the town of Bowling Green O., on August 4.
  • The board of trade of Middleburgh, N. Y., has bought a steam fire engine for the use of the city.
  • Nearly the whole of the town of Salo, on the south coast of Finland, was destroyed by fire July 15.
  • Fifty families were made homeless by a fire at Montreal August 2. The losses are estimated at f 100,000.
  • A fire department to consist of one hose and one hook and ladder
  • company is proposed at Fredonia, Kan.
  • escapes will be put upon the school buildings at Youngstown,
  • O. The board of education can give information.
  • It is currently reported that the fire department equipment of Sagus, Mass., consists of twelve hydrants and one hydrant wrench.
  • Charles A. Nayson has been elected chief engineer of the Amesbury (Mass.) Fire Department, succeeding Foster Gale, resigned.
  • Augusta, Me., is to have a new hook and ladder truck and other fire
  • apparatus from the works of Rumsey & Co., Seneca Falls, N. Y.
  • Haywards, Cal., has no organized fire department, the apparatus being run, when needed, by the citizens.
  • Xhe salary of Chief Engineer Dimbleday of the Utica (N. Y.) Fire
  • Department has been increased to $1500.
  • Armstrong, Baker & Company of New Hartford, N. Y., have
  • placed automatic sprinklers in all the departments of their mill.
  • About half the town of David City, Neb., was destroyed by a cyclone on July 29. One man was killed. The damage is estimated at $200,000.
  • Milton, Mass., has contracted with the Manchester Locomotive Works, Manchester, N. H., for a third-class in size Ainoskeag steam fire engine.
  • Another icemaking machine exploded last week, this time in Jersey City, N. J., and a boy was killed by inhaling the escaping ammoniac vapors.
  • A great part of the car and bridge works of the Wells & French Company, at Chicago, was destroyed by fire July 30. The loss is estimated at $200,000.
  • The St. Paul (Minn.) Globe calls attention to the need of a salvage company attached to the fire department, and under control of the chief engineer.
  • Suncook, N. H., has bought from the Fire Extinguisher Manufacture ing Company of Chicago a fifty-five-gallon tank “Champion” hand chemical engine.
  • Monson, Mass., now has a fire department, and has bought two chemical engines and a hose carriage. What it now needs is a system of waterworks.
  • Hartford, Conn., contemplates the purchase of a new fire engine. Commissioners Thomas J. Blake and George Best have been appointed a committee to get estimates.
  • A wall of the recently burned St. Anthony elevator at Minneapolis fell on August 3, burying twelve men. At last accounts one had been taken out alive and five dead.
  • Orange, N. J., will adopt the Gamewcll fire alarm system. The city will pay $450 rental for ten boxes for one year, and if satisfied with the system will then buy it for $1950.
  • The Peabody Press says that that town needs steam fire engines, the pressure of water at the hydrants being insufficient to throw effective streams through long lines of hose.
  • At a picnic at Pittsburg, Pa., August 2, a gasoline lamp exploded, scattering the burning tluid over a number of persons, five of whom were badly injured, one probably fatally.
  • At a fire in King, Son & Company’s glass factory at Pittsburg, July 31, Firemen John Gillespie and John Benning were caught under falling walls, and the latter seriously injured.
  • A “long felt want” is a costume which can be donned in a hurry and will save the hotel boarder from ridicule or wounded vanity in case of an alarm of fire during the night.—Hotel Gazette.
  • By the explosion of a soda water tank in a Santo Fe (N. M.) drug store, July 27, the clerk was so severely injured that he died soon after from loss of blood. His leg was nearly cut off.
  • The Hopkins combined hose wagon, chemical engine and hook and ladder truck of the Somerville (Mass.) Fire Department has been equipped with new chemical tanks of the Babcock pattern.
  • During a fire at St. Paul, Minn., July 26, Oliver A. Burns, a member of the fire department, was struck by a falling chimney and severely injured. Several other firemen were less seriously hurt.
  • Ilaverstraw, N. Y., has bought one of the celebrated Bangor fire extension ladders. More than 1000 of these laddors arc now in practical use by the various fire departments of the United States.
  • The latest applicant for the vacant New York fire commissionership is said to be Jacob Roth, an old volunteer fireman and a member of the Produce Exchange, by which he is backed for the position.
  • Incendiaries begin young in Lexington, Ky. D. I). Bell (colored) aged nine, and Walter Carr, aged seven, are under arrest there for setting Des Coquets & Co.’s establishment on fire on two occasions.
  • Near Franconia, N. M., July 27, a freight train plunged at full speed into an arroya, the bridge over which had been burned. The wrecked cars caught fire and were consumed, causing a loss of $90,000.
  • The many friends of Henry A. Hills, secretary of the National Association of Fire Engineers, will sympathize with him in the loss of his father, who died at Cambridge, Mass., on Thursday of last week.
  • The propertyowners of the St. Paul (Minn.) suburb of St. Anthony Park are petitioning for fire protection. The property in the district is valued at about $500,000, and includes several large manufactories.
  • Gleason & Bailey of Seneca Falls, N. Y., have been awarded the contract for five regulation hose tenders for the city of New ork, at $ These will make fourteen Gleason & Bailey hose carriages in service in this city.
  • Bigler Huffert, who has been serving as chief of the Allentown (Pa.)
  • Fire Department for three months, has brought suit against that city for salary. He had been ordered by the city council to vacate the office, but
  • refused to do so, being upheld by the Mayor, and the fire committee refused to approve the vouchers for his pay.
  • The Trenton (N. J.) firemen ask for hose towers in the engine houses. They are about to receive about 4500 feet of new hose, and claim that the old hose was ruined principally because of lack of facilities for keeping it dry.
  • Charles E. Berry of Cambridge, Mass., has an order for a set of his patent hames, which are to be used in connection with a steam fire engine and team in the production of a play in the Madison Square Iheatre in New York city.
  • A colored fire company has been organized at Greensboro, N. C., and has asked permission to use the old engine belonging to the white company, which has been laid up since the purchase of a new La France steamer some months since.
  • The clothing of Mrs. Peter Steel of Scranton, Pa., took fire at a stove on Sunday last, and the woman was burned to death, despite every effort upon the part of the aongregation of a nearby church, who heard her screams and ran to her help.
  • The sixth attempt, within five months, to destroy The New Yorker Zeitung office by fire was made on August 4, but once more frustrated, the flames being extinguished by the employees before the arrival of the fire department. No arrests have yet been made.
  • At Cincinnati, July 29, a quarter of the city known as “Slop town,” covering about six acres of ground, was burned over. About twenty-five buildings, mostly frame tenements and dwellings, were destroyed. The loss is estimated at $100,000, with little insurance.
  • Rock Hill, S. C., has a new steam fire engine made by the Silsby Manufacturing Company of Seneca Falls. It was recently tested to the complete satisfaction of the fire committee of the town, among other things throwing a stream of water 200 feet through 1000 feet of hose with a one-inch nozzle.
  • The captain of the ship Anna, which arrived at Philadelphia, July 30, from Bremerhaven, became insane within a few days after leaving port, and, after firing the vessel, jumped overboard and was drowned. The ship was saved only after a whole night’s fight with the flames.
  • At the fire which burned out “ Slop town,” Cincinnati, on July 29, Captain Batchelor, J. Q. Adams, D. O’Brien, Joseph Moore and William Strieker, members of the fire department, were prostrated by the heat, the two first remaining at last accounts in a critical condition.
  • We have received from Chief Engineer J. W. Dickinson of the Cleveland (O.) Fire Department, a sheet containing a concise summary of the advantages of that city as a manufacturing, business and shipping point. The information given in this little circular is worthy of careful notice.
  • A Kansas City paper is very profuse in its praises of a young man who, by being cool and collected, prevented the possible destruction of that city a few days ago by fire. If the young man had only been warm aid scattered there would be no Kansas City to-day.— Western Fireman.
  • The boiler of the Houston Lumber Company’s saw and planing mill at Houston, Tex., exploded July 28, killing two persons and injuring several others. The accident was caused by the carelessness of the engineer, who, after allowing the water to run too low, forced in cold water.
  • The British steamer The Queen was fired on August 3 at her wharf at New York by means of a bottle containing explosives thrown upon her deck from a small boat, by Thomas J. Mooney. The fire was extinguished with little damage, and the vessel proceeded to sea. Mooney was caught and locked up.
  • The coroner’s jury in the case of William Moore, who lost his life at the burning of the St. Lawrence Sugar Refinery at Montreal, brought in a verdict censuring the Sugar Refinery Company for not providing better means of escape in case of fire, and the city council for not enforcing the laws relating to fire escapes.
  • Isaac Kidd of Philadelphia writes to FIRE AND WATER that Camden, N. J., the Hanley and the Franklin Engine Companies of Chester, Pa., and the Montgomery Engine Company of Norristown, Pa., have paid royalties to the Worswick Manufacturing Company and himself for rhe right to use suspended harness.
  • The members of Hose Company No. 9 of the Indianapolis (Ind.) Fire Department have taken to gardening. The small yard in the rear of their engine-house has been utilized by them as a garden, and of the dozen tomato plants set out by them in this fertile spot, the prospects are flattering for a bushel of fruit from each plant,
  • An item in the “ Fire Notes ” recently commented on a statement that the fire department of Atchison, Kan., had been dispensed with by the Mayor, because the closing of the saloons had cut off revenue. This was asserted in a dispatch from St. Joseph, a rival city. A letter from Mayor Kelsey of Atchison assures The News that this was a slander, and
  • that the department never was abolished, and that the city never was so prosperous as now.—Indianapolis News.
  • An apparatus for heating railway cars has been patented by John H. Ballard, Jr. of Cohoes, N. Y. It has a healing chamber within the boiler, and a subsequent superheater, a blower attached to the front axle of the tender to supply air to the coil in the heater, and a sealed blower attached to the rear axle to force the heated air to the cars.
  • Christ Lutheran Church near Strouchsberg, Pa., one of the historic structures of the State, was struck by lightning and burned on August 1. The corner stone of the edifice was laid in 1743 ; it was rebuilt in 1786 ; was two years ago badly damaged by a dynamite explosion, but repaired. Ex-Governor Andrew Schultz was born in its parsonage.
  • Gleason & Bailey, Seneca Falls, N. Y., are building hook and ladder trucks for the following towns and cities: Yonkers, N. Y. ; Westboro, Mass. ; Monson, Mass. ; Rutland, Vt.; Cannonsburg, Pa., and Torrington, Conn. ; also a hose carriage each for Yonkers, N. Y., and Pensacola, Fla. ; two for Torrington, Conn., and four for Gardner, Mass.
  • As V. A. Coots of the Detroit Fite Department was driving an engine to a fire in July, 1886, a wheel ran into a deep rut in the pavement, and he was thrown to the street and permanently injured. The city disallowed his claim for damages on the ground that the injury was due to his own negligence. He has now brought suit for $25,000 damages.
  • Fred. E. Child of Hook and Ladder Company No. 2 of the Brockton (Mass.) Fire Department writes to C. G. Braxmar of 36 Cortlandt street, New York: “The cap badges you made for us were duly received, and the boys are very much pleased with them. They were fully up to our expectations, and if in want of anything of the kind in future, will give you an order, sure.”
  • At Evansville, Ind., August 3, an incendiary fire destroyed the Armstrong Company’s lumber yard, saw mill, stables and two dwellings, the lumber yard of J. A. Reitz & Son, fifteen grain-laden cars and a warehouse containing tobacco, grain and general merchandise. About 7,000,000 feet of lumber were burned. The losses are estimated at $250,000 ; insured for about $100,000.
  • J. C. Ficken, a wholesale liquor dealer of Brooklyn, N. Y., was found in the street on the night of August 1, horribly burned and out of his mind, and died soon after. In the bathroom of his house were found a broken lamp and pieces of a burned nightshirt. It is supposed that the lamp exploded and set fire to his night clothes, and that he became insane from pain before he could reach assistance.
  • Country and general merchandise stores have burned during the past twelve years, according to The Chronicle, at the average rate of 590 a year. The record for the years 1884 to 1886 inclusive, shows a total of 3011 fires, causing an aggregate property loss of $15,046,496, and an insurance loss cf $8,002,357. The chief reported cause of fire, aside from exposure, was incendiarism, followed by defective flues.
  • Under date of July 12 last, Chief Engineer C. Whitney of the Nashua (N. II.) Fire Department, writes to Fox, Maxner & Co. of Somerville, Mass., as follows : “ I have had the Somerville extension ladder
  • thoroughly tested, and consider it superior to all other ‘ extensions ’ now in use—not excepting any we have had in this department. I consider it the best, safest and as quick to extend as any in the fire service.”
  • The insurance underwriters scared Belfast, Me., into leasing a steam fire engine to protect themselves amply from fire and increased insurance rates until their water system is completed. They are paying $50 a month for the use of a second-hand Clapp & Jones engine, formerly at Kingston, N. Y. It would be a blessing if this insurance scare would spread with great rapidity in that poorly protected State.—Boston Globe.
  • Chief Engineer Willshaw of the East Shore Fire Department of Staten Island claims that his department needs 3000 feet of hose, and that the 500 feet recently granted him by the village of Edgewater is not enough for the requirements of the department. The supervisors of the town will be urged to take action in the matter, as the property at risk is very valuable, including among other buildings the American cotton docks.
  • Assistant Foreman J. M. Murphy of the New York Fire Department has, it is said, invented a unique fire escape. It is in the form of a suspender buckle, and is therefore always at hand—with a man. When the buckle is unfastened a slender thread made of the finest silk can be unwound and let down to the sidewalk. It is capable of sustaining a weight of forty-three pounds, and its object is to bring up a rope to assist the escape of the owner in case of being cut off by the flames.
  • Reports to the Boston Manufacturers’ Mutual Insurance Company show that about two fires a week are put ou^ by automatic sprinklers. In these reports there is only one instance of a fire getttng out of a room protected by automatic sprinklers, and it is a somewhat peculiar case. The tire started under a mule carriage in a dirty mill, and thus was protected from the fljw of water from the sprinklers, which were of old con-

struction and not so sensitive as the later one, and therefore did not work so quickly. The fire worked its way along under the mule carriage, and then to an open and unprotected staircase, and so throughout the building.

  • Captain Peter II. Short of the New York Fire Department, who a year ago was appointed chief of battalion in place of Chief John McCabe, illegally dismissed from the department by the fire commissioners, and who in consequence of McCabe’s reinstatement was deposed from his command, and has since remained unattached, has begun legal proceedings to compel the commissioners to put him back. They are based upon the laws under which no uniformed member of the department may be removed except upon written charges and after a trial.
  • The coroner’s jury in the case of the persons who lost their lives by the recent railway accident at St. Thomas, Ont., returned a verdict placing the blame for the disaster on Henry Donnelly, the engineer, and Richard Spettigue, the conductor, of the train, who, they say, were guilty of criminal negligence, and charging the officials of the Grand Trunk Railway with carelessness in allowing Donnelly to have charge of an engine while he was in a condition which rendered him unfit for duty, and also in permitting the train to depart without the air brakes being examined.
  • The water at Hoxawottamie railway station gave out and a supply had to be brought in barrels for the engines. One dark night an engine by mistake was filled from six barrels of whisky and eight or ten of beer, just arrived at the station for delivery. This driver never had such a time in all his life, as the engine got drunk. It whistled constantly, snorted and reeled, the bell rang, and it was with difficulty that it was kept on the rails. And when they got into the terminus nothing would persuade the engine to go to its home in the round-house ; it stayed out all night.— Hoxawottamie Herald.
  • The report of Samuel Abbott, Jr., of the Protective Department of Boston for the month of June shows that there were sixty-one alarms of tire, but only four losses of $10,000. The highest loss was $22,000. In thirty cases where there were losses, the amount was under $tooo, and in twenty-four cases there was no loss. The insurance on buildings was $141,468; loss on buildings, $17,710; loss on buildings not insured, $6587. Insurance on contents, $146,527 ; loss on contents, $32,696 ; loss on contents not insured, $5085. Total insurance, $287,995 ; total loss, $62,029; total loss not insured, $11,622.
  • The most extensive fire of the week broke out early on the morning of August 4 in the steam cracker bakery of J. D. Mason & Co., on East Platt street, Baltimore, and spread to the premises of S. L. Parker & Co., Owens & Scott, T. N. Kurtz, Henderson, Laws ^ Co. and G. E. Whitman & Son, gutting them all. William Schulte, captain of Engine Company No. x, was carried down by a falling floor and killed. Chief Engineer Hennick was severely injured by being struck by a large plate of glass, and several other firemen were less seriously hurt. The losses are estimated at $406,000. Incendiarism is suspected.
  • It is wonderful how some propertyowners hang back when a suggestion is made looking to the safety of their property by the adoption of some simple safeguard. ‘‘Am I bound to put in buckets of water?” “ Is my insurance vitiated if I don’t put them in?” ‘‘What reduction will you make in my rate if I do?” It never seems to strike them that it is worth while to make themselves as secure as possible against fire on their ovn account. It never seems to enter their heads that every establishment that is burned for lack of ordinary safeguards is being paid for in their present rate. It never seems to occur to them that if the merchants refuse to help to reduce the fire loss the rates must stay where they are or go up. Above all, it never seems to occur to them that they must pay all the losses, and that the insurance companies are only the agents to collect the money from them. And they can’t escape it, either, any more than they can escape any other relation modern society has prepared for them.—St. Louis Examiner.
  • The 100th anniversary of the adoption of the constitution of the United States will be celebrated in Philadelphia on September 15, 16 and 17. On the 15th the firemen will parade with the civic organizations. On the 16th the military, under the command of Gen. Philip Sheridan, will be reviewed by the President of the United States. On Saturday, the 17th, there will be banquets to the judges of the United States Supreme Court, Governors of all the States of the Union and other officials. The boat races will occur on Friday. Pennsylvania has appropriated $75,000 towards paying the expenses, Massachusetts $14,000, and all of the original States have made appropriations and will be represented by at least one regiment and one fire company. Arrangements have been made to convey the eastern troops by steamship direct. Fire companies not having received invitations should address Thos. H. Peto, chairman of the committee of arrangements of.the Volunteer Firemen’s convention held for that purpose, whose address is 217 North Tenth street, Philadelphia.
  • The fire department of Atlanta had a remarkable run of luck during the month of July. There were but two fires, both of which were easily controlled by the department, and “ the machines and horses,” says The Atlanta Constitution of the 31st ult., “ have not been outside the houses, except for exercise, but twice during the month, and unless the record is broken to-day or to-night the department will be enabled to point to July, 1SS7, as the most remarkable month in the history of the department. Chief Joyner said yesterday that the actual loss from fire during July amounted to only $86. This amount was not estimated by the chief, but was the sum agreed upon by adjutsters appointed for that purpose.”
  • It is the desire of the average writer to be quoted, and the editor who sees his production reprinted and credited naturally feels proud. Quotable articles are not usually good articles. The quotable article is innocuous. It must have no snap to it. You rnusn’t call Bill Jones a 1 iar, for instance, because, although Bill may be one, no publisher feels called upon to make the general announcement. Pull’s are sometimes available, if the editor of the paper quoting is lazy and the gentleman or the company putted is an advertiser. A quotable article in the insurance press is, first, one showing the value of that press as an advertising medium as compared with the stupid daily papers ; next in favor is the article on power and great advancement of the insurance press. Nice obituary notices of anybody are apt to go well. Articles on the fire apparatus of German towns are good, but are often not credited. The “ flour dust as an explosive article,” is to the insurance press what the “ habits of ants ” is to the daily press—suits every paper and is always available. It’s not racy reading, but it conveys an air of “ science ” to the columns.— The Record.

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