NOTES FROM NEWARK.
(Special correspondence of FIRE AND WATER.)
NEWARK, N. J., Oct. 7, 1902.
The report of Chief Kiersted for August shows that there were fifty alarms, of which forty-seven were first alarms from the street boxes and three were still alarms. The total estimated loss was $5,000—an average per alarm of $too and a per capita loss of somewhat under two cents.—Alterations are being made to the quarters of engine company No. 7 to make room for a three-horse hitch and better sitting room accommodations. The quarters of engine company No. 6 will be improved to make room for a three-horse hitch for that company. The commissioners intend gradually to equip every engine company with three horses and rubber tires. At present seven of the sixteen engine companies are so equipped, and two additional ones will be within a short time. The five truck companies are equipped with three horses, and all the hose wagons and combination wagons with two horses, except the wagon of No. 1 engine, whose house is not wide enough for the extra horses.—The new city hall commission has notified the commissioners that they will require the land on Broad street now occupied by hook and ladder company No. 1 and new quarters must be provided. The city will cut a new street through the Old burying ground and erect a large fire station to provide modern quarters for engine company No. 1, hook and ladder company No. 1, water tower company No. 1, and for the chief’s and deputy chief’s wagons. The new house will be large enough for a three-horse engine and two-horse hose wagon.—On the completion of the $2,000,000 city hall, the offices of the fire com missioners, chief engineer, deputy chief, superintendent of fire alarm telegraph and staff, and the operating room of the fire alarm system and all appliances will be removed to fireproof quarters in the new building. The central office system is to be enlarged, thoroughly overhauled, and some appliances added, including a new transmitter.—Chiefs Haney, of Jacksonville, and Harris, of Tampa, Fla., were the guests of the Newark fire commissioners last week. They inspected several of the fire houses, and were very much pleased with what they saw Permission has been given by the board of fire commissioners to the New Jersey Fire Alarm company to connect its auxiliary fire alarm wires with the city fire alarm system. The company will con nect department stores, factories, dwellings, and other buildings with the city fire wires and insall systems of auxiliary boxes. City Counsel Price rendered an opinion on the legality of the board granting authority, and drew up a proper agreement with the company, so as to protect the city’s interests.—A patented fireproof concrete floor, the invention of John T. Simpson, engineer of the Hay foundry, and Marshal N. Shoemaker, of New York, was recently tested in this city in a fourteen by twenty brick building specially constructed for the test. The floor—built on the roofof three arches of concrete each six feet wide on steel beams.. Four inches of concrete formed the floor and two inches covered the beams. Wood and shavings saturated with oil were piled on the floor. After the fire had burned an hour, the test showed 1,700 degrees of heat, ft reached 1,800 and 2,000 degrees hut did not disintegrate the floor. The heat measuring instrument was a platinum rhodeum pyrometer. When the fire was extinguished, after burning four hours and three-quarters, the floor was examined. The cement arches had sunk only about half an inch, and the steel beams about one inch.