NOTES FROM NEWARK.

H. L. T.

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.

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NOTES FROM NEWARK.

By
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NOTES FROM NEWARK.

(Special correspondence of FIHI AND WATER.)

NKWAKK. N J , July X

Last year this city built four new fire houses, which were turned over to the fire commissioners to equip and maintain. The commissioners bought seven steamers, seven combination wagons, two trucks, and added thirty-five men and twenty-five horses in the department. This year they hope to purchase a $40,000 fireboat, to spend $7,500 for rubber tires for the apparatus, $6,500 for a water tower, to buy five more combination wagons, three new steamers, two new hook and ladder trucks, one aerial truck, a large quantity of new hose and other appliances, and sufficient horses to add a third horse to every engine which has now only two, with the necessary hitches and harness, and to pay for the alterations to the houses New houses are also wanted for the newly annexed district and for the extreme northern portion of the city in the vicinity of Tiffany & Co.’s $1,000,000 plant. The members of the local board of trade are backing up the efforts of the fire commissioners to make this city’s fire department as nearly perfect as possible. Last year the total fire loss of Newark ($407,500 -an average per alarm of $461.71 and a per capita loss of $1.1S) was about $147,000 below tne average an nual loss for the past ten years, and with an ex ception. that in which the grain elevator of the J. S. Smith Wallace company and the Dixon brush factory were burned, were of no great magnitude The loss in 1901. it may be noticed, was $560,453.90 below that of 1900, To fight fires today the department has 236 men. with the following apparatus in actual service or in reserve: Nineteen steam engines, all either new, rebuilt, or as good as new; seven hook and ladder trucks: two chemical engines; eight combination Chemical engines and hose wagons; eight ordinary hose wagons; six battalion wagons; two telegraph wagons: twenty exercise and supply wagons, and 102 horses The department requires the use of twenty-four buildings owned by the city, which, together with the apparatus, stores, fixtures, and telegraph system, are valued at from $750,000 to $800,000. In reality the department is proportionally equal to that of any large city in the United States—and not so many vears ago it mustered but one company, and that volunteer!—At one time on July 4th. the Newark salvage corps had three wagons out at fires. The corns used the new rubber-tired wagon for the first time and it worked to perfection. Never in the history of the local corps have the men been so busy as they were on the national holiday,—The Mount Holly Relief fire company claims to be the oldest in America. Anyway it celehrated its 150th anniversary on July 4 The Relief company is in a prosperous condition It has a fire hose carriage and a fourth-size Silshy engine Its officers arc: President. Colonel Charles M. Sloan; vicepresident. Charles H. Estill. sr.: secretary. William H. Mason: treasurer, Harry L. Walters: foreman. Richard P. Brown; engineer, William H. Rossell.

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