GREAT FIRES AND GREAT ENGINES.

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small, when first seen, that a man took a pail, to which was attached a cord, to fill from the wharf, and with the water he would have extinguished the fire, but the cord untying, the bucket floated away, and the loss by fire in five hours was half a million of dollars. This is one example. The turret fire, also at East Boston, of which the president of the company making the turrets for war vessels waiting for them at the Navy Yard, said to me: “I could have covered the fire with my hat if I could have reached it, or have put it out with one of your engines in a minute! The loss was $250,000, besides the loss of the use of the iron-clads for a year. Still another was the destruction of the Winthrop House and Masonic Temple, of which the police reported that, when they arrived (not when the fire was first seen), it could have been easily put out with a few buckets of water. And who does not recollect the great fire which began in a hay-store near the Boston and Maine Depot, and which for a time was one of the most splendid fire battles ever fought by the Boston firemen. The men worked like heroes; the splendid engines almost outdid themselves. But the fire rushed on through the hay and straw stores and the stables, then on to the great depot on one side, and the rows of wooden buildings filled with numerous families on the other, while a great cloud of smoke

rolled over the city, from which dropped millions of sparks, one of which set fire away off on Charles Street. Firemen fell into the taken out without a loss of life.

flames, but were

Many thousands of dollars worth of property were destroyed. Who seeing that terrible battle could have believed that this monstrous fire, when first seen, was so small, only on one bundle of hay, and that within a few feet of the door, out of which it could have been pitched in a moment, or the fire dashed out with a small engine in two seconds!

These are a few of the many instances of the inefficiency of the present system under the most favorable circumstances, for the department of Boston is one of the best in the world.

But why has not this inefficiency been discovered before? Just as the streets of Boston have continued narrow and crooked. Just as the Boston Board of Health nursed the small-pox until the people would not longer endure the nuisance, and so turned reformers. Just as the London Fire Brigade, when Ericsson, our turret hero, with John Braithwaite of London, made a splendid steam fire-engine in 1829, did all they could to annoy its workmen, and would not, if possible, allow it to play at fires. Of this we have the following account :—

"This engine worked with the greatest success

POUND FOOLISH.

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at the fire at the Argyll Rooms, when the cold was so severe that the manual engines quickly became frozen and useless, but the steamer worked incessantly for five hours without a hitch, throwing its stream clear over the dome of the building, at St. Charles Street, Soho, at the burning of the English Opera-house, and Messrs. Barclay's brewery, besides many others of less magnitude, at all of which it rendered signal service in preventing the fire from spreading. For these gratuitous services and the great outlay encountered by Mr. Braithwaite, he received but little patronage and support from the general public; and from the insurance companies, who must have been benefited some thousands of pounds by his exertions, he received the magnificent testimonial, presented to his men, of one sovereign! In short, the managers of the Fire Brigade declined to entertain Mr. Braithwaite's proposals, and their servants, when they met him with his engine at fires, which he for a long time attended gratuitously, perpetrated every possible annoyance towards him, so that he ultimately withdrew in disgust from the new field in which he had hoped to have both profitably and usefully employed his talents and resources."

These are the reasons! And such have been the reasons why every improvement has been opposed in all times. But if the present steamers are not

sufficient, why not add more? Well, double the number, and see the result.

The same time to hesitate, to run to the telegraph box, to attach the horses, to attach the hydrant, and get the leading hose out to the fire; a minute or two saved in running to the fire; so that were the expense increased to a million of dollars annually, the efficiency for preventing fires would be but slightly increased. For fighting them, if the water supply was sufficient (as it is not), they would be more efficient, of course. But do not forget that preventing and not fighting fires is what we most need. The fires of Chicago and Boston prevented, would have saved nearly $300,000,000.

No person who reads the daily papers can fail to notice the great number of persons who are killed in one way or another by pistol shots. A ball from one of these little instruments will as effectually kill a man as will a six or a sixty pound shot, and in a much more decent manner. Now the same degree of intelligence and ingenuity which has been devoted to the weapons for destroying man, has been expended upon little machines for extinguishing fire. In this country where the one great idea for years has been to throw the largest stream of water, we don't understand this.

But small engines were introduced into the London Fire Brigade in 1848, since which time one has

KING AND BADDELY'S TESTIMONY.

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always been attached to the great engines. When they reached the fire, it was fought, if large, by the great engine, but if small, a great fire was prevented by the little one, and with only a slight loss by water.

Let us now learn the English opinion of these little machines, after fifteen years' experience. Mr. Charles E. King, C. E., in a paper upon the suppression and extinction of fires read before the London Society of Arts, in 1863, said: “From the great apparent difficulty of successfully dealing with large fires, it is manifest that those plans will be most advantageous which can be applied at the commencement of a fire. And for this purpose, the ordinary hand pump cannot be surpassed. The great success which has attended its use both by firemen and civilians, is in many well authenticated cases truly marvelous. Many fires which upon their first discovery could have been covered with a hat, for want of such an apparatus as a hand pump and a pail of water, have grown into extensive conflagrations."

In the discussion which followed the reading of Mr. King's paper, the experienced Mr. Baddely said: "In its early stages, fire in most cases is quite manageable, and that is the time when it can be dealt with, with the greatest chances of success. Of all modern inventions for fire extin