A Londoner on High-Pressure Lines.
From a letter to The Fireman of London a correspondent the following extract is made:
New York has a pipe-line system, with pressure obtained from machinery at a fixed point. I think that it is dangerous to rely upon one set, or even two sets of engines, to maintain pressure over a whole city, and it seems to me that an ‘augmentor’ system, i. e., low-pressure mains with smaller pumps at numerous points, would be very little more expensive and a great deal more satisfactory. * * * I do not regard the New York system as an improvement upon it. Practically, of course, a steam fire engine, when fed from a city main, is an “augmentor,” but this does not weaken my argument, which is that a number of small pumps are better in the long run for fire purposes than one which may fail and so incapacitate the service of a whole city.
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