A New “La France” Steam Fire Engine.

A New "La France” Steam Fire Engine.

而稳步增加每年浪费的火, outstripping in proportion the growth of our communities and the increase in the burnable property of the country, impresses continuously upon the public mind the necessity of constantly increasing vigilance in guarding against the outbreak of fire, and of improving to the fullest possible extent ways of quenching the flames, the problem confronting the firemen of to day is becoming, under the conditions of modern building construction, day by day more difficult of solution, and every improvement made in the tools with which they do their work becomes of greater or less importance to the whole community.In FIRE AND WATER this week we illustrate the newest improvement in fire apparatus, in the shape of a new piston or reciprocating steam fire engine and pump recently invented by T. S. La France, the mechanical engineer of the La France Fire Engine Company of Elmira, N. Y., and for which a patent is now pending. The engine is compactly built, handsome in appearance and of light weight, albeit a powerful water-thrower. The invention, however, refers principally to the pumps, which are either of the single or duplex vertical type and of a unique design.The principal points of excellence are :

First—The very convenient manner in which both the receiving and discharge valves, as also the interior mechanism of the pump, are made accessible. This improvement is of such a nature that it will not necessitate the taking down of the pump or cause any interference with its outside mechanism. The pump is double acting and occupies an upright position in the fire engine, and the invention consists in a novel construction of the pump casing and arrangement of the inlet and outlet passages with the pump barrel, and in double sets of valve chambers arranged in the front or accessible side of the pump casing, closed by separate lids and with all the valves grouped in close relation with each other.