AUTOMATIC FIRE EXTINGUISHERS.

AUTOMATIC FIRE EXTINGUISHERS.

We have recently printed several accounts of Automatic Fire Extinguishers, designed for mills, factories, etc. These consist of perforated pipes arranged around the ceiling, which can be made to automatically project small streams of water into the room to which they are attached. In New England, a number ot cotton and woolen mills have been thus fitted up, tests of the apparatus having demonstrated that the sprinklers would work as promised. There have been one or two fires in buildings thus fitted, and then the weakness of the apparatus became apparent. The fire started the sprinklers all right, but there was no way to stop the flow of water when the fire was extinguished, and, consequently, the damage by water was quite as great as it would have been had the fire been allowed full sway. It seems, therefore, to be simply a choice of methods of destruction, whether a propertyowner prefers to be ruined by fire or by water. The extinguishment of fires requires intelligence to direct the appliances by which the result is to be obtained. It is as much a part of the duty of a Fireman to prevent loss by water as by fire, and lately, where there is a suspicion of a reckless use of water to the injury of property, the Firemen are called to account for it; at least, this is so in the best regulated Paid Departments. It is a matter of emulation between companies to see which can put out fires with the least water. To do this, the modern inventions of shut-off and controlling nozzles have been introduced, and the relief valve supplied to steamers. On reaching the scene of a fire, it is the duty of the first officer on the ground to inspect the premises, locate the exact spot where the fire is raging, and then to bring to bear such appliances for its extinguishment, with as little loss as possible, as are at his command. If he can put the fire out with an Extinguisher and a gallon of water, he is expected to do so. The old method of breaking in all the windows of a building from which smoke is seen to issue, to smash holes in the roof, and to deluge the premises with a dozen powerful streams of water, have given place to more sensible practices, which locate the fire exactly, and then use just so much water as is necessary, and no more. To do this successfully requires intelligence of no mean order, and good judgment that can only be derived from long practice. Fires will never be skillfully and satisfactorily extinguished by automatic appliances until such appliances can be made to think and act with intelligence, and reason logically upon cause and effect.

A Cincinnati gentleman has invented something new in this line, which seems to differ from the New England sprinklers only in some minor matters of detail. It is expected by its sanguine friends that it will do away with Firemen, Fire Engines, watchmen, telegraphic alarms, and all the agencies now employed to detect and extinguish fires. The plan consists in placing in the ceiling of the room water vents, which are sprinklers, sending the water out in many small streams instead of one larger one. These are connected with ordinary water pipe, which has a valve placed in the cellar or basement, so arranged that the water cannot get into the pipes in the house, until a weight attached to the lever of the valve, and held by a wire is dropped. This wire is in several pieces, and is joined by seals of a fusible alloy, which melts at 165 degrees of heat. Then the lever drops, and the water rushes in and the sprinklers send down a flood of water on the fire which has set the water to flowing. The fall of the weight sets in motion a clock work alarm, which rings a bell until it is stopped. To guard against flooding the building in case of any accidental breaking of the wire, the sprinklers are sealed by this same fusible alloy and will not let the water out until the heat melts their seals. By this arrangement the water only flows from such sprinklers as are exposed to the fire. It is easy enough to set such an apparatus going, but to control the streams thus started, to direct them to the exact point where combustion is going on, and to shut off the water when the work is done, is not so easily accomplished by any automatic arrangement. But it is good to see experiments of this kind going on; it indicates that the public is awakening to a better realization of the necessity for means of fire extinction, which must bring with it a better appreciation of the services of those men who are devoting their lives to this duty,