BELIEF VALVES FOR STEAM FIRE ENGINES.

BELIEF VALVES FOR STEAM FIRE ENGINES.

昨天美国法官WHEELER电路ay rendered a decision by which the city will save nearly $10,000,000. It was in the suit of Christopher C. Campbell against the city to recover payment for the use of a relief valve used on fire engines to prevent the bursting of hose and the loss of water. This valve was invented by James Knibbs. The defense of the city was that the valve had been in use before it was patented, and that the patent was invalid. After a long trial Judge Wheeler decided in favor of the plaintiff, and referred the case to Commissioner Duell to determine the amount due Campbell. The latter presented a claim for $2 500,000, and proved it. In the spring of 1886 the Supreme Court of the United States rendered a decision in a similar case which was directly opposite to Judge Wheeler’s opinion. This Judge then retried the case and decided that the patent was invalid. Corporation Counsel Beckman yesterday, in speaking of the large amount of money saved by this decision, said that the valve had been in use on all the steam engines during the past seventeen years. Messrs. Lockwood & Post appeared for the plaintiff and the Corporation Counsel for the city.—N. F. Star.

The above paragraph is a matter of greater importance than appears upon its face, if the statements therein are true. There is probably scarcely a steam fire engine in use to-day that has not affixed to it a relief valve of some kind. The purpose of the relief valve is to enable the man controlling the pipe at a fire to cut off the stream of water at will, without stopping the engine. By closing the nozzle the flow of water through the hose is turned back and discharged through the relief valve, while the engine continues its work. This simple little appliance has done more to prevent water damage at fires than anything else, for the pipeman can so control the stream as to use a full volume of water, a small stream, or shut it off entirely, as the condition of the fire he is fighting may require. Many years ago James Knibbs obtained a patent upon this relief valve attached to a steam fire engine, and it was claimed that not only did his patent cover the mechanism of the valve, but the method of attachment, so that if his patent was valid it was impossible for anyone else to attach any other valve to a steam fire engine without becoming an infringer.