FIRE AND WATER ENGINEERING.

The frequency of fires in automobile garages has caused many cities to enact ordinances especially applicable to such structures. Gasoline is looked upon as the only liquid which makes a mixture with air that is both heavier than air and explosive. This property in gasoline is what leads to much of the trouble where automobiles are housed. A mixture of gasoline and air will flow down an incline like a stream of water, and will collect in a depression of the floor in an explosive condition. Restrictive ordinances have been passed in many cities, which govern the placing, construction and management of garages. In St. Louis no building can be used as a garage unless the floor on which automobiles containing volatile, inflammable liquids are stored shall be of concrete or granitoid. All fires and lights of such vehicles must be extinguished before they can enter the garage, where smoking is also strictly prohibited.

宾夕法尼亚州的placin实验的成功g the natural sources of water supply in the hands of the state department of health should be given consideration by other states. A bulletin issued recently by the department states that since the change was made the typhoid fever rate for Pennsylvania has been reduced 50 per cent. A large corps of inspectors has been employed to watch for possible causes of the fever, and effective steps have been taken to protect streams and other bodies of water from pollution. Many communities have been compelled to build refuse disposal plants, and other communities arc now building them. There is no doubt that similar results could be achieved in this state under a like system. The larger cities of the state watch the sources of their water supply with jealous care, but vigilance is very much relaxed in rural communities and at summer resorts. Wells and other private water supply sources are not protected from pollution as they should be and as they will have to be before there can be a material reduction in the typhoid fever death rate.

The taxpayers of Denver, Colo., have, by vote, authorized the Public Utilities Commission of that city to issue eight million dollars in bonds with which to build a municipal waterworks plant. Owing to the recent injunction of Judge Lewis of the United States district court the total vote was doubtless much less than it would have been had the voters known that the bonds could be issued without court interference. The total vote was 9,391, which, under the circumstances, was considered unexpectedly large by the members of the Public Utilities Commission. The vote for the bonds was 7,006, with only 3,385 against. The majority, therefore, was 4,621. The bonds, however, cannot be issued until the case has been threshed out in the courts. The people have simply authorized the issuance of the bonds as required. No action will be taken by the commission until every legal obstacle has been removed. The taxpayers have authorized the Public Utilities Commission to proceed with the necessary litigation, which the water company institued after the city refused to buy the plant for $14,000,000. Should the city be victorious in this suit, it will first offer to purchase as much of the facilities of the Denver Union Water Company as it can use.