Fire Nets.
It is a little strange, in view of the many awful disasters by fire which have occurred from time to time, that the inventive skill of the country has not devised some practical contrivance whereby life may be saved in certain contingencies. Suppose, for instance, a condition of facts which has frequently existed, even very recently, where the unfortunate persons in a burning building have been driven to the windows as the only means of escape. Sometimes they are saved by the fire ladders ; but in many instances they are not, and then they are compelled to choose between the certain death behind and the almost equally certain death before or beneath them.
This occurred at the St. Louis Hotel fire. A large number of persons were killed or maimed for life by jumping from the windows. A short time since a very simple arrangement —it cannot be called an invention—was suggested in London to meet an emergency of this kind. It consisted of a large, stout netting supported by poles ten or fifteen feet high, upon which those in the unfortunate position we have supposed might jump and be caught. We do not wish to be understood as saying that this is the best means that can be devised in such cases, but certain')it is better than the hard sidewalks. This is a subject which might properly engage the attention of our inventors and Fire Department officials, and we refer to what is doing in England in this direction in the hope of interesting them in the matter.—Phila. Item.
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