FIRE STREAMS AND THEIR HANDLING.

FIRE STREAMS AND THEIR HANDLING.

IN a paper with the above heading read by Cyrus R Robinson, of East Concord, N. H., before the recent Massachusetts State Firemen’s association at North Adams, Mass., was shown the importance of the fire stream and its handling, which the writer insisted was the "keynote for either the success or failure of the fireman." The latter (he said) should be a thorough student in hydraulics; he must know how to produce the best results of streams under different pressures and conditions; he must understand why certain sizes of streams in one fire will prove a complete success, while the same streams and pressures would be the direct means to increase instantly another fire into a conflagration. The stream, then, and its handling is the supreme agent that he must depend upon for his success. What ammunition is to an army, water in its different manipulations is to the fireman. * * *

Passing on to the subject of fire streams, Mr. Robinson stated that the character of the stream produced is in the form of a spray, under a pressure of 100 to 200 pounds or more to the square inch, the streams seldom reaching a distance exceeding forty feet. While the small stream is found most excellent in a fire initsincipient stages, if it were possible to project the same streams into the fire that is reaching into large proportions, even a thousand such streams, the firemen would then simply be furnishing fuel for the flames, and inviting a conflagration in place of subduing the fire. It will be found that inadequate streams lead only to disaster. The commonsaying that the fire is beyond control, simply means that it is beyond control of the sizes of streams then in use. After a careful perusal of this subject it will be seen how afire under certain conditions can be increased, or the same averted by the use of proper tools.