STEAM FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES.
Recently the Baltimore Underwriter, referring to the project of heating cities by steam predicted as a result of the use of steam heating pipes in the streets the direct application of the steam itself to the flames, with its infinitely greater capacity for extinguishment. Commenting on this, we stated that correspondents of THE JOURNAL denied that steam possessed any virtue as a fire extinguisher, and asked the Underwriter to give us more light on the subject. This it does in its last issue in an interesting article which we reprint entire. The subject is up for discussion, and we shall be pleased to hear from our correspondents on the subject. The Underwriter says : “ We were not aware that any doubt had been entertained as to the smothering power of steam over flame, even when condensed in a lower temperature. Nor do we now perceive how there can be any question as to its direct agency in intercepting or occluding the atmosphere, which is the supporter of combustion. We have always thought that the question at issue was not as to capacity for extinguishment, but as to practical availability, adaptability, or utilization. Chemists and Engineers have devised costly apparatus for the application of steam ; for example, I)r. Orazio Lugo in this country, and Sanderson and Proctor in England, not the sort of men to waste precious time and incur heavy expense by proceeding upon mere assumption or hypothesis. Dr. Lugo, an Italian chemist demonstrated the value of his contrivance in this city eleven years ago, and doubtless he would have pushed it to general adoption had not his extraordinary versatility opened more profitable fields for his labor. S inderson and Proctor demonstrated the success of their invention in an old mill at Lower Apsley, an account of which will be found in Walford's Cyclopaedia, Vol. III., p.383. In both cases the efficiency of steam os an extinguisher was taken for granted at the start, and the conclusive proof that followed was not sought and attained as proof of the suffocative power of the steam, but of the adaption of the apparatus for its distribution.
In describing Dr. Lugo’s device in the Underwriter for December, 1869, we said, among other remarks :
If you are a current subscriber,login hereto access this content.
If you would like to become a subscriber, please visit ushere.
