Take Care of the Hose.
好的软管是成功的必要的火灾Department as good apparatus. It is, also, almost as expensive. Hose that is worth buying for fire purposes is worth from $1 to $1.25 per foot, and it is only recently that these low figures have been reached. Fifteen or twenty thousand dollars invested in hose is a moderate allowance for a city or a village of respectable size, while the large cities carry a supply that ranges in value from $50,000 to $100,000. Hose is subjected to a great amount of hard usage, and has frequently to be replaced. Much of it is injured by being run over or carelessly handled at fires, but much more is destroyed through being improperly cared for. A Company that will take great pride in a Hose Carriage costing $I,00o, more or less, lavishing upon it great care and atten tion, will totally neglect the hose which it carries, and which, not unfrequently, cost nearly as much as the Carriage. Hose, to render good service and be lasting, requir&s considerable care and watchfulness, no mat ter whether it is rubber, cotton, or leather hose. It is a very easy matter to bruise or Cut it, so that when subjected to a water pressure a burst follows. Then the manu facturer is blamed, nine times out ot ten, for furnishing imperfect hose. The life of hose is prolonged by good care to an extent scarcely appreciated. That which is prop erly washed, dried, and cared for, outlasts by far that which is neglected. All kinds of hose should be washed and dried every time it is used, and leather hose requires to be oiled occasionally; not too frequently, but often enough to keep it moderately soft and pliable. Animal oil should not be used, as it oxidizes and rots the hose. A good dressing is made of castor oil with a small quantity of beeswax melted therein. This should be applied warm from the inside with a force-pump. Noyes’ Patent Oiler is an excellent appliance for this purpose, and the work can be done without greasing everybody and everything. In the absence of such machine, it is a good plan to cap one end of the hose tightly, then hang it up and fill it full of the warm compound, and permit it to hang until the oil has penetrated the leather. We have known manufacturers to adopt this method with great success. Rubber hose should, if possible, be suspended in lengths in a tower, where the air can circulate freely through it. In this way it dries quickly and evenly. If laid on a rack, it is apt to sag down in places, and there moisture gathers and rots the hose. Oil or grease is death to rubber hose. Cotton and linen hose also want to be hung up and dried immediately after using, and no hose should ever be hung over anything whereby it is bent. It will become weakened in a short time where the bend is made in it, and when it bursts it will give way at that spot. Rubber-lined hose should be sent to be repaired at the first indication of trouble with the lining. It costs but a small sum to re-line hose, and the process may save what would otherwise be condemned as worthless. Much hose is ruined by imperlect couplings. Tjiese are often made with a sharp edge, that cuts the hose when wound on a reel. If the men having the care of hose would bestow upon it as much care as they would upon property of their own of equal value, it would last much longer and do much better service. We have heard of manufacturers refusing to sell hose to Departments that were notoriously careless in regard to their hose, for the reason that their reputations as manufacturers would be placed in jeopardy. We always regarded such stories, however, as apocryphal, for we have yet to see the hose-man who is not anxious to sell his goods to anybody, anywhere, at any time. But there is no doubt thousands of dollars would be saved to Departments if the hose was better cared for.
.”CLEANLINESS is akin to godliness.” is a maxim that has furnished a text for many a sermon in the newspapers if not in the pulpits. Our esteemed correspondent “Old Fireman,” whose contributions are always welcome, in an article which we print elsewhere, shows conclusively that cleanliness is also a great preventive of danger from fire. He shows wherein slovenliness in manufacturing establishments is conducive to conflagrations, and, at the same time, has a demoralizing effect upon the workmen. We are confident that the insurance companies of the country will endorse all he says, and would be glad to see cleanliness enforced in all quarters, at least where their pecuniary interests are large.
