THE CHEMICAL SQUIRT ONCE MORE.

THE CHEMICAL SQUIRT ONCE MORE.

"THE erudite editor of The Underwriter is nothing if not extravagant when he comes to discuss questions that seems to him to be logically unsound. We remember that he has poked all manner of fun at all chemical appliances for extinguishing fires, yet chemical engines and extinguishers go right along attending strictly to business, putting out fires in all sections of the country, and making a good record for themselves and their manufacturers.”-Fire and Water.

Our good friend, Colonel Thomson, appears in the lapse of time to have forgotten the pointof our criticism of the chemical squirts. We never ridiculed the actual capability of these contrivances, but only their false pretensions. Their manufacturers claimed that the water ejected from them was a carrier of carbonic acid gas, and that to that extent it was more effective as an t xtinguisher of fire than simple water. We insisted on their adherence to truth, the truth being that the carbonic acid merely takes the place of the old manual labor, or the modern stream as the propulsive force, and that the water holds in solution the sulphate of soda which is precipitated in the reaction of the sulphuric acid upon the bicarbonate of soda. So far as the solution of this salt may reduce the surrounding temperature, or glaz-; or vitrify the surfaces exposed to combustion, so far must its effectiveness be acknowledged. Hut aside from the fact that the main force of the gas is exhausted in its work as a motor, the whole volume of the gas that is generated would be of no value unless directly concentrated upon the narrow area of combustion at the outset of a fire. Years ago, before Professor Silliman’s death, wc uiged the distinguished chemist to perfect a device whereby such concentiaticn could be practical ly and conveniently effected. The National Hoard of Fire Underwriters would have handsomely rewarded the author of such a contrivance, and millions of property might have been saved thereby. Hut it has not made its appearance, and the prospect of its realization is not encouraging.