THE SCIENCE OF FIRE EXTINGUISHMENT.

THE SCIENCE OF FIRE EXTINGUISHMENT.

We have harped so much upon the necessity of securing better means, consonant with the increasing fire hazards, for extinguishing fires, and have so repeatedly urged scientists and inventors to devote their talents to the subject, that we are glad to note the fact that the scientific papers are coming to our aid in this matter. One of these contemporaries says that the art of putting out dangerous fires has not yet been carried near prefection, either by practical Firemen or scientific theorists. The Fire Departments of several of our principal cities are certainly doing good work and rendering the public efficient service by their promptitude, courage, and activity, but that any of them have gained entiie mastery of their calling, no one who has a thorough knowledge of the subject, and an adequate conception of the advantages afforded by modern mechanism and science, will main'ain. We do not make this statement with the view of foisting on the municipal authorities of any place a patent invention for helping to quench fires or save life endangered by the flames, but we would, in what we premise, impress upon all engaged in this line of duty, or earnestly interested in its proper fulfillment, the necessity of employing every means and measure calculated to further the early discovery of fires and their extinguishment by the most expeditious and the least wasteful and destructive methods.

如果这个改革是在任何方面需要我们的冷杉e Departments, which have been brought up to the highest standard of rapidity, expertness , and efficiency ever attained in this or perhaps in any other country, how much more is it required in those organizations which are imperfectly equipped and have never been ably directed or dilligently and skillfully trained ? No body of Volunteer or Paid Firemen ever renders yeoman service to the public that is not inspired with earnestness and zeal in the work of fighting fire. If the members are, however, animated with this spirit, they will constantly aim at their own improvement, and never rest satisfied until they have attained to as high a degree of excellence as their time means, and opportunities permit them to reach. They all need instruction. A concise and complete manual of fire extinguishment should be compiled and published for the use of members of Fire Departments. It should be the composition of the ablest, most experienced and practical minds, and superior to anything on the subject that has yet appeared. The Chiefs ought, of course, to be masters of its principles and details, and the more familiar the men become with its contents the more intelligently and effectively will they discharge their duties. The Chief of the London Fire Brigade, Captain Shaw, informs us that he never sends a man to a fire until he is able to handle every implement in use in his Department with ease and dexterity, and this is not too much to require of those upon whose readiness and skill the loss or preservation of so much property, and even of life, depends. .