These methods of supervision, building and equipment do not refer to any
ideality, but to measures which have been widely carried into effect for
the purpose of reducing the fire-loss; the result of such action being
to diminish the cost of insuring industrial property engaged in such
normally hazardous processes as textile manufacture and other
industries, down to a yearly cost of less than one-fifth of one per
cent. This has been accomplished by the consideration of sources of
danger and their abatement, and by a course which has been in line with
sound engineering principles, and also practical methods of manufacture;
and it has thus been proved that it is cheaper to prevent a fire than to
sustain a loss.
There has been no attempt made to credit individuals with their share in
these features of mill development. They have been the outgrowth of a
continual profiting by experience, adopting some features and modifying
others. The concurrent action of the large number of minds engaged on
the same problem has led to duplication of methods; but the whole
progress has been a matter of slow, steady growth, advancing by hairs'
breadths, as the result of persistent efforts to adapt means to ends in
the endeavor to reduce the cost of manufacture.