A little smoke, a flash, and a waste basket, a curtain or something else
is in flames. A few years ago an excited person would fail to extinguish
the blaze with water or with any other first aid at hand and would call
for the fire department. When that arrived the fire frequently would be
beyond control.
Modern methods have wrought great changes. Nowadays, in case of fire,
any man, woman or child can reach for a fire extinguisher and after a
few strokes of the pump the fire is out.
This change did not come all at once. The fire extinguisher has been
developing ever since man learned to fear fire. Devices for
extinguishing fire are almost coeval with that element itself. In the
second century before Christ, the Egyptians had pumps worked by levers
to put out their fires. The Roman, Pliny, refers to fire extinguishers
but gives no account of their construction. Apollodorus, architect of
the Emperor Trajan, speaks of leathern bags with pipes attached. Water
was projected by squeezing the bags. Medieval Europe used various forms
of water pumps, and it was not until the opening of the nineteenth
century that chemicals were used to combat fire.
[Illustration]
There are two classes of chemical fire extinguishers: the soda and acid
tank or three-gallon type, and the one-quart pump type. The latter came
when the efficiency of carbon tetrachloride as an extinguishing agent
became known. All the extinguishers of this type use a liquid which has
carbon tetrachloride as a base. The liquid is a combination of organic
materials with an aromatic odor and high specific gravity. When
subjected to a temperature of 200° F. or over, it changes to a heavy,
cohering, non-poisonous gas blanket which surrounds the burning material
and cuts off the air supply necessary for the life of the fire.
The first one-quart pump type of extinguisher appeared in the United
States in 1907. There was little resemblance between it and the
extinguisher of today. A cylindrical tube with a perforated end
contained the liquid. The user was expected to sprinkle the liquid over
the fire just as salt is sprinkled from a saltcellar over meat.
One company applied the idea of pumping the liquid on the fire in 1909.
They introduced a single-acting pump. The user inserted the nozzle in
the liquid, drew it into the pump, and then ejected it on the flames.
This company substituted a double-acting pump early in 1910. The
container for the fluid and the pump were thus combined and the
extinguisher had the general appearance of those now on the market.
Brass construction was substituted for tin in the latter part of 1910,
and in 1911 all brass construction was adopted. The extinguisher has
remained practically unchanged since 1911.
This was the only one-quart type extinguisher on the market until 1911.
Since then several others have been marketed. All use an extinguishing
liquid with carbon tetrachloride as a base. They differ principally in
the manner of its ejection. The original type pumps the liquid out by
hand. Others eject it by air pressure or by a combination of the two
methods. The objection made by some people to the use of air pressure is
that it demands attention and the use of a complicated mechanism which
more readily gets out of order.
[Illustration]
The liquid extinguishing agent has seen little change since 1907. In
1914 it was modified so that it injures nothing with which it comes in
contact. It puts out fires originating in oily wastes, turpentine and
shellac, and fires resulting from the ignition of gasoline, benzine or
acetylene gas, on which ordinary chemicals and water are useless. It
extinguishes electrical fires without injuring insulation or apparatus
and without injury to the operator. A stream of this liquid has been
directed upon a circuit of 110,000 volts without the least harm to the
operator.
A German originated the soda and acid type of extinguisher from tests
made in Denmark between 1830 and 1835. The enterprising Teuton divided a
hogshead into two parts. He filled one part with a solution of alcohol
and water; the other division was partly filled with sulphuric acid. His
problem was to unite the two when he wanted to put out a fire. This was
accomplished by fastening a charge of gunpowder in such a way that when
exploded it would break the partition and mix the solutions. French
ingenuity added slight improvements a short time later.
[Illustration]
Alexander Graham, of Lexington, Virginia, applied for patents on this
type of extinguisher a number of times between 1844 and 1849. He was
unable to patent his invention. A fire extinguisher company in Chicago
and one in Baltimore obtained patents on what was known as the
“bicarbonate of soda and sulphuric acid” extinguisher by a special act
of Congress in 1865. These patents were known as the Graham patents, and
both extinguishers were called the “break-bottle type” because the soda
and acid were mixed when a glass bottle containing the latter was
broken.
The “up-set” type of soda and acid extinguisher was adapted by Meyerose
in St. Louis in 1891. The improvement lay in the vessel containing the
acid being upset instead of broken. This extinguisher was of copper
construction and had a capacity of three gallons. One fire extinguisher
company improved upon the original type of “up-set” extinguisher in 1893
by lining the extinguisher with lead which the acid did not affect.
Since 1893 there have been no improvements of consequence on the soda
and acid extinguisher. It consists of a cylindrical container with a
solution of sodium bicarbonate. Over the bicarbonate is suspended a
vessel containing sulphuric acid. When in use the acid is tilted over
and comes in contact with the bicarbonate. This liberates carbon
dioxide. The pressure generated is sufficient to throw a stream of the
bicarbonate solution forty feet. The chief disadvantages of the soda and
acid type of extinguisher are that its weight makes it cumbersome to
operate and it cannot be safely used on electrical fires until the
current has been turned off.
* * * * *
How is Gold Leaf Made?
The gold is cast into ingots weighing about two ounces each, and
measuring about three-quarters of an inch broad. These ingots are passed
between steel rollers till they form long ribbons of such thinness that
a square inch will weigh six and one-half grains. Each one of these is
now cut into 150 pieces, each of which is beaten on an anvil till it is
about an inch square. These 150 plates are interlaid with pieces of fine
vellum about four inches square, and beaten till the gold is extended
nearly to the size of the vellum leaves. Each leaf is then divided into
four, interlaid with goldbeater’s skin, and beaten out to the dimensions
of the skin. Another similar division and beating finishes the
operation, after which the leaves are placed in paper books ready for
use. The leaves are about three and a quarter inches square and are
produced in ten different shades of color, according as the gold was
alloyed with much or little copper or silver.
What is the Natural Color of Goldfish?
It is greenish in color in the natural state, the golden-yellow color
being found only in domesticated specimens, and retained by artificial
selection.
These fishes are reared by the Chinese in small ponds, in basins or
porcelain vessels, and kept for ornament. By careful selection, many
strange varieties have been propagated.
They are now distributed over nearly all the civilized parts of the
world, but in large ponds they readily revert to the color of the
original stock.
When was “Liquid Fire” First Used in Warfare?
Long before the European war, an inflammable and destructive compound
was used in warfare, especially by the Byzantine Greeks.
It was poured from caldrons and ladles, vomited through long copper
tubes, or flung in pots, phials and barrels.
The art of compounding it was concealed at Constantinople with the
greatest care, but it appears that naphtha, sulphur and nitre entered
into its composition.
How did the Greyhound Get His Name?
The name appears to have no reference to the color, but is derived from
the Icelandic “grey,” meaning a dog. They are used chiefly in the sport
of coursing, a work for which their peculiar shape, strength, keenness
of sight and speed make them exceedingly well fitted. This sport is
preferred by many people to horse racing. There are several varieties,
as the Irish greyhound, the Scottish, the Russian, the Italian and the
Turkish.
The common greyhound is of an elegant make of body, and is universally
known as the fleetest of dogs.
A good hound has a fine, soft, flexible skin, with thin, silky hair, a
great length of nose, contracting gradually from the eye to the nostril,
a full, clear and penetrating eye, small ears, erect head, long neck,
chest capacious, deep, but not wide, shoulders deep and placed
obliquely, ribs well arched, contracted belly and flank, a great depth
from the hips to the hocks of the hind-legs, fore-legs straight and
shorter than the hind legs.
[Illustration: THE GATEWAY TO AMERICA
The famous statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. The grassy space in the
foreground is Battery Park, and the round building is the Aquarium. Here
in the early days stood a rude “castle” or fort, later supplanted by an
opera house. Washington often walked in the old garden around the
building, as did other great Americans.
_Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y._]
Why is It Called “Battery Park”?
The extreme southern end of Manhattan Island is both popularly and
officially known as “Battery Park” because it was fortified in the
seventeenth century for the protection of the town. In the picture the
round building is the Aquarium, which is abundantly supplied with sea
and river fishes. The picture was taken from a platform of the Elevated
Railway, the trains of which run from this point to practically the
northern extremity of the island, making stops en route at stations
situated at approximately every eighth street.
Manhattan Island was first visited in 1609 by Henry Hudson. The first
settlement was located three years afterward on the present site of
Battery Park. The Dutch settlement here formed gradually grew into a
town called New Amsterdam, which in 1648 had 1,000 inhabitants. In 1664
it surrendered to the British and took its new name from the Duke of
York, into whose hands it came. It was the capital of the State of New
York from 1784 to 1797, and from 1785 to 1790 it was the seat of the
Federal Government. Washington was inaugurated to the presidency at New
York in 1789. The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 gave the city
command of internal commerce and since that date its progress has been
rapid, almost beyond example.
How do we Know that the Earth is Round?
We have all been taught that the earth is a nearly spherical body which
every twenty-four hours rotates from west to east around an imaginary
line called its axis--this axis having as its extremities the north and
south poles respectively--while in the course of a year it completes a
revolution around the sun.
To an observer whose view is not obstructed, any part of the earth
presents itself as a circular and horizontal expanse, on the
circumference of which the heavens appear to rest. Accordingly, in
remote antiquity, the earth was regarded as a flat, circular body,
floating on the water. But even in antiquity the spherical form of the
earth began to be suspected.
It is only on this supposition that we can explain how the horizon of
vision grows wider and wider the higher the position we choose, how the
tops of towers and mountains at a distance become visible before the
bases, how the hull of a ship disappears first as she sails away, and
how, as we go from the poles towards the equator, new stars become
visible. Besides these proofs, there are many others, such as the
circular shadow of the earth seen on the moon during an eclipse, the
gradual appearance and disappearance of the sun, and especially the fact
that since 1519 the earth has been regularly circumnavigated.
The earth is not, however, an exact sphere, but is very slightly
flattened at the poles, so as to have the form known as an oblate
spheroid. In this way the polar diameter, or diameter from pole to pole,
is shorter than the diameter at right angles to this--the equatorial
diameter. The most accurate measurements make the polar diameter about
twenty-seven miles less than the equatorial, the equatorial diameter
being found to be 7,925.6 miles, and the polar 7,899.14.
What were “Ducking Stools”?
A ducking stool was a sort of a chair in which “common scolds” were
formerly tied and plunged into water. They were of different forms, but
that most commonly in use consisted of an upright post and a transverse
movable beam on which the seat was fitted or from which it was suspended
by a chain.
The ducking stool is mentioned in the Doomsday survey; it was
extensively in use throughout the country from the fifteenth till the
beginning of the eighteenth century, and in one rare case at least--at
Leominster--was used as lately as 1809.