1st. In its simplicity. It dispenses with complex machinery, experienced
engineers, reservoirs, and steam. Carbonic acid gas is both the working
and extinguishing agent.
2d. In promptness. It is always ready. No steam to be raised, no fire to
be kindled, no hose to be laid, and no large company to be mustered. The
chemicals are kept in place, and the gas generated the instant wanted.
In half the cases the time thus saved is a building saved. Five minutes
at the right time are worth five hours a little later.
3d. In efficiency. Mere water inadequately applied feeds the fire, but
carbonic acid gas never. Bulk for bulk, it is forty times as effective
as water, the seventy gallons of the two smallest cylinders being equal
to twenty-eight hundred gallons of water. Besides, it uses the only
agent that will extinguish burning tar, oil, and other combustible
fluids and vapors. One cylinder can be recharged while the other is
working, thus keeping up a continuous stream.
4th. In convenience. Five or six men can draw it and manage it. Its
small dimensions require but small area, either for work or storage. One
hundred feet or more of its light, pliant hose can be carried on a man's
arm up any number of stairs inside a building, or, if fire forbids, up a
ladder outside.
5th. In saving from destruction by water what the fire has spared.
It smothers, but does not deluge; the modicum of water used to give
momentum to the gas is soon evaporated by the heat, doing little or no
damage to what is below. This feature of the engine is of incalculable
worth to housekeepers, merchants, and insurance companies.
6th. Economy. It costs only about half as much as a first class hand
engine, and about one-fourth as much as a steam engine, with their
necessary appendages, and the chemicals for each charge cost less than
two dollars.
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