LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume V, Issue 232, 27 February 1865, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Visit of His Excellency to the South. —Yesterday morning the Esk got up steam, and shortly afterwards his Excellency Sir George Grey embarked on a tour to the Southern Provinces. Sir - George goes, we understand, to Wanganui, where ho has business of importance to transact with t he General, and it is very possible" that on his way to the provinces of the Middle Island, Sir George Grey will call in for a day or two at Wellington. His stay there however, will neccessarily he short, as his Excellency, we learn anticipates returning to Auckland. After leaving his Excellency at Wanganui. The Esk proceeds to Melbourne. Steam Eire Engine. —The Evening Mail (Canterbury) says : —This peculiar-looking machine is a steam fire engine, by Messrs Shand, Mason & Co., and is after the pattern of one which gained the first money prize at the International Fire Engine Exhibition at Middlehurg, Holland, on the 12th July, last year. It is the first which has as yet been imported into the Australian Colonies, and will, in a wooden city like Christchurch, be of incalculable benefit in the event of a lire. Iq every way it is perfect, being fitted with every appliance which science, and the experiments of years have suggested. The arrangement of the suction and delivery pipes is well worthy of regard—the former is six inches, and the latter-, of which there are two, are about three and a-half inches, in diameter. These delivery pipes are so constructed, that either two or four hoses can be supplied through them, and this supply can be regulated by means of an ingenious

contrivance, so as to lessen the- pressure of water on one delivery mouth, and proportionally increase it on the other. The suction hose are made; seamless with a spiral galvanised iron lining, so as to give them the requisite amount of pliancy, while at the end, which'would be placed in the water, is a copper nose and basket, to prevent the admission of weeds or stones into the pipes. The delivery hose is part of leather ami part of canvas likewise seamless, made on a principle recently patentc'd, which renders the chance of breakage comparatively trilling. Should such an accident take place, a supply of leather bandages are at hand which can be at any moment strapped over the aperture. This is a small thing, but tends to show how completely every minute detail has been carefully attended to. At the late fires in Christchurch the leakage of the hose has been a serious inconvenience, which this apparently simple contrivance will remedy in future. The engine itself is fitted with boiler, furnace, and fuel box. guages showing the pressure of air and steam per pound on the square inch, small box iu which extra fittings and small instruments necessary for immediate repairs are kept, driver s scat, stoker’s stand, break to the wheels, ami alarm steam whistle, on the same principle as that used on ordinary railway engines. The boiler is reckoned to bear a pressure of SOOIbs. per square inch, but it Ims beon proved to stand a pressure of 3001 b. With the ordinary pressure a body of 275 gallons of water per minute canjoe tjirowu on any object, and this can with safety be increased to 300 gallons per minute. Steam sufficient to produce this can be got up in 7* pr 8 minutes. Damper cloths made double, so. as to allow of their holding water, have been provided in order to protect the wheels from the heat of the furnace, and by a small flexible tube attached to a stopcock they can be kept constantly wet. Even the lamps with which the engine has been supplied show that no detail has been passed over hurriedly, ■these being on anew principle supplied with springs, by means of which either a red “ danger” signal can be shown, or a plain white light. A pole and bars have been sent out which can be attached at pleasure, and by which four horses can he harnessed to it if required. AUhont the engine is much heavier than the largest of the old ones which we have seen in use at each fire, but it is so well balanced that in drawing it would not distress a horse nearly so much. With it has come out a hose real, which is fitted with a box, in which are throe branches with different sized nozzles to each, an axe, a jimmy, and hose keys. The cost of the whole is about 1T,150.