FIRE EXTINCTION BY GAS.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 34, 15 November 1871, Page 3

FIRE EXTINCTION BY GAS.

A Launceston journal directs attention to the circumstance that the extinction of fire by gas is about to be carried out in New York, a company having been proposed for that object. The following is the purport of the scheme : —The company proposes to build, in some central location, a reservoir similar to the gasometer of a gas house, of sufficient capacity for all emergencies, and run a 4-inch pipe therefrom in every direction through the streets, having in front of every door a valve, to which a small rubber hose can be easily' attached, by which the stream of gas can be directed to any room on lire. To furnish such a reservoir with its necessary retorts for making gas, and laying 200 miles of pipe through the city, will come within a cost of 250,000 dollars, and the company claims that the saving of property which water destroys and gas leaves untouched, would more than pay the entire cost in

one year, to say nothing of the saving of the buildings. From the reservoir, through the pipes, carbouic acid gas will be forced to the endangered building. Repeated experiments have shown that fire cannot bum in an atmosphere containing one-fifth part of its volume of this gas and that its presence does not injure the finest fabrics, or discolour the most highly polished plate; consequently it does no damage to goods or furniture) which water destroys. It can be manufactured at so low a price that the flames of a moderatesized building on fire could be extinguished for a few dollars. Its use has been frequently endorsed by insurance companies. Up to the present time the difficulty in making use of carbonic 'acid gas for extinguishing fire's has been found in the production and application of this gas in sufficient quantities for obtaining a practical advantage at a real fire. Experimentally the presence of this gas in quantity proportionate to a flame has been found to insure its sudden and complete extinction ; but until within the last few months no plan has been put in operation to make this power available. In 1851 a coal mine in England, that had been on fire for thirty years, and had extended over twenty-six acres, was completely extinguished by injecting only 8,000,000 cubic feet of carbonic acid gas. Water and chemical solutions had been tried in every way and quantity for years upon these burning acres of coal, without any perceptible effect, for the intense heat would drive them back as a volcano sends out its lava into the heavens. The loss by water, caused by the engines jfiaying after a fire is outy or nearly so, is very great. Once in operation, a steam fire engine is frequently as destructive as the conflagration itself. If the new method succeeds and is generally adopted, many of the calamities and losses that are yearly chronicled will ceaso. As the pipes will be immediately laid and a reservoir built, it is expected that very soon the new apparatus and plan will be practically tested.