FIRELOCK 139 FIRE PROTECTION heating apparatus or combustion. In its simplest form the engine consists of a tank filled with water and condensed steam, from which valves allow the steam to emerge and exert pressure on cylinder and piston. By this device suf- ficient steam is capable of being stored to carry a locomotive and several cars over a distance of several miles. The engine may be replenished with a fresh supply of steam as occasion requires. This form of steam engine has been found serviceable under certain condi- tions, but there are other forms of fire- less engines which have been found con- venient. In one form, invented in 1870, by Lamm of Louisiana, the motive power was furnished by vapor of am- monia, and the engine was used for a number of years in running street cars. Its great advantage was that the vapor of ammonia could be used over and over again, a reservoir of water absorbing the vapor as it emerged from the engine and releasing it again when the proper temperature was reached. The advan- tages to be derived from the use of en- gines that can dispense with the use of fire-boxes are many, and they have been developed to a still higher level by the arrival of compressed-air and similar locomotives. FIRELOCK, a musket or other gun, with a lock furnished with a flint and steel, by means of which fire is pro- duced in order to discharge it; distin- guished from the old matchlock, which was fired with a match. FIREPROOF, proof against fire, in- combustible. Buildings are rendered fireproof by constructing them entirely of brick or stone, and using iron doors, lintels, etc., and stone stairs. Wood can be treated with silicate of soda, which, on the application of a strong heat, fuses into a kind of glass, forming a shield against fire. Cloth or wood im- pregnated with certain saline substances will not blaze. Borax, alum, and phos- phate of soda or ammonia are recom- mended as most suitable for this pur- pose. By treating cloth with graphite in a bath in which the mineral is sus- pended, and then subjecting it to the action of the electro-metallic bath, the cloth may be coated with metal. Woolen and ordinary stuffs may be treated with borax, alum, or soluble glass, but these cannot well be applied to the lighter descriptions, which are most liable to take fire. Fireproof building, a term somewhat loosely applied, and may be held to mean: (1) A building absolutely incom- bustible, such as one whose walls, floors, and roofs are of metal, stone, brick, or cement. (2) A building capable of op- posing the access of fire from without, having walls, window shutters, and roofs which are incombustible from ex- ternal flame and heat. Fireproof structure, a vault, safe, or building proof against destruction by fire, either from the outside or by the burning of its contents. FIRE PROTECTION. From the very earliest times, since men first began to live together in communities, organized fire protection has been a function of local government. So far as despatch and efficiency are concerned, the munic- ipal fire department of ancient Rome was little behind the fire departments of modern cities at the present time. In various districts of the city brigades of fire fighters were barracked, whose mem- bers were ever ready to respond to the call of the fire guardians, sentinels sta- tioned in high towers, watching for the first signs of a blaze. At the sound of the bucina, as the horn which sounded the alarm was called, the Roman firemen hurried to the scene of the fire, equipped with ladders, axes, buckets, and even with a large water squirt on wheels, which was fed water with buckets. Di- recting the operations of the brigades was the fire centurion, corresponding to our fire chief, who arrived in a special chariot drawn by four fleet horses. Pumps, hose and, above all, municipal water systems, have brought about im- proved equipment for fire fighters since then, but hardly any better organization. In no country in the world has fire pro- tection reached so high a degree of per- fection as in the United States, for the simple reason that in no other country has there ever been so high a percent- age of loss through fire. Whether be- cause of the fact that frame houses are more common here, or that the Ameri- can people are naturally more careless, statistics prove that the loss of property from fire in this country, amounting to about $15 per family each year, is ten times greater than in any other country. Instead of exercising precaution through legislation or by fixing legal responsibility on house owners, American cities have, instead, organized remark- ably eflficient fire departments, whose contingents have invariably won the com- petition prizes at the international ex- positions. Throughout the country towns volun- teer fire departments are still the rule, but in every community approaching the dignity of a municipality paid fire fighters are maintained.
