| Show PROTECTION OF THE TE PIERS Special Correspondence New York August Aut public bore hor rot Tor at the Hoboken tire hat has begun to subside but mn men and 14 Insurance ance anc mell are still pondering over or It mot most seriously On of the most mOlt problems which the steamship men are now Studying II the Sire lire protection of pl piers Jt It Is II stated that tb the North German Lloyd Steamship company had taken every possible precaution There were lire fire slugs with hose boll COiled about them every vry 20 or 30 tt feet and d while hile It might have been well to have them at t small smaller er intervals It is II a fact as testified to b by all U who saw IW the conflagration that tbt no number of pI plugs no amount of I have saved a the piers rl after toe Uti names were once ODee started It takes lau time to uncoil hose OM and the cotton and alcohol M presence of which contribUted so 10 fatally to be the burned so eo rapIdly that noth lag Iq cou could d be dO dous L TIfE FINEST EXTINGUISH R It O occurs to the layman that the best belt precaution against sue rapid pier fires area would its the loon of tone stone concrete and nd Iron for tor forwood wood in III pier But Dut eperU may that neither stone nor concrete nor Dor Iron could have saved tb the steamers tm in III inthis this Instance They bear did Id not catch teh II fire re from tit the humID pl piers but from the cotton and alcohol and nd these thee materials would woul have ban burned II as fiercely otI is stone atone pIers Cs Oft on won wooden n 0 one I mow know ot of only one 11 way b by which the fire could rould have been eon con controlled trolled a professional I Inspector yesterday lit mia after fter haYt having investigated the situatIon thoroughly It a se ot of atea steam pl pIpes fl two inch In diameter ard lot Cot more titan than three Inh Inches part apart perforated at t short horl intervals had been beeD run uDd each aeb pier ller and nd It if terl series of similar sise Ille and arrangement hd had been bete run overhead and steam hd had beets tImed tamed on both instantly the tire r would soon Ita have bess beel There are no ao fUin l it this sort 0 of protection III Ia till t th there sos so 10 Ittel aUd U T r n t I IoU i iother oU other side of et u lb hy arlt g muck ahead allnA of f I us or there In pier I I building and pIer protection and nd I 1 have han ben been t trying for years tara to have hae havethe the team system of pier protection in III introduced hers For such a 11 set of piers plen as aa thosa of tile the North Morth German LloYd at the steam 1 1111 eon con neet with I boiler of at least Ia l hlo power flOwer It should be boiled fill co the theland land IlInd and steam m should be lie kept t up UI lit at ali 1 time On tb the breaking out 0 of i a fIre all the mn man Its In charge would hv have to du 40 would be to open on the throttle valve ahe and nd let It U the team steam i Steam extinguishes much more mure rapidly thin water and lId there could have been no great loss lua of property bud bad this y ytm tm tern been installed and nd In working or order orden den der at Hoboken the other da day There is II one drawback to be how human humn beings ru caught ht on the pi pieis when tb the steam Itam was wal turned on would have been parboiled FACTS ABOUT FIRES There Thre arc r many maDr U unsuspected In the United States and one ot of these II followed b by the man who hOll words are quoted above It is II his hll business to visit the scenes 0 of very every great areat lire Are in III a number ot of larye lar cities clUel a as soon loon as after It has haa occurred HI Ii gives el at to on shipboard and In III Inthe the cou course of II 1 or If 14 years arl ht h has bu learned harned a lot of thing about fires arel Some year ao ago after a lerl series of very vry annoying fire on Ihl ships laden with cotton Ia be was 1 directed to drop el else and nd find out Us the cau cause 0 of the Dr fires HI He worked six or seven leven wet weeks kl out learnIng anything and nd was bt begin to fM feel discouraged One dy day h hw he w was crawling around over the bales bleI of cotton which formed the cargo caro 0 of plying between Savannah and an anNew New York Uti lii attention was a attract attracted to the tact that tbt certain disk of Ia set let In the deck In order to admit light to the hold were wert convex and he mediately that these dIsks act a as burning glasses This could never of course unless the un sun 1 was hOt bt t and th the dIstance be between tween the glass 1 and lId cotton cotlon wag 81 just right e so that the focus toru of th the lun suns rays falling through the II glass would strike the cotton This WI was not the c case on that ship at t that time and nd there 1 was no lire fire But he determined to test bl his without delay dely Ue He therefore went un on deck delk lot got a big Un tin pan and nd returned to the hold bold tak Ck In ing alone with him a quantity of and and a hand grenade rend Then b he picked up a tot lot of loose cotton loUon put It l in the pan and nd held the pan so 10 that the aun suns rays would focus on the cotton roton Alter After about in an hours patient waitIng the cotton began beaD to smolder and nd presently but burst Into name flame Quickly smothering the flame with the sand h he wrapped the whole bUln up In burlap pack In It so 10 that the lbs barred and nd sand land would remain Intact and then sealed the package On his return to New ew York lie he showed what he had to his hll employers and nd told them h he had discovered the CUM cause of the Cotton cotlon fires Orl on He w was scouted Rt at first but repeated experIments proved the truth of hi tin eon There Thre ore Ire no In deck decu 0 of cotton ships now and d the sort ot of fire jie Ie WI was detailed to has not happened for tor Nral years |
