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TWENTIETH CENTURY FARMER. THE EXERCISE OF Ills MEXTAL FACFLTIEZ HAS LARGELY SUCCEEDED PHYSICAL DRUDGERY v. !-• n the nineteenth century was young; we a Nation of farmers and gardeners. Com p^rce was chiefly centred in the few small «m on the Atlantic seaboard, the lakes and tfee large rivers, and many of the persons en gaged in it looked to their own gardens for the chief part of their table supplies. Markets tpere dependent upon narrow strips of aur jounding country for all bulky and perishable eonunodities. for a long haul over execrable „»« would have raised prices enormously. The average farmer one hundred years ago as lor a hundred years previously, was compelled M produce pretty nearly all that his family re paired, and could send little to distant markets The highways of travel ascended and descended every hill on the route, for the early settlers built their homes on high points, and the roads were little more than wagon tracks connecting the houses. Thus, for many years after the country became thoroughly settled, the long wlndi ig road over hill and through valley had to be traversed whenever the farmer sought the distant city or the nearer village which had grown up around the gristmill, the tannery and the country store. The century was more than half gone before these roads were generally re placed by straight and more level highways. The difficulty and cost of sending the abundant ftrm products of the country to the large mar kets fixed the attention of publicists at an early day. The project of building a canal from Lake Erie to tidewater In the Hudson was first men tioned in the New-York Legislature ln 1804, when the population of the State was leas than one million. In 1827 a meeting of citizens of Baltimore began a discussion which resulted In the building of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Passenger traffic was of minor importance; the ruling purpose was to bring the produce of the rich Ohio Valley to the seaboard at a speed of four miles an hour— possibly of eight miles. Two years later the Board of Directors of Internal Improvements of Massachusetts reported on the practicability of railroads from Boston to Albany and from Boston to Providence. All these plans were to bring the products of the farm to an abundant, market, and a writer in "The North American Review," after deliberate consider ation, expressed the belief that "such railroads P»Tf)ng through a rich and populous country must be of immense benefit." though he thought that horsepower should be used in preference to locomotives. RAILWAYS BROKE HIS ISOLATION. These were the inceptions from which have grown the interlacing railway systems of the country, have broken the isolation of the Amer ican farmer and have made him a participant ln the great commercial prosperity of the Nation. Thus these enterprises have an important place is this brief sketch of the farmer's progress in the nineteenth century. But this isolation, continuing for generations, was one of the forces which indelibly stamped the American character. Shut out from the larger world, the fanner learned to look to him self alone for all he was to possess of comfort. He engaged in diversified farming, and pro duced nearly all food and clothing for his fam ily. The wool from his sheep and the flax from his field were spun and woven and made into garments at home. The skins from his oxen and sheep w-»re tanned near by and made up in bis bouse by a peripatetic shoemaker, who came around on annual visits and created marvel lously 111 fitting footgear. The farmer had brought with him a few tools and afterward manufactured others. A blacksmith's forge and a carpenter's bench were necessary adjuncts of a. farmer's buildings until well into the nine teenth century. He often shod his oxen and hones, and most of the simple farming tools of tha|. day were made by his own hands. When those of a more complicated nature appeared he repaired, and, without much regard to patent rights, sometimes duplicated them, adding valu able Improvements with no thought of wrong. MACHINERY. Continued from p.-i^.- fix.-. I thought of the inventor, nor to have affected its quality. The Hoe web perfecting press was de veloped, and put to work In the office of The New- York Tribune. A great array of valuable inventions followed, among which may be men tioned the Locke grain binder, the Ingersoll rock drill, Stearns's duplex telegraph, Westinghouse Improved automatic air brake, Lyall's positive motion loom. Janney's automatic car coupler, Edison's quadruplex telegraph. Gorham's twine binder for harvesters. Lowe's process of making Illuminating gas from water, the roller mill and . middlings purifier for making flour, Pictet's ice machine, cash carriers for stores. Professor Bell's wonderful speaking telephone, cigarette niachinery. Edison's electric pen. steam feed for sawmill carriages, Hallidle's cable cars. Edison's phonograph, the Otto gas engine. Jablochkoff's electric candle, Sawyer-Man electric lamp,' Ber liner's telephone transmitter of variable resist ance, Edison's carbon microphone, liquefaction of oxygen, nitrogen and air by Pictet and Caille tet, the development of the Remington type writer. Edison's electric lamp with carbon fila ment, gelatlno-bromide emulsions in photog raphy, the Birkenhead and Rabbeth spinning spindles and the Gessner cloth presses. Siemens also installed the first electrical railway at Ber lin and the Mississippi Jetties were built by Cap tain Eads. The Lee magazine rifle. Faure's storage battery and Greener's bammerless gun j were other inventions of this period. MACHINES TO SET TYPE. In the next decade (ISSO-'OO) the radical In ventions of the preceding periods had got well ; Into the commercial activities of the National life, and this decade represents the greatest epoch of prosperity the Republic has ever on- Joyed. It added the following important In ventions: Telegraphing by induction, the Blake telephone transmitter, the Recce buttonhole ma chine. Mergenthaler*s linotype machine, Cowles s electrical process of making aluminum, the W*lsbach gas burner, the graphophone. electric welding by Elihu Thomson, the Me Arthur and Forrest cyanide process of obtaining gold, Tesla's system of polyphase currents. Harvey s process of annealing armor plate, De Laval s rotary steam turbine, the Kodak camera, De Chardonnet'ft process of making artificial silk, nickel steel. Hall's process of making aluminum, the Dudley dynamite gun and the Krag-Jorgen sen magazine rifle. . . . The first American electric railway was installed between Baltimore and Hampden. Flood Rock, in New -York Har bor was blown up, the Brooklyn Bridge was built, the electrocution of criminals was ordered la New-York State, the Lick telescope was erected and In Europe the St. Gothard Tunnel and the Great Forth Bridge were completed ana opened to traffic. "-V^ -«,**. • ' ¦ The last decade of the century (1890-1900) Is ¦till so near to us, and is so filled with Invented agencies of Importance, that selection Is ren dered specially difficult, and only a few of the most important may be named. We find the Parsons rotary steam turbine, which In Its ap ' plications In marine ' engines has raised the ¦peed of smaller steam craft to that of an ex press locomotive; the Northrup loom, which acts almost with the discretion of a thinking mind; me Acbeson process of making carborundum, the Yerkes telescope. Edison's klnetoscop*. and ¦M allied developments of the phantascope. cinematograph, and biograph. whose moving V Mi apparently 11 vine scenes fill the observer '¦'.with wonder and admiration; the production of « ium carbide by Wiilson. and the electric :. ". '¦'Race for making the same; the discovery and application of the X rays by RCntgen, the X 'PP armor plate, the developments in liquid ' sir and apparatus' for producing It by Lindfe. ¦Trailer, Dewar. Ostergres, Demur and others; '^'i mercerizing of cloth under tension to render " Kllky, the SchUrfc systems of balancing; marine invinzs, the Improved disappearing gun, the practical development of the bicycle and auto r 'I'D* the building mad launching of the *>*»,,„., th- larK-«l :-i '-am vessel .-v.-r produced, »M wireless telegraphy by .Marconi. SPINNING WHEELS 1 ABROGATED. l*Th« ;5 e represent' the ;f most notable agencies " *>-!<!. hay. ¦aimulat.d fh'j Industrial progress <* tht nineteenth century. Conceived In the pro might the American farmer with genera lions of such inheritance become distinguished as an inventor. It was near the middle of the century that a poet said of the farmer boy that ne could make anything, from a child's rattle to a seventy-four. «f.M c U> . l l A y- when he undertakes it He 11 make the thing and the machine that makes It Of course he will! He has proved it. A care icL» wrlter on improvements in machinery in lfJ2 mentions only one invention by an Ameri can havinjr a bearing on agriculture— the cotton gin, "by which one person can do the work of a thousand." And this was less than eighty years ago. Now look at the long list of farm machin ery! When the pathway was open from the farm to the market the machinery came; it wculd have been useless earlier. L.ITTLE CASH IN EARLY PAYS Of money the average farmer of the first half of the century had little. The village store keeper—when one established himself within reach — took his surplus butter, cheese and eggs and gave him credit on which he drew for house hold supplies. Once a year the drover passed with his ever increasing herd of bullocks, bought the farmer's surplus stock and went his way toward the distant market. Payment was made in hard cash — the only "dollar of our daddies" that many of the daddies of the olden time used to see. The "hired man question" had not arisen until the century was past its youth. Young men in families having more than were needed on the home farms went to help their less fortu nate neighbors. They received wages, but the thought of inequality was never entertained. It was the same when there was a surplus of girls. They were treated as sons and daughters In the homes where they worked. Many an outfit for Western emigration was procured in this man ner. Later, when factories were established, some of these boys and girls went to "work In the mill" and brought back money which seemed wealth to their parents. The population of the factory town was then as pure and simple as the farming communities from which it had been recruited. Wherever the early settler pushed his way into the wilderness the public school was soon established. Its influence in moulding the public character has been endlessly discussed. But one feature has been passed over too lightly or has been unnoticed. The academies and colleges gave their long vacations in the winter, in order that the students might teach In -district" schools. To save all the school fund and thus extend the term, the teacher boarded round, and during the long winter was an honored guest in every home from which his pupils came. His educational influence over parents and children was often more valuable in the home life than in the schoolroom Thus the conditions which in great degree formed the American farmer — from whom were derived all classes of the Am.-rlcan people — ex tended through the eighteenth and well into the nineteenth century. CHANGES FOLLOWED RAPIDLY. Then changes came with startling rapidity. The theories of a few generations ago became accomplished facts, and the farmer in all parts of our extending country found himself in direct and rapid communication with the great com mercial centres. He became a producer for the world, from all parts of which he could in re turn draw those things which he could not prof itably raise. With altered conditions has come a special situation. Agricultural schools, col leges and experiment stations have been estab lished in the several States, and the National Government contributes liberally to the diffusion of accurate Information on all agricultural sub jects. The world has been ransacked for the most valuable fruits and grains, and the best live stock of all sorts has been introduced; so that to-day the American farmer, from the At lantic to the Pacific, can compete successfully, not merely with any country, but with all coun tries in the temperate zone. He is a student, an experimenter and a mer chant. Machinery has relieved him from severe muscular labor and co-operation from much drudgery. He succeeds by the exercise of his mental faculties. The hard school of his fathers has given him a splendid inheritance, but he must avail of the changed conditions as dili gently and as faithfully as they did of their conditions. Old methods are as obsolete as the hill roads of the past. S. CUBHMAN CALDWELL. gresslve thought of mankind, they have been nursed into a healthy and strong existence un der the fostering care of the patent systems of the world, and especially by those of our own land. Former ages have furnished many a brilliant genius, but his thought has too often died with him. Will not all agree that It Is the patent system which has in the nineteenth cen tury crystallized this thought into enduring rec ords, and in furnishing the stimulus of fair and just reward to the inventor has thus become, more than any other single factor, responsible for the great array of Invented agencies and the wonderful industrial growth of the present time? . . . In the year 1800 the manufactures of the coun try were of such small extent that scarcely any records remain. Some cotton and woollen mills were to be found, but the spinning wheel was still a part of the domestic furniture, more use ful than ornamental, the hand loom was the main reliance of the farmer, and homespun fab ric was still in evidence everywhere. In 1831 the capital invested in cotton manu factures was $40,612,984. In 1890 it was $354, 020.843. and the value of the product was $207. 981.724. The number of spindles in factories in 1790 was only 70; in 1890 a hundred years later, It was 14,188.103. In 1800 the price of cot ton yarns was from $1 03 to $1 36 a pound. In the last decade of the nineteenth century It ranges from 13% cents to 18% cents, and the price of cloth has diminished in like proportion, while the wages of the cotton mill operatives have more than doubled. If a man wanted a pair of shoes a hundred years ago he had his shoemaker to make them, and he had to wait for them until they were fin ished. The pay of this shoemaker was 73 1-3 cents a day. If he wanted a house, the carpen ter with the broadaxe laboriously hewed the lumber, and. with hammer, saw and hand plane slowly dressed and put together what is now known as the mill work, for which he received wages at the rate of something over 70 cents a day. The printer was the skilled mechanic, and at $1 a day he set the type and worked off on a creaky handpress the limited edition, whose crude sheets now form valued curios. FARM LABOR LIGHTENED. To-day the shoemaker on the McKay machine makes many hundred pairs of shoes a day, the laborious work cf the carpenter is performed almost entirely by the planing, sawing, boring, mortising and turning machines of the great woodworking mills, while the ... operator of the octuple press prints papers by steam at the rate of 1.000 a minute, ready pasted, folded and counted for distribution. In the manufacture of agricultural machines the growth of the reaper has been one of the notable things as bearing on the Industrial evo lution of the century. This industry began about 1840. with the contemporaneous operation, of Hussey sod McCormlck in this country, and In that year not more than three machines were made. To-day the estimated annual production of the factories in the United States in this class of machines is 180,000 self-binding harvesters, 290.000 mowing machines. 18.000 corn harvesters and 25.000 reapers; the output of one great fac tory alone, in the year 1898, being 74.000 self binding harvesters, 107.000 mowers, 9,000 corn harvesters and 10,000 reapers. This, with 75.000 horse rakes, meant for this factory a completed machine for every forty seconds In the year, working ten hours a day. This, however. Is only one branch of agricultural machines. There are drills, threshers, seeders, ploughs, harrows and hand Implements beyond calculation. . .;;•:.• FIRST PUBLIC RAILROAD. The first public railroad built v.a 8 the Stockton and Darlington Line, in England, which was opened for traffic in 1*2.".. In 1529 the Stour hri.U'- Lion was Imported from England and nut to work on the Delaware and Hudson Canal rompany's railroad. In I*."-' Baldwin built the Old Ironsides, and from this time on the railroad ¦was an established institution. In the year 1599 the steam railroads of the United States have a total track mileacre of 250,302; there are 87,245 locomotives, 2G.154 passenger cars, M'JJ baggage an.l mall >*™ and 1.328.08-1 freight cars. There were f.37,977.301 passengers carried, 97.>,75!).!)41 ..._ of freight movf-d and the total traffic earn ings were .•'..';»;<««;.. 'sT'.'. Mulhali estimates the "anltal invited in railroads In the United States in IS>OO to be $11,380,000,000. To this must be add.-d the enormous growth In street railways, with their thousands of cars. . . . -' • A hundred years ago a voyage to the Orient XEW-YORK DAILY TRIBUNE, SUNDAY, JANUARY fi. 1901 was of only occasional occurrence, and an event of stirring importance to both the commercial world. and the family circle. Steam was not yet applied, and the old sailing craft, at the mercy of the seas and adverse winds, might reach her destination and return, but a year's absence was to be expected, and the return was uncertain. To-day steam has almost entirely superseded sails, and in our magnificent modern ocean liner a trip of five days and as many hours takes us across the Atlantic, then flitting along the coast, up the Mediterranean Sea and thence through the Suez Canal, we come In contact with all the peoples of the world in less than a month. Steam navigation, first established in 1807 by Fulton, was the great agency of commercial growth. The ratio of steam to sails for the world has in creased from 30 per cent in ISGO to 80 per cent in 1894. . EDWARD W. HVRN. EXPANSION OF SPORT. ,\ s to v i \ a ENLARGEMENT OF MANKIND'S PASTIMES. The notable expansion and diversified en largement of sports last century have been amazing. A hundred years ago the shooting of game, big and little, the practice of archery, the playing of golf, the matches at cricket and football, the trials of deftness at marksmanship, the tests of mastery in driving and riding, the contests of brawn and tone in boxing and wrestling, were In favor in Great Britain, on the Continent of Europe and in the Western Hem isphere, and gatherings of excited spectators were neither few nor small. In feats of force and aptness and endurance on horseback and on foot there was a lively spirit of contention, and fox hunting, a sport in which boldness and alert capacity in governing and guiding hot blooded mounts were requisite, was almost a craze with thousands of people sof leisure and of means on either side of the Atlantic. Dazzling exploits in the saddle and in the driver's seat of four-in-hand coaches gained plentiful applause. The coursing of greyhounds was kept up lav ishly by wealthy breeders and owners. Chasing rabbits with beagles and the deadly following of wild beasts and wild birds of almost every sort were amusements which attracted troops of enthusiasts, although the weapons carried by hunters and fowlers in the eighteenth cen tury were clumsy, uncouth and feeble In com parison with those now In use. BRUTAL. SPORTS DISAPPEARING. A hundred years ago the devotees of sport In too many Instances were coarse and brutal in their tastes. The most cruel and revolting of dogfights brought together witnesses of high de gree and of fashionable connections, and dukes and marquises, earls and squires indulged in prodigal wagers upon the prowess of bullterriers. Cockfighting also was looked upon with ap proval among club members who were influential and conspicuous in the society of that era. Yachting was practically unknown. All kinds of vessels were then handled and sailed by pro fessional navigators and skippers, and amateurs were not forming associations zealous for the discovery of the finest models for the fleetest champions of the waves. Crews that could wield the ashen blade effectively were not nu merous, and sportive contests on stream or sea were relatively meagre and unalluring in the period of the Napoleonic campaigns and in the primitive years of this Republic. Horseracinß, however, had been started In Great Britain as early as the jocund days of Merry Charles and Mistress Nell, not many decades after the death of Cromwell, the Lord Protector; and the Ep rom Derby, the blue ribbon prize of the turf the world over, was first awarded long before steam was employed on river or ocean. RIVALRY MORE GOOD NATURED. In every imaginable department of sports the advance and the broadening out in the century Just closed have been Impressive. The most gratifying evidences of progress have been seen in the field of international rivalry, free from bitterness and faultfinding. The friendly meet- Ings which have decided the superiority of the representatives of different countries have been frequent and exceedingly popular in this century, and they have left no ill feeling behind them. Few such amicable struggles for prizes which were not sordid took place in the century before this. The fraternal and good humored battles on the sea for the America's Cup have increased and intensified sentiments of amity and kindness between peoples separated by thousands of miles of tides. Oarsmen and athletes of many classes have met in well arranged and earnest emu lation East and West and North and South. The spirit of the century with regard to sports has been that of brotherly but zealous competition, without sourness or grudge. And how wonder fully the range and extt-nt of sports in every quarter of the globe have been widened and heightened In a hundred years! In ancient Greece the Olympian games were fought out by the select adversaries of the age, the swiftest runners, the most cunning wrest lers, the racial and national chieftains of the epoch in their special fields of effort. It Is a remarkable feature of the athletic ambitions of thte era that the Olympian games were revived a few years ago. and that America, as well as the Old World, sent to the Grecian arena worthy aspirants for classic laurels. The in tercollegiate battles for glory and renown have been strikingly characteristic of the forward movement of noble sport in this generation and in those generations which Immediately preceded this. The most famous universities, colleges and schools in both hemispheres have delighted to engage in friendly jousts and tournaments and passages-at-arms of many kinds which have stirred the blood and stimulated the loyalty of undergraduates and graduates alike. It wag a relatively poor and scanty array of amateur contests which Inspired the ambitions of the amateur antagonists before the latter half of the Nineteenth Century was entered upon. Now every season of every year has its appro priate field days. AMATEURS TO THE FRONT. The forward steps taken in amateur athletics within the last twenty-five years have been so numerous and admirable that the most hasty glance at the milestones of progress cannot pa«s them over lightly. Before the beginning of th» Civil War in the United States amateur athletics were in a confused and chaotic condition. The rules and regulations were unsettled and indefi nite. The dividing line between professionals and amateurs was indistinct and wavering. William Is. Curtis, sometimes affectionately styled the "Father cf American Athletics," did more than any other individual to establish order out of sixes and sevens, and to secury definlteness and precision in these matters. His memory ought always to be held in esteem for his unselfish devotion to amateur athletics, and for his memorable services in the promotion of clean and equitable sport. It was said long ago that it has been a wonderful century of invention, and it Is plain to the world that Inventiveness and development have achieved surprising results* in the v«st arena of sports. Yachting, trotting, polo, la crosse, lawn tennis, baseball, bicycle riding, football, as permanently defined, regulated ami systematized, and many Important and popular departments of athletics, both professional and amateur, belong chiefly to the last fifty years — some of them to the flnal half of the fifty. And the tendency in the whole vast circle of these sports has been steadily toward a finer sense of honor, a higher feeling of responsibility, a stronger desire for fairness and a sterner dislike of trickery and wrong dealing. Both In the old sports and the new, the competitors and their sympathizers, backers and friends have gone onward and upward In breadth of view, In tolerance and liberality. It might not be out of place to recall a word or two from Matthew Arnold, although he was not writing exclusively of sports when ho put them in print. But Is it not true that the sports of last century, and especially the amateur ath letics, international, Interunlverslty, Intercol legiate and others, have been steadily losing the objectionable elements of Philistinism and been steadily gaining in sweetness and light? ARTHUR F. BOWERS. IMrORTS OF RAW MATERIALS. From Tho American Exporter. 'It., activity of American manufacturers Is Illus trated by tho statistics of th.- imports of manu facturers' materials. In th- M ht months endiiiK with A .»• i.-l ;-¦ Inn... <•( raw materials for us,. In manufacturing amounted In round numbers to ©?..ft.,..-.. uKaiiiM a little over $1 00.000,000 In th* cor responding' months .of m ami the exports of manufactured Roods wore »'4.0'..\0.>>. against $103, 000/>JO in th" corresponding months of ISS6. Thus in both Importation of raw materials for use in manu facturing and in exportation of the finished product the figures of lifUO are nearly double those of. 1896. FIRE APPLIANCES. HOW HE SCIENCE OF PREVENTING, CONTROLLING OR EXTINGUISHING FIRES HAS PROGRESSED. IT"? \ FAR CRY FROM ~HF. miMITr.T. r X T BRIGADE TO THE PRESENT ENUOHTEXED METHODS OF FIGHTING THE FIRE FIEND-AN INTERESTING RE VIEW BT AN EXPERT. Fire has undoubtedly exerted more Influence upon the development of the human race than any other element, perhaps more than all others. Among the ancients It was an object of worship, deified and personified by some peoples, and among all It en tered largely Into their religious ceremonies. When Cain and Abel offered up their burnt offerings It was jealousy of the greater success of Abel's sacri ficial flames that led to the first recorded murder. The Greeks attributed a divine origin to lire. and. according to their mythology,' Prometheus impious ly stole it from heaven and brought It down to earth, in punishment for which he was chained to a rock while an Insatiate vulture tore him open and forever fed upon his vitals, which were for ever renewed, that his agonies might be eternal. As a matter of fact, revealed by modern science, we know that fire Is far older than the world It self. Fire, perfervld heat, combustion, chomlcal combination— they are all one and the same— was the favorite tool ln Dame Nature's hand during her busy period of world building. Fires, gigantic, more than titanic, attended the birth of the planets ln our solar system. Terranean and subterranean fires simmered and stewed and cuddled this infant earth of ours until, having cooled on the surface and formed a shell, she was In a condition to main tain the lower forms, or life. Just when and under what conditions man, troglodyte, arboreal, pithe canthropus or merely plain man, and his prehistoric congener, plain woman, appeared, may be left to THE FIRST BUCKET BRIGADE. the Joint discussions of anthropologists and geol ogists. Whenever it was. It may safely be assumed that he had even then a more than passing ac quaintance with fire, together with Ingenious meth ods of calling the useful demon Into being. The "tireless man" has been relegated to the limbo of exploded theories. Students of comparative biol ogy assert, with a good show of reason, that In his subjugation and practical adaptation of fire to his own needs man shows his greatest divergence from and superiority to all other animals. Naturally. In seeking the verjfr: basis ~ facts re garding so supremely Important a- subject as the prevention and control of destructive conflagra tions, the writer looked about for some one whose technical knowledge and experience In such matters should be not merely that of the veteran fireman, or even fire chief, whose knowledge of fire fighting Is that of battling with flames already under dangerous headway rather than the more Important science of preventing the 'first outbreak of the Infant "terror: ' jlvn- Jrtsl He found one man who was .said to be so eminent In both practical and scientific knowledge of the underlying principles of combustion. Its In citing causes and Its most effective enemies, as to give Ms. opinions on such matters almost the weight of established laws. That man Is Mr. George H. Carpenter, who has held the position of general manager of the Mon arch Fire Appliance Company since Its Inception. To aH Inquiries addressed to all sorts of fire experts there came the answer: "Oh. see Carpenter!" "Carpenter the man you want. "Carpenter knows more about fires than half a dozen fire de partments." and so on. until It became apparent that be. i* the acknowledged exponent of the latest scientific thought regarding the best and most available methods to be adopted, both in staying conflagrations thnt have reached the dangerous stage anfl In preventing their ever reaching that stage. ' What follows in this article may therefore be considered as falling from his lips during an ex tended Interview. Chemists tell us that the process of combustion in its usual forms is but a more or less energetic combination t>etwee:» the oxygen with which our atmosphere Is laden and »he carbon or hydrogen OI.P-KASHIONKP FIKR ENGINE. existing In the substance consumed; or the oxygen necessary for combustion may be supplied by some other substance rich In the gas and holding It by feeble bonds. This chemical action Is always ac companied by the evolution of heat. In degree pro portionate to th. energy of the action, but it may here bo mentioned, as an evidence of the nicely of nature's laws, that the total amount of heat evolved by the combustion of any substance is pre cisely the same In the end. whether it take place almost instantaneously, as in. the explosion of gun cotton, or Is Spread out over the course of years, as In the rusting of a nail In the weatherboardlng of a house. A more explicit example of this law may be drawn froii a grain of phosphorus, which, when kept cool and damp, glows with a ml!d light, which we call phosphorescence. Dried, slightly warmed and exposed to the atmosphere It burns moderately, but when heated and Immersed In oxygen gas it Is consumed Instantly nnd with brilliant deflagration of intense energy. Scientific Investigation shows Mi.DKKN FIRK KNOINK that In each of these three processes the total oxi dation of the phosphorus develops exactly the same number of heat units. The slow tarnishing of th« silverware- upon the sideboard is all the ttmo producing heat in infin itesimal degrees. In fact, as stated ' above, all oxidation, or. more generally, nil chemical combina tion, raises the temperature of th,- bodies concerned In proportions varying from th.it of the Insensibly slow tarnishing of a sliver, vessel to the enormous caloric of the oxyhydrogen flame. There arc other forms of combustion which are not oxidation, but simply energetic atomic combina tions of elements having EXB&t chemical affinities one for the other— as. for instance, the burning of finely pulverized antimony In chlorine pas. Here there Is no oxygen, whatever Involved, but the re sult of the vigorous action Is a high degree of heat and consequent incandescence. But these few In stances of pseudo-combustion are so rare as to ho merely interesting laboratory experiment?, and en tirely negligible in everyday life. Enough has been said above to show that while fire Is. when tinder control, man's best and most powerful friend among the forces of nature, yet it is also evident that once the demon has thrown oft the artificial restraints put upon him he may be come the most Implacable and devastating of foes. Oxygen is found In abundance wherever the atmos phere can penetrate. Carbon and. hydrogen are ele ments of almost universal distribution throughout the world. Other substances with ravenous appe tites for oxygen are on every hand, and are ready at any hour of the day. or night, under the influence of the slightest spark, an apparently trifling amount of friction, or any one of a thousand Inciting causes, to spring Into life, a raging giant of de struction. :. V Nor do these elements always wait for an outside Inciting cause before setting up that energetic chemical action that we call fire. A heap of rags or old waste, greasy from the uses to which they have been put. are allowed to accumulate In some FIRE PAIL. obscure corner or closet. Chemical action from ex posure to the air Is set up. the confined space ac cumulates the resultant heat until the danger point Is reached and a blaze springs up. concealed from all human observation until It has attained de structive proportions. Again there are certain and very numerous qualities cf coal that bear locked up within their shining exterior sundry highly in flammable ga^es. which they yield very slowly. When these are confined In the hold or the bunkers of a ship they s» acfand react upon one another that "spontaneous"— a sadly misused word—com bustion Is set up. The conditions of our modern civilization, too, are Buch that it is cause for wonder, not that so many fires break out. but that they are not many times as frequent and destructive as they are. into all our city houses are laid pipes connecting with the gas m.-ilns and charged with a light, pene trating and highly inflammable gas. Rusting of these pipe*, bad workmanship at the cocks, care ie-sppc* of servant or gross ignorance may at any tin- nreefpitate a conflagration or an explosian with far reaching results. The innumerable high and low tension electric wires, which cross and re cross cne another in a complex tangle, may at any moment, from the abrasion of a delicate and not very tUtrable Insulation, set fire to woodwork or upholstery while all the household sleeps. In our great manufactories, while it is true that the system of sleepless and thorough watchfulness Is carried to approximate perfection, yet the thou sand halrbreaJth escapes ot a single day. were they known, would caus? the scalps of the vener • able boards of underwriters to bristle ln horripila i tlon. An unnoticed pebble, even a grain of sand. In a cotton gin may undo the harvest of thousands ¦ of fair acres. The light, highly volatile by-products of the oil { refineries — naphtha, benzine, gasolene — are so no toriously hazardous, even In remote proximity to fires, that their use or storage, except in limited THE CYLINDER IN OPERATION. quantities. is strictly forbidden within city limits. Yet th«v-,' volatile* have their manifold uses In the arts, and the accompanying risks, offset as much as possible by extrcmest vigilance, must be as sumed by those who find tlum necessary. Such is their almost malicious propensity for evil that the upsetting of a small can in one part of a building will cause the generation of a gas that will charge the whole edifice, and explode Itself, perhaps from the brightly flowing coal In the pipe of the watch man, who dozes through the night In a quarter re mote from the source of the trouble. If it be permissible to speculate without any posi tive facts for a working basis, then it seems more than probable that primitive man's acquaintance with fire may have resulted from an accident close ly parallel to that which, on the authority or Charles Lamb, led to the discovery of roast pis. Having, then, ascertained that his dlnosaurus steak or his pterodactyl tongue became more palatable ami digestible after baking in hot ashes. Mr. Troglodyte may have noticed that Mrs. T. and the numerous little T.s derived comfort from the artificial warmth, and would sleep more soundly after toasting their quadrumanous members before bedtime. Hence, no doubt, fire became his constant companion and he invented tire producing Imple ments such as the frlctlonal bits of wood still in u?«> by Australian bushmen and others. Put", very certainly, he soon learned that this brilliant demon must be controlled. Possibly an in- cautiously large fire on an especially cold night may have overleaped Its bounds, igniting the be«l of leaves and twigs where on the family s!eDt. There may have been loud out cries and odors of burn ing wool, with a large de mand the next morning for whatever was the pre vailing substitute for ar nica and sweet oil in.pro glacial days. Noticing that the deluges of rain put out his campflres, this logical ancestor of Benja min Franklin deduced the fact that water was the remedy for obstreperous combustion, ! and when next the alarm was raised he organized th© T. family Into a bucket brigade, fitted out with cocoenut shells, hollow stones and the carapaces of succulent turtles, wherein water from the. adjacent stream was passed from hand to hand and the primitive upholstery was deluged. For countless thousands of years no advance was made upon the moans to TV"rs>t?Tr»» rARROXic** applied for subduing INTERIOR CARBONIC flres _ water was the one «ICIV> GAS CYLINDER, an only extinguisher. For the purpose of applying water. the force pump. hydropult. hand engine, as It was variously callod came Into being some centuries ago. and in the hands of a yolline mob of untrained people became centres of excitement, but hardly safeguards. Tho first .nr© engine was ma do at Augsburg. German! . I "in America, the uso of wood for buildings I'jlncr almost universal, the peopla were obliged to fight more frequent nnd more destructive tires, and hence the flro companies were organized bodies, and, being to a certain extent trained, soon excelled In their work, but at best the results attained 1.-ft much to bo desired. In IS3O a great advance was mi ,i,. In the invention of a steam tire engine, the progenitor of the splendid apparatus of to-day. This Li logically to the employment of a well paid and highly trained corps of professional fire fighters, ng far superior to th. volunteer service as is th.' steam tire engine to the cocoa shells of our early ancestors. A distinct departure from the time honored prin ciples of water extinguishment wax made in IS-19 by Phillip's invention of the Ore nnnihllator. whereby steam and carbonic acid gas, both deadly foes to combustion, were project. d upon the flames. This apparatus did not In itself accomplish a revolution, but It pet t>usy brains to thinking, and brought forth a host of imitations and some theoretical im provements. A few of the«e meat widely proclaimed to the world may :id well be briefly noticed here. but" in each ca?e it will be apparent that their in herent defects far ontwelsh their theoretical ex cellences. ¦¦ . There is a metal cylinder (JreneraUy painted red. although this is not essential) charge.! — jn\ a. strong solution of carbonate of ssiassjsj contain-, tag. besides, a loosely corked vial of strong sulphu ric acid, the whole weighing from thirty to forty pounds. When are breaks out this red cylinder is taken from its resting place, and. If there be any one strong enough to do so. carried to the scene of th* Are. which, it is to be hoped, has only "market time." without advancing in the Interval. "Arrived* there. If all noes well, the mechanism, Jf properly applied, lets loose the sulphuric add. which, If not evaporated or diluted by absorption, seems upon the soda, generates a supply of carbonic acid gaa. Th-» pressure thus produced either explode* tn-» cylinder, or. if the faucets and noxsies be not too corroded by rust, projects the water, charged with carbonic acid gas. upon or near th« flames. There j have been case* cited in which this treatment ha* so checked, an incipient fire that time was sained for the application of more heroic measures. To Insure their being In fair working order, customers are advised to empty and recharge the cylinders every sixty days. A rather ironical demonstra tion of the inutillty of these appliances was given recently, when a large storehouse in Jersey » ity. crammed full of them in complete working crder. was burned to the building, red Faint, bras.? mountings and all. A smaller and. perhaps, more Ineffectual adapta tion of the same principle is made op la the sanpo of a metal syringe, or what the boys call a squirt gun. It weighs, fully charged, only four or five pounds, and If successfully applied at the earnest Inception of a tire— to a lighted match or a live coal— its power would be fully apparent, pro vided the chemicals had not. during Its period of Inaction, so corroded the metal as to Incapacitate As a matter of fact, the liquid chemical fire ex tinguishers, which depend for their activity upon the chemical affinity between strong adds anil' unstable bj'«es, are extremely dangerous to these who attempt to use them. Many accidents with fatal results mishi be cited. Even trained firemen handle them with great dread, knowing that th* power developed is practically Irresistible, while the containing vessel may nave been weakened by corrosion. The hand grenades, charged with the same car bonic acid and water, which were so frequently to be seen a few yea«s ago. were not nearly so dan gerous, because they were to be thrown at th.- fire. not to be held and squirted. All that was necessary to their intelligent application was that the oper ator should spend a few .seasons as pitcher in a high class baseball team, so that he might with ac cmacy project the fluid where It might be needed. Besides this, he must select some hard object, on which the bottles would be likely to break upon Impact. Should Ihe fire occur In the celling or In hanging curtains he might defer throwing the grenades until after ho had summoned the depart ment, thereby avoiding any further waste of time. for the gas charged water will surely fall to the floor, while the flames will as surely ascend to tha ctilln;. A more ambitious, more expensive, and, to the promoter, much more proa table system of ftre fight ing appliances consists of a complex network of water pipes carried along the ceilings of -ware houses and fitted at frequent intervals with sprink ling outlet*, closed by plugs of extremely fssMs metal. This metal is so constituted that, when the temperature at the celling reaches a certain height, the plugs are intended to fuse and release benefi cent showers of tire quenching water alike upon the just and the unjust, upon the goods which may or may not be on fire, and those which certainly are not. This action of the heat also, in theory, sounds an alarm, which is intended to bring to th* seen* not only the Fire Department— to ascertain whether there really is a fire— the Insurance patrol. THE SYr.I^GH: J tJr<3UID IM OPERATION. to siftlfj y whose tarpaulins are Sere to be greatly needed, and the insurance adjusters, to estimate) the sal vage, if any. from the ingenious f100d.. . . - --. • A silk merchant replied to me. when I vent ured to congratulate him upon the elaborate sys tem of automatic sprinklers very much In evidence on his ceilings. £><fl afoittai give a thousand dollars to have them .Mit'UJfao.They are disconnected, ami can dcv.no harra. -.tius any mischievous boy might open th* connecting Carve and expose my stock to ruin." . " Upon opening his store one morning another merchant found everything flooded and practically worthless. Some prankish imp of the night had opened the plugs. The alarm failed to go off, and. uninterrupted, the faithful sprinklers sprinkled all night long, while the cold, unfeeling stars twinkled with merry glee. It Is impossible to contrive a metal plug so fuslhis as to melt at the mild warmth of an Incipient Are. bat which will surely resist the heat of an August day. True, the fire losses under this system may be sensibly diminished, but the losses by water win many times outweigh this advantage. End of the century civilization called for some tr.lcg better, something more effectual, more dura* bie. less dangerous urn these complicated, yet crude appliances, and. as is always the case, sci ence has answered tha call with a fire ri^Unsr. fire extinguishing; fire killing appliance that costs little money, takes up no room, 13 ever at band, so simple that Us use involves so previous training nor any high. order of Intelligence, and whose durability Is such that time or climate has been found m I to affect: it at all. This übiquity 13, per haps, the cost important point of advantage m tha latest modern ore extin guisher. Instant appli cation of a pitcher of water may save life ami property which a few minutes later Is beyond, the control of the entire Fire Department of this great city. A witness to this fact to the recast Windsor Hotel horror. What is now a flichailaa; blaze In a was:epaper basket may be, when fh* fire brigade arrive?, a roaring hell of flair.*. Is It not the part of ordlnary prudence to have at hand in simple form that any child or servant can pi as well as a battalion chief a means of asphyxi atlng such incipient are* I A tube of Kllfyre IS three pounds and cost three dollars . .-.- plane needed for Its Instalment Is a tack driven into tha woodwork of a doer. A jerk at the tube releases KILFTRE DRY POWDER TUBE. it from the lacs. unstopping It at the same time. A few flirts of the tube fills the air with the impal pable Kllfyre powder and— fire can as longs? exist In that room. Railroad trains when wrecked and b« gaining to burn are commonly out of reach of any ere bri gade or assistance of any kind. They should carry their own fire department. A tub* of Kitty re dry powder fire extinguisher In toe hands of a br»J|£ man would have prevented the -Ash tabula 1*5; » — » — « KII.FYRR IX OPERATION. ¦ aust. It Is impervton? alike to dampness, frost. heat or the deterioration of time Had there been at hand a s!n?!t» three dollar tube of KUf>re when thnt modern Vrometheus." Mr- !.,-.ir\ ¦ cow. kicked over the -lamp in 1871. and brought :::¦¦ the incredible distance from heaven to , Chicago, it would have prevented a loss of . JtM.OOO.i'H). have saved 11,000 buildings and 2<X> human lives, and, perhaps, benefited Chicago, A few tubes of the -dry powder, hanging at.con venient "stations on the Hoboken docks.- last summer would have saved three ¦ magnificent transatlantic steamers, many human lives and goods and wharf property running up into tne millions. r* r 7'