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plate 6, fig. 3. There are no wards in the lock, it being so much exposed to the weather. Fig. 4, plate 6, is a picker for opening the door when the bolt has got turned by the shaking of carriages, &c.

When the fire-cock is used for the supply of only one engine, the hose is attached to the top L, the handle M is then raised till it is perpendicular to the street, which opening the cock, the water rushes through the hose into the engine. If the pressure is great, and the main large, opening the cock a half, or even a third, may be sufficient for the supply of one engine. When there is a probability that more than one engine will require to be supplied from the same fire-cock, a distributor is put on, see plate 6, fig. 2.

The female-screw at A fits the screw on the top of the fire-cock L, to which it is attached; one or more of the caps B B B B are then unscrewed, and the hose attached in their places. The fire-cock is then opened, and the water rushes through the hose with a degree of velocity corresponding to the size of and pressure in the main. Most of the distributors are made with only two caps, as it is only in particular situations and on large mains that the fire-cocks are able to supply more than two engines. There are a few in Edinburgh, however, which could easily supply three or even four engines of seven-inch barrels. Some of the smaller fire-cocks on lead pipes are unable to supply one engine of that size.

In attaching one and a half and two-inch firecocks to lead pipes, the only difference in the opera

tion is, that a piece of lead pipe is soldered perpendicularly to the main, of a proper length for the depth of cover. At the upper end a lead flanch is soldered, an iron flanch being first put on the pipe, with a bar of iron at each side; these bars are bolted to a large stone in each side of the building, for the purpose of steadying the cock while the handle is being turned, the lead pipe being unable to stand the strain of opening and shutting the cock without bending. The flanch and screw are exactly the same as in the large cocks.

The opening within the building is filled up with sand or small rubbish to the dotted line OO; and in winter, for the better protection of the cocks from the frost, which, besides rendering them unserviceable for the time, is apt to split them, the remainder of the opening is stuffed with straw to the iron door.

I may here observe, that there are no cast-iron mains in Edinburgh so small as two inches; all the two, and one and a half inch fire-cocks are therefore upon lead mains of these sizes. The firecocks on the cast-iron mains are two and a half inches: all of them have round water-ways.

The Edinburgh Water Company do not allow of fire-cocks being attached to their cast-iron mains by means of saddles."

* The reason of this restriction is, that when the pressure from the fountainhead at Crawley Springs is allowed to act on the water in the main, (from 260 to 540 feet,) accidents might happen from the failure of the straps and fixtures of the saddles.

The buckets used here are made of canvass, sewed up the sides, and nailed with copper nails on a wooden bottom nine inches in diameter, and turned over a tinned iron ring of the same size at the top, to which a moveable iron handle is affixed: the whole bucket folds up in a space nine inches in diameter by three inches thick, the smallness of size being a great advantage when a number require to be carried. Although the canvass has undergone no preparation to make it water-tight, the leakage is almost imperceptible: when extended, the bucket is fourteen inches deep. Some buckets have lately been made entirely of canvass, with a circle of stout rope sewed round their bottoms and mouths, to stiffen them; the handle is also of rope: they are cheaper, and answer equally well with the others. It is found that less water is spilled in carrying in a canvass bucket, than in a leather one.

Training of Firemen.—I shall now consider one of the most important matters connected with a fireengine establishment, the training of the firemen.

It is quite obvious that an establishment of this sort, however complete in its apparatus and equipments, must depend for its efficiency on the state of training and discipline of the firemen. Wherever there is inexperience, want of co-operation, or confusion amongst them, the utmost danger is to be apprehended in the event of fire. It is amidst the raging of this destructive element, the terror and bustle of the inhabitants, that organization and discipline triumph, and it is there too that coolness

and promptitude, steadiness and activity, fearlessness and caution, are peculiarly required; but, unfortunately, it is then also that they are most rarely exhibited.

The description of men from whom I have been in the habit of selecting firemen are slaters, housecarpenters, masons, plumbers, and smiths.

Slaters make good firemen, not so much from their superiority in climbing, going along roofs, &c., although these are great advantages, but from their being in general possessed of a handiness and readiness which I have not been able to discover in the same degree amongst other classes of workmen. It is perhaps not necessary that I should account for this, but it appears to me to arise from their being more dependent on their wits, and more frequently put to their shifts in the execution of their ordinary avocations. Housecarpenters and masons being well acquainted with the construction of buildings, and understanding readily from whence danger is to be apprehended, can judge with tolerable accuracy, from the appearance of a house, where the stair is situated, and how the house is divided inside. Plumbers are also well accustomed to climbing and going along the roofs of houses; they are useful in working fire-cocks, covering the eyes of drains with lead, and generally in the management of water. Smiths are serviceable in any little matters of repair which may be necessary about the engine or apparatus while at work. Smiths and plumbers can also bet

ter endure heat and smoke than most other work

men.

Men selected from these five trades are also more robust in body, and better able to endure the extremes of heat, cold, wet, and fatigue, to which firemen are so frequently exposed, than men engaged in more sedentary employments.

I have generally made it a point to select for firemen, young men from seventeen or eighteen to twenty-five years of age. At that age they enter more readily into the spirit of the business, and are much more easily trained, than when farther advanced in life. You will frequently find men who, although they excel in the mechanical parts of their own professions, are yet so devoid of judgment and resources, that when any thing occurs which they have not been taught, or have not been able to foresee, they are completely at a loss. Now it happens not unfrequently that the man who arrives first at a fire, notwithstanding any training or instructions may have received, is still, from the circumstances of the case, left almost entirely to the direction of his own judgment. It is therefore of immense importance to procure men on whose coolness and judgment you can depend. If they are expert tradesmen, so much the better, as there is generally a degree of respect shown to first-rate tradesmen by their fellows, which inferior hands can seldom obtain; and this respect tends greatly to keep up the character of the corps to which they belong, and which ought never to be lost sight of.

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