establishment, that the necessity of breaking open

the door may not occur.

DESCRIPTION OF TOOLS WITH WHICH EACH
ENGINE IS PROVIDED.

Having considered the sort of fire-engine which is best adapted for general purposes, I shall now notice the different articles which, in Edinburgh, are always attached to, and accompany each engine of this kind:

6 coils of hose, 40 feet each.

2 balls of sheepskin.

2 ditto of cord.

2 directors or jet-pipes.

4 wrenches for coupling-joints.
2 ladders, each eight feet long.
1 boat-hook.

2 keys for fire-cock doors.

bute

1 picker for ditto.

1 distributer.

See description of fire

cocks.

ditto

ed

リ

1 mattock.

50 feet of 2-inch rope, with a small hook at one end. 80 feet of 2

ditto.

80 feet of -inch chain, with a large double hook do.

1 shovel.

1 hatchet.

1 saw.

1 iron crow-bar.

1 turn-screw.

1 piece of sheet-lead, 2 feet 6 inches square.

B

Of these articles I shall endeavour to give a description as they stand in the above list.

The article of hose being first in order, as well as importance, merits particular attention.

The sort used here is almost all rivetted, and answers better than any sewed hose I have yet seen. This latter sort, indeed, is liable to many objections. If kept in a place where it is exposed to drought, the thread expands, and when brought into use, the seams leak till the thread is again contracted, by being completely wetted through, while from the rotting of the thread, the stitches are continually giving The thread is also very liable to be injured by the hose being dragged over a rough street, or into a stair or window, when full of water, or by any other means by which it is exposed to friction.

way.

Several different plans have been tried to obviate this evil, but, so far as I have been able to learn, none of them have been attended with that success which can bring them into comparison with hose fastened with tinned copper rivets. A double seam has been made, copper-wire has been introduced into the heart of the hempen thread, and the original seam has been covered with leather sewed down on

both sides; but none of these methods have been effectual.

All the rivetted hose in use here, is made by a workman in the regular employment of the Commissioners of Police, and has, on trial, been found greatly superior to any that has been purchased for this establishment, either in Edinburgh or London; the latter being frequently found full of sewed-up warble-holes and flesh-cuts, the stitches in which are exceedingly apt to give way, and in consequence the hose becomes leaky.

Manufacturers of this article, for a very obvious reason, are not careful to select that part of the hide, which being firmest, is best adapted for the purpose, Indeed, I have known several instances wherein nearly the whole hide has been cut up and made into hose, without any selection whatever. The effect of this is very prejudicial. The loose parts of the hide soon stretch and weaken, and while, by stretching, the diameter of the pipe is increased, the pressure of the water, in consequence, becomes greater on that than on any other part of the hose, which is thereby rendered more liable to give way at such places.

Hose are frequently made narrow in the middle, and, in order to fit the coupling-joints, wide at the extremities, a practice which lessens their capability of conveying a given quantity of water, in proportion to the difference of the area of the section of the diameters, at the extremity and the middle part.

In order to make them fit the coupling-joints, when carelessly widened too much, I have frequent

ly seen them stuffed up with brown paper, and in that case they almost invariably give way, the folds of the paper destroying the hold, which the leather would otherwise have, of the ridges made on the ends of the coupling-joints.

In order to avoid all these faults and defects, the rivetted hose used here, are made in the following

manner :

An agreement is entered into with a currier, to furnish the leather at the time it may be required, under the following conditions:-The leather to be 9§ inches broad, (that being the breadth required for coupling-joints of 23 inches diameter of clear waterway,) and levelled to the same thickness as a sample previously agreed upon. The leather used must be taken from hides of the very best description, perfectly free from flesh-cuts, warble-holes, or any other blemish, and stuffed as high as possible. Not more than four breadths to be taken from each hide, and none of the soft parts about the neck, shoulders, or belly to be employed. No piece of leather to be less than four feet long. When ready for delivery, the leather to be examined and measured by the Master of Fire-engines, whose business it is to reject any, not agreeing with the above specification.

The leather being delivered, it is gaged to the exact breadth, and holes punched in it for the rivets, by a machine made for that purpose, see plate 6,

Stuffing, a technical term used by leather-dressers or

curriers.

figs. 9 and 10. In the operation of punching, great care must be taken to make the holes on each side of the leather exactly opposite to each other. If this precaution be not attended to, the seam when rivetted takes a spiral direction on the hose, which the heads of the rivets are very apt to cut at the folds. Care must also be taken that the leather is equally stretched on both sides, otherwise the number of holes on the opposite sides may be unequal. The ends are then cut at an angle of 37 degrees; if cut at a greater angle, the cross-joint will be too short, and if at a smaller, the leather will be wasted. This must however be regulated in some degree by the number of holes in the cross-joint, as the angle must be altered a little if the holes at that part do not fit exactly with the holes along the side.

The different pieces of leather necessary to form one length, or 40 feet of hose, are rivetted together by the ends.

Straps of leather, three inches broad, are then rivetted across the pipe, ten feet apart, to form loops for the purpose of handing or making fast the hose when full of water. The leather is then laid along a table, and a bar of iron, from eight to ten feet long, three inches broad, and one inch thick, with the corners rounded off, is laid above it. The rivets are next put into the holes on one side of the leather, along the whole length of the iron bar. The holes on the other side are then brought over them, and the washers put on the points of the rivets, and struck down with a hollow punch. The points of the rivets are then rivetted down over the washers,