FIRE ENGINE

of which contains air to serve as a spring for equalizing the pressure during the piston stroke and the interval between strokes. A suction pipe from the lower end of the force pump is always ready; but is not required where a stream of water with sufficient head, as from the aqueduct hydrants, can be introduced.

The application of steam power to fire engines was first attempted by Mr. Brathwaite, in London, 1830. His first engine was of barely six-horse power, weighing a little over 5,000 lbs., had an upright boiler, in which

NEWSHAM'S FIRE ENGINE, 1754.

steam was generated to a moderate working pressure in twenty minutes, and was capable of forcing about 150 gallons of water per minute from 80 to 90 ft. high. The city of Cincinnati gave the first demonstration of the feasibility of this application of steam. Steam fire engines are usually drawn by horses, but automobile or self-propelling ones have been introduced in several large American cities, and in 1891 a patent was issued for an engine in which electricity was the motive power both for the propulsion of the engine and the discharge of water. Hanover, Germany, was the first city to install a complete service of automobile fire engines, consisting of engines, hose carts, and hook and ladder trucks; after five years' use the service was pronounced entirely satisfactory (1907).

Floating steam fire engines were proposed by an English writer, 1834, and in 1850 a pump was placed on a propeller and geared with the engine. It threw 600 gallons per minute to a height greater than any of the buildings on the E. India Docks, London. The water tower consists of a sectional pipe attached to a heavy truck and extensible to a height from which water fed to it by an engine can be thrown into the highest windows of the modern "skyscraper." The introduction of fire boats, which now form an important part of the regular fire department of all large cities having extensive water front, was the first step toward independent high-pressure service. The next step was the substituting for fire engines of central high-power pumping plants or stor

FIRE EXTINGUISHER

age reservoirs, by means of which an enormous amount of water can be drawn from the several mains of the high-pressure system and concentrated at high pressure upon a single block directly from the hydrant.

Fire Escape', device to facilitate the escape of persons from burning buildings. The common fire escape is a system of fixed iron ladders attached outside beneath the windows, ordinarily with a platform or balcony provided for each story. Scores of complex machines intended for use as fire escapes have been projected, but firemen still use sectional ladders, which they manipulate at great disadvantage by hand. These were in use previous to 385 A.D., as also were flexible ladders with hooks at the ends, which were thrown to catch upon walls and window sills. In ancient use, too, were telescopic tubes raised vertically from a base frame by a screw, and carrying a basket large enough to hold several persons; also lazy tongs, or jointed superposed bars lifting a platform. Both of these principles are embraced in numerous fire-escape apparatus projected in recent times.

Fire Extin'guisher, apparatus for extinguishing fires either by means of water or by noncombustible gases. The term technically considered excludes fire engines, although the principle of operation may be similar in both. The original fire extinguisher, as the term is now used and understood, was the invention of William A. Graham, of Lexington, Va., who filed his application for a patent, November, 1837. The patent was issued more than forty years later, July, 1878, and its validity was sustained in a Federal decision in 1884. Graham died in 1857 after twenty years of vain endeavor to convince the Patent Office of the patentability of his invention. Twelve years later certain foreign inventors received a U. S. patent embracing its principle, but were unable to carry back the date of their discovery of it beyond 1861, whereas it was shown that Graham, aside from his application filed in 1837, had successfully made and used an apparatus embodying the discovery as early as 1853. In 1876 the administrators of Graham filed a new application, which was rejected on the ground of delay and long public use. On June 14, 1878, an act of Congress was passed which revised the application of forty-one years before, and on this the patent was finally issued.

Graham's original apparatus was improved by later inventors till the present self-acting extinguisher was evolved. There are several types, of which the Babcock is probably in most general use. This is in two forms: a small metallic cylinder, which can be carried on one's back, and a larger one or pair, mounted on wheels. Specimens of the latter type, popularly called chemical engines, are used in the U. S. by the salvage corps maintained by insurance companies. In each form the cylinder contains, in its upper section, a glass or lead vessel holding sulphuric acid. The rest of the cylinder is filled with water holding in solution bicarbonate of soda. The stopper of the small vessel is worked by a

FIREFLY

rod through the top of the extinguisher. By | withdrawing the stopper the vessel tilts over, and mingles the acid with the solution, thereby discharging carbonic acid from the latter, and the opening of a stopcock, near the bottom of the cylinder, lets the water rush out through | a hose.

Other forms of extinguisher devised for quenching fires at their start are glass handgrenades to be thrown into a flame and broken as they strike, and a variety of metallic tubes operated in different ways, the apparatus in each case containing a substance that will develop gas enough to put out a small fire by excluding air. These small devices are made for use in dwellings, offices, factories, places of amusement, steamboats, railroad cars, etc. Numerous methods have been proposed for insuring the automatic action of fire-extinguishing apparatus through the inevitable increase of temperature. Pipes extending from a central reservoir of water or extinguishing gases, and provided with fusible plugs or actuated by a thermostat, have been largely and successfully introduced.

Fire'fly, popular name of insect which is luminous at night. Fireflies are beetles of the families Lampyrida and Elaterida, the former including the glowworms. The luminous organs of fireflies and glowworms are composed of yellow masses of cells filled with granular matter and traversed by many trachea (breathing tubes). It is now generally held that the light is produced by the slow combustion of

FIRE-FLY.

granular and perhaps fatty matter, oxygen being abundantly supplied by the trachea. It is not thought that phosphorus is present in any noteworthy amount in the luminous matter. Spectroscopic examination of the light of insects of both families gives a beautiful continuous spectrum without lines. The fireflies of Central and S. America are chiefly Elaterida, of the genus Pyrophorus. They generally give a very intense light, which comes from two spots on the prothorax. The U. S. have some Elaterida with luminous larvæ. Our common "lightning bugs are of numerous species, all Lampyridæ, and mostly of the genera Photinus and Photuris. Photuris Pennsylvanica is the most common. See GLOWWORM. Fire'hole Riv'er, in Wyoming; main fork of Madison River; flows from Madison Lake, a sheet of water of some sixty acres area, NW. through the Firehole Basin, one of the most remarkable geyser regions of the Yellowstone National Park.

Fire Insur'ance. See INSURANCE.

Fire'proofing, the process or means of rendering textile fabrics or other materials in

FIREPROOFING

The

combustible. Impregnation either with alum, borax, or copperas is by far the best treatment for fireproofing and preserving wood, and is strongly recommended for railway cars subjected to risk of fire from overturned stoves and lamps in cases of collision, etc. The use of sodium tungstate and ammonium phosphate has been found to be best adapted for common use with cloths, etc., either of these rendering the lightest muslins uninflammable. sodium tungstate has the advantage that it may be used with starch and does not interfere with ironing, and should be used in preference for light articles of apparel, curtains, upholstery, etc. The disastrous results of fires in places of amusement have led to the use of fireproof drop curtains, and asbestos is the material most relied upon for the desired fireresisting properties in such places.

FIREPROOF BUILDING is the science of constructing an edifice not only incombustible, but capable of resisting, without injury to its stability or serious damage to its structure, the action of any fire originating either within its contents or from without. The destructive effect of long-continued and fierce flame upon incombustible materials, such as stone and iron, renders the problem of fireproof building a difficult one.

The burning of stored merchandise, and even the radiated heat of a great conflagration, may suffice to melt exposed ironwork, or at least to soften it until it collapses, dragging floors and walls down with it in a general ruin; it may fuse the surface of wall tiling, crack and destroy solid granite masonry, and cause zinc and copper to burst into flame.

The distinction should be carefully drawn between fireproof and merely incombustible buildings. The latter, although wholly composed of material incapable of combustion, may be completely gutted by the spread of the fire among their contents from one part to another through stairways and other openings; and may even suffer serious structural damage by the collapse of their metal beams and columns. A fireproof building should suffer no structural damage from either internal or external fire, and should offer an effectual barrier to the spread of the flames from one story or section to another. There is also a third class of buildings which, though built with incombustible walls, floors, roofs, and partitions, are finished with inflammable fittings and decorations. The damage by fire to fireproof' buildings has mainly been in structures of this class, which includes a large proportion of modern " fireproof" hotels, apartment houses, and office buildings.

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It should be the aim in any system of fireresisting construction (1) to build wholly of incombustible materials; (2) to protect by nonconducting coverings all exposed structural metal work; (3) to dispense absolutely, if possible, with inflammable material even for the finishing and minor embellishments; and (4) to oppose every possible barrier to the passage of fire from one part of the building to another.

FIREPROOF SAFES are movable receptacles of iron or steel, lined with noncombustible mate

FIRE SHIP

rials, and used for the preservation of papers, money, or other articles of value. The essential features in the construction of fireproof safes are included in the following classification: (1) those having a filling of some simply nonconducting material, like clay or concrete; (2) those fitted with plaster capable of giving off water by calcination, though only in moderate quantities; (3) those in which alum or other salt yielding a large percentage of water by decomposition, is mingled with the plaster; and (4) the steam safes, in which vessels either of glass or metal and filled with water are arranged between the inner and outer walls to give off steam when subjected to a high heat. It must be remembered that no safe is absolutely fireproof, although they are made capable of withstanding an exceedingly high temperature. Wherever possible, a safe should be imbedded in brickwork, which is one of the most effective of all protections against the injurious transmission of heat.

Fire Ship, formerly a vessel, often old and unseaworthy, laden with combustibles, fired, and sent into the midst of an enemy's fleet to set it afire. This ancient device has been fre

quently tried in modern warfare, but, though sometimes of service, can never be of much effect against modern war ships.

Fire'works. See FIRE-CRACKERS;

TECH NY.

PYRO

Fire Wor'shipers. See GUEBERS; PARSEES.
Firishta (fe-resh'tä). See FERISHTAH.

Fir'man, in Oriental countries, the certificate or written mandate of a sovereign or govern ment; is especially applied to passports issued to travelers in Turkish countries.

First Aid to the In'jured, a term applied to the first and essential things done for the immediate relief of the injured and distressed. Remedial measures for the most common emergencies may be found under the following titles: ANTIDOTE, ARTERY, BANDAGES, BURNS AND SCALDS, DROWNING, FAINTING, POISON, SUNSTROKE, AND WOUNDS.

First'born, among the Hebrews, the first child of the father and the mother; hence he is spoken of in regard to the father as "the beginning of his strength," and in regard to the mother as "the opening of the womb." Before the establishment of the Hebrew theocracy the rights of primogeniture (first birth) were recognized, but they were sometimes transferred from the eldest to a younger son, as from Esau to Jacob. After the Mosaic economy was established, such a transfer was forbidden (Deut. xxi, 15-17). The birthright consisted in a double portion of the inheritance. commemorate the destruction of the firstborn of the Egyptians, God required that the first-born males of the Hebrews should be consecrated to him; also the firstlings of their cattle and the first fruits of their ground.

To

The right of government inhered in the eldest son in the absence of the father, or in the case of his death while the family remained together. This preeminence attached to the eldest son in the royal family, as he succeeded

FIR WOOL

to the throne (II Chron. xxi, 3). The firstborn son seems to have had authority over the rest of the family from the earliest times; but this appears to be distinguished from the peculiar birthright prerogative, for Esau says of Jacob, Is he not rightly named Jacob (a supplanter)? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright, and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing (Gen. xxvii, 36). As the first born was considered more vigorous than younger children, having been begotten and brought forth before the parents had lost their strength, and first developing into manhood, he was invested with superior prerogatives in the family. This has been the case among almost all people. Hence the destruction of the firstborn of Egypt was considered so great a calamity.

In the Scriptures, the term "firstborn" is used metaphorically for the first, or chief, or preeminent. God said of David (Ps. lxxxix, 27), "I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth," where the second clause explains the first. Christ is "first-born among many brethren " (Rom. viii, 29), as he is "the Son of God" in a peculiar sense— sons of God. The preeminent among the righteous are spoken of as a society of firstborns, registered in heaven" (Heb. xii, 23). For the subject of the firstborn's rights under the English law of primogeniture, see PRIMO

GENITURE.

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First Fruits, the earliest gathered fruits of the season. The offering of the first fruits, with religious ceremony, in acknowledgment of Divine bounty, was practiced by the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, as well as by the Hebrews. Under the Mosaic ritual these offerings were of two kinds-national and individual. The national offerings were in connection with two of the great festivals; the first, a sheaf of barley at the Passover, when the barley harvest began; the second, two loaves of bread at Pentecost, when the wheat harvest ended. These national offerings, of solemn_representative character, were to be made at Jerusalem, and ceased with the destruction of the Temple. Individual offerings were also for the sustenance of the priesthood, and were made throughout the country, as well as at Jerusalem. Some offerings were expressly devoted to the priests' use (Num. xviii, 12), as the best of the oil, wine, and wheat, and the fleece of sheep. Of young trees no fruits could be taken till the fourth year, when they were offered as first fruits; after this they might be eaten. Of all ripened produce of the earth, a basketful was to be presented by each Israelite. The gift was not to be taken from the portion designed for tithes, nor from the corners left for the poor. One fortieth was accounted a liberal proportion of the produce, while a moderate portion was a fiftieth, and a scanty portion a sixtieth; but whatever was offered must be the produce of the Holy Land. Beyond Palestine it might be converted into money, and thus sent to the Temple.

Fir' Wool, fiber prepared to some extent in Germany from the leaves of the Scotch fir, and made into cloth and wadding, used in the

FISC

FISH

Fisc, originally a wicker basket in which money was carried and kept. When the empire was established the name fiscus was given to the treasure which belonged to the emperor as such. Under the later emperors no separate state treasury existed. In the civil law of modern Europe the fisc is the property of the state. The word confiscation, derived from fiscus, signifies the forfeiture of any species of property to the state.

Fischart (fish'ärt), Johann, abt. 1550-90; German satirical writer; b. Mainz, Hesse; became advocate to the Imperial Chamber at Spires in 1581; in 1583, Bailiff of Forbach, where he died. His works, in the main, were written to condemn the vices and follies of all classes, and to vindicate Protestantism. Perhaps the best known is a free imitation of Rabelais's Gargantua." Among other works

are

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"The Jester in Rhyme," a satire against the Dominicans and Franciscans; "The Fortunate Ship," a narrative poem; "The Flea Hunt," a comic poem; "The Four-cornered Hat," against the Jesuits; "The Grandmother of all Prognostication," and "The Hive of the Holy Roman Swarm," a sharp attack on the dissolute clergy.

Fish, name popularly applied to vertebrated animals living in the water, breathing by means of gills and possessing paired fins. All fish

(1) lancelets (Leptocardii), small marine animals representing the lowest degree of development of the vertebrate type, possessing no distinct head and with a soft cartilaginous cord which serves as a vertebral column; (2) lampreys and hagfishes (Marsipobranchii), naked, eel-shaped animals with imperfectly developed skulls, no true jaws and a cartilaginous skeleton; (3) fishes (Pisces), including sharks, rays, sturgeons, garpikes, and bony fishes, possessing a well-developed skull, with a movable lower jaw, developed brain, and a cartilaginous or bony skeleton. Of this last class, the bony or true fishes (Teleostomi) constitute the commonly known varieties of both fresh-water and marine fishes.

Nearly all representatives of the class Pisces are covered with scales or bony plates. The skin of the sharks generally contains minute, platelike scales which are rasping to the touch, while that of the sturgeons and garpikes is characterized by prominent bony bucklers or hard, enamel-covered angular and rhomboidal scales. Other forms of scales are the cycloid and ctenoid: cycloid scales have their margins entire; ctenoid, serrated.

The skeleton of the common types consists of the skull, a series of vertebræ, generally biconcave, and the pectoral and pelvic girdles. The number of vertebræ is not constant, and often attains a high number, especially in the shark family. The pectoral girdle is a forkshaped apparatus like a bird's wishbone, curved forward, connected with each side below at the median line, and joined to the skull To the pectoral and by intervening bones. pelvic girdles are attached the pectoral and ventral fins respectively. The dorsal, anal, and caudal fins are connected with the vertebral column by means of their supporting rays, which in turn connect with a system of supporting bones called interspinal bones, which stand in definite relation to the bones of the vertebral column, although not directly joined to it. The fish is propelled through the water mainly by the lateral movement of the caudal or tail fin, the other fins maintaining the direction. The skull of higher fishes is a complicated structure; in sharks and rays it is a simple cartilaginous box. To the lower part of the skull are attached the lower jaw, hyoid, and gill arches. The hindermost of the gill arches are generally modified into pharyngeal bones.

The respiratory system of all fishes consists of gills attached to the gill arches in front of by the blood from water passing through the the scapular arch. Oxygen is thus obtained the gill clefts. The tongue is attached to the mouth, into the pharynx, and escaping through hyoid apparatus, and often bears teeth. In some classes and groups, teeth may be borne on any bones in the circumference of the mouth in addition to the jawbones. There may also be no teeth at all.

The more important differences in the digestive system of fishes as compared to other vertebrated animals lies in the possession of cæcal appendages at the anterior end of the intestine, which act as supplementary stom