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Page 22
The liability to injury by fire is a hazard inherent to all buildings,
and this danger is a constant menace whose threatening destruction of
values imposes upon the owner a persistent consideration, which endures
as long as the building stands.
As every method of construction, the various mechanical processes and
the stock in each stage of manufacture bears some relation to the
fire-hazard as a supporter or possible originator of combustion, the
engineer whose duties pertain to these matters must necessarily also
consider the question of the fire-hazard in the important phase of
prevention, as well as the direct application of those engineering
problems required in the design and installation of fire apparatus.
The fire-loss is a most oppressive tax, much of which can be abated by
the application of well-established means of prevention. In a practical
sense, certain fires are to be considered as unpreventable, being caused
by exposure to fires in other burning buildings, but there are very few
fires whose destructive results might not have been prevented by the
exercise of precautions entirely feasible in their nature.
These several topics will be considered in reference to the reduction of
the fire-loss on isolated manufacturing property, because the exercise
of every possible precaution may not avail anything if the property is
liable to be imperilled by fires originating in adjacent buildings.
SUPERVISION.
The prevention of fires must in greater measure proceed from the
efficiency of the supervision exercised over the property in the order
of the buildings, heed to probable causes of fire, and attention to the
fire-apparatus.
In a manufactory there is a wide distinction to be made between to-day's
dirt and yesterday's dirt; valuable results may be obtained by an
inspection of the whole property made on Saturday afternoon by two men,
such as foremen or overseers of rooms, who may be appointed to serve
four weeks, their assignment terminating on alternate fortnights. The
report should be made on a sheet of paper, divided so as to include all
features of order and fire-apparatus in every room.
As property should be watched during the day Sunday, as well as at
night, it is under the care of watchmen about five-eighths of the time,
and the measure of this responsibility should be clearly understood.
The patrol should be recorded on a watchman's clock, not merely to show
that he was not unfaithful, but also to prove that he was faithful.
Especially in districts liable to disorder and lawlessness, it is
desirable to have a district-messenger signal-box in the works, visited
once an hour, with the understanding that if the call is not made within
fifteen minutes of the appointed time, it will be assumed that there is
trouble and help sent at once.
Safety requires that the lanterns should be securely guarded; that the
handle and sustaining parts of the lantern be connected together by
rivets or by locking the metals together without relying on soldered
joints; and thirdly, that the lamp should be put in from above, and
never from the bottom.
CONSTRUCTION.
In its design, a mill for any standard line of manufacture is not a
building whose arrangements and proportions are fixed upon at the whim
of the owner, but it must conform to certain conditions of dimensions,
stability, light and application of power to satisfy the requirements
essential for furnishing every advantage necessary for producing the
desired results at the lowest cost.
The destructive consequences attending fire in such buildings, whose
iron and masonry construction is called fireproof, show that some other
form of construction is necessary to obtain the desired results of
minimizing the annual cost of the maintenance of the invested capital,
as represented by insurance, depreciation, interest and taxation. There
is little incentive for entering into unusual expenses in the
construction of a manufacturing building for the purpose of increasing
its resistance to fire, unless the additional interest on such increase
in the investment is to be met by a corresponding reduction in the
annual cost of the fire-hazard. In addition to these questions,
involving the annual maintenance of the plant, the increase in the
expense of the building above a certain point may prove poor management,
by locking up capital for too long a time, and may tend to prevent the
improvements in arrangement and construction which are necessary for the
most advantageous manufacturing.
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