|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 15
[Illustration: A SECURE OUTLOOK.]
"Let me show you how a wooden house is built. The sills and joists of
the first floor are comparatively safe, because they are not boxed in
with dry boards, and even with furnace and ash-pits in the cellar there
would be little danger from a fire down below if it were not for the
careful provision made for carrying it into the upper part of the
structure. This provision, however, is most effectively made by means
of the upright studs and furrings that stand all around the outside of
the building and reach across it wherever a partition is needed.
Accordingly, every wooden house has from one hundred to one thousand
wooden flues of a highly inflammable character arranged expressly to
carry fire from the bottom to the top, valiantly consuming themselves
in the operation. Furthermore, they are frequently charged with
shavings and splinters of wood, which, becoming dry as tinder, will
respond at once to a spark from a crack in the chimney, an overheated
stove or furnace-pipe, or a match in the hands of an inquisitive
mouse. They are, likewise, so arranged that no water can be poured
inside them till they fall apart and the house collapses, for they
reach to the roof, whose sole duty is to keep out water, whether it
comes from the clouds or from a hose-pipe, but which, for economical
reasons, is made sufficiently open to allow the air to pass through it
freely, thus insuring a good draught when the fire begins to burn. To
complete the system and prevent the possibility of finding where the
fire began, the spaces between the joists of the upper floors
communicate with the vertical flues, and these highways and byways for
rats and mice, for fire and smoke, for odors from the kitchen, noises
from the nursery and dust from the furnace and coal-bin, are also
strewn with builders' rubbish, which carries flame like stubble on a
harvest-field.
[Illustration: MINED AND COUNTERMINED.]
"Brick houses, as usually built, are not much better, but that is not
the fault of the bricks--_they_ are tougher than good intentions; they
have been burned once and fire agrees with them. In fact, there is no
building material so thoroughly reliable, through thick and thin, in
prosperity and in adversity, as good, honest, well-burned bricks. But
the ordinary brick house is double--a house within a house--a wooden
frame in a brick shell. Like logs in a coal-pit, the inner house is
well protected from outside attacks, but the flames, once kindled
within, will run about as freely as in a wooden building, and laugh at
cold water, which, however abundantly it is poured out, can never reach
the heart of the fire till its destructive work is accomplished. Thrown
upon the outer walls, it runs down the bricks or clapboards; poured
over the roof, it is carried promptly to the ground, as it ought to
be; shot in through the windows, it runs down the plastering, washes
off the paper, soaks the carpets, ruins the merchandise and spoils
everything that water can spoil, while the fire itself roars behind the
wainscot, climbs to the rafters and rages among the old papers, cobwebs
and heirlooms in the attic till the roof falls in, the floors go down
with a crash and an upward shower of sparks, and only the tottering
walls, with their eyeless window sockets, or the ragged, blackened
chimney's, remain."
"One road leads to fire and the other to combustion; that's plain
enough," said Jack; "but where do the merits come in? I thought we were
to learn the relative merits of bricks and wood."
"Wood has one conspicuous merit, a virtue that covers a multitude of
sins--it is cheap; but let me first arrange the fire-escapes."
"By all means. Otherwise we shall be cremated before morning."
"If you understand my sketch you will see that but one thing is needful
to retard the progress of hidden fire, even in a wooden building, long
enough at least for one to go up the hill and fetch a pail of water.
This remedy consists simply in choking the flues and stopping the
draught, which can easily be done by filling in with bricks and mortar
between all the studs of both outer walls and inner partitions at or
near the level of each floor. A cut-off half way up is an additional
safeguard. The horizontal passages between the floor-joists should also
be closed in a similar manner, otherwise the smoke and sparks from a
burning lath next the kitchen stove-pipe will come up through the
cracks in the floor of the parlor, chamber, or around some remote
fireplace, where the insurance agent will be assured 'there hadn't been
a fire kindled for six months.' These occasional dampers are a partial
remedy, and if carefully fitted in the right places will save many tons
of coal and greatly diminish the chances of total destruction in case
of fire. The complete remedy is to leave no spaces that can possibly be
filled.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|