FIRE-EXTINGUISHING APPARATUS FOR STEAMERS.
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ABOOTLE motor haulage contractor, Mr. Jesse Dunham, who runs an 8-ton Leyland steam wagon chiefly on cotton traffic, between ttverpool and Oldham, has had his vehicle fitted with a device which renders a supply of water available for use in ease of lire.
During the summer months cotton loads are liable to be Involved in fire, due to spontaneous combustion, and Mr. Dunham told a representative of The Commercial Motor that. he adapted the device—for which the inventors, the Motor and Steam Wagon Repairers, Ltd., of Bootle, have applied for a patent—not because he had had trouble with combustible loads, but because he had seen so many fires on motor vehicles, when they were miles away from available water supplies. The fittings which are necessary to make every steam wagon a miniature fire-engine are very few and simple. A pipe runs from the War to the watertank, and by opening a valve on the boiler, water from the supply tank is expelled by steam pleasure from a hosepipe coiled up at the rear end.
Immediately a fire is detected the second man jumps down from the driver's seat and gets the hose in action. At the demonstration witnessed by the writer, from.the word " Fire" it took ten seconds for the second man to jump down and play the water on the imaginary load. fhe water is pumped from the tank at. a pressure up to 200 lb. per sq. in. Using a half-inch nozzle on the hosepipe, B44 which gives a stream 49 ft. high, it would take 30 minutes to consume 140 gallons of water.
It is not possible completely to exhaust the water supply by using this device, for when the water is within aa few inches off the bottom the hose will give out, and the wagon has a residue of water sufficient to carry it five miles.
Mu fire-extinguishing hose is additional to the ordinary filling pipe, but both can he used simultaneously—one filling the tank from a hydrant whilst the other is emptying it by playing on a fire. The arrangement has been examined by the superintendent of the Bootle Eire Brigade, who is impressed with the efficacy of the invent-ion.
Our representative also interviewed the Motor and Steam Wagon Repairers, Ltd., and was -informed that the fireextinguishing fitting, which is manufactured and supplied by them is adaptable to any steam wagon, and costs £15. .