Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 04.djvu/168

LEFT FIRE ESCAPES 138 FIRELESS ENGINE same engine drives and pumps the water. Those preferred are six cylinders of 70 h. p. pumping 700 gallons of water a minute. Chemical engines, motor driven, are within the means of the smallest towns and require only two men and a pilot to operate. FIRE ESCAPES are of two distinct kinds — one for affording aid from out- side, and another for enabling those within the house to effect their own escape. Of the latter the simplest is a cord that should be firmly attached to the window sill of every sleeping apart- ment, and coiled either in a box on the floor, or under a dressing table, or other suitable place. A rope one-quarter or three-eighths of an inch thick, and knotted at intervals of about one foot, is well adapted for the purpose. A pulley fixed to the window sill, over which runs a rope with a chair or simple board to sit on, is a well-known contrivance. Fire escapes, to be used from without, con- sist either of simple ladders kept at con- venient stations, or a series of ladders that can be joined together; or ropes with weights at one end that they may be thrown or shot into windows. Large buildings generally have permanent iron stairways attached to the outer walls for use in the case of fire. FIRE EXTINGUISHER, or FIRE ANNIHILATOR, an apparatus intended for extinguishing fire by the spraying of specific liquids, such as water charged with carbon dioxide or some other gas impervious to combustion. These extin- guishers are usually cylindrical in form, made of a metal both light and strong, containing a solution of soluble carbon- ate, and in an upper glass receptacle a quantity of sulphuric acid which mingles with the carbonate solution when the cylinder is inverted preparatory to its use. The resultant carbon dioxide during its process of generation drives the sat- urated liquid through a valve, nozzle, or other opening, by the manipulation of which it may be directed on the flames. The extinguishers may be of a size convenient for carrying or they may be large enough to require moving on wheels, as in factories. A more elaborate arrangement is the sprinkler system, consisting of pipes running under the ceiling in the successive stories of an establishment, from which water is auto- matically released when a given tempera- ture is reached, supplemented by the use of certain chemical agents. A smaller form of extinguisher is the hand grenade, containing solutions such as chlorine, and mixtures of calcium chloride, which is thrown bodily in the flames where the fire is at >ts inception. FIREFLY, popularly, a comprehensive name for any small insect which flies and is luminous. They belong to the Lampyridss and the Elateridse. The Ful- gora lantemaria, or lantern fly, a homop- terous insect, is too large to be called a firefly. The glowworm {Lampyris nocti- luca) is also excluded, because the lu- minous sex, the female one, only crawls. In the case of several Lampyri in hot countries, the female, like the male flies. The firefly of the S. of Europe is Lam- pyris italica, that of this country L. canadensis. An East Indian species may be seen in myriads during the rainy reason glancing round trees. The firefly of South America is one of the Elater- idse elaters, or Pyrophwus noctilucus. FIRE ISLAND, the most W. end of a strip of the Great South Beach, Suffolk CO., N. Y., 40 miles long, averaging one- half mile W., off Long Island, between Great South Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. It is reached by ferry from Babylon. The beach took its name from the fires built there as signals to vessels during the war with England, in 1812. Between the beach and the mainland, in Great South Bay, are five small islands. About 45 miles E. of the inlet to the bay Great South Beach joins the mainland. The entire strip is dotted with popular and well-known watering-places. To the east there is a lighthouse 185 feet high with a revolving light. FIRELESS COOKER, a mechanical ar- rangement by which hot or partially cooked food can be kept at a tempera- ture which will complete the cooking and allow the food to be served still heated. To this end the cooking pot has to be inclosed in a box or other recep- tacle provided with insulating material in sufficient thickness and quantity. The insulating materials most in use ai-e asbestos and mineral wool, but there is great variety in the materials that may be used, the object in every case being to conserve the heat sufficiently to allow the food to be thoroughly cooked, and to keep it at the required temperature for a given time. Among the fireless cookers on the market, some supplement the insulating material with metal plates that may be heated and placed under the pot. The principle is a simple one and has been used by housewives in va- rious forms from time immemorial, so that there is a great variety in the mechanical devices employed. The chief considerations are that the arrange- ments should be convenient and the danger of causing fire be obviated. FIRELESS ENGINE, vapor or steam engine, acting independently of any