Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/545

 Popular Science Monthly

��529

��WATER DtSCXARGED IN HELMET

��This Fireman's Suit Is Made of Real Water

THE Cincinnati fire department has been testing a new safety dress for firemen. The man who wears it can stand right in the midst of flames. He need not fear the glowing embers around his feet. He can walk into a fire and it will dwindle away and go out around him.

The dress is made of fireproofed canvas of two thicknesses between which water flows constantly. The water enters b>- means of a perfor- ated brass tube which encircles the neck between the two thicknesses of canvas and flows down between the layers through the arms and legs, finding exits at the finger tips and around the soles of the feet.

Water flowing only between the two thicknesses of canvas would not offer com- plete protection to the wearer. To keep him cool and comfortable while standing in the hottest fire, two brass perforated tubes encircle the helmet and give him a constant shower-bath from the outside as well as within the folds of the uniform. This not only keeps him from becoming over-heated but also extinguishes the fire around him. In this air-tight water-bathed uni- form some provi- sion must, of course, be made for ven- tilation. The air supply arranged for cannot give out so long as water con- continues to flow through the hose held in the fire- man's hand. It comes from the

��surrounding atmosphere, no matter how much smoke, flame or gases are in it. It is sucked into a patented collar which fits on the hose just back of the nozzle. The smoky air is washed and purified within the collar and sent by the pressure of the water flowing through the hose, up into the helmet for the fireman to breathe. The foul air finds exit through vents in the helmet. The same collar which washes and purifies the air for the fireman also has the water hose connection which supplies the shower baths in- side and outside of the uniform.

���A fireman wearing this uniform stood in flaming wood for ten minutes without discomfort

��How One Hospital Gets Its Necessary Supplies

AT the Overclift" Hospital, WestclifT-on- £\ Sea, England, there is a feeling that the public only wants to be taken into the con- fidence of the public institutions in order to offer efficient co-operation. So the hospital authorities have introduced the "Want" and "Thank You" clock bulletin below.

���The "Want" and "Thank You" bulletin clock which the hospital authorities of OverclifF Hospital, England, have placed in a con- spicuous place on their campus to inform the public of their needs

�� �