Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/724

 Snipping the Flames From a Natural Gas Well

Two streams of water were played in such a way that they formed a pair of water-shears

moned. He had never seen a gas fire before. He amazed the local gas en- gineers by setting about to put it out with water. Men protected by sheet - iron shields played the hose on the fire from opposite direc- tions. The streams met at the base of the flame and the force of the contact caused the water to be flattened out in the form of a horizontal fan. This sheet of water was edged in under the flame, thus shut- ting off the supply of gas from the point of ignition. The water was raised rapid- ly after the retreating flame to prevent back firing. By this method the fire was ex- tinguished in ten minutes.

���The men who played the hose on the flames were protected by great sheet-iron shields

A sheet of water was edged in under the flame, completely shutting it off as at right

THE largest natural gas well in the world, near Monroe, La., burned for five and half days and wasted 264,000- 000, cubic feet of natural gas. Men who had had experience in fighting such fires were baffled by the magnitude of the blaze and the fierce heat. After all the known methods of fighting gas fires failed, William Guerin, formerly deputy fire chief of New York city, was sum-

708

��Special Cars for Per- sons Carrying Parcels

ANYONE who has ever l\ had his knees bruised by bulky parcels carried by passengers in street cars will hope to see a plan re- cently adopted in Paris carried out in his home town. The Metropoli- tan, the Paris under- ground railway, has in- troduced a number of second-class compart- ments without seats for the special con- venience of passengers with bulky parcels. The compartments are on the order of those p ovided for freight on ordinary trains. This ex- periment has resulted in far greater comfort for all the passengers. Occasionally a passenger will object to being compelled to board the special car with his bundles, but as a general rule no trouble is encount- ered.

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