Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/721

* FIRE PROTECTION. 651 FIRE-WORSHIP. jump. Arrow-guns are used to shoot up cords by means of which ropes may lie hoisted for use in escaping from fire. Respirators are air filters of wet sponge, cot- ton, or other material, fastened over I he nose and mouth to prevent suffocation on entering a room more or less filled with smoke or gas. They are sometimes called smoke-protectors, in which case they may or may not include protection for the eyes. Fire-armor max include more or less pro- tection for the whole body, but more commonly, at least in America, it is designed to protect the head only, and to supply air as well. The agen-Boder helmet is a sort of fire-armor. A Btrong helmet fits over the head and neck. A small cylinder or reservoir at the back of the helmet contains compressed air, which, when sup- plied at. normal pressure through proper tub- ing and accessories, is said to be sufficient for sixty minutes' use. The device is similar to a diver's helmet. Central offices serve not only as headquarters for the officials of the fire department, but here are also found the various receiving and trans- mitting instruments mentioned in the article on Fire-Alarm. Volunteer fire departments exist in communi- ties too small or too poor to warrant the expense of a paid fire department. While the men in paid fire departments give their whole time to the work, those in the volunteer companies serve gratuitously, or with exemption from a part or all of their taxes, dropping their regular work or turning out of bed in the middle of the night in response to the fire-alarm. Able and devoted as is the work of volunteer fire departments, it is often poor economy to rely upon them, particular- ly in large communities, since it is a well-known maxim that the first few moments or seconds after the outbreak of a fire is the crucial period, and naturally the paid departments, always on duty, can respond more promptly than the volun- teer. Finally, it may not be out of place to say that the efficiency of a fire department de- pends upon the extent to which politics are kept out of questions of control and the principles of civil service observed. Consult : Shaw. Fire Pro- tection (London, 18771, a British presentation of the subject; Hill, Fighting a Fire ( Xew York, 1897), for an account of the daily life of an American fireman. FIRE QUARTERS. See Fire-Bill. FIRE-SALAMANDER. The common spotted species of salamander in Europe. See Salaman- der. FIRE-SHIP, or FIRE-RAFT. A floating craft, loaded with combustibles, set on fire and sent among the enemy's ships for the purpose of destroying them by fire or causing confusion. The first recorded use of fire-ships was at the siege of Tyre, B.C. 332, the Tyrians delaying for some months the fall of their city by destroying with fire-ships a mole that Alexander was build- ing. There are numerous other instances of their use before the commencement of the Chris- tian Era. and they seem to have been well known from that time onward. The invention of Greek fire in 673 caused increased use of fire-ships, at first by the Greeks and afterwards by other na- tions as they became possessed of the secret of manufacture of the compound. In 951, and again in 953, Russian fleets narrowly escaped destruc- Vol. VII.— 42. tion by fire-ships. During the period of the Crusades their use was frequent. In L370 the English used them at Zuruckzee. The mosl not- able use of them in early modern history, and the iii-i known use of exploding vessels, occurred at the siege of Antwerp, in 1585. They were both used against a heavy boom defense, but the employment of the exploding vessels was disas- trous to their own side. The English used lire- ships against the Spanish Armada at Calais with good effect in 1588. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries their use attained a maximum. Soon after the beginning of the nine- teenth century the decadence of fire-ships began, and the development of strain and the change from wood to iron in ship-building have nearly destroyed their usefulness. FIRE-WALK. In several of the Polynesian Islands, notably at Tahiti, is found a fire cere- mony intended to insure good crops. Divested of its spectacular features, the ceremony consists of the walking of a priest and other celebrants barefoot across a bed of stone- which have been heated upon a mass of burning wood. That this surprising feat, which has been described as a marvel, is susceptible of a rational explanation, has been shown by Secretary S. P. Langley, of the Smithsonian Institution, who observed the ceremony at Tahiti in 1901. It was ascertained that the volcanic rock employed is a poor con- ductor of heat, so that while the stones of the ceremonial 'taro oven' may be intensely hot underneath, the upper part will be only moderate- ly warm. (See Nature, August 22, 1901.) A similar ceremony has been practiced in Japan. The stories bordering on the marvelous which have been told about ordeals by fire (see Or- deals) will be found, on examination by compe- tent observers, to admit of simple explanation. FIREWORKS. See Pyrotechny. FIRE-WORM. A caterpillar which devours foliage, leaving the trees looking as if a fire had swept over them. The spring canker-worm (q.v.) and the Rhopobota vacciniana are examples. FIRE-WORSHIP. Devotion paid to fire as a sacred element, and one of the earliest objects of worship among mankind. This widespread cult, like sun-worship, earth and water venera- tion, may be recognized in many phases from primitive ages to the present day. from savagery to civilization. A distinction between the primi- tive fetish-worship of the physical fire itself and the more advanced conception of a divinity or fire-god behind the flaming manifestation is not always easy to draw among the nations that have paid reverence to this element. It is easy, however, to see how fire as an incarnation of light opposed to darkness, and as a power so beneficent, and yet on occasion maleficent, would be a natu- ral object of veneration. Nor is it difficult to understand the devoted care and pious attention early bestowed upon the cherished flame sprung from the spark so hard to obtain and so difficult to maintain. It was this that made the fire, which was preserved for the general good on an altar or in a shrine, the focus of the early com- munity, and made the domestic hearth the centre and symbol of the home and family. Special functions, or time-honored rites, were associated with the production and keeping of the fire, and those who ministered upon it, as its worship