Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 April 1891 — A New Fire-Boat. [ARTICLE]

A New Fire-Boat.

The new fire-boat in New York City, named the New-Yorker, cost SIOO,OOO. It easily throws a five-inch stream 250 feet. Its two boilers are built for a working pressure of 148 pounds, and they are 15 feet long and 12 feet in diameter, and each one has 204 three-and-a-quarter-inch tubes. The pumping machinery is, of course, of great power. It comprises two duplex vertical direct-acting pumps. Each has two steam and two water cylinders. The steam cylinders are 16 inches in diameter by 11 inches stroke; the water cylinders, of the same stroke, are 10 inches in diameter. The working pressure allowed for the water cylinders is 200 pounds to the square inch. The pumps draw water through two 16-inch suction openings in the bottom of the vessel, to which suction pipes are connected. The discharge is delivered into a 12-inch main that runs around the deck-house, and which is provided with numerous connections for hose-couplings. The hand-pipes are manipulated behind movable screens, 3,000 feet of hose are carried, and discharge pipes are provided for streams varying from two and a half to five and a half inches in diameter. The pumps will discharge 10,000 gallons a minute. A tender carries additional hose, and a fire half a mile inland from the boat can be furnished with abundant water. The proverb, "Blessings brighten as they take their flight,” refers to the servant girl who rubs up the parlor furniture. A toper gave “the absence of soft water” as an excuse for hard drinking.