Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 June 1895 — WALKING IN FLAMES. [ARTICLE]

WALKING IN FLAMES.

A Device Used by the Fire Fighters in Germany. There are some fire apparatus and appliances in which the firemen of Berlin are undoubtedly ahead. Of these apparatus the most notable is the fire “ scaphander.’’ The word “ scaphander," which means either " hollow man ” or "hollow to receive a man," is generally applied to the suit of impermeable material in which the diver arrays himself before he goes down into the water. The fire scaphander is on the lines of the diver’s scnphander, the only difference, in fact, being that it is made of a different material. The fire scaphander is made of asbestos and rubber, and is absolutely proof against fire. It neither takes fire nor Is it permeablo to the heat of tire. A man in an asbestos suitor scaphander can take a leisurely walk through roaring flames or through the thickest volume of smoke with comfort, or at least with complete Immunity from being burned or choked. The helmet iff donned apart from the rest of the suit and is her-

metically fitted to the suit, the riveting being so perfect that the air is excluded. A glass, specially prepared to stand great heat without cracking, is imbedded in the front of the helmet and allows the wearer to see plainly. To the fireman thus equipped air is supplied, just as it is supplied to the diver at work, through a tube, the one end of which is held at the earth’s surface and the other end isjn the helmet. It would be scarcely necessary to say that the scaphander is not intended to be, and is not the ordinary equipment of a Berlin fireman when he is fighting a fire. There in only one scaphander, perhaps, to a company, e nd the fireman donning one of them i i detailed to perform a special or exceptional task. Occasionally at fires, as everyone is aware, a particular room in a house or hotel, of which it is known that there are occupants, may be so enveloped in flames or in a stifling smoke that a rescue of the occupants is impossible, as the attempting rescuer would add the loss of his own life to theirs. It is in case of such a situation as this, not uncommon by any means, that the scaphander is brought into use. A fireman dons the scaphander, marches unhurt through smoke and flames in which a person ordinarily attired could not live a moment, and rescues inmates of tho burning building, who would otherwise Inevitably perish. He carries with him, also, when he enters, a bag or two of rubber and asbestos, which are known as ‘‘life saving sacks,” and stowing the imperiled inmates in those sacks, he either carries them out, if they are light weights, or hangs tho bag cor*taining them on the Msbestos tube providing him with air, and on another line connecting the bag with the firemen below, and shoots them out from tho window on to terru firmn by that route. In the operation he is assisted, of course, from the ground.