BRAITHWAITE'S STEAM FLOATING FIRE

ENGINE.

We have much pleasure in being able this week to lay before our readers a description of Mr. Braithwaite's floating fire-engine, referred to in our note to the article on the " House-burning System," extracted from the Spectator into our 684th Number, and mentioned as having been submitted to the Associated Fireoffices, but its adoption declined by them. Although it must be acknowledged, as our indefatigable and respected corre spondent, Mr. Baddeley, observes, that fires are sometimes extinguished by the common fire-engine, under the manageinent of the Fire-Brigade, yet the effect of these manual machines must be small in comparison to that of a flood of from four to five tons of water per minute; which Mr. Braithwaite assures us can be delivered by the engine now described.

It will be seen, that the machinery of the floating steam fire-engine is so arranged, that the power of the engines can be at once changed from propelling the vessel to working the pumps. Thus its locomotion does not depend either upon wind or tide; although its power can, of course, be used with greater efficacy when a high tide permits its close approach to the burning building. In cases of accidents from fire amongst shipping, its aid would be invaluable; and we are surprised that ship-owners have not, as yet, perceived the protection which would ensue from the addition of one, at least, to each of the different sea-ports of the kingdoi.

The steam can be got up, and every thing ready for working, in twenty minutes from the time of the alarm being given. The gearing of the couplingboxes is then connected with the paddlewheels, by which the vessel is propelled until it arrives in the vicinity of the fire, when the gearing is altered, and the engines brought in connexion with the pumps.

In our front-page engraving, fig. 1 is a section, and fig. 2 a plan of the floatingengine. A is the boiler (on Braithwaite and Ericsson's patent principle); B, the exhauster; C, the steam-cylinder; D, the water-pumps; E, the air-vessel; F, the paddle-box; GG (fig. 2), are the coupling-boxes, or gearing, for engaging

The boat is of wrought-iron, and with the machinery, water in the boiler, pumps, air-vessel, and every thing complete, weighs 37 tons. The engines being 30-horse power, will propel the boat, drawing 2 feet water, at the rate of about 9 miles per hour. The length of the boat, 80 feet; height, 11 feet; breadth of beam, 13 feet; under decks, 7 feet, 4 inches.

The necessity of any further remarks of ours upon the subject is precluded by the following letter of Mr. Braithwaite's to the Editor of the Spectator, in answer to the article before referred to, in that pub lication. We fear there is too much truth in the short and pithy note of "An Observer," which follows Mr. Braithwaite's the sting is in the tail."

"Mr. Editor,-I will tell you what has become of it; but first permit me to give you a short history of its existence, as without it you cannot be in a situation to deal out even-handed justice as between me (the projector and inventor) and the Fire Insurance Companies, who have failed to avail themselves of it, as a means more sure than any other now in application for subduing fires." Having taken out a patent for an improved method of generating steam, I was induced, amongst other uses which it suggested, to attempt the construction of a steam fire-engine; and succeeded in perfecting one of ten-horse power, capable of delivering, with unexampled effect, ninety tons of water per hour. I then invited the Directors of the different fire-offices to witness its effects; who, on seeing it in operation, one and all

We have here merely referred to the different parts of the apparatus; a further elucidation of its mode of working will be found in the description of Braithwaite's steam fire engine in Mech. May., No. 340, and of the " Comet" fire-engine, built also by Mr. Braithwaite for the King of Prussia, No. 478.

expressed themselves astonished and delighted. Some, fearing an engine of such power would require more water than could be supplied to it, suggested that one of less power, and more portable, would be more serviceable. Up to that time I had expended about 17007. in perfecting it; but, nothing daunted, I adopted the suggestion, and constructed another to be drawn by two horses; and which, by appointment, was taken to the Regent's Canal Basin. In thirteen minutes from the fire being first lighted, the steam was up at 50 lbs. pressure; and the whole in operative delivery, projecting a column of water a distance of 130 to 140 feet, and 80 feet high, at the rate of 45 tons per hour. Nothing but satisfaction was expressed by all. Shortly afterwards, the Argyll Rooms being on fire, offered an opportunity for practically displaying its merits. The weather was extremely severe; and whilst the ordinary engines were soon frozen and rendered incapable of working, my engine continued for five hours so efficiently to perform its task, that but for its presence property to an immense amount must have been destroyed. Then came the fires in Wellsstreet, Charles-street, Soho, the English Opera-house, Messrs. Barclay and Perkins' brewery. at each of which it was at work, and at many others of less magnitude. The superior merits of the steam fire-engine over every other, all admit; but to myself, beyond the thanks of owners of property on the spot, and the liberal treatment, I am happy thus publicly to acknowledge, I and all my people received from the hands of Messrs. Barclay, Perkins, and Co., and one sovereign given to my men (who attended at a fire with my engine) by Mr. Braidwood, Superintendent of the Fire-Brigade, I have neither received reward nor encouragement-nay, until the New Police was introduced, nothing but obstructions and annoyances. My last effort was, by the advice of some influential friends, to prepare drawings and estimates for a floatengine on the river. I did so; and, at the instigation of some of the Directors, I submitted them to the Committee managing the new Fire-Brigade establishment; who, after some few days, returned them to me by Mr. Braidwood, the Superintendent, with the following letter:

68, Watling-street, 14th Sept., 1835. Sir, I am directed by the Committee for managing the London Fire-engine establishment, to return you their best thanks for the sight of the plans you have been kind enough to favour them with; and to inform you that they do not deem it advisable to execute them at present; but, should they do so at any future time, they will be most happy to have your valuable assistance.

I have the honour to be, Sir,

Your most obedient servant, JAMES BRAIDWOOD, Superintendent. Braithwaite, Esq.'

"On the above statement I will make no comment; leaving the public themselves to judge of the whole matter. As things at present are, I am minus about 35001, by my invention.

"Now, for the answer to your question as to what has become of the engine? Finding I must expect no support from the fire-offices, I have been applying it, rather than permit it to remain idle, to various purposes of pumping; and at the time of the fire in Tooley-street, it had been home but a few days, and was undergoing slight repair. Will the fire-companies say why they have not adopted it? An answer to this question is as much due to the public as to me.

"I am, Sir, your obedient servant, "J. BRAITHWAITE. "P.S.-The Floating Fire-engine you call by my name, I claim no merit in, for in its construction I had nothing to do; mine being a steam fire-engine, whilst that requires the labour of forty men, constantly relieved every ten minutes, to work it effectually.

"To the Editor of the Spectator.'

"Mr. Editor,-It is well for you you were not born in the days of Herod, or you would most surely have been cut off with the other innocents. Do you really imagine the firecompanies wish all fires to be put out quickly? No, no-they are not such fools as you take them for. Are you not aware that property destroyed, not insured, is a godsend to them -the timid flocking by wholesale the next day to effect insurances? I am sure, from your very simplicity, you are not a Director of any of the Companies 'yclept fire-insurance. "Your obedient servant,

"AN OBSERVER." "[Mr. Braithwaite's letter comes in timely proof that An Observer is right, and that we are innocent.'-ED.]"

ON MACKINTOSH'S ELECTRICAL THEORY OF THE UNIVERSE, AND OUTLINES OF ANOTHER THEORY. BY COLONEL MACERONI.

Letter I.

Sir,-In common, I dare say, with the far greater portion of your readers, I have derived much satisfaction from the peru sal of Mr. Mackintosh's papers on the Electrical Theory of the Universe. After reading his two first letters, I stated to you my intention of offering some re. marks on the same subject. Since then I have thought it expedient to await the further development of Mr. Mackintosh's ideas.

For these many years past I have, through the process of observation, comparison, experiment, and meditation, arrived at many of the convictions expressed by Mr. Mackintosh; and I have arrived at others which greatly differ from those generally inculcated in the schools, but more or less approaching to Mr. Mackintosh's theory.

Before I enter into the more immediate purport of this letter, I will advert to a very minor point, in which I do not agree with Mr. Mackintosh, at least, not to the extent to which he takes it. In No. 676, he says, that "he is, as well as the astronomers, much perplexed in their endeavours to account for the brilliant appearance of the moon and planets, and cannot conceive it to result from the reflection of the sun's rays from mere earthy matter." In No. 160 of the Mechanics' Magazine, may be seen an article of mine, "On the Light and the Atmosphere of the Moon;" but as Mr. Mackintosh, and others of your readers, may not be able to lay their hands on that Number, I will just repeat an outline of the observations I make therein on the subject of reflected light. First, allow a ray of solar light to enter a room, otherwise as well darkened as possible, through a small hole in a windowshutter. Let the end of the ray fall into a hat, suspended on the opposite side of the room. Then let the observer remark the effect of every fly, or minute particle of matter called dust, which passes through the ray. It will be difficult for him to conceive that the particles he sees are not eminently luminous in their own natures, such will be the refulgence of their appearance! Again, let him furnish himself with a bull's-eye lantern, and walk out into the open fields on a dark night. He will find the luminous rays quite invisible, except when they strike upon any object, such as a hedge, a tree, &c. In a stage-coach, if he sits with his back to the horses and to the lamps, which cast their light forwards, he will be entirely in the dark, except when the coach passes a wall or a hedge; and if he would wish to read or see the hour by his watch, he can only do so by the projection from the coach-box of a flap of a coat or a wisp of straw in front of the lamp, so as to reflect the light back to the place which he occupies. Many other trials might be suggested,

but the hole in the window-shutter and the "bull's eye" lantern, properly used, will supply competent evidence of the extraordinary effects of reflected light. Any person standing on the top of a very high mountain, such as the cones of Etna or Vesuvius, and the heavens being cloudless and free from mist, if he turn his back to the sun, he will scarcely be able to see the hour by his watch, unless he so places his hand, or hat, or some other ob ject before him, so as to reflect the light of the sun upon the object. A room, with its window towards the north, does not receive near so much light on a perfectly cloudless day as when there are many clouds floating along, which serve to reflect the light in all directions. During the most brilliant eruptions of Vesuvius, accompanied with a flow of lava at a perfectly white heat, I have been on the mountain, which has been suddenly enveloped in clouds. Upon this occurring, we find ourselves surrounded on all sides with an equal glare; and but for the knowledge of the ground, and the continued explosions, it would be impossible to distinguish from which side of us the light proceeds, intense and refulgent as it is, far more than the conflagration of the largest city in the world.

The principle of merely reflected light is sufficient for the phenomena of the Moon, and of Venus, Mars, Mercury, Vesta, Pallas, and Ceres. But with respect to the planets Jupiter, Saturn, and the Georgium Sidus, which are so much further removed from our and their sun, as to cause that paternal luminary to appear to them not much bigger than they appear to us, it is probable that, in virtue of their greater bulk, they possess a luminous property of their own, by reason of a cause which I shall perhaps be able to show in this communication, or in its sequel.

The objection I have made to Mr. Mackintosh's ideas on the reflected light of the moon and planets is scarcely worthy of being recorded; but as the subject may be very easily enlightened by the little experiments I propose, I have restated them for the benefit of those who may choose to try them.

With respect to Mr. Mackintosh's "electrical theory of the universe," I shall now proceed to state what have been my ideas on that subject ever since the year 1817. In that year I had the

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good fortune to be thrown into a circle of acquaintance, amongst which were many men desirous of discovering the truth. They were pleased to listen to my vagaries" and "singularities," as they were then pleased to call my opinions and convictions with much indulgence and philosophical benignity and toleration. This was the more remarkable, as two of the interlocutors were beneficed clergymen of the Church of Englandone named Stafford, of Groombridge, in Kent; and another, whose name I forget, of Tonbridge Wells. The other interJocutors in the discussions were, Mr. Bamfield, Mr. Powell, Mr. Jones, Mr. Woodgate, the banker (Newport), and two or three other gentlemen of distinction for intellect living in the neighbourhood. In order to condense and record the matter of my lectures (I may almost call them), I wrote a paper, which I have been looking for this month past without effect. The substance of it was as follows. The gentlemen above-named, who are, I believe, all living, will well remember it, and, I flatter myself, feel much pleasure in the reminiscence.

I shall begin by calling, what I look upon to be axioms, merely postulates. The brevity to which I am confined in such a communication, must be considered by the readers. However, I can return to the subject if you will allow me.

In the discussion of any subject of science, i. e. facts, it is necessary to dismiss and disregard the opinions and mere dicta of every authoritative and venerated name; only regarding the things which such men have demonstrated and proved. Secondly, we should care nothing at all about the metaphysical doctrines which may arise from the facts produced. The great check to knowledge, is the constant endeavour of the schoolists to bend facts and theories to the assigned dimensions and limits of their metaphysical dreams, instead of fitting the latter to the facts which should be their only guide and text! A French author (I think D'Alembert) very appositely compares the metaphysician to a well-digger, who "the deeper he goes, the more he is in the dark." Beware, all ye searchers after truth, of metaphysics! Look to physics and facts; study nature; record your observations; put them together; make a whole see that it tallies with all surrounding and analogous things, and think

for yourselves. Thus will truth at last prevail; and we shall arrive at the knowledge of the real causes which produce happiness or misery to the hitherto deluded and purblind occupants of the surface of this globe.

From the tenour of the communications you have received from several of your talented correspondents, I am sorry to say that their animadversions on Mr. Mackintosh's electrical theory of the universe, do not appear to be dictated by a pure and hearty desire to get at the truth. Objections and special pleadings against facts, or alleged facts, merely because the admission of them would militate against the received theories of Newton or Kepler, or any other name, however illustrious, forms a species of controversy more calculated to check inquiry and delay the discovery of truth than to promote it. The objectors, or rather sneerers at Mr. Mackintosh's theory, do not grapple with the subject as a whole, and, ab ovo, look at the foundation; but pick out a case or two, in which some other explanation under an authoritative name is asserted to furnish a cause for an effect, as clear and reasonable as the one deducible from the theory which they à priori feel disposed to combat. Whether Mr. Mackintosh's theory partakes of the ideas (" vagaries") of" Wicked Will Whiston" (for so his yearning after truth caused him to be called at the Universities), of those of Buffon, or of Dr. Burnet, has nothing to do with the investigation of facts. Our business is to examine into facts, so as to be satisfied whether they exist or not. If such facts are found as do not square with our theories or prejudices, the latter must give way "Fiat justitia, ruat

cœlum !"

With regard to my own cogitations on the subject of cosmogony, I feel that I am entering on an arduous and inviduous task in laying them before your readers. In order to develop the entire conse quences, which naturally flow from the first positions, so as to forin a consecutive WHOLE, would require several volumes; for the same laws which form, inaintain, and reform the stars, suns, planets, and satellites, form, maintain, regulate, and reproduce every other body and identity belonging to the globe-primary forma tions, amongst which man on this globe occupies an important place; important,

at least, to himself, and inasmuch as his happiness or misery are concerned in the discovery of truth.

I do not well know what name to give to the positions I am about to propound.

I cannot call thein axioms, because, although I feel them to be such, they are far from being generally established as such in the minds of men. However, begin 1 must, and, for convenience sake, I will call (and think) them axioms, until some one will better inform me.

Ist. Space is infinite. It is impossible for our imagination to form any idea of a limit to it. The entire of space with which we are acquainted, is occupied with certain intervals by the globular bodies we call stars, suns, planets, and I hope I shall be able to show that the entire infinite space must be, in like manner, so peopled with analogous bodies or globes. Thus, to use a happy expression of Pascal, every point of the universal space is the centre-there is circumference no where. “Centre partout, circonférance nulle part.”

2nd. This matter, which occupies a part of all space, must also have existed from all eternity. It is impossible for our imaginations to conceive any thing being produced out of nothing. "Ex nihilo, nihil fit." Likewise, matter must be eternal in time to come, as it is equally impossible to conceive its annihilation.

3rd. A body, a thing, i. e. matter, must have a form or shape of some kind or other; and it must have properties and qualities inherent to it. Newton declares it to be an axiom, that no body can have any action or produce any effects upon any other body, without the intervention of some material agent communicating between the two.

4th. The universal property which we see in all matter, is motion; so much so, that we may declare that, "matter is motion, motion is matter." There can be no motion without matter; no matter without motion. I will not stop to prove the self evidence of this proposition, but proceed.

The quantity of matter existing in the universe, is divided into two equal portions, one of which is engaged in the existing globes and other identities; the other half is in a state of transition, forming, increasing, condensing, renovating. But the sum total of the quantity must be always the same to an atom, in eternity past and eternity to come.

It is by motion that all bodies are aggregated or formed; and by motion that their parts are, sooner or later, separated to be formed again. At one period of the existence of a body, its motion, or rather that of its particles, tends to condense and maintain it-at another, the motion tends to expand and disperse it. At a certain period, these two forces acting one against the other, as will be stated by and by, preserve the body or identity in life and figure. All bodies are innately acted on by an effort or motion of expansion or perspiration from the interior outwards. Hence, if any body could be for a moment isolated beyond the influence of the surrounding bodies, it would instantly disappear and he dispersed in the regions of unoccupied space, But as all bodies emit and project their expansive emanations in all directions, and as each globe is equally in thẻ centrè of the infinite number in infinite space, all bodies receive the compressive force projected from the others upon every point of their surface, and are so preserved from dissipation. The consequence of this repressive force applied to the surface of all bodies, is, that that surface is more condensed than the interior parts, in which reside the expansive action. It is through the pores of the crust or skin of the suns, and stars, and planets that exudes the perspiration, and an analogous action is constantly proceeding through the skins of the human and of other animals. The matter transfused by all bodies is identical with their substance. That of the stars and of our sun, is light. The perspiration of the planets and of our globe, is also light, but only in the state we call caloric, which is not visible to our sight. The pores through which the expansive perspiration of a globe darts forth, are proportionate in size to the surface of that globe, and to the pro portion which that surface bears to the spherical mass. The smaller the globe, the greater is its surface in proportion to its mass. The greater the mass, the greater will be the internal quantum of matter in expansive action, and the less in proportion will be the compressing power of the surface to retain it. Hence, the sun being more than a million of times the mass of the earth, each particle of the transpiration of the former must be a million times larger than a particle of the transpiration of the latter; and