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WILLIAM W. HARDING, Inquirer Building, 304 Chestnut St. THE DAILY INQUIRER Is served to subscribers at TWELVE CENTS A WEEK payable to the Carrier or Agent at the end of the week or month, and by mail for FIFTY CENTS A MONTH, or ONE DOLLAR FOR TWO MONTHS, SIX DOLLARS PER ANNUM, payable invariably in advance. TUESDAY, JANUARY 7, 1873. FIRES AND THEIR PHENOMENA. PAPER READ BEFORE THE METEOROLOGICAL SECTION OF THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE LAST EVENING. A meeting of the Meteorological Section of the Franklin Institute was held last evening, at which Professor John Wise read the following paper on "Great Fires and their Phenomena:"- The functions of the atmosphere, as related to extensive conflagrations makes it questionable whether a large city can be totally burned down that is provided with an ordinary fire quenching department. All the great fires of large cities, from that of London down to New York, Chicago and Boston, shows that at a time when the fire had eaten itself into the very thickest built parts of these places, and had spread over many acres of territory, it began to lull and became controllable under the ordinary efforts of the firemen, while it had defied their most assiduous efforts for many hours beforehand. Why did these conflagrations become controllable at these critical junctures? Certainly not for the want of fuel in proximate buildings. Neither can it be attributed to a better water supply, as that becomes comparatively less as the fire increased. Nor can it be the result of blowing up buildings with gunpowder, for that is adding fuel to the flames, and seems at best but a poor farce upon a fearful tragedy. There must be some other cause for the abatement of the conflagration, and it will be found to be one that the elements provide themselves. It is well known that the air flows into a fire from every point of the compass, which causes a central unmoving current in the form of a whirlwind, As the extension of the fire spreads around so is augmented the intensity of its heat, and with this also increases the inflowing of the air. The air that rushes into the fire is composed of one part of oxygen and four parts of nitrogen. The oxygen alone is the consuming element, the nitrogen acting simply as a diluant, and of itself would put out the fire. When the fire gets headway sufficient to baffle the efforts of the firemen, it is plainly observed how the progression of squares and cubes render the conflagration so fearful and devouring by the augmented intensity of the heat-a heat that is capable in such cases to render the iron of construction in buildings itself an aid to the conflagration, since iron in a high heat is frequently combustible. Going on with this increased force for a while, it reaches its maximum intensity, which is soon followed by a gradual abatement, until it becomes tame enough to be controlled by the firemen.The [fire has] exhausted itself, and in this way:-Since it is not the whole bulk of inflowing air that supplies the conflagration, but only one-fifth of it, it follows that four-fifths of it is driven up through the vortex of combustion into the cold air overspreading the fire, and there thrown outward by convection, whence it falls down around the circumference of the conflagration, and being deprived of its oxygen and charged with moisture and carbonic acid, acts as a fire annihilator instead as a feeder of combustion. It exhausts itself in the same manner that a rain storm exhausts itself. In the case of the rain the moisture and vapor surrounding the storm is abstracted until the supply fails to furnish a sufficient amount for deposition, and then the storm dies out. In the case of the fire the circumjacent atmosphere is depleted of its oxygen, which, with the downfall of vapor-charged nitrogen and evolved carbonic acid, renders the combustion inert, and brings it within the control of ordinary means. In a compactly built city of combustible buildings the area of conflagration necessary to the impoverishment of atmosphere oxygen would be less that in one more diffusely built; hence the city of Chicago suffered more in superficial area than Boston. The amount of oxygen abstracted from the air is in proportion to the amount of material entering into combustion. The avidity of the fire depends upon the facility afforded bu the materials to burn. Hence it becomes an important question what kind of materials should be used in the construction of storehouses wherein so much valuable merchandise is housed as is the case in commercial cities. Baked clay, mainly for the walls, with slate or tile roofs laid on iron string pieces, and iron joists to support brick floors, with iron window and door fixtures, would seen to afford a formidable barrier to ignition and conflagration. Clay-brick walls will not crumble under a heat that cracks and pulverizes granite and marble. Brick walls may become vitrified, and even melt, but they will not so soon break and afford an inlet for the fire as the other. When a fire is raging, and, at the same time, a strong wind be blowing independent of that cause by the heat, it will be observed that the fire eats in faster on the windward side than it does on the leeward, although the ascending flame will overlap the lee side and ignite the tops of adjacent buildings in that direction. The feedings of the fire is a chemical process, while the extension of it in the direction as explained above is more of a mechanical action. This mechanical action of the fires is what renders the wood-framed mansards such pernicious incendiary crown pieces. They should be prohibited by law in closely-built cities, as much so as purely wooden structures. If the mansard form of housetops is desirable, let them be made of iron framework covered with tile or slate, laid in cement. We live in an age of progress, and in view of the rapid increase of our commercial centres, the question of non-combustible materials for storehouse buildings ought to elicit the Mose earnest consideration of eminent architects, engineers and [[rest cut off]] [new article] Motion. To the Editor of the Scientific American: What is motion? This question might be confronted with another, namely : What is not motion? The latter would be the most difficult to answer. It is certain that we do not know of any condition of matter wherein there is no motion. Until the universe comes to a standstill, everything must be in motion. The idea of cessation of motion is inconceivable, as much so as is a limit to infinity, or similarly, an end to eternity. Motion is universal, so is matter, and motion and matter are inseparable; one cannot exist without the other. Motion is the primordial condition of matter, and Herbert Spencer, in his "First Principles," invests even nebulous matter-that which is sometimes denominated chaotic, such as was "void and without form"-with the function of motion, or that of possessing the power of contraction and expansion. Physical or mechanical forces can only be the result of a transfer of motion; and this transfer of motion can only be made at the expense of matter. The combustion of the fuel under the steam boiler is only a transfer of the force which had been employed in the formation of the wood and coal; and it is so with every other motor that can be used. The ball propelled from the cannon had its force-equivalent transferred from the labor of the manufacturer of the powder. Not only the powder but the ball as well, in its rounded or elongated shape, had to contribute its part in the play of projection. This system of compensation, as manifested in the correlation of forces, holds its equivalents to as strict a measure of reaction as the fulcrum of the scale beam does the things that are weighed in the balance. The seven or eight per cent of the units of heat, which are all that are at present utilized in the transfer of motion from the fire under the boiler to the machinery in the mill, so far from invalidation the science of mechanical forces as correlated, only goes to prove that we are far behind the constructive perfection which ought to give us much more, and which ought to stimulate the inventive genius of all mechanical engineers. The conduction and conveyance of power, that is the transfer of it from the fuel to the propelling wheel, is much, in the condition as to economy, as that of carrying water in a sieve. There is too much lost on the way side. The bushel of oats put in the horse's combustion chamber does a great deal more work that the bushel of oats (with its steam included) will do when burned under the steam boiler; and yet the force-equivalent in both cases must be the same. The economizing of motion is a good deal like going a fishing. He that understands the nature and the habits of the fish that he goes for will be like to succeed the best. So in the mechanical profession: he that understand the law of motion and mechanical forces will be most likely to get the most work out of of a certain expenditure of motion-transferring appliances. There is yet a broad domain and a wide track for the exercise of mechanical and engineering skill; and the man who adds a single increment of improvement in the economy of the transfer of motion becomes a benefactor to the human family. The inertia of the old doctors has given way tot he vis viva of modern scientists. The old inertia was defined to so and not to do: not a very comprehensive definition. The ball, when it stops rolling on the philosopher's board, goes only to show that it has played out the motion that was transferred to it by the motor, whatever that motor may ben been. There can be no such thing as increasing the amount of force in a given quantity of matter; but there is such a thing as economizing that power, that is to say, enabling it to do more work through one instrumentality than through another; and the perpetual motion makers ought to take it to themselves that they will not succeed in the solution of their problem by simply adding wheels and lever, unless they hope to move them by the psychic force; a force whose assistance can be called into action somewhat in the way that the sailor whistles up a wind. Mr. Crookes is of the opinion that a force, without the intervention of cognizable matter, does exist and that it can be called into action. Mr. Dauskin, an estimable gentleman and spiritualist of Balitmore, told the writer of this article that he had witnessed such phenomena with his own eyes; ut Mr. Coleman Seller, President of the Franklin Institue, gave an illustrated lecture, at the Philadephia Central High School that other evening, on "the Science of Delusion," in which he demonstrated that it is not altogether safe to trust implicitly to our eyes. Motion, like matter, is constant and universal. It cannot be annihilated, more can it be increased or diminished: but it is transferable, and the best we can do is to devise means through which this transfer can be accomplished by the least cost of labor and material. Philadelphia, Pa. [[Feb 1872]] JOHN WISE.
Transcription Notes:
As the "to the Editor of the Scientific America" article is laid on top of other newspaper clippings, should the behind text be transcribed as well? If so, in what format?
