FIRE PREVENTION AND EXTINCTION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 117, 19 May 1909, Page 2

FIRE PREVENTION AND EXTINCTION.

DR. HA'RKER'S INVENTION. Yesterday it was announced by ca message published in The Post that satisfactory trial of a fire-extinguisb invented by Dr. Harker, of Sydney, ha been witnessed in London. The Sydney Daily Telegraph gives further particulars regarding a trial in Sydney some time ago. The invention, which purports to preveno or extinguish fires, and to fumigate vessels, is most simple in character, and the machinery necessary for carrying . it consists of very few parte. The principle is that in burning coal or coke in ordinary air, the free oxygen present in the air is in great part eliminated, so that combustion cannot take place, nor can life be sustained in the gases after combustion. The proces6 consists of taking the waste gases from the uptake of a vessel's boilers, and, after cooling and partially cleaning them, using them for the purposes mentioned. A fan is used for drawing them from the uptake through the cooler, and for forcing them into any desired compartment. These gases have, up to the present, been allowed to go to waste, and when one considers that steamers of ordinary eize burn 30 or 40 tons of coal per day, and that each ton of coal provides abouf 400,000 cubic f eef of gas, it can be seen what an enormous amount of material is p'.ways available in steamers for the purposes of fire-extinction and prevention. The demonstration, though carried out on a fairly large scale, was quickly given. A compartment with a capacity of 6000 cubic feet had been bulk-headad off. After a candle had been lowered down to show that the air was pure, tho hatches were put on loosely, and the fan. started. In three minuteG a large piece of sacking, saturated in kerosene, was lighted, and when brought over a vent hole, was at once extinguished by tho issuing gases. A tank bottom, filled with dry pine wood soaked in kerosene, was set alight and lowered into the compartment. Before it had got a foot down the fire was blotted out. Then a, well-perforated oil-drum, filled with glowing coal from the furnace, was put into the hatchway. Kerosene oil was quickly poured on it, and the only apparent result was a cloud of smoke, with no sign of flame. The gas was then, blown out of the hold with 1 fresh air, and in a few minutes the candle was again lighted in it. It is believed that for vessels carrying dangerous cargoes tho process will be very valuable, as by forcing gas into the holds combustion can be prevented. The apparatus is simple and inexpensive, and can be fitted on sailing ships as well as on steamers. The gas has iio evil effect on anything with which it comes in contact, and can be displaced with dir by the same fan which forced it in. The gases contain too low a proportion of oxygen for the support of animal life, and are therefore well-suited for the purposes of fumigation. For land service or fumigation coke is preferable, a<s it gives a cleaner gas.