WATER AND FIRE ENGINEERING

These are the days of reform, and everywhere the public spirit is more or less agitated, either by the persistence of abuses which seize taxpayers’ money, or by tariff charges which, it is said, live a hardship in the case of those who are in moderate or poor circumstances. Tariff reform probably takes center stage, and no tinkering is undertaken in this line. It may or may not be fine; but surely the subject of fire prevention is at least equally worthy of national consideration. Its negligence involves not only individual losses, but municipal, state and national ones, as one can only understand when one constantly remembers that the average direct loss per tire during the period covered from 1870 to 1908 has averaged from ninety-four million one hundred three thousand six hundred fifty-seven dollars in 1870-1871) to two hundred and nineteen million nine hundred three thousand three hundred and nineteen dollars in 1900-1908. The population of the country in 1880 was fifty million one hundred fifty-five thousand seven hundred and eighty-three, while in 1908, according to the government estimate, it was eighty-six million eight hundred and eighty -fifteen thousand, three hundred and fifty-nine. That is to say; While the population of the United States has increased seventy-three percent, since 1880 the loss of liras has increased one hundred and thirty-four percent., and the per capita loss of one dollar and eighty-three cents to two dollars and fifty -three cents for nine years and three lollars and ten cents for the five years ending with 1908. These figures tell their own story of direct loss which can never be recovered, since, even if the money of the insurance took full advantage to recover the losers, this money simply represents a tax levied on the insured for so many years and does not take into account the losses suffered directly by those who were not insured, nor the indirect loss resulting from the temporary, sometimes total, disappearance of industries, the loss in wages and production, which, again, reacted on those who bought and sold the products or with whom the wage earners dealt, not to mention the worst loss of all, the destruction, sometimes massive, of so many lives of employees. in the form of parents with young families or others dependent on them for support, or young lives, who formed the future hope of the nation. I* or such losses, the losers can never be recovered, and yet, to a very great and appreciable extent, such losses could be avoided; money could be saved to add to the common prosperity and many useful and valuable lives could be saved for the community by the exercise of the most ordinary foresight in fire prevention. How to do this is obvious; and the start of the set must be made in the construction line. As soon as there is an end to the ordinary style, not to say the all-too-common jerry building, but constructions intended for daily use, factories, offices, hotels, schools, theatres, apartment buildings, etc. , the losses by fire will be reduced by at least seventy-five percent, and our permanent reproach of such an enormous sacrifice of life and property will be erased.

Water pollution is due to three sources: The presence of plant and animal waste; discharges, liquid or solid, of human beings; and waste from industrial operations. The last named, when not taken in conjunction with either of the other two, does not cause waterborne diseases. Animal litter, unless it contains human excreta or other human waste, will only transmit diseases transmissible by or from animals to humans, such as, for example, foot-and-mouth disease, anthrax and tuberculosis. Plant waste can, and often does, cause diarrhea or gastroenteritis, especially in young children and invalids. That is to say then: while it is only certain that water polluted by sewage – such as that which contains typhoid, cholera or another water-borne disease – caused by an infectious germ, transmits such diseases and infects the otherwise healthy bodies of human beings, the fact that water is polluted in any way is enough to condemn its use, unless it is first purified or sterilized. The presence of harmful wastewater is easily detected by the analyst. The colon bacillus testifies to the fact that this species of contamination has infected the water, and therefore typhoid or other pathogenic germs can hide there, even if such diseases have not appeared in the water. neighborhood. Such germs may be found unsuspected in the system of a person who is apparently perfectly healthy and at the time unsusceptible to their malignant influence, and may be taken up by means of water into the system of another who is sensitive, and therefore a whole neighborhood. , even an entire town or village can be turned into a hotbed of disease. Or the germ may remain, and usually remains for a considerable time, in the organism of a person who has suffered from the disease, but who has been completely cured and who behaves as usual. Such cases are quite common, and discharges, liquid or solid, from those in this state are liable to cause a deadly epidemic. For these reasons, therefore, in order to guarantee healthy water, the catchment area, with all the streams flowing into it, must be most strictly monitored, so that there is no chance that be made a source of disease by the waterways. flowing into it, underground seepage from suspect wells, cesspools or surfaces which in any way, by flooding, passing workers or human traffic of any kind, have been temporarily rendered unsanitary. In order to guarantee the most perfect safety, however, the only safe method is to install a modern filtration system, and to this almost all water supplies must come last.