The boilers in the design also operate the fire-engine pumps, which would probably consist of four powerful duplex "Worthingtons," each throwing five hundred gallons a minute. They discharge into a pipe connected with a large air-vessel, whence a series of branches issue with valves connected with fire-hose.
But at the top of the large air-vessel stands a water-tower ladder, the two sides consisting of water-pipes. At the heads of the pipes are fitted two-inch nozzles, the direction of which can be varied by moving the water-ladders from the deck. Branch-pipes can also be led underneath the deck to either side of the vessel. Suitable accommodation is provided for the crew, and ample deck space is available for working the craft. She seems likely to give a good account of herself at any water-side fire to which she might be called.
Concurrently with this new design, arrangements were made to alter the London river-stations, and to some extent remodel the river organization. Previously, there had been five river-stations; but usually between fifteen and twenty minutes elapsed after a fire-alarm was received before a tug got under way with its raft or float. This delay was partly owing to the fact that the men lived at some distance, and also that a full head of steam was not kept on the tugs.
The chief officer advised that the staff and appliances of the A and B stations, and also of the C and D stations, should be amalgamated, and thus a crew could be always on board and ready to proceed to a fire at a moment's notice. There would be four river-stations--_viz._, at Battersea, Blackfriars, Rotherhithe, and Deptford--from any of which a crew with appliances could steam at once. The value of the new arrangement is obvious. Moreover, the staff of the Blackfriars post are lodged in the large new fire-engine station at Whitefriars, opened July 21st, 1897, and which is not far from the north of Blackfriars Bridge.
As, therefore, the nineteenth century closes, we see the London Brigade, which has formed the model of so many others in the kingdom, straining every nerve, not only to maintain its high reputation, but to develop and to improve its elaborate organization and its numerous appliances for coping with its terrible enemy.