in the tabernacle, at the consecration of Aaron and his sons to the priesthood, Lev. ix. 24. It afterwards descended anew on the altar in the temple of Solomon, at the consecration of that temple, 2 Chron. vii. 1. There it was constantly maintained by the priest, day and night, without suffering it ever to go out; and with this all the sacrifices were offered that required fire. This fire, according to some of the Jewish writers, was extinguished in the days of Manasseh; but the more general opinion among them is, that it continued till the destruction of the temple by the Chaldeans; after that it was never more restored; but instead of it they had only common fire in the second temple. The Chaldeans had a high veneration for fire, which they accounted a divinity; and in the province of Babylon there was a city consecrated to this usage, which was called the city of Ur, or of Fire. The Persians also adored God under the image or representation of fire, because it is fire that gives motion to every thing in nature. They had temples, which they called 'Pyrza,' fire temples, set apart solely for the preservation of the sacred fire. They are said to have in that empire fires still subsisting, which have burnt many thousand years. The worship of the goddess Vesta (see VESTA) and of fire was brought into Italy by Æneas and the other Trojans, who landed there; but the Phrygians themselves had received it from the eastern nations. Fire was held in religious veneration among the Gauls; and similar sentiments and practices have prevailed in several countries of America. FIRE, DIVINATION BY. See PYROMANCY. • FIRE-ARROW, in naval artillery, is a small iron dart furnished with springs and bars, together with a match impregnated with sulphur and powder, which is wound about its shaft. It is intended to fire the sails of the enemy, and is for this purpose discharged from a musquetoon or swivel gun. The match being kindled by the explosion, communicates the flame to the sail against which it is directed, where the arrow is fastened by means of its bars and springs. This weapon 'is peculiar to hot climates, particularly the West Indies, where the sails being extremely dry by reason of the great heats, they instantly take fire, and of course set fire to the rigging, masts, and vessel. FIRE-BALL, in artillery. See BALL. FIRE-BALL, in METEOROLOGY. See that article. FIRE-BARRELS, a sort of small barrels used for fire-ships, of a cylindrical form, as best adapted to contain the reeds with which they are filled, and more convenient for stowing be tween the troughs in the fire-room. The inside chambers should not be less than twenty-one inches, and thirty inches is sufficient for their length. The bottom parts are first well stored with short double-dipped reeds placed upright; and the remaining vacancy is filled with firebarrel composition well mixed and melted, and then poured over them. The composition used for this purpose is a mass of sulphur, pitch, tar, and tallow. There are five holes, of threefourths of an inch in diameter and three inches deep, formed in the top of the composition while warm; one being in the centre, and the other four at equal distances round the sides of the barrel. When the composition is cold and hard, the barrel is primed by filling those holes with fuse-composition, which is firmly driven into them, so as to leave a little vacancy at the top to admit a strand of quick-match twice doubled. The centre hole contains two strands at their whole length, and every strand must be driven home with mealed powder. The loose ends of the quick-match being then laid within the barrel, the whole is covered with a dipped curtain, fastened on with a hoop that slips over the head of the barrel, to which it is nailed. The barrels should be made very strong, not only to support the weight of the composition before firing, when they are moved or carried from place to place, but to keep together whilst burning: for if the staves are too light and thin, so as to burn very soon, the remaining composition will tumble out and be dissipated, and the intention of the barrels, to carry the flame aloft, will be frustrated. The curtain is a piece of coarse canvas, nearly a yard in breadth and length, thickened with melted composition, and covered with saw-dust on both sides. FIRE-BAVINS, or FASCINES, are made of birchheath, or other brush wood, which is tough and readily kindled. They are usually two or three feet long, and have all their bush-ends lying one way, the other ends being tied together with small cords. They are dipped in the composition at the bush-ends, whose branches are afterwards confined by the hand, to prevent them from breaking off by moving about; and also to make them burn more fiercely. They are then sprinkled with sulphur. FIRE-COCKS. Church-wardens in London and within the bills of mortality, are to fix fire-cocks at proper distances in the streets, and keep a large engine and hand-engine for extinguishing fire, under the penalty of £10 by statute 6 Ann. c. 31. On the breaking out of any fire in London or Westminster, the constables and beadles of parishes shall repair to the place with their staves, and assist in extinguishing it, and cause the people to work for that end, &c. Rewards for assistance are payable to the first turncock 10s. - To the first engine not exceeding 30s.The second not exceeding 20s. The third 10s.To be paid by the churchwardens or overseers, but not without the approbation of an alderman or justice of the peace. The churchwardens, &c., to be repaid by the inhabitant if the fire begins in a chimney. The FIRE ENGINE is an apparatus of comparatively modern invention, although the forcingpump, of which it is an application, is more than 2000 years old. There are laws still unrepealed which make it penal for persons to be unprovided with 'hand squirts' for the purpose of extinguishing fires, and the rude contrivances that were employed for that purpose in the last century must still be in the recollection of many of our readers. The apparatus for extinguishing fires, contrived by Mr. Newsham is exceedingly simple in the arrangement of its parts, and, as such, appears best calculated to explain the construction of this important engine. It is shown at fig. 1, plate I. HYDRAULICS, and consists of a cistern AB, about three times as long as it is broad, made of thick oaken planks, the joints of which are lined with sheet copper, and easily moveable by means of a pole and cross bar C in the fore part of the engine, which is so contrived as to slide back under the cover of the cistern, and on four solid wheels, two of which are seen at D and E. The hind axle-tree, to which the wheel E and its opposite are fixed, are fastened across under the bottom of the cistern; but the fore axle-tree, bearing the wheel D, &c., is put on a strong pin or bolt, strongly fastened in a horizontal situation in the middle of the front of the bottom of the cistern, by which contrivance the two fore wheels and the axle-tree have a circular motion round the bolt, so that the engine may stand as firm on rough or sloping ground as if it was level. Upon the ground next to the hind part of the engine may be seen a leathern pipe F, one end of which may be screwed on and off upon occasion to a brass cock at the lower end of the cistern: the other end is immersed in the water, supplied by a pond, fire-plug, &c., and the pipe becomes a sucking pipe for fur furnishing the pumps of the engine by its working, without pouring water into the cistern. To the hind part of the cistern is fastened a wooden trough G, with a copper grate for keeping out stones, sand, and dirt, through which the cistern is supplied with water when the sucking pipe cannot be used. The fore part of the cistern is also separated from the rest of its cavity by another copper grate, through which water may be poured into the cistern. Those that work the pumps of this engine move the handles visible at the long sides up and down, and are assisted by others who stand on two suspended treadles; throwing their weight alternately on each of them, and keeping themselves steady by taking hold of two round horizontal rails, H, I, framed into four vertical stands, which reach to the bottom of the cistern, and are well secured to its sides. Over the hind trough there is an iron handle or key K, serving to open or shut a cock placed under it on the bottom of the cistern. Lis an inverted pyramidal box or case which preserves the pumps and air-vessels from damage, and also supports a wooden frame M, on which stands a man, who, by raising or depressing, and turning about the spout N, directs the stream of water as occasion requires. This spout is made of two pieces of brass pipe, each of which has an elbow; the lower is screwed over the upperend T of the pipe that goes through the air-vessel, and the upper part screws on to the lower by a screw of several threads, so truly turned as to be water tight in every situation. The conic form of the spouting-pipe serves for wire-drawing the water on its passage through it, which occasions a friction that produces such a velocity of the jet as to render it capable of breaking windows, &c., whilst the valves and leathern pipes of the engines have sufficient water-way to supply the jet in its greatest velocity. Leathern pipes of considerable length may be screwed at one end of the nozle of the engine, and furnished at the other end with a wooden or brass pipe for guiding the water into the inner apartments of houses, &c. Веtween the pyramidal box L, and the fore-end of the engine, there is a strong iron bar O, lying in a horizontal position over the middle of the cistern and playing in brasses supported by two wooden stands; one of which, P, is placed between the two fore-stands of the upper rails, and the other is hid in the enclosure over the hind part. Upon proper squares of this bar are fitted, one near each end, two strong cross bars, which take hold of the long wooden cylindrical handles, by means of which the engine is worked; and the treadles by which they are assisted are suspended at each end by chains in the form of a watchchain, and receive their motion jointly with the handles that are on the same side, by means of two circular sectors of iron fastened together, and fixed upon proper squares of the middle horizontal bar; the two fore ones may be seen at Q; the two hind ones, represented on a large scale in fig. 2, differ from the former only in thickness; for the fore sectors are made to carry only one chain each fastened by one end to their upper part, and by the lower end to the treadles; whereas the sole of the two hind sectors is wide enough to carry two chains each; one set fastened like those of the fore ones for the motion of the treadles: and the other two chains are fastened by their lower ends to the lower part of these sectors, and by their upper ends to the top of the piston bars, in order to give them motion. See fig. 2, in which the hind sectors and their apparatus are represented as they would appear to a person standing betweeen the two fore-wheels, and looking at the hind part of the engine. The square over the letter A is the section of the middle bar, on which, right over the two barrels, are placed the two sectors BCA and DEA, forged together. EGHK and fghk are the two piston-rods; and the openings between the letters G, H, and g,h, are the spaces through which the hind parts of the two treadles pass. Land M represent two strong studs rivetted on the other side of the bars on which they are placed; and to each of these is fastened a chain like a watch-chain, fixed by their upper ends to the upper extremities Dand B of the iron sectors by which they are drawn up and down alternately. These sectors give also an alternate motion up and down to the piston-rods, by means of two other chains left white in the figure, in order to distinguish them from the others: these are fastened by their lower ends to the lower extremities of the sectors E and C, and their upper ends, terminating in a male screw, are made tight to the piston-rods at I and F, by two nuts. The i i shape of the piston-rods, and the size and situation of the chains that give them motion, are so contrived, that the vertical axis of the pistons is exactly in the middle of the breadth of the perpendicular part of the chains, and the upper part of the piston-rod taken together. PQ represents one of the two cross bars through the ends of which pass the long handles to which the men apply their hands when they work the engine; these cross bars are fitted on the middle bar at some distance from the sectors. The other parts of this useful engine may be understood by the help of fig. 3, which represents a vertical section taken through the middle line of the hind part of the engine, as also the section of the air-vessel, and that of one of the barrels, and likewise the profiles of the hind sectors, and of several other parts. AB is the section of the bottom of the cistern, and C that of the hindmost axle-tree. DE is the vertical section of a strong piece of cast brass or hard metal so worked as to have a hollow in it, represented by the white part, and fixed to the bottom of the cistern: this reaches from the opening D through the cock W, and afterwards divides itself into two branches, so as to open under the two barrels; one of these branches is exhibited in the figure and the other is exactly behind this. Through this channel, which may be called the sucking-piece, water is conveyed to the pumps by the pressure of the atmosphere, either from the cistern itself, or from any place at a distance, by means of a leathern pipe, F. fig. 4, which screws on to the suckingpiece at D, fig. 3, under the hind trough Z, the grate of which is represented by the horizontal strokes. FG represents the vertical section of another piece of cast brass or hard metal that may be called the communication-piece, having two hollows for conveying the water from under the two pistons to the two openings of the flanch of the air-vessel; one of these hollows appears in the figure; the other lies exactly behind this, though not in a parallel direction. Between the section of the sucking-piece DE, and that of the communication-piece FG, may be observed the section of one of the plates of leather, which makes all tight, and forms one of the two sucking-valves, of which there is another just behind this under the other barrel. RST is the section of the copper air-vessel, and TV that of the conduit-pipe; this vessel is screwed on to the hind part of the communication-piece, and at top is fastened by a collar of iron to a cross piece of timber. Between the flanch of the air-vessel and the communication-piece may be observed the section of one of the plates of leather, making all tight, and screwing one of the two forcing valves, of which there is another just behind this, exactly over the other opening of the communication from the air-vessel. These valves are loaded with a lump of cast iron or lead, having a tail or teat let through the flap of the valve and crosspinned under it; and it is to be observed that, though both the valves represented open in the figure, they are never both open at the same time; for when the engine is not at work they are closed down by the weights on their upper surfaces; and, when the engine works, two are are shut, and the other two are open alternately by the motion of the pistons and the action of the atmosphere, together with the re-action of the air contained in the air-vessel. HI is the section of one of the barrels of the two pumps, which are both sucking and forcing, as is evident from the position of the valves and the structure of the pistons, each of which is composed of two iron plates, of two wooden trenchers, and of two flat pieces of leather turning one up and the other down. LK represents one of the piston-rods edge-wise, behind which is one of the chains, the top screw of which, K, can only be seen. the end of the middle bar, and N a section of the hindmost of the two middle stands which support the middle bar. Mis The principle on which the common engine acts, so as to produce a continued stream, is obvious; the water being driven into the airvessel, as in the operation of common sucking and forcing pumps, will compress the air contained in it, and proportionably increase its spring, since the force of the air's spring will always be inversely as the space which it possesses; therefore, when the air-vessel is half filled with water, the spring of the included air, which in its original state counterbalanced the pressure of the atmosphere, being now compressed into half the space, will be equal to twice the pressure of the atmosphere; and, by its action on the subjacent water, will cause it to rise through the conduit-pipe, and to play a jet of thirty-two or thirty-three feet high, abating the effect of friction. When the air-vessel is twothirds full of water, the space which the air occupies is only one-third of its first space; therefore its spring, being three times as great as that of the coinmon air, will project the water with twice the force of the atmosphere, or to the height of sixty-four or sixty-six feet. In the same manner, when the air-vessel is three-fourths full of water, the air will be compressed into one-fourth of its original space, and cause the water to ascend in air with the force of three atmospheres, or to the height of ninety-six or ninety-nine feet, &c., as in the following table. |