The destruction of Messrs. Hadley’s great steam flour mill in Thames Street, close to Blackfriars Bridge, did not fail to call attention to the problem of protecting large buildings from fire. The ‘Engineer’ of November 1872 states that the mill was erected in 1852. It had a frontage of 65 feet to the river, was 250 feet long, and 7 storeys high. Originally the machinery was driven by the condensing side lever engines which were specially designed and built to work the Blackwall Railway with ropes, a duty they performed for several years. About four years ago these engines were replaced by a pair of fine compound horizontal condensing engines, capable of working up to about 500 horse-power. The mill was considered to be fireproof, and no doubt deserved the title as well as many of the so-called fireproof buildings in London and the provinces. The fire broke out in one of the upper floors, some time on Sunday morning, Nov. 10, 1872, and in a very few hours the mill, with the exception of the outer walls, and portions of the lower part, was utterly destroyed. At one time no fewer than thirty engines were present; eighteen of them, including the Thames floating engine, being steam-engines.
A correspondent of the ‘Builder’ stated that the following mills were destroyed by fire in four consecutive weeks in 1872. Oct. 26, Waterloo Cotton Mills, loss £30,000. Hyson and Sharpe’s Cotton Mills, Blackburn, £6,000. Nov. 14, Dean’s Cotton Mills, Swinton, £10,000. Nov. 10, Hadley’s Mill, London, say £20,000. Nov. 15, Parker’s Cotton Mills, Preston, £16,000. Nov. 18, Whateley’s Cotton Mill, Aberdeen, £18,000. Nov. 22, Bury and Heap’s Cotton Mills, £10,000. Nov. 23, Gomersall Bros. Woollen Mills, Dewsbury, £15,000. Total loss, £132,000.
In reckoning the losses occasioned by fire, we cannot, however, confine ourselves to the mere cost of the building; the wages lost by workpeople thrown out of employ, the trade gone into other hands, and possibly never recovered—these, and other considerations, should lead to extreme care being taken to prevent fire, and to having proper appliances at hand to extinguish it, if, unfortunately, it breaks out.
APPENDIX.
Description of the Plan and Section of Fireproof Warehouse.
THE photo-lithographs of a fireproof warehouse are from drawings by Mr. E. Hoole, architect; and it will be seen that these concise designs embody the principles enunciated in the preceding chapters.
A building for the reception of combustible goods must not only be constructed of materials that will not burn, but must be so built that it will remain uninjured, even if its contents are destroyed by fire. Like a furnace, it must be made to contain a fire; and it is only a building which, under such circumstances, maintains its strength, that is entitled to be termed fireproof.
In the accompanying plan and section, brick is proposed as the material for the construction of the walls and floors. These are so arranged as to divide the building into eighteen separate compartments, each of which is so completely cut off from those which surround it, that a fire originating in any one of them might burn itself out without being able to spread to the next one.
The interior of each compartment is so constructed that it will not be damaged by the combustion of its contents. It is assumed that it will be subjected to intense and continued heat; and the same precautions are taken to secure the stability of the structure and protect it from injury as would be adopted in building a furnace or in setting a boiler. Each compartment is lined with fire-brick, which is here and there attached to the walls to keep it in position, but not sufficiently to communicate the heat it may receive.
Between the fire-brick lining and the building itself an air space is left, which the heat cannot traverse. This lining bears no part of the weight, either of the building or of its contents; and consequently, however hot it may become, it cannot be crushed or distorted, having only its own weight to sustain. This fire-brick lining is set in fire-clay.