314

Ancient Apparatus for Extinguishing Fires,

[Book III,

and this is the cause why the Beiles ringen whan it thondreth, and vvhangrete tempeste and rages of wether happen, to the end that the feinds andwycked spirytes should ben abashed and flee, and cease of the movyngeof tempeste.” The following lines to the same effect, are from Barnaby Googe , an old British poet :

If that the thunder chaunce to rore,

And stormie tempestes shake,

* * * * * #

The clarke doth all the helles forthwithAt once in steeple ring :

With wondrous sound and deeper farreThan he was wont before,

Till in the loftie heavens darke,

The thunder bray no more,

For in these christned belles they thinkeDoth lie such powre and mightAs able is the tempeste great,

And storme to vanquish quight.

The application of bells to the purposes of fire-engines is also mentionedby Peter Martyr , in his “ Common Places,” a work dedicated to QueenElizabeth. Black letter, 1583. Speaking of things consecrated by pa-pists in common with the ancient heathen, he says of bells —“ they bewashed, they be annointed, they be conjured, they are named and handledwith far greater pomp and ambition, than men are when they are bap-tized, and more is attributed to them than to the prayers of godly men.For they say, that by the ringing of them—the wicked spirits, the host ofadversaries, the laying await of enemies, tempestes, hayle, stormes, whirl-windes, violent blastes and hurtfull thunderclaps, are driven away, flamesand fires are extinguished, and finally whatever eise soever !” Part iv,cap. 9, p. 125.

There is no small ringing of bells in this city (New-York ) during fires;but their unaided effects on the devouring element, ere other means havearrived, has, we believe, been but small. Few have, however, been con-secrated ; but as from one to two hundred Spanish bells have recentlybeen sold here, (having been taken from the convents in consequence ofthe civil war which has so long raged in that country,) this virtue of sacredbells may soon be tested. Certainly, if they can do a moiety of the goodthings mentioned above, they were worth much more than forty Cents per1b. the average price at which they were sold.

We have had recourse in a few instances to heraldry, or rather to theemblems or personal devices of ancient families, for information respectingmachines, some of which are no longer in use ; as the eolipile, and theatmospheric sprinkling pot: see pages 261 and 396. Besides these thesyringe and the bellows have also been adopted on such occasions; and itmay be here observed that the device of Galeaz, duke of Milan, the secondof the name, was a brand burning and two fire buckets.“ This, although noproof that machines of the pump kind were not in use to extinguish firesin Italy during the 15th Century, is an indication that none were employedat the time when the device was adopted.

The oldest sketch of a complete set of apparatus for extinguishing firethat we have seen, is in a cut representing the interior of a laboratory orsmelting furnace, in the De Re Metallica of Agricola, page 308. Theimplements are, a syringe, a sledge hammer, two fire hooks and threeleathern buckets ; conveniently arranged against a wall. See the annexedillustration. These figures seem to have escaped the notice of Beckinan

8 Devices Hero'iques. A Lyon. 1577, page 50.