Addresses and Papers on Insurance (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1917 edition. Excerpt: ...time. Hon. Herman L. Ekern, former Insurance Commissioner of Wisconsin, says: "The congested parts of our cities can be made conflagration and fireproof immeditely. A complete sprinkler equipment will do this for an entire city district the same as it now does this for an entire mercantile or manufacturing plant."8 Albert Blauvelt, in a paper read before the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1913, on the subject of "Debarment of City Conflagrations," says: "Such a hot blast has never been stopped by firemen while the wind held, but has, however, been checked and deflected upward by barriers consisting of two'or more fire walls or their equivalent, with a free air space between, as in the case of fires out of control, which have been stopped by a mere alley with buildings fully shuttered on each side. "It has also been possible to absorb the hot-blast attack of such fires by a very deep and fixed mass of spray in the form of sprinklered buildings. The Boston fire of 1893 was largely absorbed by an exceptionally good water supply in such form, and a somewhat similar experience was had at Toronto in 1904." I am firmly convinced that the time has arrived when the protection of all openings and the installation of sprinkler systems should be compelled by law in the congested districts of all our great cities. The saving on account of reduced insurance rates would be so great, that it would pay for the expense of installation in a few years, and the saving of life and property and prevention of loss through interruption of business would be far greater than is possible to replace by mere insurance. It may be said that, if this were true, it would bring about the installation of sprinkler equipments by all...