rican cities, and particularly in New York, was due to
the inferiority of their fire departments. How unjust such a comparison
would be is shown in a paper presented by Mr. Edward B. Dorsey, a member
of the American Society of Civil Engineers, to that association, in which
the author discusses the comparative liability to and danger from
conflagrations in London and in American cities. He found from an
investigation which he conducted with much care during a visit to London
that it is undoubtedly true that large fires are much less frequent in the
metropolis than in American cities; but it is equally true that the
circumstances existing in London and New York are quite different. As it is
a well-known fact that the promptness, efficiency, and bravery of American
firemen cannot be surpassed, we gladly give prominence to the result of the
author's investigations into the true causes of the great liability of
American cities to large fires. In a highly interesting comparison the
writer has selected New York and London as typical cities, although his
observations will apply to most American and English towns, if, perhaps,
with not quite the same force. In the first place, the efforts of the
London Fire Brigade receive much aid from our peculiarly damp climate. From
the average of eleven years (1871-1881) of the meteorological observations
made at the Greenwich Observatory, it appears that in London it rains, on
the average, more than three days in the week, that the sun shines only
one-fourth of the time he is above the horizon, and that the atmosphere
only lacks 18 per cent. of complete saturation, and is cloudy seven-tenths
of the time. Moreover, the humidity of the atmosphere in London is very
uniform, varying but little in the different months. Under these
circumstances, wood will not be ignited very easily by sparks or by contact
with a weak flame. This is very different from the condition of wood in the
long, hot, dry seasons of the American continent. The average temperature
for the three winter months in London is 38.24 degrees Fahr.; in New York
it is 31.56 degrees, or 6.68 degrees lower. This lower range of temperature
must be the cause of many conflagrations, for, to make up for the
deficiency in the natural temperature, there must be in New York many more
and larger domestic fires. The following statistics, taken from the records
of the New York Fire Department, show this. In the three winter months of
1881, Januar