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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.1813 Excerpt:... according to the part in which the fire may happen, by a register outside the Building; and the power by which the contents of the reservoir are forced through these different channels, is thus obtained. The reservoir is furnished with a powerful condensing air pump; and being half filled with water, such a condensation of air is produced in the other half of the reservoir, (equal to about six atmospheres,) as is sufficient, on the opening of the sluice of the great main, to force the whole of the water contained in the reservoir into any, even the highest part of the House; and as this compressed air is well guarded from escape, the small loss by absorption, or otherwise, will be such, that the required condensation may be kept up by very little occasional attention to the condenser. By this arrangement, therefore, it follows, that whether the Steam Engine of the York Buildings Water Works is working or not, at the time of any fire breaking out in the House, a sufficient power is always at hand to throw a vast body of water instantly into the heart of the Building; and, indeed, to the precise spot on fire; and the quantity so provided is equal to what the Steam Engine itself, which is one of seventy horses power, would throw in about half an hour. Now the Proprietors of York Buildings Water Works have contracted with the Committee of Drurylane Theatre, on any alarm being given, to set their engine in full action into the reservoir, in less than twenty minutes; so, that in fact, should not the first application of water from the reservoir extinguish the fire, a constant and unlimited supply is thus actually provided from the first moment of alarm; which, not only, from its concentrated action on the particular part on fire, but from its quantity, it is impo...