Various

“ The sinking fund of the large property owner should cover a loss with a minimum extra expense; insurance in an extravagantly managed company paying large dividends will cover a loss, but with an unnecessarily large extra outlay. In every case the loss remains; and as property may always be considered part of the community, the province or nation, as the case may be, suffers. It is always in the interest of a nation to minimize its national losses, no matter whether they fall on one individual’s shoulders or on many, and whether such losses are good for certain trades or not. ”

“ A flag flying half-mast high is the universal symbol of mourning. When a ship has to make the signal of distress, this is done by hoisting the national ensign reversed, that is to say, upside down. If it is wished to accentuate the imminence of the danger it is done by making the flag into a “weft,” that is, by knotting it in the middle. This means of showing distress at sea is of very ancient usage, for in naval works written as far back as the reign of James I. we find the “weft” mentioned as a method of showing distress. ”

“ This is the general cause of the phenomenon known as fire. Its special character depends chiefly on the nature of the substances burned and on the manner in which the oxygen is supplied to them. As is well known, our atmosphere contains oxygen gas diluted with about four times its volume of nitrogen; and it is this oxygen which supports the combustion of our coal and candles. But it is not often that the pyrotechnist depends wholly upon atmospheric oxygen for his purposes; for the phenomena of combustion in it are too familiar, and too little capable of variation, to strike with wonder. ”

“ There are places where, without any regulation being attempted, and thanks entirely to the influence referred to, most residences can boast of a hand-pump, a bucket, and a crowbar, the proper use of which is known to most of the household. Self-help in small risks may, however, be distinctly encouraged by the authorities, without any irksome interference with personal liberty, simply by the provision of street pillar-boxes, with the necessaries of first aid, including perhaps a couple of scaling ladders, and, further, by opportunities being given to householders to learn how to handle them. ”

“ London.—In the early part of the 19th century the methods in vogue for the suppression of outbreaks of fire in the metropolis were of the most crude and disjointed character, in striking contrast with the highly elaborated system now put into practice by the London County Council through its fire brigade; and it was not until the second half of the 19th century was well advanced that anything approaching an adequate and satisfactory organization was brought into existence. ”

“ When the flag of one country is placed over that of another the victory of the former is denoted, hence in time of peace it would be an insult to hoist the flag of one friendly nation above that of another. ”

“ The volcano lit up the darkness of night and sent its ashes or its lava down into the plains; the lightning or the meteor struck the tree, and the forest was ablaze; or some less obvious cause produced some less extensive ignition. For a time it is possible that the grand manifestations of nature aroused no feelings save awe and terror; but man is quite as much endowed with curiosity as with reverence or caution, and familiarity must ere long have bred confidence if not contempt. ”

“ In Scotland the law is similar. The right to fish for trout in private streams is a pertinent of the land adjacent, and owners of opposite banks may fish usque ad medium filum aquae; and where two owners own land round a private loch, both have a common of fishing over it. The public cannot prescribe for it, for a written title either to adjacent lands or to the fishery is necessary. A right of way along the bank of a river or loch does not give it, nor does the right of the public to be on or at a navigable but non-tidal river. ”

“ Every baron who in time of war had furnished the proper number of men to his liege was entitled to charge with his arms the banner which they followed. There could indeed be at present found no better representative of the medieval “banner” than what we now term the “royal standard”; it is essentially the personal battle flag of the king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It and other royal and imperial standards have now become “standards,” inasmuch as they are to-day used for display in the same fashion, and for the same purposes as was the “standard” of old. ”

“ A cross piece of wood balances the tourbillion; and the quick-match and touch-paper are so arranged that combustion begins at the two ends simultaneously and does not reach the holes of ascension till after the rotation is fairly begun. The sky-rocket is generally considered the most beautiful of all fireworks; and it certainly is the one that requires most skill and science in its construction. ”

“ The prestige of the fire service has been raised everywhere where the officers, besides being fire experts, are educated men of social standing. There are cities where the officers of the fire brigade are in every way recognized as equal to army or navy men, their social position is the same, and their mess fulfils the same functions as a regimental mess. The fire brigade officer is recognized at court, and there is no ceremonial without him. ”

“ There seems no doubt that Flamininus was actuated by a genuine love of Greece and its people. To attribute to him a Machiavellian policy, which foresaw the overthrow of Corinth fifty years later and the conversion of Achaea into a Roman province, is absurd and disingenuous. There is more force in the charge that his Hellenic sympathies prevented him from seeing the innate weakness and mutual jealousies of the Greek states of that period, whose only hope of peace and safety lay in submitting to the protectorate of the Roman republic. ”

“ The argument which municipalities or fire brigade organizations often use is to the effect that the insurance companies derive all the profit from a good fire service, and should contribute towards its cost. Where properly managed companies have the business, a better fire service, however, means a smaller premium to the ratepayer. If the ratepayer has to pay for extra protection in the form of an increased municipal rate, or in the form of an increased premium raised to meet the contribution levied, this is simply juggling with figures. ”

“ Then the bird erects its long neck to swallow the selected food. When flying, flamingos present a striking and beautiful sight, with legs and neck stretched out straight, looking like white and rosy or scarlet crosses with black arms. Not less fascinating is a flock of these sociable birds when at rest, standing on one or both legs, with their long necks twisted or coiled upon the body in any conceivable position.
The nest is likewise peculiar. It is built of mud, a somewhat conical structure rising above the water according to the depth, of which the cone is from a few inches to 2 ft. ”

“ On the other hand, it must be remembered that in a mass of burning gas only a certain proportion of the molecules are engaged at one instant in the act of chemical combination, and that the energy liberated in such individual transactions, if localized momentarily as heat, would give individual molecules a unique condition of temperature far transcending that of the average, and the distribution of heat in a flame would be very different from that existing in the same mixture of gases heated from an external source to the same average temperature. ”

“ There are groups of Italy and London, groups of the parlour and the nursery, of the street, the garden and the gutter; and of each group the artist knows how to seize at once the structural and the spiritual secret, expressing happily the value and suggestiveness, for his art of sculpture, of the contacts, intervals, interlacements and balancings of the various figures in any given group, and not less happily the charm of the affections which link the figures together and inspire their gestures. ”

“ The legislator’s first ambition must be to prevent a fire in one house from spreading to another, and a stranger’s property, so to say, from being endangered. This is quite possible, given good party walls carried well over the roof to a height regulated by the nature of the risk, the provision of the shutters to windows where necessary, and the use of fire-resisting glass. Again, a thoroughly good roof—or still better, a fire-resisting attic floor—can do much. If the locality has a fire brigade and the force is efficiently handled, “spreads” from one house to another should never occur. ”

“ On the high seas outside territorial waters the right of fishery is now recognized as common to all nations. Claims were made in former times by single nations to the exclusive right of fishing in tracts of open sea; such as that set up by Denmark in respect of the North Sea, as lying between its possessions of Norway and Iceland, against England in the 17th century, and against England and Holland in the 18th century, when she prohibited any foreigners fishing within 15 German miles of the shores of Greenland and Iceland. ”

“ It seems, however, that at common law any fixed structures put up by the owner of a fishery in his part of a river, which at all prevent the free passage of fish to the waters above or below, give the owners of fisheries therein a right of action against him. So the grantee of an exclusive fishery with rod and line in an unnavigable river can prevent any person from polluting the river higher up and so damaging the fishery. At common law there is no property in fish when enjoying their natural liberty; the taker is entitled to keep them unless they are caught from a tank or small pond ”

“ The amateur fireman must be drilled on the simplest lines. One thing which must be instilled into him is not to waste water—a sure sign of lack of training. Of course the drills must be on the same lines as those of the local brigade, and on no account should other gear be used for self-help than is generally customary in that force. When volunteers and regulars work together, the former should always remember that the paid force are experts, though the regulars must never have that contempt for volunteer work so often noticeable. ”

“ We shall here deal only with the slow movements of flame. The development of a flame in such a gaseous mixture requires that a small portion of it should be raised to a temperature called the temperature of ignition. Here again considerable misunderstanding has prevailed. The temperature of ignition has often been regarded as the temperature at which chemical combination begins, whereas it is really the temperature at which combination has reached a certain rate. The combination of hydrogen and oxygen begins at temperatures far below that of ignition. ”

“ Modern statutes now regulate all fisheries, sea or fresh, in territorial or inland waters. As regards sea fishery in England, the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries has (since 1903, when it took it over from the Board of Trade) power by order to create sea fisheries districts, comprising any part of the sea within which British subjects have, by international law, the exclusive right of fishing, and to provide for the constitution of a local fisheries committee to regulate the sea fisheries in such district, which can make by-laws for that purpose. ”

“ Whilst it is thus easy to understand generally why carbon becomes separated as a solid within a flame, it is not easy to trace the processes by which the carbon becomes separated in the case of a given hydrocarbon. ”

“ Firdousī’s own education eminently qualified him for the gigantic task which he subsequently undertook, for he was profoundly versed in the Arabic language and literature and had also studied deeply the Pahlavi or Old Persian, and was conversant with the ancient historical records which existed in that tongue.
The Shāhnāma of Firdousī (see also Persia: Literature) is perhaps the only example of a poem produced by a single author which at once took its place as the national epic of the people. ”

“ The possibility of a fire, or the suspicion of one, is a bona fide reason for a call which should not be discouraged. Malicious alarms should, however, be treated with the utmost rigour, as the absence of firemen from their stations always means an extra risk to life and property. ”

“ A second way of producing a flame is the more common one of allowing one gas to stream into the other. Using the same gases as before, hydrogen or carbon monoxide with oxygen, we find 471 again that the flame is conical in form and uniform in colour, but in this case, if the velocity of efflux be not immoderate, the burning gas only extends over a comparatively thin shell, limited on the inside by the pure combustible and on the outside by a mixture of the products of combustion with oxygen. ”

“ Probably there was as much foundation for this legend as for the more rationalistic explanation of William Newton (Display of Heraldry, p. 145) , that the fleur-de-lis was the figure of a reed or flag in blossom, used instead of a sceptre at the proclamation of the Frankish kings. Whatever be the true origin of the fleur-de-lis as a conventional decoration, it is demonstrably far older than the Frankish monarchy, and history does not record the reason of its adoption by the royal house of France, from which it passed into common use as an heraldic charge in most European countries. ”

“ An indication at every street corner as to the direction to take to reach the point—or perhaps better, the conspicuous advertisement Of the nearest call-point over every post pillar-box and inside every front door—may enable the veriest stranger to call assistance, and minimize the chances of time being lost in search of the instrument. It is immaterial for the moment whether the helpers are called by bell outside a fire-station, by a messenger from some special messenger service, by a call through a telephone, or by an electric or automatic appliance. ”

“ In England the public have not at common law, as incidental to their right of fishing in tidal waters, the right to make use of the banks or shores for purposes incidental to the fishery, such as beaching their boats upon them, landing there, or drying their nets there (though they can do so by proving a custom from which such a grant may be presumed) ; but statutes relating to particular parts of the realm, such as Cornwall for the pilchard fishery, give them such rights. ”

“ There is no strict scientific definition of flame, but for the purpose of this article it will be regarded as a name for gas which is temporarily luminous in consequence of chemical action. It is well known that the luminosity of gases can be induced by the electrical discharge, and with rapidly alternating high-tension discharges in air an oxygen-nitrogen flame is produced which is long and flickering, can be blown out, yields nitrogen peroxide, and is in fact indistinguishable from an ordinary flame except by its electrical mode of maintenance. ”

“ During the last quarter of the 19th century there was an ever-increasing literary activity in Finland, and it took the form less and less of the publication 387 of Swedish works, but more and more that of examples of the aboriginal vernacular. At the present time, in spite of the political troubles, books in almost every branch of research are found in the language, mainly translations or adaptations. We meet with, during the present century, a considerable number of names of poets and dramatists, no doubt very minor, as also painters, sculptors and musical composers. ”

“ If all these helpers come together, no matter how high the rank of the individual commanders, the senior officer of the fire brigade, even if he holds only non-commissioned officer’s rank, should have control, and his authority be fully recognized. Unfortunately, there are not many countries where this is the case. The efficiency of outside help depends in the first instance on the clear definition of the duties and powers of all concerned—on the legal foundation, in fact; then on the organization, the theoretically as well as practically correct executive ”

“ To estimate the temperature of flames several methods have been employed. The method of calculation, based on the supposition that the whole heat of combustion is localized in the product (or products) of combustion and heats it to a temperature depending on its specific heat, cannot be applied in a simple way. Apart from the assumption (which there is reason to suppose incorrect) that none of the chemical energy assumes the radiant form directly, we have to regard the possible change of specific heat at high temperatures, the likelihood of dissociation and the time of reaction. ”

“ In the case of England and Wales the expenditure is not complete, as under the Sea Fisheries Regulation Act of 1888 the whole of the coast of England and Wales could be placed under local fisheries committees with power to levy rates for fishery purposes, and in a certain number of districts advantage has been taken of this act. But even with this addition, British expenditure on fisheries is less than that undertaken by most of the countries of northern Europe, although British fisheries are much more valuable than those of all the rest of Europe together. ”