Meigs County Telegraph

THE FIRE ANNIHILATOR.

The vapor which is emitted from one of these little machines is said to have precisely the same effect upon flame that is produced by a damp in a well. Flame cannot exist a second in this vapor; and yet it can be breathed without the slightest inconvenience. Dickens, in his 'Household Words,' devotes several pages to this invention. We make the following extract, from his description of the burning of a house, got up expressly to test the powers of the Annihilator:

"Mr. Phillips assured them that there was no danger, as he had perfect command over the flames; at the time he requested the company to observe that he had purposely arranged that every disadvantage should be against him. The house was full of combustible material—the whole building was in a thorough draft, (it was indeed,) and they would observe that the commencement of the full force of the fire would be almost immediate, and without any of the gradual advances which were usual in almost all conflagrations. Lastly, he called upon them to take note that the fury of the flames would be such that no life could exist near them for a single instant.

Without further words, a lighted match is applied to the tarred and turpentined shavings that hang in the ground-floor of the house.

It sparkles—blazes—and in one moment the lower room is full of flames. In the next, they have risen to the floor above—they crackle, roar, beat about, springing up to the roof, and darting out tongues and forks to the right and left of the building, while a dense hot cloud of smoke, full of red fragments of shavings and other embers, comes floating and dancing over the heads of the assembled company. Every body has risen from his seat—ladies—gentlemen, and now all the visitors are crowding towards the other end of the building! The whole place is filled with the roar of the flames, the noise of voices, hurrying feet, and rustling garments—and clouds of hot smoke!

But suddenly a man enters the building from a side-door bearing a portable Fire Annihilator of the size we have mentioned. He is followed by a second. The machines are vomiting forth a dense white vapor. They enter just within the doorway of the blazing house. A change instantly takes place in the color and action of the flames, as though they grew pale in the presence of their master. They sink. There is nothing but darkness—and the dense white vapor coiling about in triumph."