History of Fire Sprinklers Essay Example for Free

History of Fire Sprinklers Essay Rome, 64 A. D. Emperor Nero watched in horror as the great city of Rome burned for six days and seven nights. Afterwards 70% of the city was left in smoldering ruins and devastation. (The Burning of Rome, 64 AD 1) Why the exact cause of the fire is unknown, we wonder if an effective sprinkler system could have prevented this incident and others like it. A city that was well known for their magnificent construction, architecture, and irrigation systems was almost completely destroyed by one incident. Many codes do not require a specific type of Automatic Sprinkler System. While the most common type found is the Wet Pipe System; Dry Pipe, Preaction, and Deluge Systems can be found in many different occupancy types. The two main purposes of automatic sprinkler systems are to extinguish fires and control the fire until appropriate personnel arrive to extinguish the fire. Automatic sprinkler systems are expected in all occupancy types, except residential, unless the hazard is not compatible with water. For these hazards there are several other types of suppression systems that can be installed to manage the incident. By installing an automatic sprinkler system, you increase life safety and property protection. What is the standard of sprinkler systems? The goal is to increase life safety and decrease property damage. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has been the leader in mandating standards and requirements when it comes to sprinkler systems. They have developed many standards that address the installation, inspection, and maintenance of sprinklers. Wet pipe systems are closed water systems attached to a piping system containing pressurized water at all times. This type of automatic sprinkler system is the most common type, and can be found in all most all occupancy types. Unless the potential of freezing pipes or other special conditions apply, this type of system will be encountered most frequently. The operation of this sprinkler system is very simple. The wet-pipe system consists of sprinkler heads attached to sprinkler supply lines that interlace the occupancy. When a fire first starts there is minimum heat generated. As the fire grows and the thermal layer is disturbed, heat rises to the targeted sprinkler heads. Depending on the rated temperature of the sprinkler head, a fusible disc or link melts from the heat and initiates the flow of water. While most fires are controlled by one or two sprinkler heads, in the case of fast moving fires more may be needed to control the fire. When water is flowed from the system, typically other things may happen. In all most all wet-pipe systems, there is some type of audible alarm activated at the standpipe. This will trigger other alarms in the building, and most of the time notifies an agency that will then notify the Fire Department of a water flow alarm or others like it. Dry pipe systems use air or nitrogen to keep the supply line pressurized at all times. This type of automatic sprinkler system is commonly found in the colder areas where the possibilities of freezing pipes are encountered. Dry-pipe systems provide the same adequate protection similar to wet-pipe systems. The piping is charged with air or nitrogen, and when a sprinkler head is activated the drop in the pressure opens a valve at the standpipe that allows water to flow into the systems. (Bahme 25) Just like the wet-pipe system, normally one or two sprinkler heads are needed to control the fire. There will also be an alarm that is activated notifying the appropriate agency to contact the Fire Department. At lest once a week the system should be tested to make sure that the air pressure within the piping is maintained. The third type of automatic sprinkler system is the Pre-action System. This type of system is a closed piping system that contains air, which may or may not be under pressure. When a fire occurs the fire detecting device signals the control valve to open charging the system. This type of system is usually used where the possibility of broken pipes and sprinkler heads may result. The most common places found include electrical rooms, computer rooms, and other areas that may house expensive equipment. There can be several types of pre-action system including a recycling system. This system is capable of charging the piping, discharging water, then cutting itself off. In the event that the fire rekindles, it can discharge again. It then has the ability to recycle the water. Deluge systems are much like Pre-action systems except that the sprinkler heads are open and the system is not charged. Similar to that of the pre-action systems, a fire detection device, usually a heat sensor, activates the discharge valve on the system. The difference is that the entire sprinkler component of the system is open; therefore the area that is activated is deluged in water. These types of automatic sprinkler system can be found where a high hazard of flammable liquid may be encountered. The most common place is aircraft hangars. Caution should be taken though; in confined spaces the oxygen level can be deficient when these systems are activated due to the copious amounts of water. Combined Dry-Pipe and Pre-action systems are composed of both the systems mentioned above. These systems have the dry pipe features with the pre-action features in the event the dry pipe portion fails. These systems are used when an area is too large to be covered by a dry pipe system. On the same note though, combined systems were originally developed for protection during cold climates. Long lines would be subject to freezing. These systems are commonly found when dealing with long piers. (Bahme 30) It is important to note this type of system is considered two independent systems. Testing requires individual standards for both type; consisting of the dry pipe system and the pre-action system. Limited water supply systems are those where supply water cannot be properly supplied to the occupancy. These systems consist of many wide range types and can be used as outside sprinklers and confined space sprinklers. Some research obtained shows that one type of limited water sprinkler type could be the antifreeze sprinkler system. This type of system is very uncommon and is normally not accepted and used in recent automatic sprinkler systems. In conclusion, there are several types of water sprinklers used in today’s management to help increase life safety and decrease property damage. By including detection devices and the correct sprinkler heads, these systems can mean the difference between life and death. The occupancy should have the correct automatic sprinkler system that will properly suppress the material relevant in that occupancy regardless of the type. The preferred automatic sprinkler system should all be able to notify the occupants, summon the correct agency to suppress the fire, sound alarms, supervise fire control, and initiated a wide variety of auxiliary functions involving environmental, utility, and process controls. (IFSTA 559)

Discuss Your Goals For The Next Four Years And Comment On Your Post-co :: essays research papers

Discuss Your Goals For the Next Four Years and Comment on Your Post-College Plans   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Next stop, 66th Street and Lincoln Center, † bellowed the cracked voice of the conductor over the loudspeaker. Those words rang in my ear like the notes of a familiar melody. Stepping off the number three train, I was immediately immersed in the scents, sounds and faces of my past. All the wonderful memories of those four years came rushing back into my mind as if they had just occurred. I was finally returning to my birthplace, my home, my origin; my Fordham University.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When I arrived at the campus the first person I saw was my former acting instructor, the great Larry Sacharow. Just seeing him set me awestruck with happiness; it was in his class that my career really took off. â€Å"Professor Sacharow,† I shouted, over the hustle and bustle of the crowded city sidewalk. We finally caught up to each other and exchanged blissful remarks. We spoke of all the wonderful things which have been happening since I successfully completed his class in my sophomore year and how I was offered a spot in Les Miserables and how the references and contacts he gave me opened countless windows of opportunity. One of his references led me back to my high school where I am now teaching a college theatre preparatory course for the 12th grade. He was ecstatic! I couldn't express to him enough how much I enjoyed his class and all the lectures and theatre games we played. It is those little things that I remember most.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After our joyful trip down memory lane, Professor Sacharow (who preferred me to call him Larry which I just couldn't do out of plain respect) led me into the lobby of the residence hall where a mural of myself hung on the east wall. I remember the day the university dedicated that lobby to me for my outstanding achievement. My friends and I had led a fund rally for the school to raise money for the many programs which would be affected by the enormous tax hike in the fall of ‘99. We eventually raised over five million dollars for the university and prevented the cutting of many of the school's fine programs. My fellow thespians, Susan, Richard and the rest of the Theater Acting III class, told the President of what I had organized and how successful it had been. The marvelous mural and dedication was a token of the university's gratitude. I was brought to tears. I felt that this wasn't only the work of myself, but of

Macbeth Act 2 Summary

Summary Macbeth meets Banquo in the courtyard of his castle. Banquo is restless because he cannot decide how he feels about the witches and their prophecies. Macbeth pretends indifference, but casually agrees to talk about it if Banquo would like. They agree, and Banquo leaves. Macbeth again takes time to examine the pros and cons of going through with the plot, and begins to see illusions, starting with a dagger floating in the air in front of him. He seems to go back and forth, but eventually decides to kill Duncan. Enter To come on stage. Court A courtyard, possibly the forecourt. bearing a torch before himFleance is carrying a torch because this scene is set at night. Since the play was originally performed in the open air, in the afternoon, the torch helps us accept that it’s night. she The moon. I take’t, ’tis later I assume that it’s later than midnight. Most people had no accurate way to tell time. Clocks were few and watches had not been invented. There’s husbandry in heaven; / Their candles are all out. husbandry — conservation All the candles of heaven (the stars) are dark, unseen. The night is cloudy. Take thee that too. Banquo asks his son, Fleance, to take something else he’s been carrying, in addition to his sword.A heavy summons lies like lead upon me   . .  . Gives way to in repose! Banquo is tired and wants to sleep, but he can’t. This is a problem, since he knows he’ll worry over unwelcome thoughts if he stays awake. He prays, briefly, that he won’t be bothered by thoughts we naturally would think when we have the time to reflect on things. Give me my sword. Banquo immediately asks for his sword back again, since someone is approaching. It’s dark, so he can’t yet tell it’s Macbeth. Who’s there? Banquo asks â€Å"Who’s there? † — challenging the stranger to identify himself. not yet at rest? Why haven’t you gone to bed?The king’s a-bed The king has already gone to his sleep in unusual pleasure, and / Sent forth great largess to your offices. The king has been in an unusually good mood, and has given gifts in great measure to your household. This diamond he greets your wife withal, / By the name of most kind hostess Here’s a gem the king asked me to give to you, to give to your wife, as thanks for all her kindness as hostess. shut up / In measureless content. The king has now gone to bed in his private chamber, where he is locked in — â€Å"shut up† — for the night, completely happy with the way things are — â€Å"in measureless content. Being unprepared, / Our will became the servant to defect; / Which else should free have wrought. I wasn’t expecting all this (I was unprepared), so I left the dinner early (I â€Å"defected†). Otherwise I would have remained the whole time, and done what anyone would normally have done. Macbeth may be ma king excuses. Possibly he had so much on his mind that he couldn’t be a good host and left earlier than expected. Possibly he just wanted time, alone, to think. All’s well. / I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters: / To you they have show’d some truth. Banquo first says that there’s no harm done.He then invites Macbeth to talk about their meeting with the witches, by stating that he dreamed of the weird sisters — the sisters of Fate — the three witches. He also reminds Macbeth that they have spoken truth so far. I think not of them Macbeth is lying, trying to appear unconcerned. He definitely has been thinking about what the witches have said. Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve, / We would spend it in some words upon that business, / If you would grant the time. But, if we have nothing better to do, we can talk about that, if you want. I don’t mind.Macbeth wants to conceal how eager he is to talk about this. At your kin d’st leisure. When it’s convenient for you. If you shall cleave to my consent, when ’tis, / It shall make honour for you. If you agree to act with me, join me, when it’s time to do so, you’ll benefit by it. So I lose none / In seeking to augment it, but still keep / My bosom franchised and allegiance clear, / I shall be counsell’d. As long as this doesn’t involve doing anything dishonorable, and as long as I can stay loyal and true, I’ll follow along. My bosom franchised and allegiance clear — my heart belongs to the kingI shall be counsell’d. — I’ll agree to your plans. The difference between the two men is becoming clear — Macbeth is willing to do anything, including murder Duncan, to get to the throne; Banquo won’t even pursue honor for himself if he has to give up any virtue to get there. Good repose the while! Sleep well until we get together to talk about this. Macbeth is probably just covering up, acting naturally. As we’re about to see, he has already decided to act, and probably feels no more need to discuss things with Banquo. Is this a dagger which I see before me, / The handle toward my hand?Come, let me clutch thee. / I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. dagger — sturdy, medium-sized knife, with a blade up to a foot long. let me clutch thee. / I have thee not — Macbeth is trying to grasp the dagger’s handle, but there’s nothing there. Macbeth has begun to see things, guilty visions, even before he has started down the road of murder. He is afraid of the immediate future, afraid of what he is planning to do. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible / To feeling as to sight? or art thou but / A dagger of the mind, a false creation, / Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?Aren’t you able to be touched, just as you can be seen? Or are you just a vision, an imagined thing, an artifact of a fevered brain? I see thee yet, in form as palpable / As this which now I draw. I can still see you, just as solid-looking as this real dagger I now draw from its sheath. Thou marshall’st me the way that I was going; / And such an instrument I was to use. Your appearance encourages me to pursue what I was going to do (murder Duncan), and I was going to use a dagger to do it, so this must be a true indicator of what lies ahead.Mine eyes are made the fools o’ the other senses, / Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still, / And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, / Which was not so before. My eyes are either worthless (deceived by a false vision), or else they’re the most capable of my senses (able to perceive what my other senses cannot). I still see the dagger, and now I see flowing blood on the blade and handle — that wasn’t there earlier. There’s no such thing: / It is the bloody business which informs / Thus to mine eyes. This is unreal. It’s th e horrifying act I’m contemplating that makes these visions appear.Now o’er the one halfworld / Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse / The curtain’d sleep One half the world is in night, asleep, and nightmares take advantage of dreamers   . .  . witchcraft celebrates / Pale Hecate’s offerings, and wither’d murder, / Alarum’d by his sentinel, the wolf, / Whose howl’s his watch, thus with his stealthy pace. witches dance with Hecate (chief goddess of spells and witchcraft), and murder approaches (alarmed by its sentinel, the wolf)   . .  . With Tarquin’s ravishing strides, towards his design / Moves like a ghost. Tarquin was the son of a Roman king, infamous for his rape of Lucretia.This story has been the subject of many art works, including Shakespeare’s own poem, â€Å"The Rape of Lucrece. † For more information about this story, see the Wikipedia article regarding Sextus Tarquinius. Thou sure and f irm-set earth, / Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear / Thy very stones prate of my whereabout Macbeth is asking, dramatically, even the earth to not hear him walking, or know which way he goes, for fear the stones themselves would speak the truth they know — that he’s now going to murder Duncan. This is likely also a reference to Jesus entering Jerusalem — when told he hould quiet his disciples, Jesus responded â€Å"I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. † (Luke 19:40) Or, in other words, truth cannot be silenced. Macbeth is hoping to evade this proverb. prate — speak, talk And take the present horror from the time, Which now suits with it. Make the present less horrifying than it is. Whiles I threat, he lives: / Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives. While I stand here talking about it, Duncan is still alive. Words are cold and weak, compared to the heat and strength (impor tance) of deeds.I go, and it is done The bell has rung. It’s time to act. It’s settled. the bell invites me The bell summons me. Macbeth is still hoping he can evade at least part of the responsibility for what he’s about to do. Now he’s making the bell partly responsible. Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell / That summons thee to heaven or to hell. Even now, Macbeth half hopes that the murder might not happen after all. He thinks that if Duncan doesn’t hear the ringing of the bell (the knell), maybe he (Duncan) won’t have to die. But Macbeth proceeds, in spite of his doubts and misgivings. AsideIn an aside, the character speaks privately to himself for a moment, or directly to the audience, or privately to some (but not all) of the other characters present. As a matter of convention, an aside is always a true statement of what the character thinks. A character speaking in an aside may be mistaken, but may not be dishonest. An aside (agai n as a matter of convention) cannot be heard by those not spoken to. Exit He leaves the stage. Exeunt Banquo and Fleance. Exeunt — Latin, literally â€Å"they leave. † Banquo and Fleance leave the stage, leaving Macbeth alone with a servant.

Three Point Technique to Estimate Task Duration, Es-Ef,...

The total duration of the construction project by adding the estimated task duration serially would give us 70 weeks. But some tasks within some activities can be done in parallel sequence or simultaneously, which would significantly reduce the construction project completion time using the critical path method (CPM). In this method the longest path is the critical path which runs through one of the route in the project network diagram from start to finish. This project network diagram is illustrated on the printed assignment page, we have 10 tasks listed from A to J. Below is an activity list of the tasks; ACTIVITY | ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION | IMMEDIATE PREDECESSORS | ESTIMATED DURATION (WEEKS) | A | Clearing the vacant lot | none | 7 |†¦show more content†¦1(B) II. The completion time for the project would slightly increase adding the 3 weeks delay of task B to the 70 weeks estimated time for the project to 73 weeks, while the earliest finish time using the critical path method (CPM) the task duration estimates for the project completion would increase from 39 weeks to 41 weeks. CRITICAL PATH TASKS | PATH LENTHS IN WEEKS | 1. start: A-B-E-H-J- finish | 7 + 14+ 11+ 2+ 8 = 33 | 2. start: A-B-F-H-J- finish | 7 + 14+ 10+2+8 = 41 | 3. start: A-C-G-H-J- finish | 7 + 12+ 3+ 2+ 8 = 32 | 4:start: A-C-F-H-J- finish | 7+ 12+ 10+ 2+8 = 39 | 5: start: A-D-H-J- finish | 7 + 9+2 + 8 = 26 | 6:start: A-D-I-J- finish | 7+ 9+ 6+ 8 = 30 | Figure 1.4 The expected project completion time using the critical path method would increase to 41 weeks. 1. (B) III. If all the tasks are delayed by 1 week each, there would be additional increase from 70 weeks to 80 weeks because we have 10 task activities, but the earliest completion time would be 44 weeks using the critical path method (CPM). CRITICAL PATH TASKS | PATH LENTHS IN WEEKS | 1. start: A-B-E-H-J- finish