Text/Feng Xuanyi
In human history, fire has always been a nightmare that plagues mankind, especially in cities, and the damage caused by fire can be very large. The Eastern Han Dynasty historian Xun Yue once said about the fire that "prevention is the first, salvation is secondary, and the commandment is the lower" and "prevention before it happens" comes from here.
In China's dynasties and dynasties, people have their own "experience" in fire prevention. The Song Dynasty was a relatively commercially developed dynasty in China's history, and it was also a relatively wealthy dynasty, with rich commerce and developed cities, and fire prevention became more severe. The capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, Tokyo (i.e., Kaifeng), was the most populous and largest city in the world at that time, with more than one million people, a high population density, intricate houses, streets and alleys, very crowded, and the houses at that time were mainly civil structures. In such a big city, how to prevent fires becomes very important.
In order to prevent fires, the Court of the Northern Song Dynasty set up a professional fire brigade to be responsible for the fire prevention tasks in the capital. The Northern Song Dynasty was very strict with the fire prevention measures of the Beijing Division. Below, Xiaobian introduces you from the two aspects of hardware and software:
Hardware measures:
Build a fire building. This kind of building is built on the high ground of the city to watch the fire, monitor the fire point in the city, release information, etc. According to historical records, the watchtower is more than 9 meters high, and the terrain built is high, and the whole city can be seen from the upper floor. This kind of wanghuo tower was used until the end of the Qing Dynasty in the early 20th century.
Invent the chick. The so-called pump is equivalent to today's water spray gun, made of long bamboo. Cotton wool is tightly wrapped around a wooden stick, and then the stick is stuffed into the bamboo tube to form a piston, and the water is pumped from one end of the bamboo tube to a high place, and then sprayed out again to achieve the effect of a modern water gun.
Standing ladder. In the military, the ladder is a tool for siege. However, in peacetime, ladders can be used to assist in extinguishing fires or saving people.
In addition to the cloud ladder cylinder, the Tools for Fighting Fires in the Song Dynasty also include water bags, water bladders, fire hooks, felts, iron anchor hands, etc., which are used to assist in extinguishing fires.
Software Measures:
Form submarine fire troops. Submarine fire soldiers were the professional firefighting team of the Song Dynasty. Because of the frequent fires in Tokyo, the imperial court attached great importance to this team, not only had height requirements, but also strict daily training. When fighting fires, submarine fire soldiers are uniformly dressed and uniformly passwordd, which is convenient for command. Submarine fire soldiers have a fixed salary, and after each fire, they will be rewarded by the imperial court, and the treatment is not bad.
Military patrol houses were set up in various lanes and alleys. There are 5 soldiers in the military patrol shop house, responsible for patrolling, finding the fire, taking timely measures, and notifying the submarine fire soldiers for rescue at the first time.
In the past dynasties, the construction of fire brigades in the Song Dynasty was relatively advanced, and its degree of specialization was even higher than that of the Qing Dynasty. However, China's fire protection construction has always been relatively backward. This has a lot to do with the low degree of commercialization in ancient China, the lag in urban construction, and the slow development of science.
In the late Qing Dynasty, the great powers demarcated concessions in China's major cities, and he built modern fire fighting facilities in the concessions. According to records, in 1883, China's first fire hydrant appeared in the Shanghai concession, and a year later, the Shanghai concession laid China's first fire alarm telephone line for fire alarm. By 1908, Shanghai had purchased from the United States a gasoline motor turntable life-saving ladder fire truck powered by an internal combustion engine, which was the most advanced fire truck in the world at that time.
With the demise of the Qing Dynasty and the continuous entry of foreign advanced technology into China, China's fire protection gradually got rid of the primitive and backward state and embarked on the road of modernization. What kind of firefighting can be called modernization? In the book "General History of Fire Protection in China", the author defines four signs of the modernization of fire protection: First, the motor pump fire truck powered by the internal combustion engine replaces the fire truck powered by manpower, animal power and steam. The second is to provide fire fighting water with the urban water supply pipe network instead of the cylinder storage bucket and other manpower natural water fire fighting water. The third is to use telephone communication alarms instead of lookouts, alarm bells, alarm flags, police lights and other alarms. The fourth is to use chemical extinguishing agents to extinguish special fires instead of extinguishing fires with water.