other than acting in concert. The parish engines were in the
care of the beadles, and in one case a beadle's widow, Mrs. Smith, for
some years commanded one of the city engines. The energies of each
band of firemen were commonly reserved for the protection of property
only in which their own insurance company or parish was immediately
interested. As a rule, whatever water was thrown upon a burning
building was dashed against the walls, windows, and roof from the
outside only, very little if any really reaching the actual seat of
the fire within. As a consequence, fires, which are now quickly "got
under," were then left to burn themselves out, the spreading of the
fire being prevented either by deluging the contiguous buildings with
water, or by pulling them down altogether.

James Braidwood was born in Edinburgh in the year 1800. His father was
a well-known upholsterer and builder, who appears to have chosen for
his son the profession of a surveyor. To this end he was entered at
the High School, then under the rectorship of Mr. (afterwards
Professor) Pillans, and here, and subsequently under private masters,
the youth received a sound education in the branches most appropriate
to his intended pursuit in life. He was for some time engaged in his
father's business, and thereby gained an amount of practical
knowledge, which was of, perhaps, as much service to him in his
subsequent career as a fireman, as it would have been had he adopted
the profession originally chosen for him. Young Braidwood was an apt
student, a fact, perhaps, sufficiently attested afterwards by his
successful authorship, at the age of thirty, of the only English work
then extant upon the fire-engine and its proper management. He read
much, wrote well, was a good draughtsman, and had a sound knowledge of
mechanics. But whether his powers required wider scope than a
surveyor's practice could offer, or whether, more than forty years
ago, and in Edinburgh, the chances of professional success were very
much less than now, James Braidwood soon turned his mind to what
became the great work of his life. He was becoming known for activity
and a high order of personal courage, and there were those in place
and power who saw in him the other elements of character which go to
make a successful leader of men. He was soon, and when but
twenty-three years of age, made the superintendent of the Edinburgh
fire engines, and he almost as soon began to reform their inef