fire telegraph

A telegraph to give alarm of fire in any part of a city; a fire-alarm telegraph. fire-tower, 8. 1. A tower supporting a cre et or other ve el for holding fire, and serving the purpose of a modern lighthouse. 2. A look-out tower whence outbreaks of fire can IMG:content-1661.png:[blocks in formation] fire-worm, s. A glow-worm (q. v.). Fire-worship, s. Religious : The worship or veneration of fire, a very old and very widely extended form of faith. The real and absolute worship of fire exists in two forms, the first belonging to fetichism and the second to polytheism. In the former the rude barbarian adores the actual flame as if it was the highest object he could adore; in the latter he regards any individual fire as a manifestation of one great elemental being the Fire-god (q.v.). It seems to have existed among the American Indians, the Asiatics and Turanians generally, the A yrians, Chaldeans, Phœnicians, and other Syro-Arabians, and finally among the Aryans. Among the last-named race, the Vedic Hindoos worshiped Agni, Fire (cf. Lat. ignis , which is e entially the same word). The first word of the first Vedic hymn is his name in an oblique case, Agnim. The first sentiment is "Agni, I entreat, divine appointed priest of sacrifice." [For Persian Fire-worship see FIRE-WORSHIPERS.] The cla ical religions bring prominently into view the special deities of Fire: Among the Greeks, Hephaistos (Vulcan), and the virgin godde Hestia, the divine hearth, who was worshiped by the Romans under the name of Vesta, and whose sacred fire was tended ince antly in her temple in the Forum by the vestal virgins. One great branch of Fire-worship was Sun-worship (q. v.). Fire-worshipers, s . pl . Religious : The Zoroastrians, called also Guebres. Hero dot us, about 450 B. C., said "the Persians think fire to be a god." Strabo, about 50 A. D., says "They peculiarly sacrifice to fire and water, placing dry wood on the fire stript of its bark, with