The Sun.
London, England, 1867-10-14 00:00:00

Fighting Fire for Twenty-six Years.

A HISTORY OF HERRING'S PATENT SAFES.
(From the Anglo-American Times.)
Of all countries the United States of America is
the most deeply interested in perfecting fire-proof
safes, for in no other land is an equal amount of
property so liable to destruction by fire. The
cities of the United States, comparatively of recent
erection, all contain more or less wooden houses,
and while wealth increases and splendid stone
dwellings take their place, some still remain to jeo-
pardise by their combustible material the valuable
property which the richness of the land and the in-
dustry of the people have accumulated. The ex-
tremes of temperature are in proportion to the
extent of the continent. Not only, therefore, are
wooden houses more liable to destruction from the
nature of their material, but requiring as they do a
greater consumption of fuel to give warmth to their
inmates, they are thus doubly exposed to the
chances of conflagration. In consequence, every
State has its tale of disastrous fires, and every week
adds t. the category—sometimes an isolated building,
more generally blocks, now and then whole streets,
with here and there, the huge catastrophe of a city
consumed.
It was in such a field that Silas C. Herring com-
menced his labours 27 years ago. He could do
nothing to prevent conflagrations, for that is beyond
the province of a man ; requiring, indeed, a careful
organisation of a whole society which then can
only be partially successful. His energies were
concentrated into a more practicable direction, and
to it he gave the labours of a life. Wherever man-
kind is grouped into towns or even villages, property
is deposited, comprised in a small space, but of the
greatest value. In commerce, the books of the
trader is the very essence of his business. The
deeds of the estate owner, the will of the legatee,
the bills, notes, receipts, share certificates, scrip,
bonds, records,—these are the articles most valuable
to the holder, and, at the same time, most easily
destroyed. The man, then, who could construct a
box capable of containing the most precious
documents and valuables of a great firm, or
of a community, would confer an inestimable
boon on society in general, but more particularly
on the people of the United States. When
Silas C. Herring appeared on the scene, fire-
proof safes were but little understood. The old-
fashioned knob-chests were wooden boxes covered
first with thin sheet iron banded and strapped, and
fastened with large nails, having prominent knobs
or cast iron heads like the rivets of a boiler. These
ponderous boxes were truly formidable in appear-
ance, and therefore calculated to convey into the
depositor's mind a gratifying sense of security. Yet
in truth they were but traps for the unwary. A
fire burst out, the key of the chest was not at hand,
the inmates had to fly for their lives, some of the
documents they might otherwise have carried with
them were in the custody of the safe for which they
looked in vain among the debris of the consumed
building ; the knob-chest in the general wreck had
disappeared with all its contents from creation.
Still the principle on which they were con-
structed was not without its merit. Wood,
; though highly combustible, is a non-con-
ductor, and before being placed between
the iron frame-work it is well soaked in brine.
This saturation, although enabling it better to resist
fire, placed within the timber the seeds of decay,
and no lengthened period was required to reduce it
to dry-rot, when it became dangerous from its
liability to spontaneous combustion. Indeed many
of these boxes ignited when in this state from
proximity to a stove. It was in the next stage of
tire-proofing that Mr. Herring entered on the busi-
ness. The plaster of Paris filling which replaced
the wood is said to have been discovered by a
mechanic, who attempted to heat water in a kettle
he had used for his calcined plaster, when he dis-
covered that the water refused to boil. Investiga-
tion Showed the bottom of the kettle lined with Ltio