Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-04-16
SPONTANEOUS Confession.

: A few weeks ago, more than forty
thousand dollars worth of property was
destroyed by fire in furniture msnufac-
tory at East Cambridge on account of
carelessness in leaving oily rags lying
about. In our January number We de-
voted leading article to this subject of
spontaneous combustion, and the follow
ing communication Just received from
one of our best chemists, furnishes some
striking illustrations of the varied ways
in which such combustion may arise:
Any light that can be obtained on spon-
taneous combustion adds not q little to
the value of real estate. We believe q
large percentage of the fires charged to
incendisrism are really owing 70 sponta
neous combustion so-called. We pur-
pose giving three cases, two of which
have come under our own experience:
l. Within year, twenty eight rolls of
cotton cloth in one of our large dyeing
establishments were dyed black, and were
delayed few days before they could be
starched and finished. Two of these
rolls were discovered to oe on fire-aOt
in flames, but in smouldering con-
ditioG, or charred into finder; 8 third roll
WAS 30 hot that hands could not handle
the cloth, and the wooden roller upon
which the cloth WIS wound was heated
almost to the point of ignition.
The rolls OF cloth destroyed were the
first dyed, and consequently had been
longer exposed than the others, which in
a measure explains why all the rolls were
not in the same condition.
In the dyeing, the first rolls were dyed
without washing, by an oversight of the
dyer. This is the point of importance,
as the chemical salts were left in the
cloth. Logwood, potash, sulphate of
copper, and sulphate of iron constituted
the dye, and we suggest this explanation
of the probable cause of the fire. The
potash and sulphste of iron change to
sulphste of potash and bydrate of iron;
the latter changes to oxide of iron by
the absorption of oxygen from the at
mosphere or from moisture in the cloth,
and the heat thus developed reaches the
point of ignition. Cloth in drying Is
very liable to contain heated moisture.
2. Within year q fire was discoV-
cred In silk-mercer's shop in London
The fire originated in lot of black dyed
silk, and was discovered as in the first
instance before flame had burst out. The
conclusion reached was that it was not
safe to have black dyed silk in large
masses, and that each piece ought to be
so placed as to allow free circulation of
air. We think it quite probable that the
explanation of the combustion is the
same as in the preceding case.
8. In trying to get rid of rats in a
dwelling house, the floors were taken up
in order to cut off their ingress, if
possible. The box that held the hot
water pipes was found to be q fsYOrite
resort of the vermin, and had actually
been on fire. The sides were charred,
but there had not been sufficient air TO
sustain combustion. Upon investigation
as to the cause of incipient fire, we were
not left long in doubt for store of
greasy cloths used in washing dishes
was found, which had been brought by
the rats from the kitchen. Some of
these were charred, and the others were
well saturated with greass and oils. This
fire was quite distance from the kitch-
en- range, forty feet at the least.
1t would be very natural in all these
cases, if the real causes had not been so
TO attribute the origin of the
fire to incendiarism. Boston journal
Of Chemistry.