Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-07-20
snontaneous Combustion.

importa t THAT ali persons using cotton
rags, and waste, should be very careful ia
placing them outside of the building, or I'M
media7ely burning them, 30 as to prevent
spontaneous com ustion. Ordinary CON-
buation Is the rapid union of oxygen, with
some ether substance, producing light and
heat,
Among the substances which have a
special liking for oxygen is oil that has been
recently made, and this when poured upon
cotton is likely to take fire.
The S.. Lonis Rem lbIican says, an ex-
perimenter took handful of c)tton wa te
soaked in linseed oil, wrung out the excess
of oil, and then put it in a box, alocg with
some dry cotton. The box, with its contents
was then heated to 10 degrees, aud in sew
enty-five minutes the saturated c"tton was
found to be on FIRE. Seal oil was next tried,
and found equally "a comhustible; next 10
order came lard oil, which required four
hours, raw iiuseed oil took fire in Eve hours.
| will give few csses that have com9
under my own observation:
/. In 1881 wbils the COnfederates were
occupying Nashville, = large cotton tent
had been made TO special order, oiled with
linseed T. was delivered to the Quarter
master too late to store that night. 1t was
folded and laid on the sidewalk to remain
until morning. When morning came
| there wss no tent, during the night it had
been consumed By spontaneous combus-
| ton.
2. During the same year, a large amount
! of QuaLtermaster's stores were burned, ~
| storing away with them haversacks made
| of cotton goods and oiled with linseed oil.
8. On May II, 1871, fire was discover
| ed in the :ag warehouse, No. 80 South
| Cherry street. On putting out the fro it
was discovered that oiled rags had been
| stored in the center of several tons of cot
| ton rags.
4. About the same time, The RED Auction
House, corner OF the Square and MarkeS
street, had new sign painted on cotton
cloth. The painters brought it to the store
| too late in the day to put it up, and it was
| folded and laid under the counter. About
| 9 O'Clock the same night it was found to be
on FIRE.
5. On August 10, 1871, fire occurred at
the Tennessee Tribune printing office, caused
by the piing up of oiled waste rags in one
corner of the room. The rags had been
usad in cleaning of the Presses. On Jan.
! % 1879. a similar fire occurred at the Emf
grant printing Office. The seat of the fire
was found with part of the oiled rags yet
un5urnt.
6. Ia 1872 was called upon to e,ktin-
ouish a coal pile that was on fire at least
twelve feet from the top. The railroad ran
on trestle work Immediately over it. My
first sIIpposition was that the locomotives
nassing over the .trestle had dropped
their fire, and the coal had ignited IN that
wav. Int I found that no cOsl had baen de-
posited there for three or four months. GA
| digging down into the pile, became almost
convinced thsti it was spontaneous combus-
ton. I would also add that within the last
two wears two promising cotton mills have
been burnad in Middle Tennessee by spoD-
taneous combustion from oiled rags
After examining various authorities for
q similar cause, / found the following in my
scran book, the author Of which do not
lxnow. GBituminous coal often contains
much of substance known as ths sui
phuret of iroD, which has q great affinity
for oxygen. The slate and refuse coal Liable
to be tbrown together and remain IN piles,
especially abound in this materials which
sometimes spontaneously ignites. a hre
once occurred in the Royal ship-y ards of
ConenhSoen from this cause, which con-
sumed 600 tons of coal and 400 houses.
7. 1t is but few days since fire occur
red In barrel of oiled rags at the Reser-
yoir Mills The engineer being prudent
man, had required his fireman to remove
the greasy waste out Of the building every
day. Consequently when the rags 1gstted
the damage was triting'
trust that persons working III mAserlals
liable to spontaneous combustion VIII use
due caution in putting the sane out OF al
danger, aud thereby save much vaiusp&
property and the Fire Department tnua-
bsrd labor VIM. SToCKELL.