The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1879-10-23
Some Curiosities Of Fires and Fire Insur.

Some Curiosities of Fires and Fire Insur-
an0e.
The president OF the Hartford Fire Insur-
ance Company, in a recent address to the
National Association Of Fire Engineers, in
Washington, noted some curious facts. That
a powder mill can be insured for much less
rate than an ice house will strike everybody
as very queer.
Why isit that matches taste so much sweet-
er to mice in over insured buildings? Last
winter detached ice house burned up in
one Of our New England towns. There had
been no work done there for weeks. The
local papers said next day, as there were no
foot marks in the snow around it, IL could
not have been set on fire. OF course not.
1t costs twenty cents per ton to put the ice
! in and it was insured for dollar. Mice
chewing ice possibly, but old rats we think
Two legged at that.
In regard to fire hazards, there is perhaps
no idea more thoroughly engrafted upon the
uninitiated public mind than that an ice
house must prove the best possible risk, and
pOWdCA LII tuO Woloss L AO AdttCL 40 bO
naturally, universally and closely associated
with fire that it at once suggests ignition;
while the former seems its exact extreme
cold, cherries, in every way its counterpart.
and remote from fire. Yet a board Of New
England under writers, after an experience
Of both hazards Of quarter Of Ia century,
fixed the minimum rate on ice houses at d
per cent. and on Hazards powder mill,
noted throughout the worli-fre risk of
course-at OF one per cent. This fact
is MORALLY suggestive. Tramps never hang
around a powder mill, smoking old plug in
clay pipes.
Neither outsiders nor insiders are apt to
pour kerosene oil over the floors, not acct
dentally stick lighted candle into bottom
less box and wait for it to burn out, unit
most unexpectedly they find the place on
fire. Men who work in powder mills do not
smoke, nor leave their coat tails full of
matches. They do not kindle fires with benz
zine; they do not leave oily waste around
on the floors, and cigar stumps in wooden
spittoons are scarce. No matter how well
insured, both occupant and owner are
careful, and even mice dislike the taste Of
matches in powder mills, and are averse
to the smell Of powder. The same care
against fire which we find in powder mill,
carried into other hazards, would make your
profession a comparatively easy one, mine
pleasant and profitable one.
Some months ago. in passing a prominent
picture store in the city in which reside, ION
a Sunday, my attention was attracted by
the actions OF boy, which seemed to- beto-
ken lunacy. He would stand with his back
against the large show window outside for
few minutes, then turn about and carefully
gaze within; then again plant his back
against the window. Curious to solve what
seemed to be the case Of idiocy in bright
looking boy, I asked the cause of his strange
actions. Directing my attention discover
ed that the rays Of the sun through the glass
formed a focus in the middle Of large and
valuable chrome, which just commenced to
smoke at this Identical point, and would evil
IDENTIFY soon be in flames. The boy stated
that he was clerk in the store, but had not
his key, and discovered the state Of things,
he planted himself as patent living fire.
screen to protect the picture from the SUMS
rays.
A well-known Hartford adjuster, while
sitting in his room in one Of our finest bust
ness blocks saw his silk umbrell standing
in the corner, quietly take fire and consume
before his very eyes, and with no little diff
Guilty he stopped the fire from spreading.
Investigation proved it to have caught from
the concentrated rays OF the sun reflected
from his graphoscope, innocentiy resting on
his table. Without doubt we do no. I'M
derstand many actual causes of fire, and
numerous CONGREGATIONS are due to far differ
emit causes from those suspected or guessed
at. In the else mentioned, had the fire oc-
CURED during the absence of the owner, and
the block been consumed, as it might easily
have been, it would have remained one of !
those unsolved mysteries which surround SO
many fires.