The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1879-10-15
Some CuriOsities of Fires and Fire In.
Surancc.

surancc.
The president of the Hartford Fire
Insurance Company, in recent address
to the National Association of Fire En-
gineers in Washington, noted some
curious facts. That a powder mill can
be insured for much less rate than an
ice house viii strike everybody as very
queer.
In regard to fire hazards, there is per-
haps no idea more thoroughly engrafted
upon the uninitiated public mind than
that an ice house must prove the best
possible risk and powder mill the
worst. The latter is so naturally, uni
versally and closely associated with fire
that it at once suggests ignition; while
the former suggests its exact extreme
cold, cherries, in every way its counter
part, and remote from fire. Yet board
of New England underwriters, after an
experience of both hazards of a quarter
of a century, fixed the minimum rate on
ice houses at two and half per cent.
and on Hazards powder mill, noted
throughout the world (ire risk, of
course) at three-quarters of one per cent.
This factis morally suggestive. Tramps
never hang around powder mill, smok-
ing old plug in clay pipes.
Neither outsiders nor insiders are apt
to pour kerosene oil over the floors, nor
accidentally stick lighted candle into
bottomless box and wait for it to burn
out, until most unexpectedly they find
the place on fire. Men who work in
powder mills do not smoke, nor leave
their coat tail pockets full of matches.
They do not kindle fires with benzine;
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 haz-
ards, would make your profession a
comparatively easy one, mine pleasant
and profitable one.
Some months ago, in passing a promi-
nent picture store in the city in which
I reside. on a Sunday, my attention was
attracted by the actions of boy, which
seemed to betoken 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 10 be the case of idiocy in bright
| looking boy, / asked the cause of his
c+1apna aotiooc Diroot;or n, VI N ++o,+,o,
| discovered that the rays of the sun
through the glass formed focus in the
middle of large and valuable chrome,
| which Just commenced to smoke at this
identical point, and would evidently soon
| be in flames. The boy stated that he was
a clerk in the store, but had not his key,
and discovering the state of things, he
planted himself as q patent living fire.
screen, to protect the picture from the
suns rays.
A well-known Hartford adjuster,
while recently sitting in his room in
one of our finest business blocks, saw
his silk umbrella, standing in the cor
ner, quietly take fire and consume be-
| fore his very eyes, and with no little
difficulty he stopped the fire from spread
ing. Investigation proved it to have
caught from the concentrated rays oil
tina sun reflected from his graphoscope
innocently resting on his table. With
out doubt, we. do not understand
many actual cases of fire, and numerous
CONGREGATIONS are due to far different
causes from those suspected or guessed
at. In the case mentioned, had the
fire occurred 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 myster-
les which surround so many fires.