Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1882-09-14
PECULIARITIES OF THE GREAT
MIC HI0AN FIRE.
From Scientific American. I

From Scientific American
A correspondent of the Fremdn's
journal, who has lately gone over the
territory dcvasted by the great fire in
the forests Of Michigan last fall, says
his observations are conclusive that phe
nomena asic'e fiom the ordinary condi-
tions of combustion were developed.
La the first the fire created at least two
veritable storm centcrs which had the
essential features of storms, and espec-
tally the spiral winds. The evidences
are con6rmatory of the belief that this
storm center, after it became fully de
vcloped, consisted Of heated body of
air or gas in state of combustion,
which was constantly fed by the smoke
and vapor driven to the center by the
whrling winds, and was generated in
the combustion of the pines and other
resinous woods. This body Of air or
burning gas, if it may be so called, by
its heat acquired an ascensive force,
but by the rapid forward motion of
the fire was sucked forward and do.
voured, actually preceding the fire
proper. II is evident that body was
of i tense heat, possibly as great as
400 degrees Fahrenheit, at which
point oxygen and carbon unite. That
such body of luminous vapor existed,
detached from the FIRE, is asserted by
many who saw it from distance, and
Iy those who were under it, but who
escaped from the fact it passed above
then places.
The idea is further sustained 10y the
fact that the fire jumped whole patches
of nnammahle slashings, and alighted
hcyond, lifting and falling in its
'or ard motion like balloon
oa u n4 h4 earth Fenc in the cen
e, II road tel burst into blaze as If
" cxi.l sion, ana other nearer the
fire escaped. A nan in fighting the
fire took oil his ousers, fearing they
would catch fire aud burn him up, aid
left them in n furrow in the middle OF
field remote from any combusiible
material. When he went to get them
he found them burned and six quarter
dollars that were in the pocket melted
together. A set of spoons were served
the same way at an other place.
Mrs. Lock and five children were
burned to ashes, nothing but their
bones remaining in the middle of the
road, one hundred feet from any heavy
timber. Green timber dried and
burned, and perhaps the most conclu
sive evidence was the apparently spon-
taneous appearance of fire in stumps
and fences when no sparks were falling
These tlazes appeared as white lights
and indicated chemical union of car
bon and oxygen. Another general
feature is the fact that the fire appear
ed to move forward in parallel lines of |
varying width, and that in these lines
everything was burned square of, JUS
as though it had been cut or sawed off |
house would be tax
en- and the barn left; wagon and a
miles we're within five feet Of
each other, and the wagon was
burned TO ashes and the tanning mill |
not charred. 1t would be impossible
under ordinary circumstances, to burn
a wagon without piling combustible
over it, but of this nothing
but the iron was left.
Finally, the fire disappeared stimuli
taneously; that is to say, the fire was
dependent upon the storm, or second |
airy to it that it was prevented from
lingering in the track or from burning
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