Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1883-08-15
VOL. XII.
Spontaneous Combustion,

spontaneous combustion.
| With all the facts to show The possibility
OF The spontaneous ignition of certain
substances under certain circumstances,
there is perpetualy renewed demand
for more informatian. So it is we'll
enough to cite instances of fires caused by
spontaneous combustion, even although it
may be that cline upon line, precept upon
precept'' should be the rule
| A pile of cloth cotton--left in q heap
just as it came from the loom, and ;,roba-
bly, more or less saturated with oil, blazed
up and fired building in which there
never was fire or light before. This
fire was probably caused by the piing OF
cotton cloth in heaps, the libres of the
cotton being saturated with ol-in this
instance sperm oil, the only lubricating oil
then in use.
| A stone warehouse filled with cotton
and woolen waste took fire on a summer
afternoon, and resulted in the destruction
of several buildings. In this case the
waste, filled with oil, was packed closely
in bins, or compressed into bags for
convenience in slowing. Evidently COM
preston, or weight, was an element in
this case of spontaneous combustion.
A large establishment for the manufac.
ture of machinery was burned by being
fired from heap of iron turnings thrown
out from a convenient window, the greasy
cotton cleaning waste being intermlxed.
1t is hardly necessary, however, to have
the element of greasy cotton waste in
order to produce, or to communicate, fire
from a heap of iron turnings, clippings,
and filings. The mass OF disntegrated
iron and its contained oil ale enough to
incite heat and combustion. And careful
observers can sometimes see, in the dark,
the luminous shivers of flame over q heap
of iron drillings, chips, shavings, and
fiings, adjacent TO machine shops.
Ono of the finest blocks of buildings in
an eastern city was destroyed, just before
being ready for occupancy, by a fire start.
ed in an unused closet in which painters
had thrown their overalls, these garments
being presumably loaded with linseed oil
| and turpentine.
To these instances may be added some
| which were recently cited in Chambers
Journal. One of them dates back to 1870,
when Russian naval vessel took fire, and
no cause except that of spontaneous com.
bustion could be found or surmised. The
fire was traced to package of mating
| containing lampblack made from the
smoke of fir and hemp oil varnish. A
carefully observed experiment demon
strated the fact that closely bound
parcel of this mixture of lampblack and
oil took fire within seventeen hours.
Wool combings, packed in warehouse
in bins and trodden down hard by the
workmen, set fire to the building. The
wool was saturated with oil, or was, ut
least, oily, and the compression was
Al Al
neous ignition.
Oily hemp and flax, in bales and heaps,
took fire spontaneously in Plymouth dock.
yard and caused great destruction of prop
erty. In 1861 and 1862 there was great
fire in Liverpool dock warehouses, caused,
as far as could be ascertained, by the
spontaneous ignition OF wet cotton in bales.
The naval ships Imogene and Talavera
the spontaneous combustion of oakum and
tow that had been used as waste for wiping
greasy tools and machinery, and thrown
| into bin.
Experiments prove that cotton waste
wet in boiled linseed oil. placed under
! temperature of 1909 F., took fire in one
hour and quarter. Raw linseed oil on
cotton required four or five hours under
similar preliminaries; olive oil, six hours;
rape oil, ten hours; and castor oil two.
days. AS to animal oils, lard oil with the
cotton produced ignition in four hours;
seal OIL in one hour and twenty minutes;
and sperm oil-probably adulterated with
petroleum-did not fire in two days. 1t
is generally conceded that the mineral
oils, of whatever specific gravity or con
sttuent characteristics, are not liable to
aid the spontaneous combustion.
But there are other causes of sponta-
neous combustion not usually considered,
and yet established as facts by expert
ments and observation. Grain, either in
the kernel or the straw, if packed into bins
or piled into stacks while damp or only
partially cured, will sometimes generate
heat enough to cause combustion. Some
of the supposed incendiary fires, by which
barns have been burned, have been traced
to this cause of spontaneous Ignition; and
in some other instances only that supposi-
ton was left as a reason for the fire. One
case can be quoted as characteristic. 1t is
taken from the Annales d'Hygiene: A
quantity of o is stored in barn had been
consumed by fire, and the proprietor
suspected the act to be one of incendia-
rism. Several experts were consulted,
and on inquiring into all the circumstances
they unanimously concluded that the hire
was the result of spontaneous combustion,
caused by the fermentation of the grain
stored in a damp state. Several things
pointed unmistakably to this conclusion
such as the fact that the oats were proved
to have been stored damp; that the labor
ers had noticed the heat of the oats several
days previous to the fire; that some of the
sheavcs that had been removed the day
previous to the fire to be thrashed were
charred and discolored; and above all,
that the centre of large pile of sbeaves
was burnt and blackened, while the out.
side of the sheaves retained their natural
color.