Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1888-01-27
SOLE CURTOUs FLREs.
Singular ISistGHoes Of SpOHtGnsotls COl5sblis.
ton accounted For.
Five and UVntar

Singular IslatGHoss Of Spontaneous COl5sblIs-
tt0Il accounted For.
Fire and Watsr.I
Cotton IN bales has always been sup
posed to be free from spontaneous com
bustion until lately, when a case was
discovered in a storehouse IN northern
New Jersey. A number of bales Of sea
island cotton stored there were found
to be on fire, and when it was extin-
guished IN one spot it would break out in
another. A careful examination of the
cotton and its condition showed that it
was roller-gin cotton-that is, cotton
which had not been run through gang
Of saws, after the method Of Eli Whit
ney, but the lint had been drawn away
from the seeds by a pair Of rolls, one
large and one small, set at Just the dis
lance to keep the seeds from passing
through, while the fiber passes on and
goes into a bag
It was found In this lot Of cotton that
some of the seeds had passed into the
rolls and been cracked, which caused
the oil to exude, saturating the fiber,
which was thus, by the time it arrived
IN the north, in the proper condition
for spontaneous combustion Careful
and extensive inquiry among northern
mills failed to reveal any other such
| case, and therefore it can hardly be
taken as a strong objection against the
use Of roller-gins in general. The or
binary roller-gin is practically a pre-
/ historic tool, as it has been in use since
/ cotton was known in an eient India. It
is not nearly so fast as the ordinary saw.
gin, but it is said to do its work some.
thing better and with the least possible
/ injury to the fiber, and to be therefore
preferred for Sea island cotton, which
is of long fiber, and almost double the
value of the ordinary grades.
Another curious fire was that which
occurred in a knife factory IN Massa
chusetts. In the middle Of a room 6
small milling machine was working OF
hardwood handles of knives. The dust
or small fragments Of the wood which
were ground off were drawn up through
/ a metal tube about one foot IN diameter
/ by q blower in the room above, ani
! then forced through a wooden pipe on
into the air. A spark from an emery
wheel fifteen seet away from the mill
ing machine struck a window twenty
feet away, and glancing back entered
/ the mouth of the metal tube and Sc
the hardwood dust on fire, a stream o
which twenty feet in length poured on
of the wooden pipe into the air. Tn,
alarm was given by people outside, tn,
workmen in the room being entirely
unaware of any fire.
Another peculiar instance was a fire
started by some cotton waste which al
/ engineer in cleaning up a mill put IL
front Of a boiler where 1t would be con
venient for the iremen to burn IN the
morning. During the night the waste
! got on fire from spontaneous combus,
ton and set fire to the kindlings and
succeeded in raising sufficient steam Il
cause the boiler to blow of, very
Thoroughly soaring the Waterman. who
naturally thought the boiler, which h,
knew had been left without a fire. was
going to explode.
Still another singular case was that
of a fire caused in a picker-room Of &
iute-miu by a man driving a nail
in the ceiling. The nail glanced
off and was struck by the rapidly NOV
ing heaters, and the sparks which were
/ caused thereby led to a serious blaze