Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-02-15
THE BARN BURNERS, FUSE.
Scientists Interested in the Fires on the
Maryland-Pennsylva Line.

From the Baltimore Sun
The attention of Johns Hopkins professors
and students has been attracted to the large
number of mysterious fires near the Mary
land and Pennsylvania line. great deal
has been said about the use of chemicals in the
barn burnings, and while detailed descriptions
OF clues that have been found are not given.
they furnish some tangible means of formulat-
ing probable theory of how the ''barn burn
ers" do their work. A device, described in
yesterdays Sun by a gentleman living in the
vicinity of Hanover, Pa, said to have been
found in fodder stack, and thought by him
| to be the means used for setting fire to
barns, involves the use of phosphorus, and
hence gives some color to the report
that it is the fire-brand. A professor of
chemistry at the university asked
whether such an apparatus as described would,
when placed in hay rack. explode or set fire
to all around it a number of hours after 1t had
been put in the barn. His answer was, Eyes. "
The device consists of large shell of metal or
clay. in which is put quantity of powder,
equal in amount to the size Of an egg. and con-
nected with the exterior by a quill. The shell
Is covered with phosphorus, kept wet by a
towel, and kept from dampening the powder
by the quill placed in the opening. As long
as the phosphorus remains wet it will not unite,
but once dry, it unites with the oxygen of the
air, evolving q great deal of heat and setting
fire to anything touching it. If such an
arrangement were placed near any infammable
substance il would certainly set it afire when
the phosphorus had dried
But the Z" Barn Burners evidently desired to
make assurance doubly sure by adding the
when it exploded, and thus fire number of
places at the same time. 1t will be seen from
this that by such method of placing the wet
phosphorus in the barn that the firebrand could
be put in place a number of hours before the
conhagration took place, and thus give its au-
thors an opportunity to place a great distance
between themselves and their work, and thereby
throw off all suspicion.
A fredericksburg substance is also described
as having been in some instances found scat
tered among the hay. This may be what is
known as red phosphorus, a form of the ele-
ment which under ordinary circumstances is
quite harmless and which even in the dry
form will not burn of itself or ignite anything.
But when heated to a certain degree it becomes
as infiammable and dangerous as the other
form, with which almost every one is familiar.
III it be found that the reddish substance is
this red phosphorus, its presence in haystack
Is suspicious, and may also be considered to
have a connection with this Wholesale incen-
diarism. In fact few weeks ago an ordinary
looking laboring man entered the drug stores
of Hanover, Pa, and tried to buy pound of
phosphorus. but could not be accommodated
Nothing was thought of it at the time, but
since the frequent occurrence of these mystic
rious fires it is supposed he may have been
connected with the .barn burners" and it may
prove an important clue to unraveling the mys-
terry. In the meantime the farmers in Carroll
county, Nd, and York county, Pa, are thor
oughly alarmed, and are at a loss to know how
to guard against the calamity which seems to
pursue them.
The mysterious fires have occurred within a
radius of six or seven miles. In nearly every
instance they have taken place after notice had
been served ON the farmer to remove his live
stock. and in some instances his grain. These
notices have generally been posted on the barn
door, sometimes written with chalk and some
times in plain hand on paper and fastened in
a conspicuous place. With but one exception.
the buildings burned have been barns, and the
fact that several of those first destroyed were
insured in the Mannheim Fire Insurance COM
pany gave rise to the suspicion that they were
the result of a conspiracy to break up that par
ticular company. Since then however, one or
two that were insured in another company and
others that were not insured at all have been
burned.