The Washington weekly post. (Washington, D.C.) 1878-1916, 1899-04-04

material should be called fireproofi Iron.
wherever Used, ought TO be protected with
brick or plaster. or with solid wood
Woodwork. If sound and solid. wili re-
sist for a long time everything short Of
actual fame. and even against that II
viii endure for hours. Luckily. cast-irOn
Is not used much in buildings nowadays.
Big Office buildings ought to have steel
shutters 20 prevent heat from melting the
glass. for IL is In that way that fire gets
into one building rom another usually.
A notable example Of a real fireproof
building is that OF the Home Life Insur-
ance Company In New York. which was
attacked by thu ''devouring element the
other day; the upper floors were burned
out as to woodwork and furniture. but
the structure vas practically uninjured.
In building that is perfectly freproof,
when fire breaks out in any room. IL
ought 30 be practicable to shut the door
and Jet It burn itself out. Such a struc-
ture has steel frame, the ceilings. floors.
and partitions being OF tile Where wood
mas to be used 1t should be sheathed with
tile Doors are fireproofed sometimes by
pacing a layer Of asbestos between two
layers of board.
Novel Fire Extinguishers,
OF course the Patent Office has on rec
ORD great number of ideas for fire ex-
ungulshers. Nearly all of them utilize car
bohic acid gas in one way or another. The
hand-grenades one sees in hotels and pun-
nc buildings are simply glass bottles her
metica!iy sealed and filled with gas
charged water. If one happens 10 have
a sodaWSter siphon on hand when a fire
breaks OFT II is a first-rate thing to use.
More Ella 1orate chemical extinguishers
are vessels containing an alkaline soIu-
ton. IN which smaller vessels holding
acid are suspended: when they are broken
the solutions mingle and carbonic acid
gas Is generated, the water charged with
II heing distributed upon the flames. 4
Nlch.eab man has devisco a f0otstool to
contain a number of hand-srenades.
which thus are available in case anybody
catches fire, as from the upsatting Of a
lamp. The thing to do under such con-
ditions. apparently. is to assan the burn
ing individual with the grenades.
hiram S. Maxim. the tam9us gun man.
Is the inventor of an automatic fire-ex-
nEgUisher and detecJor. l. IS an ar
arrangement of pipes, connected with which
: a generator Of carbOnic acid gas cor
ta'ring sulphuric acid and marble dust
When, by reason of he breaking ont Of
fire the temperature INSIDE Of buiIdin.
rises TO certain point, t sets the cener-
ator going, causing the sulpnuric acid 10
drip upon the marble dust and thus pro-
ducing carbOnic acid gas, which IS Iiber-
ated from the lime by chemical action.
At the same time the mechanism gives 4
loud alarm, and the pipes discharge gas
charged water upon the fire. the heat hav-
ing melted the caps that close orifIccs
provided for that purpose. Somewhat
similar is dry-pipe .ysTcm with a valve
that is kept closed by compressed air in
the pipes. Apertures in the latter are
closed with an easily melted substance,
and when the fire melts it, Inc compressed
air PUSHES out of the pipes. water flows IN
past the released valve. and an extlngt!-
ishing shower is poured upon The flames.
FTeproofinS of Furniture.
All the horrors Of the dreadful catas-
trophe at the Windsor Hotel woalI have
been avoided if a. curtain-the one in the
folds of which a guest threw an unex-
t.nguished match-had beer dipped in a
hre-proOfing solution. Sucl solutions are
used nowadays very extensively Cor max
.nS curtains and various fabrics fire-proof
the protective agent being usually pnos-
phate of ammonia or tungstate of am
monia. In the same way th1dJer scenery
and even theatrical costumes are trCated
Theater curtains in these times When net
OF steel, are nearly always of asbestos.
This curious substance, which. though q
Kind or hOrn-blende rock, has the fib-ous
texture of wool in some varieties. Is one
of the chief ingredients of the dre-oroof
ing paint which is used on roofs ana FIR
painting the flies of the theator stage. III
IS employed as a material for deear2 ions
OF walls and ceilings on ocean steamships.
also as a substitute for hair in plaster
Pa brics made of II are cleaned rot nv
washing, but by putting them into a Rot
ire for few moments. From Corsica
Genes kind of asbestos with long. soft
and silky fibers. its silvery white and pale
gold tufts resembling skeins newly wound
from cocoon. Spun, carried ana woven
il is converted into exquisite fabrics
Nowadays bonds and dOcumenis are sore-
times printed on asbestos paper, so as
TO be indestructible by lire. and there are
patents for fire-proOf asbestos BLANK
books ard ledgers,s Thus. If the books
and papers belonging to me Windsor He
tel had been of the proper material the
mana cement need have taken no trouble
Tor their preservation, inasmuch as they
would have been perfectly SAFE from darG-
age, even in such a conIid grafton