The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1900-07-29
What Carelessness and Coal Oil Do in Combinations

lamp, rs a dangerous element In the case
of accident. II. from any cause. this CON
fined gas comes into contact with the fame
Of the lamp Il ignites; the fame is car
ried to the gas which still remains in the
lamp. and the result IA an explosion.
Lamps that are full never explode. pro
vided they are filled with pure coal OIL \
full lamp also lessons the danger of explo-
sion when oil and gasoline are mixed. The
reason for this is that tn re il no space
within the lamp for the gas to form But
when the oil gets low. and the lamp is only
half OF one-third fun. the gas viii gener-
ate IN hurry II the heat is sufficient and
the burner is not clean. That Is what makes
the filling Of lighted lamps 80 dangerous
When the lamp bowl is opened to permit Of
the introduction Of the fresh oil. a means
Of escape IL furnished to the gas that has
been generated. This rises toward the
flame and ignites. The fame is quickly com
munIcated TO the stream that is flowing
from the can. and converts that stream in
TO gas. which. In turn, carries the flame
into the can. By the time the fame reaches
the interior OF the can. the heat has ba-
come SO great that IL is sufficient to imme-
diately convert large quantity of the oil
in the can into gas. and there is an sxplo-
sion.
1T IS perfectly safe to throw a lighted
match. or even a candle into a vessel of
1J-proof coal oil. The oil will quench the
flame as quickly water would. Likewise
a quantity Of oil. dashed upon "A live coal
a small fame. will extinEuish IT, TIL
local representative of a big coal oil house
proved both OF these facts to me the other
day. He hclped small quantity OF shay
ings on the ground. set II on fire. allowed
II to get In a good blaze and then extin-
guished It by dashing quart OF l5J-proof
coal oil upon IL Then he crushed news
paper into a roll. saturated 1t with coal oil
and lighted II. OF course. it was afame all
over In a moment. He stepped to an open
vessel filled with lJo-proof oil. souse,i the
burning paper In II. and the fire was ex-
tinEuished just as though he had dipped the
burning brand into so much water.
This. however. is not an argument for
the use Of coal oil in starting fires I'm stoves
The housewife cook who is in q hurry to
make the fire burn usually has no time to
pour oil into a shovel or cup and dash it
upon the kindling; she takes the oil can
and pours the oil in small stream through
the spout II there happens To be a live
coal in the ashes. or even If the iir. box of
'' ''eN'' - VIZ Hoa' lIi' 'Ahltt'S dt' Iiti
there will be an explosion. II is all a mat
ter OF proportion. II does not require as
much heat TO convert a tricklnG stream of
coal oil into gas as It does To so convert a
pint There is heat enough in the live coal
or the heated FIRE box to Immediately con-
vert the first drop of the small stream that
comes through the spout of a gallon can
into gas. and then it Is ready for the next
drop. BY the time few drops have been
50 converted there is enough gas to ignite
and then there is sufficient heat 10 ignite
the whole stream and enter the can Then
there is your explosion.