The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-02-06
Dangers in Familiar Things
7 THOUSANDS of people are handling
ii

idea OF their dangerous nature.
The ordinary soda water siphon. for
| instance, is a bomb and an exceeding
| ly>powerful one to boot, charged, as II
frequently is. up to pressure of be-
tween $50 and $50 pounds
| A child who dropped one of these
dangerous contrivanceS in the street
| the other day was almost as shockngly
mangled by the resultant explosion as
was NJ de Plehve, the recently assass-
/ mated Russian minister of the interior,
| by the dynamite bomb thrown by the
Anarchist Poroznef.
| The large ceiluloid combs. again.
| which ladies' are so fond nowadays of
wearing in their hair. will. if accidental
\ ~ brought into contact with a naked
/ light, burst into a flame of explosive
! violence.
| Nor is this to be greatly wondered
| at, seeing that one of the ingredients
| of celluloid is gun cotton. while an
| other is camphor, than which is no
| more infiamnable substance known to
/ chemists.
/ Most people appreciate vaguely that
the ordinary paraffin lamp is danger
! Gus. but few realize how dangerous.
The number of deaths due each year TO
this cause is greater than the number
I OF fatal accidents to passengers on
| railways And the maimings and burn
! mss are frightful.
| 4 cunty council Official with whom
| the writer conversed on this subject.
| said he would rather be in the vicinity
| OF lyddfte shell at the moment of its
| explosion than in the same room with
| an ordinary paraffin lamp under sim
| liar circumstances.
| l suppose 1 looked the surprise felt,
for he forthwith asked me to accom-
pany MIN TO the councils weights and
| measures Office in Newingtcn
1 went, and there | saw the remains
| or some hundreds of lamps. every one
| of which had its own tragic history.
The solid brass reservoirs had in
| many instances been shredded and
shattered by the explosive gases pent
! up within, precisely as a shell would
! have been
Heavy iron standards. too were
| twisted and bent. and in some cases
| only the bottom of the lamp remained.
| the other portions having been blown
| almost literally to atoms.
Flannelette kills more people than
! does smallpox. Every corner in Eng
land-and out of it-has had occasion,
! over and over again, to discourse upon
| its dangers; yet people go on wearing it
because il is cheap, careless of the fact
| that the touch of a lighted match to
| the flimsy fabric means certain and
| hideous death.
| The paTaffin hair washes. just now 50
| popular with ladies' are frightfully
! dangerous, and shocking accidents re-
| Sulting from their use are of almost
| daily occurrence. Many, even of the
medicines, too, we use to cure our all
ments, have concealed amid their other
and harmless ingredients, substances
! fraught with similar peril to our per-
sons.
Iodide of nitrogen. for instance which
| Is frequently prescribed in com bination
| with other drugs is a highly explosive
J chemical. and accidents have happened
| over and over again through its incau-
1 tious handling by persons ignorant of
| its dangerous properties
Tincture of iron and diluted aqua
regia, again, mixture often prescribed
as tonic, gives off an explosive gas,
which has been know to shatter the
| strongest vessels.
Chloride of potash lozenges are highly
dangerous If accidentally brought into
contact with an unlighted phosphorus
match. Choral hydrate and sal VIOLA
tile, the favorite nerve tonic. become,
! under certain conditions, as deadly as
dynamite.
| ton of box of oxide of silver pills
/ has ere now caused fatal injury to
! their unfortunate possessor. Bicar-
Donate of potash, a common remedy
| for fiatuience. will cause a dangerous
| explosion if accidentally mixed with
| sub nitrate of bismuth-
Ordinary spirits OF wine is a sub
stance possessing tremendous perils.
| A pint of it, if suddenly ignited- viii
| produce the very same destructive eff
| fects as three or four pounds weight
of gunpowder. This has been proved
on many different occasions.
| Once, at the Royal Surrey County
hospital, a clergyman rashly threw
! a small quantity on to SNAP
| dI agon'' dish, round which a number
| Of choir boys were gathered. The re-
sultant explosion killed one unfortun-
! ate lad. and severely injured several
/ others.
A fevs- x-esrs hook c1-IiD5e,-S IF com
| PRESSED gases used to be handled
! freely and carelessly by all sorts and
conditions of men, and were readily
! carried at ordinary rates by the rail
| way companies. Only when one blew
I to atoms the man who was carrying
/ il, and at the same time partially
wrecked one of the principal London
! termini was their frightfully danger
| Gus nature realized.
| Even now, however. there is nothing
| TO prevent their being carried hap
! hazard through the streets of popui-
! Gus cities, although live shell would
| probably be a far less peTilOus piece
| Of merchandise to handle
Some time back the police unearthed
| an anarchist plot to lay London In
ruins by pumping atmospheric air into
| the gas mains. This sounds wild
| enough. but experts agreed that it is
/ quite possible of accomplishment.
| Pure coal gas is. of course, non-ex-~
plosive, although highly inhammable.
/ Fut mix it with the right proportion
| of air, and IL at once becomes exceed
/ ingly dangerous. as incautious house.
| holders are continually discovering to
! their cost.
Yet this deadly substance is laid
! On" to most houses, ana used by the
! inmates with almost as much freedom,
I and with as little sense of danger, as if
/ il were merely waite or some other
! similar harmless necessary of life.
Last but not least. there is the
patent self-flling, high pressure
J kitchen boiler, which is an INSOFAR
/ able adjunct to the culinary ranges of
most modern residences.
| So long as nothing goes wrong with
] the mechanism of this. it is a boon and
Il blessing to all good housewives.
| But let a valve get jammed or a
| pipe plugged, and it is at once trans
| formed into complicated and gigan-
tic Internal machine, the explosive
| capabilities of which are about equal
| to hundred weight of good. healthy
dynamite.-Pearson's Weekly.
! See fac simiIe of Los Angeles Tele-
/ gram on page ,.