Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1909-07-03
FOURTH OF JULY.
Precautions About Fire and Fireworks
Danger OF Lock-jsw and Other
Injuries.

IUOU DullulnRS are burned ana more tnaL
200 persons killed by exploding fire
works. At the same time number oi
children are burned to death by the ig-
hitting of their clothing and more than 2
1000 fingers and eyes are lost.
To get ready for the Fourth, trash in
yards or areas should be taken away Of
made wet, stables and outh ouses should
be kept closed and cellar windows tight,
shut.
Since chlorate of potash, high explo
siye, took the place ofgunpowder in fire
works, the kind and amount ofexplosiyes
each contains has been kept secret. Now
the manufacturers, fearing the enact
ment of laws prohibiting the sale offire
works Of all kinds altogether, have fur
nished to an expert in fire dangers the
chemical facts which follow. They hope
that only those whose compositions show
them to be the most deadly will be pro:
hibited.
The small Chinese frecracker burns
more houses than any other fireworks
because so many of them are used, but it
makes very few bad hurts. The paper
from which it is made glows for some
time after it explodes, so one of them
thrown into trash or through a window
is likely to start fire. This frework is
a roll of paper with cork of mud In
each end and holds charge of common
gunpowder
Red fire and torches hurt no one, and
the pinwheel seldom does because it is
fastened to tree or fence.
The Roman candle, if well made, is
not likely to injure. Usually it is ex:
ploded in the street and sets no houses
afire. The ''stars" are shot from it by
charge of meal powder, and if the stars
near the end which holds the fuse are
packed too tightly, the powder may ex-
plode through the pasteboard shell, or
may come out at the wrong end and hurt
the hand that holds it.
The stars, except the white ones, are
made of chlorate of potash, rosin, char
coal and metal substance to give them
color.
Many mines, fountains and fowerpots
are very beautiful and few persons are
burned by them. Those that whistle
contain picrate of potash and are very
dangerous.
The sparks from the German spark;
Ter" will not burn tho skin because they
cool too quickly. But one of these sparks
will ignite the fuse ofany other firework.
A spark from one of them lighted a
rocket fuse in pile of fireworks in
Cleveland store causing the death of six
persons.
Sky-rockets, if aimed high in the air,
burn few buildings because the falling
stick is seldom afire. But in Pittsburg
falling stick struck baby's head killing
it in its mothers arms. The colors in
are made by different metals
added to the stars. Paris green makes
a beautiful blue.
Asky-rocke should stand in V shaped
trough to be set off. One of size in
use will 20 through the body of
a man or through the heaviest plate glass
window. The rocket is raised by the
force of gas from slowly burning powder
coming out where the juse goes in. At
the top of the tube which holds the pow
der are fuses which ruu into the stars.
These are lighted when the powder
burns up to them.
The "grasshoppers" and "devilchasers"
which travel along the ground while ex-
pIoding are not very dangerous to the
user, but they are likely to pop into rub
bish piles or cellar windows and start
fire, or to ignite dress skirts.
More children are burned to death
from their clothing being set afire while
small crackers than by any
other firework. The prettiest fireworks
are the least dangerous and fireworks
which 60 up in the air are safer than
those that are exploded near the earth.
The cannon cracker is murderer.
The largest ones have in them two
thirds of an ounce of chlorate and QUE
third of an ounce of sulphur with little
charcoal. Those seven inches long haye
half that much. One went off in boys
hands and no part of either of them
could be found afterward except
one little finger! In Cincinnati one
exploded while man was holding
it under his arm. He was torn in
pieces so no one could tell who he
was until his name was seen in his watch
which had to be dug out telegraph pole
into which it had been blown.
Sometimes the fuse in one of these
crackers is choked by the crimping so it
goes out. Such cracker should be let
alone for ten minutes, then we'll soaked
in water and buried without sobs or
ceremony.
Dynamite is not used in fireworks.
Following every Fourth more than one
hundred children die from lockjaw from
wounds made by fireworks. After the
celebration in 1908 there were 966 deaths
from this cause.
Lockjaw is caused by one of the small.
est germs. The germ is like very short
thread and is so small it cannot be seen.
1t grows by the million in the bowels of
horses. So, there realways nillionsin
the street dust. The germ when it comes
into the air around it, it does not harm.
These germs stay alive in ice or in boil
ing water. Doctors have kept them on
splinters for ten years and then given
lorkjaw to mice by pricking them with
a. o ..naIa.a IULox. IIls.. - :.-L- q.