Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1917-09-21
WORSE THAN V|PERS
Like Serpents, Rubber Hose Connec.
tiOns Strike at Your Life and Prop
erty-One of The Most Dangerous
Causes of Fire and Explosion to be
Eliminated From Ohio.

(By T. Alfred Fleming, State Fire
Marshal of Ohio.)
The insiduous, deadly murderous
rubber-hose connection must be BAN
ished forever from Ohio!
No month is free from the toll of
life and property collected by this
make-shift, slatternly and dangerous
device.
No record tells completely the story
of suffering, anguish and death that
these connections between gas jet and
stove have written in letters of blood,
set in border of blackened flesh.
A study of the statistics show,
however, that, in the months between
real cold weather in the fall and just
before the coming of spring, the rub
ber-hose connection, like a copperhead
snake, strikes without warning.
There is no way of telling from the
fires marked "of unknown origin"
how many originated from the family
use of this fiimsy device for getting
gas from main burner, but the list
has been a large one.
Explosion, from cellar to attic, can
be directly traced to the breaking
away of the hose connection, and the
flooding of the room with gas means
the clang of the ambulance gong first,
and house of mourning.
The rubber-hose connection has
been cried out against by doctors, by
builders, by insurance men and by
the chiefs of fire departments ever
since the discovery of natural gas and
its use for domestic and commercial
purposes. Also, it has been pointed
out that the connection is not safe fo1
manufactured gas. In fact, the wise
agent fights shy of dwelling where
such make-shifts are employed.
People soon found that instead of
playing safe, and hiring the bath
room properly piped and plumbed, il
was easy to attach rubber hose to
the gas jet and again to stove OF
standard mill camp attachment that
could be moved anywhere. The
same applied to a guest room OF
some other part of the house thai
was not heated by the regular sys-
tenn.
Soon the records of life and accident
insurance companies began to fill with
data concerning the deadly work done
by broken connection. Also the files
of the fire department carried grow
ing list of losses resulting from ex.
plosions and fires, all directly trace
able to the rubber-hose connection.
A dog racing through the house
baby playing on the nursery floor
someone stumbling about in the darl
all these loosened the thin ant
flimsy pipe and flooded the room
with the highly explosive gas. 4
match struck to light the burners O.
to see the time of night was followed
by binding flash and roar tina
spelled death!
The tooth of time and the deterio
ration of the rubber caused breaks il
/ the piping and consequent escape o
gas with disastrous and fatal results
Time after time newspapers carrie
the most narrowing accounts of acci
dents to children and to women, a.
due to the little, round, snake-lik
tubes that carried inside them an eS
plosive deadly as a high-powere
shell.
Y In spite of all the warnings; i
spite of all the misery and woe tha
has been occasioned by the use of thi
deadly, slatternly device, the record
o of the state fire marshals office cor
tinue to show in the causes of fires
was true last months true th
|, month.
This department declares that tn
:; state must be free from this unnece
: sary and inhuman menace.
There is plenty of law to back tn
department in its campaign again
an enemy that is harbored in ever
dwelling-every factory where tn
t. make-shift is employed, and it mu
70 go!