Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-12-24

LETTER
By Frederic j. HasIIin.

tains to intense fire, such as q cur
tain would have to stand il fire broke
out on a stage, is one of the latest
| experiments at the Bureau of Stan
dards. Heavy asbestos curtains are
subjected to temperature as high as
LOO degrees Fahrenheit from a
roaring laboratory furnace, while
| scientists brave heat and smoke to
| record the data revealed by their
instruments.
These experiments are designed
to make theaters safer. There have
been comparatively few theater fires
in recent years, and no great con-
%fiagration since the Iroquois Theater
fire OF 1903, in Chicago. In conse-
quence, we hear very little of fire
hazards in auditoriums, and we rare
ly think of the increasing watchful-
ness and elaborate precautions that
are required to keep a modern thea
ter from being a firetrap. We enter
and leave a theater without ever
rejecting that ideas of safety are
responsible for broad, straight stair
ways. for wide aisles at the back of
an auditorium, and for front, rather
than rear, entrances to a balcony or
gallery.
Electric lights have proved the
greatest single safeguard of human
life In the theater. There were more
than LOO theater fires recorded in
the ninteenth century in different
| countries, and the number of lives
lost was almost II 1000. In the ma
jority of cases the CONGREGATIONS
started on the stage, and lanterns,
gas, and candles-the customary
.aY..4A 81 kIIrNR, affna Frrof.A fagnnNa-
sible for most of the accidents. When
the incandescent electric light was
introduced, casual use of open flame
on a stage began to seem reckless
and dangerous. Now, firemen guard
the stages of all big theaters, and
extra supervision is maintained when
a production requires use of match
es, candles, or fire in any form.
Since the stage is the most likely
starting place for a theater fire, spec.
ial attention has been paid to devices
which will cut off the stage from the
! auditorium at an i%nstant's notice.
People who like to arrive early
at a performance r. familiar with
the heavy curtain which arises SLOW
ly a few minutes before the play is
scheduled to begin. When the enter
tainment is over, and the audience
is fling out, this curtain falls again
with the same impressive slowness.
This important fire curtain, d safety
curtain, is the piece of apparatus
that the Bureau of Standards is try
ing to perfect.
Flexible safety curtains of ashes
tos woven with cotton were in use
at the time the %Iroquois fire brought
| daoYh RI EGE naon1o Tho Clare of
the fated theater was equipped with
ain asbestos curtain, but the theater
was new and the curtain failed to
work smoothly. AT a rehearsal a
week before the tragedy a fire had
occurred on the stage, and the safety
curtain had failed to drop because it
| caught on-a piece of the lighting ap-
paratus. The same thing happened
when an audience was present.
Many Killed by Gases
There were ten tons of infam-
mable material on the stage. The
blaze emit poisonous gases floating
out into the auditorium. People in
the gallery were overcome by breath
ing the gases and hot air and died
without being touched by the flames.
Panic seized others. Weak persons
who were knocked down blocked the
| aisles and exits. In ordinary cir
| cumstances, a theater can be emp
tied in from three to five minutes.
People were struggling at the doors
of the Iroquois Theater nine min
utes after the outbreak of the fire.
1t was all over in half an hour, but
in that time the heat on the stage
had reached 1850 degrees Fahren-
heit, as the fusing of the glass sky
lights showed. The intensity of this
temperature can be imagined from
the fact that a human being can
not exist for any length of time in
air over $50 degrees.
S. II. Ingberg, who is in charge OF
the Bureau of Standards fire pre-
vention experiments, says that a sue
cessful fire curtain should be capable
of being lowered without a hitch,
and should keep smoke, flame, and
gas from escaping into the auditor
ium for n period of fifteen minutes.
1t must be constructed, moreover, so
that in case of fire on the stage the
audience can not see even the glow
through the lowered curtain. This
Is important, because the sight of
fire is apt to start a panic. Finally,
to be practical for the average thea
ter, a fire curtain must not be too
heavy for the theater walls and not
too expensive.
OF recent years tlIa rigid steel
curtain has been regarded as the
most progressive type of safety cur-
tain. 1t consists of a layer of sheet
metal on the auditorium side, with
asbestos boards three-eigths of an
inch thick on the stage side, ana a
layer Of steel framing sandwiched in
between. Altogether, this curtain is
six of eight inches in thickness. 1t
w%ithstands high temperature for a
long time, and being stiff it does not
sag out into the auditorium. The
steel curtain has proved to be fully
effective for the intended purpose.
Tests made at the Bureau of Stan
dards showed this type of curtain
to hold back all flame, glow, and
other evidences of fire for one-half
hour. The curtain after tests was
practically unchanged except for
the fire effects on the asbestos back
ing.
Steel Curtain Expensive
The steel curtain, however. costs
in the neighbo1 hood of $12,0 or
SIS, 900, when is a prohibitive ex-
pense for many theaters. 1t is so
heavy that it must be operated by
hydraulic power. Including the
necessary counterw eight, 1t weighs
about ten tons. Asbestos curtains,
on the other hand, are cheaper and
much lighter
The government Is trying to devel~
op improved materials and methods
Of hanging and operation to increase
the safety of the asbestos curtain.
Working with manufacturers, gov