Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-10
Renew Efforts to Solve
Fires by Combustion
BY HARDEN COLFAx.

Nick Carriers of the laboratory and Of
the counting room are going to put
their heads together and outline plans
which they hope will result In solution
OF the mystery surrounding a series of
costly flres-a series which began at
least as lar back rs recorded history
runs.
1t is none other than that arch
enemy OF mankind, spontaneous COM
bustiOn, that is the object Of wholesale
detective work about to be undertaken.
Not that the subject is entirely new
the literature of ancient Greece and
Rome bears evidence against any such
thsory-but while many lairs of this
destructive element are known, 1t
strikes often in unexpected places and
the why's and wherefores are more fire.
quently hidden than exposed.
In brief, scientists of the Government
and OF private employ; representatives
OF farm organizations and Of rail and
water transport companies: spokesmen
for feed and cereal and other manu-
featuring interests; the sugar industry;
producers OF animal and vegetable oils,
paint and varniSh. fertilizer and various
additional commodities; professors OF
hemp, jute, Sisal and other fibers;
insurance underwriters, fire chiefs and
sundry' others will meet in Washington
next Thursday and Friday in a con-
ference on spontaneous heating and
ignition of agricultural and industrial
products. The call was issued by the
National Fire Protection Association in
cooperation with the United States
Departments Of Agriculture and Com
merce, and the invitation to attend is
genera.
Plans will be made ct the conference
NovemL l. IL and Is to co-relate the
efforts Uf all those interested in this
study and to bring about an orderly
and intensified program of scientific
research to solve the mysteries which
thus far have baffied specialists almost
rs much as laymen.
Here is q hazard which takes an
annual toll of somewhere around
$l00, 900 In the United States by
means of flames (the exact figures are
a matter of speculation), besides which
there is a heavy loss from spoilage and
deterioration from spontaneous heating
that haltS short of ignition.
There Is romance in this subject
Sufncient to grip the imagination Of the
tired business man more firmly than
the best written crime thriller. Many
q tale of q phenomenon almost ghostly
IN effects can be recited about sponta-
neouS combustion; Seaworthy ships
which sailed forth on calm waters never
to be heard of again, but whose fate
may be inferred from mysterious fires
springtng forth in the cargoes Of other
vessels which finally made port safely;
huge stacks of sacked raw sugar being
consumed by flames together with the
warehouses sheltering them; freight
cars loaded with cattle feed blazing to
mass of twisted metal in railroad
yards; SiSal for manufacture of binding
Irvine af1re at wharves in New Orleans
after having been transported across
the Gulf from Mexico.
The case last Summer of $500 tons
Of natural ice burning" up in Omaha
from spontaneous combustion in the
sawdust in which 1t was packed Is an
oddly. Innumerable instances of snow
melting on haystack to be followed
soon by destruction of the rural COM
munitieS. Many may be traced to
human agencies, but thousands of
others are listed Cause unknown"
most probably spontaneous combustion
Studies were made by officials of the
chemical engineering division. Depart
ment of Agriculture, following the New
England floods of 1927 of cases where
hay-fllled barns still standing in five
or six feet Of water were destroyed by
fire attributable alone to spontaneous
combustion.
Various theories Of the cause of spon-
taneous combustion have been advanced.
For more than 100 years efforts to study
the subject scientifically have been I'M
der way at one period or another. The
Department Of Agriculture Il conducting
experiments with hay at its Beltsville,