1835.] Spontaneous Combustion. 119 



diluted with white light; the colours produced by this 

 mixture are intermediate shades, approaching to red or 

 crimson, as the proportion of violet light is lessened or 

 increased. The accidental colours of these shades of red 

 are blueish greens, varying with the different proportions ; 

 and as experiments are seldom made with a pure red, 

 which, indeed, it would be very difficult to obtain, it is pro- 

 bable that the accidental colour of red is stated to be blueish 

 green from its having been produced by colours of this 

 description. 



Article IV. 



Instances of Spontaneous Combustion, detailed in a paper read 

 before the Royal Irish Academy, 2bth May, 1835. By 

 M. ScANLAN, Esq.* 



In the beginning of last March a fire broke out in the 

 extensive turpentine distillery on Sir John Rogerson's quay, 

 belonging to Mr. John Fish Murphy, which is separated 

 from my chemical factory by Windmill Lane. The fire, 

 which was speedily got under, was confined to a heap of 

 what is termed, by turpentine distillers, chip cake, and, 

 from the circumstances under which it occurred, could not 

 be attributed to any other cause than the act of an incen- 

 diary, or to the spontaneous ignition of this chip cake. 



As spontaneous combustion of this substance had never 

 occurred before in Mr. Murphy's distillery, nor in that of 

 his father, an extensive distiller of turpentine, for many 

 years, at Stratford in Essex, I, at first, doubted that the 

 fire could have originated in this way; however, on inquiry, 

 I found his mode of working had been, on this particular 

 occasion, different from that usually employed in his distil- 

 lery, and, experiments which he kindly permitted me to 

 make, have since proved beyond doubt that combustion did 

 take place spontaneously. 



Raw turpentine, as it comes from America, in barrels, 

 includes a considerable quantity of impurity, consisting 

 of chips of wood, leaves, and leaf stalks.f It was hitherto 



• Communicated by the Author. 



t The following extract from the letter of a French turpentine merchant, will 

 account for the presence of these foreign bodies. To obtain the turpentine " th* 

 fir timber is chopped about a man's height down its side with an axe, not hand ■ 



