392 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



This subtle process may be slow. It is naturally very un- 

 equal in the time required for its completion, for, as M. 

 Violette observes, " Charcoal made from various kinds of 

 woods ignites spontaneously at different temperatures ; made 

 even from the same wood it ignites spontaneously under very 

 unequal conditions." 



It is well known that freshly-burned charcoal is most sub- 

 ject to a speedier spontaneous combustion ; but the con- 

 ditions attending the spontaneous combustion of charcoal are 

 uncertain and subtle, and their investigation has not yet been 

 complete enough to enable a time to be fixed when a fire will 

 certainly take place. The subtle process may require months 

 or years to complete. Its conditions are necessarily unknown, 

 and cannot be detected until, by the heat from a steampipe, 

 or by the heat of the tropics, or in some other unexplained 

 way, the point of combustion is reached, when a fire occurs. 



We must consider that, through leakage, bilge- water, a few 

 drops of oil, or from rats eating through the charcoal casing, 

 the charcoal used for insulating ma} 7 at various undiscovered 

 points become damp ; when that happens the first stage of 

 the process begins. The next stage, as before stated, may be 

 deferred for a short or a long period, but it is only biding its 

 time. Its progress is necessarily unknown, and cannot be 

 detected until, in most cases, long after the point of combus- 

 tion has been reached. It is easy enough to understand how 

 this dangerous process operates, but it is often impossible to 

 ascertain either its commencement, development, or progress, 

 till too late. 



"With charcoal as the insulator, immunity from fires, almost 

 certain to occur sooner or later, cannot be secured. It is idle 

 to say that many charcoal-insulated steamers make voyages 

 without taking fire. Escape from a disaster for a longer or 

 shorter period gives no guarantee that it will never occur 

 if every steamer carries with it the elements of incipient 

 destruction, any more than a man with heart-disease can ever 

 be certain that, because he has carried the disease about with 

 him for years with impunity, a sudden catastrophe will never 

 strike him down. 



Let but a frozen-meat steamer be burnt in mid-ocean in 

 consequence of carrying so dangerous a material as charcoal 

 for insulation, and not only will a great loss of property take 

 place, attended by a great loss of life, but, unless all hands 

 perish, the usual report at Lloyd's of ships lost under such 

 conditions will be " Lost at sea, cause unknown. ' : But if a 

 few survivors escape the perils of the fire and the sea to report 

 the cause of the ship's destruction as having arisen from the 

 spontaneous combustion of her charcoal, then shipowners and 

 shippers may expect a general advance of insurance rates all 



