656 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



strike them as being at all necessary. The importance of such precau- 

 tions is manifest when we learn that in London alone there are on the 

 average three fires in every twenty-four hours. If this wholesale de- 

 struction were reported of an Eastern city, where the houses are of 

 wood, and are sun-dried by incessant tropical heat, there would be some 

 excuse for it. But here at home, where bricks and mortar are so com- 

 mon, it is certainly astonishing that fires should be so prevalent. 



It would seem that it is a much easier task to set an entire house on 

 fire than it is with deliberate intention, and with proper combustibles 

 to light a stove for the purpose of boiling a kettle. This latter opera- 

 tion is not so simple as it appears to be, as any one may prove who has 

 not already tried his or her hand at it. In fact, an efficient or bad 

 house-servant may be almost at once detected by the ease or difficulty 

 with which she lights her fires. The inefficient servant will place some 

 crumpled paper in the grate, and will throw the best part of a bundle 

 of wood on the top of it, crowning the whole with a smothering mass 

 of coal ; and will expect the fire to burn. The good servant will, on 

 the other hand, first clear her grate, so as to insure a good draught; she 

 will then place the wood above the paper, crossing the sticks again, and 

 again ; then the coals are put in deftly one by one, affording interstices 

 through w^hich the flames will love to linger ; a light is applied ; and 

 the kettle will soon be singing acknowledgments of the warm ardor with 

 which it has been wooed. Contrast this with the other picture, where 

 double the fuel is wasted, and where smoke and dirt make their appear- 

 ance in lieu of tea and toast. We venture to say that a badly managed 

 kitchen fire, with its train of unpunctual meals, leads to more general 

 loss of temper than all the othgr minor domestic troubles put together. 

 The stove is usually the scapegoat on which the offending servant lays 

 her incompetence (the cat clearly could establish an alihi) ; but the 

 most perfect of ranges would not remedy the fault. The only real 

 reason for such a state of things is the prevalence of sheer stupidity. 

 Molly's mother was taught by Molly's grandmother to light a fire in 

 a certain way, and Molly's descendants will, from persistence of habit, 

 continue to Light fires in that manner, be it good or evil, until the end 

 of time. It is quite clear that the same stupidity which causes an in- 

 tentional fire to fail will occasionally lead to a pyrotechnic exhibition 

 which has been quite unlooked for. For instance, cases are not un- 

 known where servants have used the contents of a powder-horn for 

 coaxing an obstinate fire to bum ; the loss of a finger or two generally 

 giving them sufficient hint not to repeat the experiment. 



The general use of gas has done much to reduce the number of con- 

 flagrations, for it has replaced other illuminators far more dangerous ; but 

 it has at the same time contributed a cause of accident which before its 

 use could not exist. So long as people will insist on looking for an es- 

 cape of gas with a lighted candle, so long will their rashness be reward- 

 ed with an explosion. It is not customary, where there is a doubt as to 



