46 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



How to Reduce the Fire Hazard and Obtain a Lob) 



Insurance Rate in SaWmills 



The Insurance Standard Woodworker makes 

 sojuo valuable suggestions for cutting down 

 fire risk in new mills, thus lowering insurance 

 rates considerably. For the most part the 

 following matter is quoted verbatim from a 

 pamphlet bearing the above title, issued by 

 the Lumber Insuring Mutual Companies, 

 which include the Lumber Mutual Fire In- 

 surance Company of Boston, the Pennsylvania 

 Lumbermen's Mutual Fire Insurance Com- 

 pany of Philadelphia, the Lumbermen 's Mutual 

 Insurance Company of Mansfield, O., the Cen- 

 tral Manufacturers' Mutual Insurance Com- 

 pany of Van Wert, 0., and the Indiana Lum- 

 bermen's Mutual Insurance Company of In- 

 dianapolis. This pamphlet first takes up the 

 subject of general construction, walls, floors 

 and roofs, ttc, and then goes into regulations 

 for equipment, as follows: 



Construction 



Walls. All brick, cement and stone walls 

 unless mill is unexposed should extend full 

 thickness of top story wall 2' above roof and 

 be stone or tile coped. Walls should not be 

 pierced by timbers unless same are set in 

 self-releasing anchor blocks, but wall should 

 be ledged for their support. Openings in 

 exposed walls should be protected by stand- 

 ard automatic fire doors and shutters. Open- 

 ings in division walls should be as few as 

 possible, and each should be protected by two 

 automatic standard fire doors, one on each 

 side of the wall. No Ijelt holes should be 

 allowed in division walls. Wooden walls 

 should be of ' ' slow burning ' ' construction, 

 i. e., timber and planks. Posts 8"xS" or 

 larger, sheathed with 3" matched or tongued 

 and grooved plank, clapboarded and painted 

 or iron clad. 



Floors. Bottom floor should be plank, 

 laid directly on ground or in coal tar con- 

 crete; or be cement or brick. There should 

 be no space beneath bottom floor unless this 

 floor is of "slow burning" construction with- 

 out an opening in it and access to space be- 

 neath from outside cut off by heavy wire 

 screening. Floors above the bottom floor 

 should be "slow burning" construction, i. e., 

 timber and plank, no joist. 



Boors should be of "slow burning" con- 

 struction, similar in construction to the floors, 

 though posts and beams may be slightly 

 smaller. Roof plank should be 3" and in 

 cold location, paper and 1' boards are added 

 on top of plank. The covering of plank 

 should preferably be tar and gravel. Don't 

 have any shingle roofs, for there is a charge 

 of $2.50 per .$1,000 of insurance for shingle 

 roof on a mill, and it is a prolific cause of 

 fires. 



Sky Lights should be glazed with one 

 large pane of wired glass, and all outside 

 woodwork tin covered. 



Holes in Floors should be avoided. The 

 standard floor has no holes in it, stairs, belts, 

 elevators, steam, gas and water piping and 

 electric wiring passing from story to stor_y 

 in a tower outside of the mill. Have shaft- 

 ing overhead, and belt down to machines and 

 not up through floors. Main belt should be 

 in a tower outside of mill. Stairs and ele- 

 vators should be outside; can be inside if they 

 have automatic trap doors at each floor, as 

 heavy as the floors, or tin clad metal links. 



Electric drive direct connected does away en- 

 tirely with danger from this source. Steam 

 pipes through floors should be jacketed, not 

 thimbled, i. e., the surrounding iron guard 

 should extend all the way through the floor. 

 Water and gas pipes through floors can bo 

 thimbled. Electric wires at floors should pa-ss 

 through porcelain tubes and be boxed up 

 about 4' above floors; to keep clear of stock 

 and prevent damage to them. Kefuse chutes 

 should be of brick or heavy galvanized iron 

 with iron covers or doors. 

 Hazards 



Heating. Stove not approved. If used, 

 floor for 3" front and around should be pro- 

 tected; a heavy iron fence 4' high and about 

 .3' distant should enclose. Pipe to chimney 

 should not be over 15' long and should be 

 riveted, and not be within 2' of wood. 



Steam Pipes should be on iron overhead; 

 exhaust steam should be used; one foot of 

 1/4" pipe should be used in a well-built en- 

 closed mill for each 70 cubic feet of space to 

 be heated. If mill is more open or colder, 

 use more pipe. Supply pipe from engine and 

 boiler to radiating coils should be covered 

 completely (straight pipes, valves, joints, el- 

 bows, etc.) with magnesia, asbestos air cell, 

 imperial asbestos or other efficient and safe 

 covering. 



Hot Air from steam coil and fan — steam 

 coil and fan should be located in a clean 

 place, outside of mill, and should draw only 

 clean air and air free from sparks from 

 stack. 



Steam Coils should be enclosed in an iron 

 ease with side or top of casing removable so 

 that piping can be easily and thoroughly 

 cleaned, and fan should be behind the coil 

 and suck air through the coils rather than be 

 in front and blow the air through, and coil 

 and fan should have a brick or cement foun- 

 dation, and floor around them be brick or 

 cement. 



Lighting. Don't use gasoline pressure 

 feed lamps, considered exceedingly danger- 

 ous, both to life and property. Gravity feed, 

 stationary lamps are as safe as any gasoline 

 lamp can be. Any gasoline lamp increases 

 the insurance rate and special permit must 

 be attached to the insurance policy if gaso- 

 line is used or kept on the premises. 



Kerosene lamps with glass oil holders are 

 dangerous and will increase the insurance 

 rate, as will open kerosene teakettle or dan- 

 gler torches. 



Gas jets should be immovable, or so ar- 

 ranged that they cannot swing too near or 

 under combustible material. Should be a 

 valve outside with necessary wrench with 

 which to shut off gas entirely from mill in 

 case of emergency, and when it is not in use 

 to avoid paying for leakage. 



When electric lighting is installed dynamos 

 should be in a clean brick room or building 

 with a cement floor and ample space above 

 and around it. The ' ' switchboard ' ' should 

 be slate ; rheostat should be iron cased ; all 

 wires should have a ' ' weatherproof ' ' or 

 ' ' waterproof ' ' insulation, not the old ' ' Un- 

 derwriters. ' ' Weatherproof wire has one or 

 two woven . covers saturated with a black 

 sticky compound. Waterproof wire has a 

 rubber cover inside of a woven cover. The 

 old ' ' Underwriters ' ' wire has a woven cover 

 saturated with a white (looks like dry white 

 lead) powder; (any white covered wire, about 

 Ys" thick, is certainly "Underwriters" 

 wire). All wires should be clear of all wood 



and combustible material; running on por- 

 celain supports, not over iiy apart lengthwise 

 of vrire and wires not nearer each other than 

 2V2" except at cutout, etc. All joints should 

 be soldered and taped. Wherever one of the 

 two wires that extend around the mill paral- 

 lel to each other or one of its branches 

 crosses the other or one of the branches of 

 the other, the wires should be separated by 

 porcelain lubes, taped in position. Where 

 wires enter buildings, there should be a loop 

 down just before wire enters so that moisture 

 and rain will not follow down the side (in or 

 out) of the building from the wire. Where 

 wires pass through partition beams or any 

 combustible material they should be sur- 

 rounded with porcelain tubes, taped in posi- 

 tion. Where passing through floors, wires 

 should be guarded by a box to prevent dam- 

 age. Wires and cords should be kept clear 

 of iron and combustible material, especially 

 of steam, gas and water pipes. Keep lamps 

 clear of combustible material. Don 't make 

 shades for lamps by tieing paper of any kind 

 to or around them. All cords should be 

 cable or armoured, i. e., covered with an 

 especially heavy insulation. Cutouts should 

 be porcelain (as should rosettes, etc.) and 

 be of the plug or tube pattern. Cutouts 

 and instruments controlling lights in each 

 room should be grouped at entrance and be 

 enclosed at a readily reached height in an 

 asbestos lined box. If there is a stair tower, 

 these boxes should be located in this stair 

 tower. Cutouts and switches should not be 

 in varnish rooms and lamps over varnish 

 dipping tanks should be of the keyless double 

 globe pattern guarded by wire cage. Keep 

 curreut cut off from parts not in use, while 

 they are not in use, and if electric current is 

 obtained from the public service keep the 

 current cutout at entrance except when it is 

 in use. 



Arc Electricity. Some remarks as to in- 

 candescent electricity, as far as they apply; 

 only the kind of arc light in which the arc 

 is enclosed in a tight fitting globe should be 

 used. Lights should be supported indepen- 

 dently of the feed wires, and each light have 

 its own switch. 



Don't Use Gas and Electricity in the 

 S.VME Building. Electric wii'es in contact 

 with gas-pipes have caused many disastrous 

 fires. A workman is liable to make such 

 contact at any time, if both gas and elec- 

 tricity are used. Electrical rules free, on 

 application. 



Refuse. Suitably constructed refuse burn- 

 ers or waste vaults should be installed in con- 

 nection with blower conveyor. 



Varnishing, painting, etc., should be 

 preferably done in a separate building; dip- 

 ping tanks should have self-closing tin-lined 

 covers and vent pipes at top leading to sewer 

 on outside. If gasoline, benzine, naphtha, 

 or any of the products of petroleum of 

 greater inflammability than kerosene oil of 

 the U. S. Standard is kept or used on the 

 premises, a permit should be attached to the 

 insurance policies. 



Oils. Lubricating oils, except the supply 

 distributed in small cans around the mill, 

 should be kept outside of mill and awaj- from 

 main valves. 



Cotton Wiping Waste. One raised self- 

 closing riveted metal waste can should be 

 provided for each 2,500 square feet of floor 

 surface in the manufacturing and varnish- 

 ing department; also one in engine room. 



