December 1, 1918.1 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



151 



FIRE LOSS EXPERIENCE IN RUBBER FACTORIES. 



1.\ the October issue of the "Quarlerly of the National Fire 

 Protection Association" the fire experience of rubber fac- 

 tories is reviewed. The study includes all the fires in rubber 

 works that have been reported to the association, and practical 

 conclusions deduced as follows : 



By far the largest causes of rubber factory fires are static 

 electric sparks and the ignition of inflammable vapors, the two 

 being so closely associated that it is difficult to draw any hard 

 and fast line between them. It is interesting to note how the 

 record tallies with the investigations of F. J. Hoxie as to the 

 periodicity of fires due to static electficity. A tabulation, ac- 

 cording to months, of the 73 lires of this general character in- 

 cluded in the record shows the following : 



LONG-STAPLE COTTON IN INDIA. 

 Cotton growing and cotton weaving have been important 

 factors in the remarkable industrial development of India, which 

 has become one of the great surprises of the war. During the 

 fiscal year ended last March, production in the cotton-weaving 

 industry rose by more than 500,000.000 yards, or nearly SO per 

 cent, above the pre-war average, while imports by sea fell by 



1,076,000.000 yards, or 41 per cent, to 1,055,000,000 yards. 

 All Indian cotton is of the short-staple variety, and this has 

 tended to restrict weaving to coarser grades of cloth, but 

 American long-staple cotton is now being introduced with 

 promise of some success. 



LONG-STAPLE COTTON VARIETIES GROWN 

 AMERICA. 



IN 



(~\F all the long-staple cotton varieties grown in the United 

 ^^ States and the adjacent islands Sea Island is by far the best. 

 There arc three grades — Carolinas, Floridas and Georgias — rank- 

 ing in the order given. The yield of seed cotton is 500 pounds 

 and that of lint cotton is 125 pounds to the acre, the bales weigh- 

 ing 400 pounds. Average length of the staple is 134 inches, while 

 the c;,;rcniC5 of siioit- and lony-staide are Ifs to 214 inches. 

 On account of the damage by the boll-weevil and unfavorable 



These figures, whioli vvi;re obtained from a wider geographical 

 field and over a longer period of years than were covered by 

 Mr. Hoxie's detailed and comprehensive studies in New England 

 factories, differ somewhat from his results in respect to. the 

 distribution between the monllis from November to April, but 

 they amply confirm his general conclusions regarding the in- 

 creased incidence of such fires during the winter months. The 

 problem of grounding, and keeping effectively grounded, all ma- 

 chines at which static electricity is likely to be generated has 

 not yet been completely solved, though it would appear that in 

 some factories the hazard from this source has been much more, 

 effectively taken care of than in others. Inasmuch as these 

 fires are frequently attended with serious injury to the employe?, 

 and occasionally loss of life, it is an obvious duty of good man- 

 agement to take every possible precaution to safeguard this 

 hazard. Use of the Chapman neutralizer and of appliances for 

 humidifying the atmosphere and thoroughly grounding — in some 

 cases of the employe as well as the apparatus — are the most 

 generally recognized remedies. 



Hazardous processes like spreading and cement mixing should 

 be conducted in properly isolated buildings or rooms, and ma- 

 terial waiting to be spread should not be kept in a location to 

 which a fire originating at the spreader machine may easily 

 communicate. To store valuable goods underneath rooms in 

 which spreading is done is also bad practice, and several in- 

 stances have been reported involving heavy damage when water 

 used to extinguish a spreader fire ran down into floors below. 

 Naphtha, gasoline and benzine should, of course, be stored in an 

 approved manner, and the utmost care is necessary in the matter 

 of lighting in the presence of inflammable vapors. If it is 

 necessary for a watchman to pass through the cement-mixing 

 room, he should not be permitted to use an ordinary lantern, 

 and while an ideal condition might be the complete prohibition 

 of artificial light in buildings or rooms in which hazardous liquids 

 or solutions are stored, it is certainly better to have a well in- 

 stalled system of electric lamps with keyless sockets and vapor 

 proof globes than to omit all provision for illumination and 

 use open lights in times of emergency when the factory may be 

 in operation at night. 



On the whole, the not unsatisfactory character of the record 

 emphasizes the fact that the chief cause of the fire waste is not 

 the presence of hazards too severe for human control, but a false 

 sense of security in relation to hazards that do not seem severe 

 enough to be worth the exercise of ordinary human intelligence 

 to combat. 



•IIIHI 



ii|t v'lii »J|4 I''* i';i» ' ''^ i'i« 



ARIZONA 

 jUm^ ^^^ DORANOOofCAL MISS DELTA 



I ■■■«■■■ 



U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



Se-\ Island and American Long-Staple Cotton. 



weather conditions the 191S crop will be small. The ginners' 

 report shows 24,145 bales of Sea Island cotton ginned up to 

 November 21, 1918, compared with 68,229 bales for 1917. 



Arizona cotton grown in the Salt River valley is destined to sup- 

 plant Sea Island grades and, for that matter, Egyptian-grown cot- 

 ton as well. The local varieties are known as Pima and Yuma 

 cotton, which were developed from selected Egyptian cotton seed. 

 About 75.000 acres of these two varieties will be planted this 

 year, the yield being about one bale of 500 pounds to ^he acre. 

 The length of the Pima staple is 1^4 inches and that of the 

 Yuma variety ranges from 1K> to 1-7/16 inches. Last season's 

 crop was 14,200 bales, while the present season's crop is estimated 

 at 40,000 bales. About 30 per cent of the cotton grown in the 

 Iinperial Valley of California is the long-staple Durango variety. 

 It is estimated that 35,000 acres of this cotton will be planted 

 this year. The production is about three-quarters of a bale of 

 500 pounds to the acre. The staple is from 1-3/16 to 1^ inches 

 long. Last year's crop was 13,000 bales, no figures being avail- 

 able for the present season. The long-staple cotton that is 

 grown on the low lands of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisi- 

 ana and Arkansas is known as "Peelers," "Benders," "Allen," etc., 

 these terms relating only to the length of staple. The produc- 

 tion of this particular variety for 1917 is estimated at 75,000 

 bales of 500 pounds. The length of the Mississippi Delta staple 

 varies from 1% to \]4 inches. No exact figures are obtainable 

 with regard to the production of American long-staple cotton. 

 However, the Bureau of Crop Estimates has supplied the fol- 

 lowing estimated production for last season's crop: 



Mississippi. Louisiana. Arkansas. Totals. 



Length, Indies liales. Hales. Bales. Males. 



''3 «o 15<i 404.000 23,000 209,000 6 ■16,000 



Over 1<A 45,000 3,000 25,000 73,000 



Totals 449,000 26,000 234.000 709,000 



