236 Sir Frederklc Ahel [Marcli 13, 



at hand, wlien a paraffin lamp which had just been lighted exploded, 

 and the room was at once set on fire by the burning oil which 

 escaped. The husband and wife fled from the room, both being 

 slightly injured, but the child was unable to. escape from the 

 flame, and. was burned to death. The oil used in the lamp was of a 

 well-known brand, having a flashing point ranging from 73° to 

 86° F., and assuming that the recently lighted lamp had been 

 filled with oil, and was untouched at the time of the explosion, no 

 satisfactory explanation can be given of the accident, unless perhaps 

 the reservoir had been so completely filled with oil that the expan- 

 sion of the liquid, on its becoming slightly warm, exerted sufficient 

 force to determine the fracture of the glass at some part where a flaw 

 or crack existed. 



A lamp accident which occurred last July at Barnsbury, causing 

 the death of a woman and her husband, appears, on the other hand, 

 distinctly traceable to the production of an explosion in the reservoir 

 of the lamp. The latter was stated to have been alight but a short 

 time, when, the husband being already in bed, the wife, in her night- 

 dress, attempted to blow out the flame of the lamp ; the man heard a 

 report, and looking towards the lamp, saw his wife in flames. He 

 proceeded at once to her rescue and was severely burnt in extinguishing 

 the flames in which she was enveloped. The woman died in a few 

 hours, and the man succumbed three days later to the injuries received. 

 There being no witness to the accident, there is no evidence against 

 the supposition that, on the occurrence of a slight explosion in the 

 reservoir in the lamp, the woman, having hold of it when attempting 

 to blow it out, may have upset it, or tilted it so as to cause the oil to 

 flow out and become inflamed. The lamp may have become fractured 

 by the explosion ; but whenever such a result has been produced the 

 lamp had always been burning some time, so that there was considera- 

 able air-space which could be filled by an explosive atmosphere, 

 whereas, in this case, the evidence appears positive as to the lamp 

 having been full of oil when lighted. 



In another fatal case of a lamp explosion in the same month, at 

 Mile End, the accident was also caused by the attempt on the part 

 of a woman to blow out the lamp before going to bed. In this 

 case the lamp had been burning for three hours; the husband 

 of the sufferer was in bed asleep in the room at the time, and, the 

 woman being unable to give any account of the occurrence, the only 

 information elucidating it w^as furnished by the daughter, to the effect 

 that the lamp had been burning for three hours, and that it was the 

 habit of her mother to extinguish the lamp by first lowering the wick 

 and then blowing down the chimney. 



Another fatal accident, caused by the explosion of a lamp, took place 

 at Camber well last January, and was brought about, as in the two 

 preceding cases, by attempts to extinguish the lamp by blowing down 

 the chimney. The husband and two sons of the sufferer were 

 witnesses of this accident; the lamp had been burning for six or 



