1£85.] on Accidental Explosions by Non-explosive Liquids. 237 



seven hours, when the woman took it in her hand, and having 

 partially turned it down, proceeded to blow down the chimney ; an 

 explosion at once occurred, the glass reservoir was broken, and the 

 inflamed oil flowed upon her dress, burning her most severely. 



A lamp explosion which occurred last December, in a van used as 

 a bedroom by an itinerant showman, at the so-called World's Fair 

 held at the Agricultural Hall, Islington, and which caused the death 

 of an infant, was of a somewhat different character to the foregoing. 

 The lamj), which was of the duplex form and was attached to a 

 bracket, had been alight for some hours, when a woman went, from a 

 neighbouring van used as the dwelling room, to extinguish it. She 

 observed that while the lamp, or wick, was only burning faintly, the 

 oil in the reservoir was alight. She placed her ajDron over the top of 

 the chimney to extinguish the lamp, when it at once appeared to 

 explode, and the bui-ning oil set the interior of the van on fire. The 

 woman ran out for help, and a lad, protecting his head with his coat 

 rushed in and brought out the infant which was lying upon the bed, 

 and which died from injuries received. The oil used in the lamp was 

 believed to be of high flashing point, being obtained by the retailer who 

 supplied it, from a firm dealing in a Scotch shale oil manufactured 

 by the Walkinshaw Company (known as an " electric light " brand). 

 A sample of the oil, as supj)lied by the wholesale dealers, had a 

 flashing point of 114:° F., but a portion of the oil actually purchased 

 by the owner of the lamp had a flashing point of only 63° F., and 

 evidently consisted of a mixture of the heavy oil and of benzoline. 

 The oil in question would naturally become exhausted of the volatile 

 spirit after the lamp had burned for some time, and the flame would 

 then have burned low in consequence of the heavy character of the 

 residual oil ; the lamp and its contents would have thus become 

 highly heated, and some accidental disturbance of the surrounding air 

 must have caused vapour generated from the heated oil and contained 

 in the air-space of the reservoir, to become inflamed ; the oil itself 

 being thereby ignited. By placing her apron hastily upon the top 

 of the chimney, the woman forced air into the reservoir, and thus 

 either caused a slight explosion to take place, or determined the 

 breaking of the glass by the sudden change of temperature. A lamp- 

 accident, apparently due to the same cause, occurred quite re- 

 cently in the cabin of a small steam-launch on the Medway, near 

 Chatham. 



Several cases of undoubted lamp explosions, fortunately un- 

 attended by serious consequences, have come to the lecturer's know- 

 ledge as having occurred in the billiard-rooms of barracks where 

 petroleum or paraffin oil was employed as the illuminant. These lamj)s 

 are fixed over the billiard tables, and generally speaking the rooms 

 have top- or sky-lights. In every instance the lamp had been burn- 

 ing for several hours and had probably become more or less heated, 

 especially as shades of sheet tin weie placed over them as reflectors. 

 In each case a portion of the glass reservoir was blown out by the 



