102 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



mass. Down the sides of this cone other truck-loads of coal 

 are then dumped, and, rolling down, are stowed by trimmers- 

 in the vacant parts of the hold. When the main hatch is 

 filled, the remaining hatchways are filled in like manner with 

 a cone of small coal and slack, and the vacant spaces stowed 

 by trimmers as before. 



Causes of Fires. 



As before stated, my long investigation into the causes of 

 fires on charcoal-insulated frozen-meat ships has led me to 

 the conclusion that these fires are caused by the spontaneous 

 combustion of the charcoal (carbon), owing to the well-known 

 fact that charcoal possesses the property of absorbing oxygen, 

 and concentrating within its pores nine times its volume of 

 oxygen. When this concentration of oxygen occurs to the 

 extent of even one cubic inch of charcoal, spontaneous com- 

 bustion is certain to follow. 



Now, coal, which may be said to be mineral carbon or 

 charcoal combined with various gases, possesses, but per- 

 haps in a higher degree, the property of absorbing oxygen 

 when the necessary conditions are presented to it. In this 

 view I am supported by eminent European authorities, such 

 as Lewes, Eichters, and Fayol. In the normal state of large 

 or round coal, in which state it comes from the mine, coal is 

 not subject to spontaneous combustion, as it has been known 

 to have been stowed in bins for long periods without showing 

 any signs of spontaneous combustion. 



But under the present mode of loading coal-vessels the 

 normal condition of large or round coal is largely absent, by 

 reason of the cones of small coal and slack formed under each 

 hatchway being pounded into a more or less solid condition. 

 That small coal or slack in heaps takes fire most people wlio 

 have visited a coal-mine will have seen. Even the heaps of 

 slack from the secondary non-bituminous coal of New Zea- 

 land, containing little or no pyrites or sulphur, constantly 

 take fire from spontaneous combustion. In bituminous coals, 

 such as the South Staffordshire and similar coals, slack is 

 particularly liable to spontaneous combustion, due to the rapid 

 oxidization (absorption of oxygen) that is set up when finely- 

 divided coal IS brought into contact with air. Formerly, cases 

 of the firing of coal-cargoes (being smaller) were not so frequent 

 as now, yet I may state that, of four coal-ships which left a 

 northern English port in 1858 with cargoes of coal for Aden, 

 three were burnt. But now, when coal-ships are very much 

 larger than formerly, fires on coal-ships are increasing to an 

 alarming extent, as may be seen from a very able paper on 

 " Coal Explosions on Shipboard," by Mr. Eichard Benyon, 

 F.E.G.S., appearing in the Nautical Magazine for April, 1892, 



