1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



783 



FIHE-EXTINGUISHEKS. 



CHARRING CriAFF HIVKS TO DISINFECT FROM 

 FOUL BROOD. 



fRIEND ROOT:— Sceiiipr your mention in Our 

 Homes of some new flrc-e.vtin^uishers you 

 have been getting reminds me of some e.\pe- 

 rience of mine and the conclusions I drew 

 from it. I don't Itnow what Itind you have, 

 but I suppose it is one of tlio forms of " luind- 

 g-renades" in which a small quantity of liuid, claim- 

 ed to have great power against fire, is throwti uj)- 

 on the blaze. 



In public exhibitions, 1 l)(>lievc the afjcnt srener- 

 ally builds a close wall of boards, ag-ainst uhicli ii 

 Are is built with kerosene oil and light combwsii- 

 bles. When the fire is well under hcadwa.v. the 

 contents of the extinguisher nie applied with won- 

 derful effect. Well, now to luy experience: 



In disinfecting hives in which there had been 

 foul brood, I boiled them, as I told you. As chaff 

 hives were too large lo boil, and steam was not con 

 venient, I tried charring the inside. This was coat- 

 ed more or less with wax and propolis, often with 

 paint as well. I sprinkled a few light shavings on 

 the bottom, and saturntcd them with kerosene, 

 pouring it all over the sides and bottom. When 

 the match was applied you may be sure there was u 

 flre. Flames, filling the whole top of the hive, rose 

 several feet above it, making it impossible to 

 stand near, on account of the heat. Most onlook- 

 ers would have said that the hive was doomed. 

 How did I extinguish it? Why, a single gill of 

 water— scarcely over a tablespoonful sometimes- 

 thrown into the midst of that roaririg, seething 

 mass of fiame, would extinguish it instantly. I 

 can recall only two or three instances out of many 

 in which this small quantity of water failed to ex- 

 tinguish the flame instantly and completely, al- 

 though often the whole inside of the hive had be- 

 come thoroughly charred an eighth of an inch or 

 more in depth. I will not try to explain it; but 

 though I do not hnnu\ I suspect that these fire-ex- 

 tinguishers act in exactlj- the same manner. I 

 have seen the statement, apparently authoritative, 

 that an analysis of one of these extinguishers 

 showed the contents to be nothing but salt and 

 water, and that in another there seemed to be 

 nothing more that would have any effect on flre. 

 It has been shown that salt water is slightly more 

 eflfective than fresh for extinguishing flre, and 

 these extinguishers are probably more effective 

 than so much water to just that degree and no 

 more. 



A pail or two of water, covered to prevent evap- 

 oration, and with enough salt in it to keep it from 

 freezing or being used for other purposed, with a 

 cheap force-pump hanging by it, will be found, I 

 think, the best and most reliable provision for put- 

 ting out flres. J. A. Green. 



Dayton, 111., Sept. 27, ISST. 



Friend Green, I am very fjlad indeed you 

 have taken hold of what I agree with yon to 

 be a monstrous swindle ; and I am srlad von 

 take hold of it without gloves on. I h;nl al- 

 ways been prejudiced against these things 

 until I saw a lot of hand-grenades put up in 

 the railroad depots and ofllces. My conclu- 

 sion was, that if the railroad companies in- 

 dorsed them they must be a good tiling. 

 We paid, I think, SIS. 00 a dozen, and they 



were htmg up around the factory. One day 

 the copper wire loop tiiat supported one of 

 tiiem broke, and it dropped beside one of 

 the workmen. \Vc all supposed, of course, 

 that a great volume of carbonic-acid gas, or 

 something similar, would be liberated by 

 the breaking of the glass. The Jjabcock 

 fire-extinguislier, and perhaps many others, 

 liberate carbonic acid by pouring the diluted 

 acid on chips of marble or som(;thing of 

 that sort; and it is well known, that car- 

 bonic acid extinguishes lire exactly as a wet 

 blanket will act, i)roviding, of coiiise, there 

 is a sufficient vohiine of the gas. Just how 

 these little globes containing the transpar- 

 ent li(iuid liberaied sucli volumes of gas, we 

 didn't know; but we thought it might be 

 by compression, like bottles of soda water, 

 etc. To our sur|)rise, howt-xei-, this glass 

 that accidentally fell and broke did not lib- 

 erate any gas whatever. .No cloiul of steam 

 or vapor arose to choke the occupants of the 

 rooms, or astonished oiu- eyes. A piece of 

 the glass contained some of the liquid, and 

 it tasted like salt and water and nothing 

 else. At the time our warehouse burned 1 

 got a lot of these hand-grenades and threw 

 them into the edges of the lire. In fact, I 

 tested them on piles of lumber where they 

 certainly ought to have produced some ef- 

 fect in staying the flames. Many witnesses 

 can testify that they produced no sort of 

 effect whatever. Where the liquid fell on 

 the boards it put out as much fire as a pint 

 of water would be likely to do. This ended 

 our confidence in the Harden hand-grenade. 

 A few months ago some agents were in 

 town, having for sale a long tin tube hold- 

 ing perhaps a quart or two of some liquid. 

 They made a test exactly as you describe it, 

 on our public s(|uare, and it was wonderful 

 how the tire went out. I picked up an emji- 

 ty tube, however, and tasted of the liquid 

 remaining in it, and it seemed to me to be 

 salt and water — nothing more. I supi ose 

 most of you remember about throwing salt 

 into the fireplace to put out a burning chim- 

 ney, or even throwing it into the stove. If 

 there is a good hot fire, the fumes of the gas 

 liberated will extinguish the flame. But 

 suppose, however, it is not salt and water 

 in these tin tubes and glass bottles. Sup- 

 pose it is some chemical. Is it likely that 

 said chemical is so very costly that a weak 

 solution is worth $l8.i)0 per dozen V I do 

 not want to be uncharitable ; in fact, I pre- 

 fer to be among the class who " think no 

 evil ; " but if our American people aie be- 

 ing humbugged to the extent of the forego- 

 ing, it is high time indeed that the press of 

 our land take the matter up and expose the 

 swindlers. I suppose this would be out of 

 the line of the experimental colleges and 

 stations in the different States ; but there 

 ought to be somebody with scientific knowl- 

 edge sufficient, and time and means, to 

 make the experiment to protect the people 

 from such like swindles. Now, if these fire- 

 extinguisher people are honest, and they 

 have got something that is so costly that it 

 can't be afforded for less than S18 00, per 

 dozen, it won't hurt them a bit to be hel'd up 

 for inspection, ft does not hurt any honest 

 business to ventilate it thoroughly, 



