IS-^T] 



F A R M E H S ' II E (U ST E R , 



493; 



neons combuisfion of larjie masses oT bituminous 

 Cdiii from Virjriiiiii, two in cellars, and a third un- 

 der a close arch, all ql" which occurred in Phila- 

 delphia.* A fourth ca>'0 was stated of one thou- 

 sand two hundred chaldrons ot coal "in a close 

 oouipact inaiiazine" in Paris, and a filth of one 

 thousand six hundred ions of the same article in 

 the royal s!iip-yard in Coficniiagen and ail con- 

 sumed, toiTeiher with one thousand four hundred 

 houses. This happened in the year 1794.t 



Bituminous coat has on other occasions taken 

 fire. In the \'ear 1822, October and November, 

 three cases occurred of tliis in the navy yards of 

 Brooklyn, New York, Portsmouth, New Hamp- 

 shire, and Washington city. The coal was Irom 

 Virginia, and lay exposed to the. air and rain. 



In the year 182S, one hundred chaldrons of coal 

 which had been placed several weeks before on 

 wet trround in Boston, took fire, with a volume of 

 Pul|)iiurous matter risinir in a state of ebullition. 

 It was reaiarked that this i was the third instance 

 of the kind within liie past year in that city. 



Another case was meationed in the newspapers 

 as having taken place in Ridgley^s coal-yard, Bal- 

 timore, some years since, in the month of August. 

 This coal also was doubtless from Virginia. A 

 similar accident has recently occurred in the coal 

 yard of Nutter & Co., New York, to sixty tons ol 

 Virginia coal. (Julv, 1837.) 



Mr. Dupont, the late extensive manufacturer of 

 gunpowdpr, inlormed. Dr. Seyberf, that charcoal 

 was also liable to spontaneous combustion when in 

 powder and piled in -a heap. Fie had sqfTered loss. 

 irom this cause, and a similar accident had occur- 

 red near Paris. 



The French commissioners charged b,y the 

 French government to examme into the causes of 

 the explosions of powder factories, ascertained 

 that charcoal in the lump, by attrition took fire. 

 Charcoal inflames according to M. Caussigni, by 

 the pressure of mill-stones, and has taken fire, in 

 the box of the .bolter, into which it had been 

 sifted ; the coarse powder experienced no altera- 

 tion. jlnnaUs de Chimie, No. 35. 



Mr. Sage saw the roof of one of the low wings 

 of the mmt at Paris set on fire by the spontaneous 

 combustion of a large quantity of charcoal that 

 had lain in the garrets. 



Two instances of spontaneous combustion took 

 place in the powder manufactory of Essone, in the 

 year eight and ten of the French republic ; the 

 first in the box for silting the charcoal, and the 

 second in the charcoal repository. Bartholdi at- 

 tributes them to phosphorus in the charcoal. 



IN'lay not one or more of the conflagrations of 

 powder mills, which have taken place in the 

 United States during the two past years, have 

 been caused in this way 1 



Linen, cotton, and woollen cloth, or the raw ma- 

 calculate the extent of waste land that might be re- 

 claimed at 2.830,000 acres, which coincides pretty 

 nearly with the calculation here made. 



* This last was from Dr. Seybert's paper on Spon- 

 taneous Combustion, in New York Medical Reposi- 

 tory, Hexade .3d, vol. iii. Two similar facts are given 

 by Bartholdi, Jlnnales de Chimie, No. 144: and transla- 

 ted in Tilloch's Philos. Mag. vol. xviii. 



t In my additions to the article "Inflammation," in 

 Willich's Domestic Encyc, 1 have given nine cases of 

 spontaneous combustion from various causes. 



terials o»' these fabrics, impregnated whh flax-seed 



oil, or paint, or vaVnish, have frequently proved the 

 causes of spoulaneoiis inllammation. 



Several years since a piece of canvass, forty 

 j'ards in lenjrth, painted with white lead and oil, 

 itnd exposed to the sun lor soine hours, was rolled 

 up and put under cover. The next morning it 

 was found smoking, and the whole, except a yard, 

 burnt to cinder, with a hole through the bottom of 

 a wagon. I'his happened at Mount Pleasant, 

 Virifinia. A large piece of coarse muslin, tho- 

 roughly oil^d for the purpose of making covers for 

 boxes, was left over night, folded loosely in a shed 

 in a yard in Market street, Boston ; in the morn- 

 incT, it was found burnt entirely through, and 

 about to blaze. (1831.; 



A quantity of wool prepared with the usual 

 proportion of oil for carding, and thrown into a 

 iieap in the evening, was found the next morning 

 ifrnit6d, and the floor to a considerable extent on 

 fire. This happened at Harrilin & Bates' factory; 

 and another insiance occurred at the establishment 

 of Warner & VVhetton.* Lamp oil was used. 

 (1831.") A quantity of cotton clothing for sea- 

 men's suits, had been oiled and hung up at Dux- 

 bur}', Massachusetts, for a fortnight to dry, and 

 were then taken dovim, rolled together, and placed 

 in a shed ; the next day they were found on fire. 

 (]831.) 



The Schr. Hiram, laden with wool, when on a 

 voyage from Bilboa to New York, in March 1825, 

 was set on fire, in consequence of some linseed oil 

 having been spilt on the cabin floor. 



Two pounds of wool greased with flax-seed oil, 

 neftr Germantown, Pennsylvania, set fire to the 

 building next morning. (1818.) The closet in 

 which the paint and oil were kept at Bosher's car- 

 riage factory, Richmond, Virginia, having been 

 smeared with linseed oil, burst out in a flame. 

 (1832.) 



Some cotton used in cleaning the cabin of the 

 ship Birmingham, became partially filled with 

 flax-seed oil, and after some time it ignited. An 

 express experiment proved that cotton thus im- 

 prefrnated would inflame in two hours. CNew 

 York, 1831.) 



Cotton rags, while delivering from the cellar of 

 a store, 24 Broad street. New York, were found 

 on fire. Oil had been spilt on them. (June, 1834.) 



Mr. Durant's large balloon, varnished for the 

 first time, exposed to the sun through the day, 

 and rolled up in the evening, and deposited upon 

 chairs in a house in Jersey city, was found the 

 next morning entirely consumed. I'he varnish 

 v/as composed of oil, turpentine and caoutchouc. 

 (June, 1832.) 



Mr. Atkinson of Ellicott's mills, near Baltimore, 

 stated that flax-seed oil spilt on [wood] ashes in 

 an iron kettle, caused the ashes to inflame in 

 twenty four hours. He made an experiment to 

 test the fact with success. Mr. Patterson, Presi- 

 dent of the United States' Mint, repeated the ex- 

 periment with cold hickory ashes, and one pint of 

 flax-seed oil; in forty six hours after, the nuxture 

 was fairly ignited, and in a short time emitted 

 flame, which continued upwards of an hour. 

 After the flame had ceased, the ignition continued 



* Both at Plainlield, Massachusetts. Ample expe- 

 rience has taught European mancfacturers that no oil 

 should be used for greasing wool, but that of rape 

 seed. 



