110 Protection of Persons from Fire. 



Art of the sculptor and stone cutter. — A mask of fine metallic 

 gauze is precisely what is wanted to guard workman from the chips 

 and fine dust which are so injurious to the eyes and lungs. 



Medicine and surgery. — Cannot the organs of sight and respira- 

 tion be protected by the means recommended in exposure to disease. 



Precautions against insects in fdaces infested by them. — The me- 

 tallic gauze placed before windows and doors, while it freely admits 

 air, would exclude insects, more effectually than the stufis used for 

 that purpose. 



Amianthine paper and pasteboard. — The packers of cloth may 

 avail themselves very usefully of the pasteboard as a substitute for 

 the common pasteboard. This has been done in Italy with com- 

 plete success. The consumption of a great quantity of pasteboard 

 is thus done away with, and also of the disagreeable smell which it 

 occasions. 



With respect to the amianthine paper, made by the common pro- 

 cess, the author says he has several sheets of it half a yard long and 

 a foot wide, and that it would be decidedly the best thing for bank 

 notes or paper money ; and more particularly for public records, for 

 if an indelible ink were applied to it, it would be exempt from all 

 risk of accident by fire. Boxes made of several thicknesses of the 

 paper or pasteboard, would effectually preserve their contents, how- 

 ever exposed to heat. 



The author states that he has improved the Davy lamp, by en- 

 larging the meshes of the gauze, and making some other alterations, 

 (not clearly described) which render it a valuable substitute for com- 

 mon lanterns for farmers, hostlers, &c. Wire gauze is manufactured 

 in almost every considerable town in Europe, but that is not the 

 case with fabrics of amianthus. Nature, however, is liberal in this 

 production, and suitable encouragement is only wanting to render its 

 fabrics far more common and accessible. It is said that Charles V. 

 had a manufactory of it near Ghent, and that he used a table cloth 

 of it, and amused his guests by throwing it into the fire in order to 

 cleanse it. In China, cloth is made of it, but the price is excessive- 

 ly high 5 for a piece of it half a yard square, was sold, during the 

 last century, for nine hundred francs. In the time of Pliny, amian- 

 thus was as dear as pearls, but since that time the price has greatly 

 diminished. 



