1 12 ' Protection of Persons from Fire. 



facts deserve the attention of all who have charge of custom houses 

 and other depots of merchandize. 



It is well known that many coal mines inflame spontaneously. 

 Certain kinds of coal have this property, and the maritime police of 

 certain countries prohibit its transportation in ships. 



Sulphurous turf (and there is much of it) is also the cause of spon- 

 taneous fire, and requires the same precautions as coal of the same 

 quality. In both cases, it is the abundance of sulphuret of iron, and 

 its decomposition by moisture^ that produce the heat requisite for 

 combustion. The fermentation of hay and straw may set .tire to 

 barns. If the mass be sufficiently moist, no circulation of air will 

 prevent the effect. 



As the art of building advances, the causes of destruction are 

 iTiore and more removed. Incombustible materials are more sought 

 after. The superb dock ware-houses of England are almost entirely 

 of cast iron. In private dwellings, means have been tried to render 

 wood incombustible, or very slow of combustion and easily extin- 

 guished. These consist of some external cement or covering, or of 

 a substance which penetrates the wood, without weakening it ; but 

 this art has not yet attained perfection. 



It is doubtless impossible to prevent fires altogether. Phny, in 

 speaking of the ravages which fire had just occasioned in Nicomedia, 

 proposed to Trajan to form an establishment of one hundred and 

 fifty select and skilful men, to be charged with the special duty of 

 extinguishing fires and assisting the sufiferers : this is the first idea of 

 the institution of firemen. 



In general, the means of extinguishing fires are the more effica-^ 

 cious the sooner they are applied. Let every obstacle, therefore, 

 which can retard the operations of firemen, and the arrival of their 

 apparatus, be as far as possible removed. The eyes of magistrates 

 should be particularly directed to this point. 



How extensive soever a conflagration may become, the well di- 

 rected courage of the firemen may prevent a mass of distress. 

 Though a whole town should take fire, there will be quarters where 

 assistance would not be useless ; but the power of man, as well as 

 his foresight, has its limits. When Franklin had found the secret of 

 preserving buildings from the ravages of lightning, he acknowledged 

 that he made no pretensions to the means of preventing the en- 

 croachments of another deluge, or of a universal conflagration. But 

 notwiAstanding this limitation of power, the world will not renounce 

 the use either of lightning rods or of fire engines. 



