lO NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



and moreover, there was, at the time, no thought of a means of 

 making accurate observations of the conditions existing while the 

 fire was in progress. The temperature may, in a general way, be 

 estimated from the effect upon various metals in the fire; yet, 

 withal, the conditions might vary so considerably as not to allow 

 of any general conclusions. The fact that iron was melted at one 

 point does not prove the existence of a similar temperature 50 

 feet away. 



Many of the reports which have been circulated relative to the 

 degree of heat attained in a fire are decidedly exaggerated, but 

 experts are of the opinion that the heat seldom reaches a tempera- 

 ture greater than i8oo°F, and usually it is much less. 



But one conclusion can be reached after a study of the effect of 

 fires on stone and that is that no building stone is absolutely fire- 

 proof, although some stones, in a way, show much more refractori- 

 ness than others. It must be granted, however, that some of the 

 reports are rather overstated. For example, one writer^ says: 



The results of the various fires have proved the unreliability of 

 granite and stone; the granite buildings were reduced to sand. 

 Granite not only splits under heat, but from unequal expansion of 

 the constituents, as it is porous and contains water in hygroscopic 

 form, the steam generated by the heat bursts the rocky constitu- 

 ents into small particles. By these several actions the material is 

 perfectly disintegrated. We all know that marble, as a limestone, 

 is even more liable to speedy calcination, that sandstones vary 

 much in density, their particles expand unequally and some split 

 or crumble into pieces. The Baltimore conflagration has at least 

 proved the worthlessness of natural stone to resist great heat, and 

 for staircases in public buildings both lime and sandstone have 

 long been held to be exceedingly dangerous under the action of 

 fire and water. 



Another observer^ says: 



To many persons the Baltimore fire seems to have put the 

 question whether the American city of today can be so builded 

 as to be safe from such fires as those at Chicago in 1871, and at 

 Boston in 1873, and to have answered it in the negative. The 

 150 acres of black and smoking ruins which were once the most 

 substantially built portion of the sixth city of the United States 

 permits no other conclusion. Already, on this showing alone, 

 the public press has widely condemned the modem type of fire- 

 proof building, and some even whose words were weighted with 

 expert authority in the public mind, have called for a return to 

 "brick and mortar " as the only salvation of the building owner 

 when conflagration besets his property. 



* Lessons from the Baltimore Fire. Building News and Engineering Jour. 1904. 87:2. 

 2 Engineering News. 1904. 51:173. 



