82 Professor Graham's Report on the 



thrown into the atmosphere of the engine-room, and prevent any 

 possible advantage from it. 



The fire in the " Amazon" appeared to the witnesses to take its 

 rise either in the small oil store-room situated over the boiler, or in 

 a narrow space of from three to eleven inches in width between a 

 bulk-head and the side of the boiler, immediately under the same 

 store-room. No substance remarkable for spontaneous ignition, 

 such as oiled cotton-waste, was actually observed in the store-room 

 or the space referred to. The wood itself of the bulk-head, which 

 was within a few inches of the boiler, may have been highly dried 

 and sensibly heated by its proximity to the latter, but is not likely 

 to have acquired any tendency to spontaneous ignition; for when 

 that property results from low heating, it is an effect of time, re- 

 quiring weeks or months to develop it. The same observation ap- 

 plies to the decks in contact with the steam-chest, which encased 

 the base of the funnel. 



Nor does it appear probable, that the coals in the coal-hold of the 

 vessel gave occasion to the fire by heating of themselves, and then 

 burning through the wooden partition of the oil-store, with which they 

 were in contact. 



The coals were from Wales, and are not remarkable for this pro- 

 perty. They are also said to have been shipped in a dry and dusty 

 state, and not damp, a month or two previously. 



Their ignition would also have been preceded by the strong odour 

 before referred to, which does not appear to have been remarked, 

 although the coal-hold communicated directly with the boiler-room. 



Oil was seen to drop from the floor of the store-room upon the 

 top of the boiler, but not in greater quantity than might be acci- 

 dentally spilt in drawing the oil from the tank for the use of the 

 engineers. 



A parcel of twenty-five newly -tarred coal-sacks, which had been 

 thrown upon the boiler, also obtained, it is supposed, some of the 

 same oil. This oil appears to be the matter most liable to the pos- 

 sibility of spontaneous ignition, which was noticed near the spot 

 where the fire commenced. 



But the sudden and powerful burst of flame from the store-room, 

 which occurred at the very outset of the conflagration, suggests 

 strongly the intervention of a volatile combustible, such as turpen- 

 tine, although the presence of a tin can of that substance in the 

 store-room appears to be left uncertain. It was stated to be there 

 by two witnesses, but its presence is denied by a third witness. I 

 find, upon trial, that the vapour given off by oil of turpentine is 

 sufficiently dense at a temperature somewhat below 110° to make 

 air explosive upon the approach of a light. Any escape of turpentine 

 from the heated store-room would therefore endanger a spread of 

 flame, by the vapour communicating with the lamps burning at the 

 time in the boiler-room, or even with the fire of the furnaces. 



