CONDITIONS OF INFLAMMABILITY. 
BY PROF. R. C. KEDZIE, ix. p., OP THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, XfOTUICtf' 
•"iHBWMHP* IGAN STATE BOARD OF HEALTH. ;P ') .y/ 
[Read at the Sanitary Convention in Grand Rapids, Mich., February 18,1880. Reprinted from the 
Annual Report of the Michigan State Board of Health for the year 1880.] 
It is an old saying that “ fire is a good servant hut a hard master.” While 
we accept this proverb as the embodiment of the general experience of men on 
this subject, yet we may not comprehend the full extent of the truth embodied 
in this familiar saying. There are many tilings essential to our comfort and 
well-being to which we have become so accustomed that we hardly think of 
them, till by some chance we are in danger of losing them when we realize 
How blessings brighten as they take their flight! 
What would become of health, comfort, or even of civilization if we were 
deprived of the help of this hot-headed and quick-tempered servant, fire? The 
extraction of metals from their ores, and even the use of the metals we now have, 
would soon cease if we were deprived of the use of fire; food must be eaten 
raw, and a thousand evils would crowd into the place of blessings we now 
enjoy, and we should find changes taking place in most unexpected quarters. 
We can scarcely conceive of the degradation and savagery of a race who did 
not know the use of fire. 
Two years ago the industry of this nation received a rude shock in the rail- 
road strikes that swept like a wave of madness over our country, and we held 
our breath in dread and asked, What shall the end be? But, instead of rail- 
road employes, suppose the chemical forces should strike for better positions, 
higher wages, or even for back pay ! Suppose that Oxygen should complain that 
he is always set to do the dirtiest and most repulsive work, compelled to be the 
scavenger of all forms of life—with never a holiday—a penny of pay—not 
even a cheap vote of thanks—and should refuse to work any longer on such 
hard terms. Suppose that Carbon should say that he had been twitted too 
often of his black face; that we had despised him and turned up our aristo- 
cratic noses at his menial, but useful ways; that capitalists had combined to 
compel him to grind in the prison-house of toil, without reward, thanks, or 
even recognition—and he will strike for something better! How would we 
fare in the face of such a strike? Not alone would railroads and steamboats 
stop, but every arm of industry would wither in an hour, and all life would 
cease in the twinkling of an eye. 2 
CONDITIONS OF INFLAMMABILITY. 
Sancho Panza, in a burst of gratitude, exclaimed, “ Blessed be the man -who 
invented sleep ! ” We make no inquiry for the man who “invented” fire; his 
name is lost in the darkness that antedates antiquity itself. History will never 
reveal his name, for the use of fire must have long preceded that degree of 
civilization which renders authentic history or even tradition possible. Mythol- 
ogy relates that Prometheus, out of pity for the wretched condition of mortals, 
stole this choicest possession of the immortals, and thus braved the fury of 
omnipotent Jove. The “ stealing fire from heaven” may be a poetic form of 
stating the prosaic fact that he obtained fire from some tree struck by light- 
ning, because the lightning darts from the region of the clouds, which was the 
heaven of mythology, and Jupiter himself is represented with his right hand 
grasping the thunderbolts. 
In most processes of human industry it is the direct and immediate product 
which is valuable: thus, we melt together sand and alkaline substances to 
make glass; we boil together grease and alkalies to make soap. But in the 
use of fire the direct products are of almost no value; these are water, car- 
bonic acid, and ashes. It is only the indirect products of combustion which we 
value, namely, light and heat. We thus transport sunlight into the darkness 
of night, the warmth of Summer into the frozen realm of Winter. Without 
this power the refinements of social pleasure which cluster around the domestic 
hearth and evening lamp would disappear. 
Charles Lamb says, “Hail candlelight! Without disparagement to sun or 
moon, the kindliest luminary of the three. We love to read, talk, sit silent, 
eat, drink, sleep, by candlelight. They are everybody’s sun and moon. This 
is our peculiar and household planet. Wanting it, what savage, unsocial 
nights must our ancestors have spent, wintering in caves and unillumined fast- 
nesses ! They must have lain about and grumbled at one another in the 
dark. What repartees could have passed, when you must have felt about fojua- 
smile, and handled a neighbor’s cheek to be sure that he understood'it? This 
accounts for the seriousness of the elder poetry. Jokes in with candles.” 
I have said enough to show the value of fire as a servant: I now call your 
attention to the fact that he is “a hard master.” When I speak of his tyran- 
ous behavior when once he gets the upper hand, you at once recall the cities of 
Portland, Chicago, Boston, and St. Johns, which were almost wiped out by the 
devouring flames. How many families have rushed forth from stately homes 
and looked back only to see their doorways filled wnth belching flames, just as 
our first parents beheld for the last time the gates of their paradise. 
■With dreadful faces thronged, and fiery arms. 
FIRE-PROOF BUILDINGS. 
The waste of property and the danger to life caused by fire have led men to 
seek means by which they may control this insatiable destroyer. The timid 
and the prudent alike demand protection from so cruel a master. 
Disastrous fires have led prudent men to demand a change in the style of 
our architecture which shall limit instead of directly feeding these wide-spread 
conflagrations. It has been the prevailing custom in this country to run up 
cheap, flimsy but showy buildings which are as inflammable as a tinder-box. 
The erection in crowded cities of mansard roofs by which the building is sur- 
mounted by a large mass of the most combustible material, has been sharply 
and justly criticised. They are altars of vanity to that cruel divinity Fashion, CONDITIONS OF INFLAMMABILITY. 
3 
and in the hour of peril they are clothed with sacrificial flame where priest and 
suppliant alike must “pass through the fire” to this modern Moloch. 
Men have sought and sought in vain, for buildings which shall be inde- 
structible by fire. The troglodytes, or cave-dwellers, are the only people who 
have successfully solved this problem. “Fire-proof buildings” have been 
erected only to go down in wild ruin in some great conflagration. In the 
great fire of Chicago these “ fire-proof” buildings were destroyed as certainly 
as the flimsiest structures of wood. In the intense heat of that fire, marble, 
stone, and brick crumbled before the flame, and iron melted like lead. Archi- 
tects have abandoned all hope of erecting buildings which will withstand any 
great conflagration. But all great fires are small in their beginning. “ Behold 
how great a matter a little fire kindleth” is the brief history of all our great 
conflagrations. If we can prevent the small fires we shall escape the big fires. 
Before proceeding further in this discussion, let us consider some of the 
fundamental facts in combustion. Ordinary combustion is the chemical com- 
bination of atmospheric oxygen with a combustible body, the attendant light 
and heat being the result of the transformation of the chemical force into 
other forms of energy. A combustible body is any substance which can enter 
into chemical combination with oxygen under the influence of heat. In order 
that chemical combination may take place between the combustible body and 
the supporter of combustion, the two must be in contact, and the more per- 
fect the contact the more rapid the combustion, because the greater the 
number of points at which combination may take place at the same instant. 
If the contact is perfect throughout the whole mass, as when a combustible 
gas mixes with oxygen or air, the combustion is instantaneous through the 
whole mass, and we have an explosion; if the gases only mingle along a plane, 
we have a flame as in the gas-jet; if the combustible is a solid and not vapor- 
izable by the heat of combustion, there is no flame, and the substance burns 
with a glow, as seen in burning charcoal and anthracite. But if a combustible 
solid is finely pulverized and suspended in the air in form of dust, it may burn 
with an explosion, as may be seen when lycopodium is blown over a flame. 
Thus by blowing some lycopodium over the lamp-flame you see a flash leap 
through the air wherever the lycopodium dust is suspended in the air. In 
this way the flour-mills of Minneapolis were exploded a few years ago; and 
we have frequent accounts of candy-factories and other places where com- 
bustible dust fills the air, being blown up with a veritable explosion. If we 
greatly increase the extent of surface of some combustible material we may 
have combustion taking place at ordinary temperatures, as is seen when a 
solution of phosphorus in bisulphide of carbon is evaporated on paper, the 
large surface of phosphorus producing sufficient contact with air to cause 
combustion. I pour this solution of phosphorus over the paper holding some 
chlorate of potash on its surface, and the paper bursts into flame when the 
solution has evaporated. 
When we compact these combustible materials into a solid mass, we find 
them less combustible; lycopodium pressed into a solid cake has but moderate 
combustibility. The lycopodium or fine shavings when pressed into a compact 
cake burns only slowly. Shavings burn readily, but when compressed into a 
solid mass, they will not burn better than solid wood. Light and gauzy 
articles of clothing made of cotton or linen, on account of their combustible 
NATURE OF COMBUSTION. 4 
CONDITIONS OP INFLAMMABILITY. 
material and large surface contact with air, are very inflammable. You 
observe how these pieces of muslin and tarlatan burst into flame and consume 
rapidly when once they touch a flame. Fabrics of wool and silk may expose 
an equal amount of surface, but they contain so much nitrogen, an incombus- 
tible material, that they are less apt to burn. 
Combustion is arrested in two ways; 
1. By reducing the temperature of the combustible body below the burning- 
point. The most familiar illustration is the use of water in putting out fire. 
We cannot heat water above 212° F. in the open air—a temperature far below 
the burning-point of all ordinary combustibles. By pouring water upon a 
burning body its temperature is rapidly reduced below its burning-point, and 
the fire is thus extinguished. Substances lighter than water and whose boiling- 
point is below 212° F., may float, vaporize, and burn upon the surface of 
water, without being quenched or checked by it. We have a good example of 
this in the lighter products of petroleum. Where considerable quantities of 
such materials are burning, water may serve to spread the fire instead of put- 
ting it out. 
Another example of extinguishing a flame by reducing its temperature is 
seen in blowing out a candle. If we blow a live coal we increase the energy of 
combustion by supplying more rapidly the requisite amount of oxygen to sup- 
port its combustion; but if we blow a candle-flame in the same way, we put out 
the flame. Since the flame is seen to move with the blast, many persons sup- 
pose that the flame is extinguished because it is moved away from its point of 
support (the wick), Just as a feather is blown away by a blast of air. But the 
real cause is the cooling influence of the blast of air on the flame, for I can 
blow a much stronger blast of hot air without extinguishing the flame. I blow 
a jet of cold air upon this candle-flame and readily extinguish the flame; I 
blowr a jet of hot air upon the candle-wick and readily relight it. But I 
may bring the intensely hot blowpipe flame to bear upon a very combustible 
body without burning it provided it does not become heated. I blow the jet of 
hot air, which readily lighted the candle, upon ,a piece of paper pasted on the 
smooth face of this hammer, but the paper does not burn or even scorch. No 
substance need take fire if it will “keep cool.” 
2. We may extinguish flame by preventing the access of free oxygen to the 
combustible body. Organic bodies will char when strongly heated, but will not 
inflame when free oxygen is excluded. I wish to call your attention to this 
means of preventing or arresting flame. Water may serve this purpose where 
it floods the burning body and thus shuts off the air; but if the body floats on 
the water the air will not be excluded, and in such case we may use ammonia- 
water, which forms an atmosphere deficient in oxygen by evaporation of ammo- 
nia; or we may set free an atmosphere of carbonic acid (as by Babcock’s fire- 
extinguisher), or we may exclude the air by sand, and earth of any kind, or 
even smother the flame by a blanket. A handful of sulphur thrown into the 
fire will check or even extinguish the burning of a chimney by using up all the 
oxygen of the air in the chimney; a handful of salt checks the combustion, 
because the volatilized salt coats over the soot and prevents access of air. 
One very important application of the principle of preventing combustion by 
excluding air is to coat the inflammable material with some substance which 
will exclude free oxygen. To apply and enforce this principle is the object of 
this paper. 
Where very inflammable materials are in use whose burning would not only CONDITIONS OF INFLAMMABILITY. 
5 
destroy property but imperil life, it becomes a matter of great importance to 
use such preventives, especially when they are inexpensive and do not injure 
in any way the materials to which they are applied. This is in a marked 
degree true of the very inflammable materials which form the apparel of 
women and children. Accidents from this cause are frequent and the results 
most shocking. A few years ago the Archduchess Sophia of Austria stepped 
on a match which ignited, setting fire to her cloches, and she burned to death 
in the midst of her terrified maids. But we need not cross the sea for exam- 
ples of this kind; almost every week the newspapers give us the agonizing 
details of some deplorable accident of this kind, and women and children are 
the victims in nearly every instance. 
Such accidents may be repeated any day in any home in this State. Yet 
we speak of them as accidents against which we are helpless and which should 
move our pity, rather than wrongs which we should prevent. As a contribu- 
tion to this end I place before you the results of some investigations made by 
others, and some of my own. 
APHLOGISTICS. 
Gay-Lussac many years ago recommended the phosphate of ammonia as a 
substance which would render the most combustible fabrics practically unin- 
flammable. Here is some gauze which has been steeped in a solution of this 
salt, and although it will char in the gas-flame it will not burn with flame, and 
a dress thus protected could not catch fire and roast its wearer; you cannot 
make it blaze, though held in the flame. But when this salt was dissolved in 
the gelatinized starch in stiffening clothes, it was found that the clothes would 
not iron smooth, and it was rejected accordingly. Woman will go to the stake 
with the cheerful zeal of a martyr, but no one need ask her to wear fabrics 
that will not iron smooth. 
The tungstate of soda was recommended in 1860 by Versman and Oppen- 
heim as a means of rendering cotton and linen goods uninflammable. Here is 
a piece of tarlatan which has been steeped in solution of tungstate of soda, and 
though completely dry you see it does not blaze when held in the flame. In 
In the laundry of Queen Victoria the starch sizing contains 20 per cent of 
tungstate of soda, and 3 per cent of phosphate of soda. The starched clothes 
iron smooth, and the salts do not injure the goods or harm the wearer in any 
way. Here is tarlatan treated in this way, which you see is not readily com- 
bustible. Yet the tungstate of soda has not come into general use, possibly 
because it is so seldom found in the shops. 
The hyposulphite of soda I find to have marked power of preventing flame, 
but I do not think it will come into general use because acid perspiration 
would evolve sulphurretted hydrogen from this salt. 
I also find that common borax has a singular power of preventing flame. 
Here are specimens of paper muslin and tarlatan which have been dipped in 
solution of borax and dried, and you see they will not inflame even when held 
directly in the gas-flame. The reason why borax prevents flame is that it 
melts and forms a glassy coating over the surface of the paper, muslin, etc., 
thus preventing that free access of air which is essential to flame. To show 
how complete is this shielding influence of borax, I saturate a paper treated 
with borax with benzine and set it on fire; the benzine burns fiercely, but the 
paper, though wrapped in flames, does not itself inflame. 
This protective influence of borax may be increased by adding to the borax 
a little more than its own weight of boracic acid. If you will dissolve 3 ounces 6 
CONDITIONS OP INFLAMMABILITY. 
of borax and 4 ounces of boracic acid in a pint of boiling water, and wet any 
kind of cloth in this solution, you will find it incapable of burning with flame. 
If one part of this solution is added to 3 parts of water and this used to make 
the gelatinized starch for laundry purposes, the dress-materials treated with it 
will not be dangerously inflammable. 
But the simplest and easiest way to make your cotton and linen clothes safe 
from taking fire is to dissolve a heaped teaspoonful of powdered borax in half 
a pint of starch-solution. I urge upon you the adoption of this preventive 
measure for the following reasons: 1. It does not injure the fabric in any, 
imparts no disagreeable odor, and interferes in no way with the subsequent 
washing of the goods. 3. It does not prevent the formation of a smooth and 
polished surface in the process of ironing. 3. Borax can be found in every 
village, and is within the reach of all. 4. It is a cheap salt, and its use for 
this purpose very simple. 
When I consider how inflammable are the dress-materials of women and 
young children, and that the loose and flowing drapery, by exposing so large 
an amount of surface to the air, is most dangerously promotive of rapid com- 
bustion ; when I reflect that in the household service woman has so much to 
do with fire, and remember how many annually perish by this horrible form of 
death, I am in earnest in urging so simple and cheap a method of avoiding 
this needless waste of life. The following are samples of newspaper items of 
almost daily occurrence, showing how often women and children are horribly 
and fatally burned : 
MASON—SHOCKING ACCIDENT—A WOMAN BURNED TO DEATH. 
Mason, February 4, 1880.—A shocking accident occurred in Dansville last evening. Mrs. A. D. 
Beardsley lay down upon the bed with her little child and suddenly awoke to find her clothing in 
flames. Frantically seizing a bed-quilt she ran out of the house, screaming for assistance. Help 
soon arrived and the flames were smothered and the unfortunate woman again conveyed into the 
house, where, after a night of agony, she died this morning. She leaves a husband and four children, 
[Posi and Tribune.] 
Lapeer, February 11, 1880.—On Saturday afternoon of last week a three-year-old daughter of 
William Roberts, of Deerfield township, Lapeer County, was burned to death. She was playing 
with paper at the stove. 
LAPEER—CHILD BURNED TO DEATH. 
A daughter of Harvey Chaplin, of the town of Rich, aged ten years, was burned to death on 
Monday morning. The parents were absent from the house a short time, and on returning found 
the child with her clothes burned off. Coming in contact with the stove is the supposed cause. 
She lived only a few hours after the accident.—[PosZ and Tribune.] 
Various combinations of ammonia and borax have been recommended in 
Paris for rendering fabrics incombustible, and I insert three of these; 
FIRE-PROOF COMPOSITION. 
1. Applicable to all kinds of goods: 
Sulphate of ammonia 8 parts 
Carbonate of ammonia 2% parts 
Boracic acid 3 parts 
Borax 1.7 parts 
Starch 7 parts 
Water 100 parts 
Steep the fabrics till thoroughly soaked, dry, and iron out. 
2. For theatrical scenery, wood-work, etc. : 
Boracic acid 5 parts 
Chloride of ammonium 15 parts 
Powdered feldspar 5 parts 
Gelatin Imparts 
Size 50 parts 
Water 100 parts 
Add enough whiting to give body, and apply (hot) with brush like paint. CONDITIONS OF INFLAMMABILITY. 
7 
3. For paper, securities, etc.: 
Sulphate of ammonia 8 parts Borax 1.7 parts 
Boracic acid 3 parts Water 100 parts 
Heat the solution to 132° P., immerse paper in this, spread it out to dry, and 
press it to restore the glaze. It is nearly incombustible. 
PROTECTION OE BUILDINGS. 
Not only are textile fabrics liable to burn, but houses, barns, and outbuild- 
ings are exposed to the same danger. There are many ways of diminishing 
this danger, but no means of entirely removing it. Wood can be made com- 
paratively uninflammable by saturating it with many salts, such as alum, cop- 
peras, etc. But if such wood is exposed to the weather, the rain will dissolve 
out these salts to a certain extent and the protection is diminished. Our 
buildings contain so much pine that they are very inflammable, and a spark 
may commence a serious conflagration. If we can make our buildings secure 
against these apparently trifling causes of fire, we have done much to promote 
security from fire. The overturning of a kerosene lamp was the origin of the 
great Chicago fire; a fire-cracker laid the city of Portland in ashes, and simi- 
lar trivial causes may produce like effects if the present combustibility of our 
buildings remains unchanged. Even if we cannot prevent fires, if we can 
retard the rapid spread of the flames, we greatly increase the chances of extin- 
guishing the fire. 
Wood can be made quite uninflammable by coating it with soluble glass or sili- 
cate of soda. This pine shingle which has been coated with solution of the 
soluble glass, 1 hold in this hot flame, but the wood does not burn with a blaze, 
but only chars. The cheapest way of rendering outbuildings, fences, etc., 
incombustible, is by yellow-washing them with common water-lime and 
skim-milk, prepared in the same way that white-wash is made, except 
that water-lime and skim-milk are used instead of lime and water; the 
addition of a half a pound of common salt to each gallon of yellow-wash will 
improve its quality and increase its power of resisting fire. Lime and casein, 
or curdy matter of milk, will combine after a time and form a very hard and 
indestructible mass. The coating formed by water-lime and milk has some of 
the properties of oil-paint in excluding water, but has a power which paint 
wants of resisting fire. It forms a hard and closely-adhered covering to wood, 
not liable to rub off like white-wash, and has a very agreeable stone-color in- 
stead of the ghastly white of white-wash. The wood covered with this yellow- 
wash can hardly be made to blaze. Here are shavings and shingles which 
have been coated with this yellow-wash, but I cannot make them blaze. 
If our cheap outbuildings, fences, etc., were covered with this yellow-wash 
where we cannot afford paint, their appearance would be much improved, and 
many serious conflagrations might be prevented. 
Buildings sometimes take fire by spontaneous combustion; a substance 
undergoing active oxidation may produce enough beat to take fire. This is 
especially true if the substance is porous, so as to expose a large surface, and 
it is a good non-conductor of heat; hay and grain when recently stored in the 
barn after harvest; dung-heaps, etc.; greasy rags, or clothes smeared with 
varnish, are very liable to spontaneous combustion. 
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION- 8 
CONDITIONS OF INFLAMMABILITY. 
Many buildings are fired by careless disposal of ashes. Ashes conduct heat 
very slowly, and hence they will keep coals alive for a long time. The too 
common practice of placing them in boxes or barrels, even after they seem to 
be cold, is unsafe. Ashes sometimes take fire again and become a bed of hot 
cinders, even weeks after they have been removed from the fire. The cause 
of this is not well understood, but may possibly be from oxidation of potassium 
by moisture. It is never safe to place ashes in or near any combustible 
material. 
My closing advice is this: Use fire as your servant and make him keep his 
proper place; let him never become your master either in the present or in the 
hereafter. 
Agricultural College, Lapsing, Mich., February 6, 1880. 
ASHES.