Pulp and Paper Magazine, Vol. XIII, No. 20, October 15, 1916 / A Semi-Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Science and Practice of the Pulp and Paper Manufacturing Industry with an Up-to-date Review of Conditions in the Allied Trades.

by Various

SHINGLES THAT WILL NOT BURN.

According to information in the hands of the West Coast Lumbermen’s Association, an Iowa pharmacist after seventeen months experimenting, has produced a liquid which makes wooden shingles absolutely fireproof. In a test of the new fireproofing liquid, made at the University of Iowa by the inventor, a block of wood one-half inch thick was saturated with the fireproofing and then placed in running water for twenty-four hours. After that it was thoroughly dried again and held for one hour over a Bunsen burner, which had a temperature of between 700 and 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, that being a much greater heat, it is said, than is developed in a conflagration. The wood was not burned and only charred very slightly at the point of the flame. The new compound is reported to be sufficiently low in cost to make it practical in connection with shingle manufacture, and when a shingle is saturated the moisture drys out, leaving an insoluble mineral fireproofing substance in the fibre cells of the wood, which cannot be washed out with water and is said absolutely to prevent combustion.

---