4. From thirty-six to fifty hours after the injury the blisters will present a milky appearance, and show surrounding inflammation. When this is the case they may be opened with the point of a large needle. Dressing for burns may then be simply wax and oil spread on lint; but so much depends on circumstances and the state of health of the sufferer, that it is desirable as soon as possible to secure medical attendance.
5. To recover a person in a state of insensibility from the effect of smoke, dash cold water in the face, or cold and hot water alternately. Should this fail, turn him on his face, with the arms folded under his forehead. Apply pressure along the back and ribs, and turn the body gradually on the side; then again slowly on the face, repeating the pressure on the back. Persevere with these alternate rolling movements about sixteen times in a minute, until respiration is restored. A warm bath will now complete the recovery.
As to the origin of fires, a list has already been given of the various causes of fires last year, but I may supplement it by one or two instances worthy of notice. Spontaneous combustion is often a cause of destruction, and a curious example of this was when a mass of iron filings and turnings, which had been allowed to accumulate at a large factory, ignited. The heap was sprinkled day by day with water in the process of laying the dust previously to sweeping the floor. One night, after all the men had left, a fire broke out, which was soon arrested; but was most clearly traced to the spontaneous combustion of the iron turnings. It is well known that iron decomposes water, combining with its oxygen and liberating its hydrogen, and in this case the grease on the turnings was oxydised at the expense of oxygen, condensed by the finely-divided metal, and so lent its aid in raising the temperature; and thus the heat soon reached a point that set fire to the wood in the neighbourhood.
The uselessness of covering wood with sheet or cast iron, which has been but recently shown at the Pantechnicon, was also exemplified in a fire which happened at the Bank of England many years since. The hearth on which the stove was placed was cast-iron an inch thick, with 2½ inches of concrete underneath it, but the timber below that was fired. It is difficult to account for this unless there had been some bad workmanship or an undiscovered flaw existing in the iron or a crack in the concrete.
A rather uncommon case, although it might have been serious in its results, was that of a fire caused by an incendiary in the counting-house of a relation of mine. One night a man got access to the adjoining warehouse, and intending to steal the wages he wrongly suspected were in the office ready for paying away on the morrow, broke through the lath-and-plaster wall. With much difficulty he got in; but, finding no plunder, in his disappointment he set fire to a heap of papers and hastened to retreat. But the hole he came in at formed, in consequence of the broken laths, a sort of eel-trap, and he was in great danger of being burnt alive. Finally he got through, the fire burnt itself out without great damage, and the burglary was discovered. The man not long afterwards was caught, and sentenced to the penal servitude he so richly deserved.
CHAPTER X.
EXTINCTION OF FIRE.
ONE of the most primitive ways of preparing to extinguish any fire that might arise is the following rule adopted by the City of London in the reign of Richard I. ‘Item. That all persons who occupy great houses have in summer time, and especially between the Feast of Pentecost and the Feast of St. Bartholomew, before their doors a barrel full of water for quenching fire, if it be not a house which has a fountain of its own.’
But there was sound wisdom in this, for the water would be at hand for instant use, and, as stated elsewhere, a gallon of water at the commencement of a fire is worth more than hundreds of gallons a little later. It is well known that a small engine at a large fire does more harm than good; and it is also well known that a small quantity of water thrown on a large amount of burning substances becomes decomposed and increases the activity of the burning. Mr. Grove has published particulars of some interesting experiments conducted by him, in which he found that water in contact with highly-heated platinum was decomposed and resolved into its elements, oxygen and hydrogen, and that the gaseous mixture thus produced burned with an activity amounting to an explosion.
Water acts in extinguishing fire by its cooling influence alone, and contains in itself the very elements of fire, so that when decomposed by a high temperature it will burn vigorously. Thus it is that a small quantity of water thrown on a large fire often does serious mischief. The methods of extinguishing fire are two, mechanical and chemical. The use of water, for the before-named reasons, ranks among the former, and its most successful application is by means of the steam fire-engine. There are many substances that chemically oppose combustion, and perhaps the best-known medium of these for the purpose is Sinclair’s fire exterminator. These being representatives of their respective classes, a short description may be of some value:—
The fire-exterminator appears outwardly as shown by the engraving, and is arranged so that it can be speedily and easily carried on a man’s back. There are various details as to the inner structure which need not be given here, but in brief it has inside it a solution of carbonic acid gas. It may be called a large soda-water bottle charged with gas and incombustible chemicals under great pressure.