SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXI, Issue 140, 14 June 1906, Page 4

SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION.

A series of destructive fires on shipboard lately, originating in the holds in which wool and phormium fibre wero stowed, has caused considerable uneasiness on the part of the public; and thb partial destruction of a fine ship, tlio Gothic, involving a loss of some £200,000, has compelled attention to the subject. Had tho disaster occurred on the high seas, it might not only Lave entailed total lose of ship and cargo, but the sacrifice of human life. In some cases the fires in holds containing wool or flax have been traced to the careless us© of lights; but in the case of wool, spontaneous combustion under special conditions is well known to 'be possible, and serious disasters have been traced to this source. Without entering into details, it is .sufficient to say that any fibre, animal or vegetable, when impregnated with gr&uso or oil — and vegetable oils are as dangerous ac uny other — will rapidly oxidise, and under moderate pressure will generate heat, Bometimes with great rapidity, until it reaches the point of actual combustion. The prosence of moisture — as, for example, when a bale of wool has accidentally fallen into tho water— so far from retarding, will accelerate .tl» .process* and.

even set it in action. So well is this fact recognised that, as we have already shown in our issue of Tuesday, the Shipping and Seamen Act imposes heavy penalties on any one shipping fibre " »n such a condition from dampness or otherwise as to be liable to spontaneous combustion." Besides these regulations, careful watch is kept in the Barbour Board offices in the case both of wool and of phormium fibre, and until very lately tho insurance companies employed an inspector whose duty it was to examine consignments of wool; but, for some reason, this safeguard has been discontinued.

From time to time, however, dangerous fires break out, apparently spontaneously, among wool bales, if not among flax, and the latest instances in particular — those of the Gothic and Waimate — have caused a very natural suspicion tbat more thorough precautions are urgently required. At the veiy outset it appears that more light is needed on the subject of spontaneous combustion. It is still an open question, for instance, whether or not thero is danger in the case of a damp bale of flax. No instance of such spontaneously taking fire -seems to be known, and the general impression is that though there would be a slight rise in temperature, the fibre would simply undergo a slow process of decay and decomposition. Oily flax would be extremely dangerous, but, unlike wool, flax is never likely to be in a "greasy" condition. As, however . tht fibre is under a certain suspicion, the question should be definitely set at rest To allay general anxiety, and in the interests of our export trade as well os> in the higher interests of public safety, two things seem to be of immediate necessity. First, the revision of existing regulations so as in the present state of our knowledge to minimise as far as possible the pressnt risk ; and, secondly, the institution of systematic experimental investigation of the whole subject, in order that -we may be in a position to make accident* of this kind in future, so far as human foresight and precaution can avail, practically impossible. Not only property and the interests of trade are at present jeopardised, but precious human lives. The experiments should be conducted by the highest authorities on chemistry in the country, in association with the State departments concerned, and with the representative local and commercial bodies. They should be of an exhaustive character, and their results could not fail to be of permanent value.