NO MO FIRES AT SEA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11878, 1 February 1902, Page 5 (Supplement)

NO MO FIRES AT SEA.

STRIKING EXPERIMENTS WITH A PREVENTIVE GAS. A gas that will put out fire has been experimented with recently with some very striking results. The name of this useful anti-fire agent is sulphur-dioxide gas. A lighted torch was thrust into a chamber containing some of this gas and it was instantly extinguished. . A long lighted torch was slowly inserted in the chamber, and as it entered the fire was extinguished at the same rate of progression. A broad, red-hot bar of iron was inserted in the chamber, and a torch composed of straw dipped in naphtha was then placed upon the iron, but neither the naphtha nor the straw ignited. A broad, red-hot bar of iron was inserted in the chamber, and thrust into a bucket of naphtha, the result being similar to that of placing a red-hot iron in a bucket of water. The chamber, which at the commencement of the experiments had contained about 6 per cent, of sulphur-dioxide gas, was now opened, and after the gas had been dispersed a bonfire consisting of wood, straw, and other inflammable articles, over which a bucketful of naphtha had been thrown, was lit and allowed to burn freely, the door was closed and the generator was started. In a very short time the fire was extinguished. These facts were put forward at the Royal United Service Institution on November 27 by Commander W. F. Caborne, R.N.R., in the course of a lecture upon "-The Spontaneous Combustion of Coal on Board Snip." Sometimes the big black store of coal on board ship suddenly blazes up without any visible cause, and this, indeed, is one of the most awful of the terrors of the sea. It was explained that coal always absorbs oxygen from the air, and always generates heat in consequence of the combination of the oxygen and the carbonaceous contents of tho coal. . Mr. Thomas Clayton has invented a system by which fires can be prevented or extinguished by the use of sulphur-dioxide gas, and it is claimed that as soon as a ship has been loaded her hatches may be. safely battened down, so long as 5 per cent, of the sulphur-dioxide gas -has afterwards been injected into the hold, and that an explosion of coal gas under these conditions is an impossibility.