OCR Text |
Show FIBE-PROOFING- WOOD. Chicago Chemist Shows How Theaters Can Be Mndo Safe. Chicago, Jan. 21. Joseph L. Fcr-rell of Philadelphia threw handfuls of excelsior ex-celsior on a hot gas fire in the rooms of the Western Society of Engineers, It smoked, but did not blaze. Then lie placed pine shavings on top of the excelsior, pine splinters on top of them, and piled pine shingles and slabs of pine on the supposedly Inflammable Inflam-mable material below until he should have had a good sized bonfire started. There wero no llames, however, except the blue ones from the gas. Mr. Fcrreli, who is a chemist and tho holder of the- Creslon gold medal, the highest award given by the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia for chemical discoveries, hnd been asked to address the engineers on the subject of fire-proofing fire-proofing wood and combustible fabrics. Ho told them It could be dono cheaply, and then he made the practical demonstration demon-stration described. To show that theater scenery could be made as Impervious as wood tho chemist chem-ist held a iiiece of canvas in tho flame, and, while it smoked a little around the edges, there was no flame. Sulphate of aluminium is the composition compo-sition Mr. Ferrell had used to fireproof the wood and cotton. His plan Is to saturate the material under a pressure. |