Dangers and Chemistry of Fire (Volume 1-2); For Grammar Schools (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908. Excerpt: ... Village Church Fires; THE LOSS USUALLY TOTAL. By carelessness the people of the United States burn more than 400 churches every year. It takes more than $2,000,000 worth of work to build them again. One might think that as churches have no cook stoves and no children living in them to play with fire, or matches, and as they are heated but one day in the week, few of them would be burned. The churches in small towns and in the country are nearly all made of wood. The walls are made by standing pieces of wood on end, nailing boards on the outside and laths to hold mortar on the inside. So the wall is a row of wooden chimneys. A fire started anywhere in the wall is drawn up under the roof by one of these chimneys. There are no, partitions to hold back the fire until people can get there to put it out. In most cases water must be carried some distance. In many churches there is a spire which acts as a chimney to make the fire burn faster. So, if a fire is started the building is burned to the ground. More than half of all these churches are burned by carelessness with stoves and flues. CARING FOR THE STOVES. These churches are usually warmed by "cannon" or "burnside" stoves which burn coal. There are a few "box" stoves in which wood is used. Any church stove which stands on a floor of wood should have under it a sheet of tin or zinc, big enough to come out two feet farther than its feet do. The coal-box, if made of wood, should be kept two feet away from the stove. The stovepipe gives up a great deal of heat, if there is not a coat of soot in it. While the coal is blazing it gives out as much heat as the stove. Pipes and stoves should be cleaned of soot twice in each winter. Soot holds heat better than a feather bed--one-fifth better. Some one should see to i...