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Preface		
OF late years great strides have been made in chemistry in connection with Fire Assurance, the prevention and 
extinction of fires, and the detection of the causes of accidental or premeditated outbreaks; in fact, chemistry has 
become an indispensable aid in the solution of these important problems.

Keeping pace with the development of our civilisation, we may expect that, in the future, the assistance of chemistry
will be more and more relied on in the regulation of insurances, the promulgation of legal enactments against fire 
risk, the detection of incendiarism, and in cases of dispute before the courts. In such eventualities two ways are 
open, viz.:

	1. Calling in the aid of a chemist, a proceeding not always feasible, oftentimes expensive, and sometimes
unsatisfactory, owing to the available chemist being imperfectly versed in the matter of fire prevention.
	2. Consulting the literature. This resource also is not always available to the officials interested; and even
when it is, the information respecting fire prevention is scattered over such a wide area, as to necessitate special 
study in order to separate the desired particulars from the enormous bulk of the literature itself.

In fact, apart from a few special treatises, such as Professor Hapke's interesting work on "Spontaneous Ignition," 
Dr. M. Richter's book on "Benzine Fires," and Meunier's old work, there is at the present time no single book 
dealing so fully with fire risks and fire prevention, in the domain of chemical technology, as to be suitable for all 
cases, and for the laity.

Perhaps, also, no such work will ever be written, since any attempt to accomplish this task would have to deal with 
the most divergent local conditions and materials, the most complicated processes, the incalculable peculiarities of
the materials: in short, to struggle unsuccessfully with unconquerable difficulties. The well-defined individuality of 
each separate article of insurance: the works and plant, the raw material, the intermediate products, waste products
and finished article, to say nothing of the individuality of each case of fire, often due to a problematical cause and
complicated inception, even under comparable circumstances all these factors prevent generalisation, and militate
against the compilation of a work that shall be applicable to all conditions. They also explain why the activity of the
chemist in this connection like that of the jurist in his branch must be continuous and unremitting.

If, in despite of all this, I have undertaken the compilation of a work directed to the solution of some of these 
important problems, the step in question is taken solely with the idea of facilitating the utilisation of the chemico-
technical literature by officials of Fire Insurance Companies, Fire Brigades, the Judiciary, Law Officers of the State,
the Police, etc., who have not had a chemical training, and to place in the hands of these officials a popular guide,
which will give them information so far as the chemical aspect of the matter is concerned on the degree of fire risk,
the possibility and means of prevention, incendiarism, and the causes of fires, as well as extend their general 
knowledge of the fire risk of chernico-technical substances and processes, without requiring any previous 
acquaintance with the subject.

In all the contingencies here in question, a general acquaintance up to a certain extent with the risk of fire and 
explosions may be of great importance ; but the attainment of this necessary knowledge is a difficult matter for 
those who have not had a chemical training; and however' interesting chemistry may be to all classes of mankind,
the professional investigation of chemical problems is often very difficult to non-chemists.

Many complaints in this respect have reached the author in the course of a career extending over a quarter of a 
century as works chemist, commercial chemist, and finally as factory inspector for the Grand Duchies of Coburg 
and Gotha, and for this reason he has decided to comply with the demand by issuing a practical handbook, to 
serve as a work of reference and a means of study. The work is not designed to form an introduction to the variable
practices of Fire Insurance Companies, or a mere repetition of Trade Union regulations for 'the prevention of 
accidents; neither is it the author's intention to deal with all the separate branches of technology, since such a 
course would lead him too far away from the object in view, namely: To present non-chemists with a practical 
chemical tool, and to facilitate investigation of the, to them, foreign domain of chemical technology in questions of 
fire risk and fire prevention.

With this idea in view I have decided to make use, in many instances, of older chemical conceptions, because I 
regard the same as more suitable to, and readily understandable by, non-chemists, and am of opinion that, for 
detecting, judging, and correctly settling cases of fire or combustion, it is more important that the non-chemist 
should treat and decide the matter in accordance with a standpoint he understands, rather than proceed according
to new theories which he is incapable of assimilating, and which are, moreover, still subjects of scientific 
controversy.

In answer to the objection that the book overestimates to the advantage of Fire Insurance Companies certain 
dangers of individual trades and substances (an objection that was also urged against Meunier's work in its day), I 
would urge that a work of this kind ought to bear in mind the possibilities of danger. Be these latter never so remote,
they must not be left out of consideration if individual instances have demonstrated them to be within the bounds of
possibility. The fire risk of a substance or process is not to be judged of by the extent or the number of fires to 
which it has given rise: nevertheless, it should be known to the officials connected with Fire Insurance Companies, 
the Judiciary, or the Fire Brigade, that, under certain conditions, an otherwise harmless material may become a very
dangerous one, nor should one wait for the destruction of large factories, or the occurrence of numerous 
explosions, to prove its highly dangerous character. The author considers that with the reports of these possibilities
of danger before them those officials should proceed in a rational manner, and not always class such instances on 
a par with direct dangers.

In all places where risk or danger is mentioned in the text, it will be understood to refer solely to fire, spontaneous 
ignition, or explosion, hygienic dangers, being left out of consideration.

I have avoided the description of typical cases of fire and explosion, it being always objectionable, in this domain 
particularly, to correlate occurrences that are mostly based on entirely different conditions.

Temperatures are given throughout in degrees of the Centigrade thermometer, except where specially stated 
otherwise.

May the work fulfil its purpose, as a reliable vade mecum and adviser for the non-chemist in the, to him, unfamiliar 
subject of Chemistry.
Dr. VON SCHWARTZ.
CONSTANCE, September, 1901.

Contents

PART I - FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS OF A GENERAL CHARACTER
	CHAPTER I. TEMPERATURES
	CHAPTER II. COMBUSTION
	CHAPTER III. SPONTANEOUS IGNITION
	CHAPTER IV. EXPLOSIONS AND EXPLOSIVE SUBSTANCES
	CHAPTEE V. FIREPROOFING
	CHAPTER VI. INVESTIGATIONS AND PRECAUTIONS IN CASES OF FIRE
	
PART II - DANGERS CAUSED BY SOURCES OF LIGHT AND HEAT
	CHAPTER VII. GENERAL LIGHTING
	CHAPTER VIII HEATING
	CHAPTER IX. HEATING BY STEAM
	CHAPTER X. ELECTRICITY
	
PART III - DANGERS CAUSED BY GASES
	CHAPTER XI. OXYGEN, OZONE, CARRIERS OF OXYGEN
	CHAPTER XII. HYDROGEN GAS, OXYHYDROGEN GAS, AIR BALLOONS, CHLORINE AND HYDROGEN
	CHAPTER XIII. INDUSTRIAL POWER GASES
	CHAPTER XIV. CHLORINE
	CHAPTER XV. AMMONIA
	CHAPTER XVI. CARBON MONOXIDE AND ITS COMPOUNDS
	CHAPTER XVII. SULPHURETTED HYDROGEN
	CHAPTER XVIII. NITRIC OXIDE, NITROUS OXIDE
	CHAPTER XIX. SUBTERRANEAN GASES
	CHAPTER XX. COAL GAS, GAS PURIFIERS, FAT AND OIL GAS
	CHAPTER XXL ACETYLENE GAS
	
PART IV - DANGERS IN VARIOUS ESTABLISHMENTS
	CHAPTER XXII. PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMISTS AND DRUG. STORES
	CHAPTER XXIII. LABORATORIES
	CHAPTER XXIV. CHEMICO-TECHNICAL FACTORIES, ETC.
	CHAPTER XXV. SUGAR WORKS
	CHAPTER XXVI. BREWERIES AND MALTINGS
	CHAPTER XXVII. SOAP WORKS, CANDLE WORKS
	CHAPTER XXVIII. REFUSE DESTRUCTORS
	
PART V - DANGERS OF VARIOUS INDUSTRIAL MATERIALS
	CHAPTER XXIX. PAPER, MILLBOARD, NITRO AND EXPLOSIVE PAPERS
	CHAPTER XXX. WOOD, WOOD CELLULOSE
	CHAPTER XXXI.-LEATHER, GLUE
	CHAPTER XXXII.-CHARCOAL
	CHAPTER XXXIII. COAL
	CHAPTER XXXIV. FIBROUS MATERIALS
	CHAPTER XXXV. DISINFECTING AGENTS
	
PART VI - DANGERS CAUSED BY AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS
	CHAPTER XXXVI. MANURES
	CHAPTER XXXVII. FODDER
	
PART VII - DANGERS PRODUCED BY FATS, OILS, RESINS, AND WAXES
	CHAPTER XXXVIII. FATS AND OILS
	CHAPTER XXXIX. RESINS
	CHAPTER XL. VARNISHES AND LACQUERS
	CHAPTER XLI. WAXES

PART VIII - DANGERS FROM PETROLEUM, MINERAL OILS, TAR, ETC.
	CHAPTER XLII. CRUDE PETROLEUM
	CHAPTER XLIII. PETROLEUM
	CHAPTER XLIV. BENZOL
	CHAPTER XLV. TOLUOL
	CHAPTER XLVI. ASPHALT
	CHAPTER XLVII. OZOKERITE
	CHAPTER XLVIII. TAR
	CHAPTER XLIX. NAPHTHALENE
	CHAPTER L. PARAFFIN
	
PART IX - DANGERS PRODUCED BY ALCOHOLS, ETHERS, AND OTHER LIQUIDS
	CHAPTER LI. ALCOHOLS
	CHAPTER LII. ETHERS, COMPOUND ETHERS, MIXED ETHERS, FRUIT ETHERS
	CHAPTER LIII.-ACETONE, CHLOROFORM, CARBON DISULPHIDE
	
PART X - DANGERS PRODUCED BY METALS, OXIDES, ACIDS, OR SALTS
	CHAPTER LIV. METALS
	CHAPTER LV.-ACIDS, OXIDES, SALTS
	
PART XI - DANGERS CAUSED BY LIGHTNING, FLASHING AND LIGHTING MATERIALS, AND BENGAL LIGHTS
	CHAPTER LVI. DANGERS FROM LIGHTNING
	CHAPTER LVII. FLASHLIGHTS
	CHAPTER LVIII. FIRE-LIGHTERS, FUZES, MATCHES
	CHAPTER LIX. BENGAL LIGHTS
	
APPENDIX

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