Second report of the Departmental Committee appointed to inquire into the law relating to coroners and coroners' inquests, and into the practice in coroners' courts.

Great Britain. Committee on Coroners.

Date:: 1909

Credit: Second report of the Departmental Committee appointed to inquire into the law relating to coroners and coroners' inquests, and into the practice in coroners' courts. Source: Wellcome Collection.

64/232 (page 34)

$15 June 1909.] [ Continued. 7154. (Chairman.) You have made experiments with flannelette for the Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association, I think ?—Yes. 7155. Would you first of all tell us what is the difference between flannelette and other substances as regards inflammability—I mean other materials which are commonly worn as clothing, of course P—I should say that there was no difference. When I approached the subject first, I had the idea that flannelette was something of the nature of gunpowder, and I think that was the general impression which most people in Manchester had. I commenced my experiments by setting it on fire under different conditions, and I found that the nap which everyone appeared to dread was not such a dreadful thing after all. I have been in com- munication with some raisers of cloth; and one of the principals of afirm, when I told him that I did not find the smiled at me incredulously. I took some of his own flannelette and said, ‘Do you think, if I apply a flame to this, it will take fire and burn me when I hold my arm over it?” He replied, “Certainly.” Then I asked him to apply the flame. I held my hand over it, but he could not get the flame from the nap to burn under my hand until the piece had been made hot and very dry. The nap does burn when you make the piece very dry and hot. If you set fire to it, and place the uncovered arm over the flame, it does not injuriously affect the skin; you\experience a faint feeling of warmth, but that is all; it will not set fire to the fabric in 99 cases out of 100. It will, however, take fire under some conditions. I have only once been able to set fire to a piece of cloth by igniting the nap, and that was a very low class cloth which had been torn, and stretched on a frame after being dried and made very hot and ignited from the middle; the nap burned over the surface of the cloth, caught the ragged edges, and set fire to the cloth. Here I have two bits of cloth (producing the same). One has been raised and the other is unraised,—it is the same cloth. Perhaps you will allow me to put a flame to it, in order that you may observe the result. 7156. Perhaps you will explain the difference be- tween the two pieces ?’—The raised one is flannelette and the other is not flannelette. 7157. Raising converts the one into flannelette P— Yes. Would you allow me to put a flame to this, and you will see what happens (applying the flame). It does not catch fire. 7158. (Mr. Bramsdon.) Is that “ Non-flam ” ?—No, it is ordinary flannelette. I can set it on fire if I hold it sufficiently long. You will notice that I cannot ignite it immediately on applying the flame from a match to it. Now it is on fire, and it will burn up quickly. ; ; 7159. That is fannelette of an inflammable descrip- tion ?—No, that is what is usually called flannelette. There are some rather worse than this. This is a low quality flannelette, but there are others still lower. I have not any of the lowest at hand. If you put the flame from a match to this unraised piece, which is not flannelette, it is cotton (applying it), you see that the flame must remain in contact with it for some con- siderable time before it takes fire, but when once it ignites it burns very rapidly. 7160. As rapidly as the other?—Just about the same. Ithas now caught fire; it will go just as quickly as the other; there is not much difference. 7161. (Chairman.) Then why is flannelette more dangerous than other things ?—I do not think itis. I think if you legislate for flannelette you should legislate for linen and for cotton under all conditions, and I think that should be done. I thimk the children under say seven years of age should not be clothed in cotton or linen at all unless they be vendered non-flammable by such a process as Dr. Perkin has described to you; but I think it should not apply to flannelette any more than to ordinary cotton or linen of any kind. 7162. You have made experiments with flannelette in particular, have you not?—Yes; it was with the object of finding what was the strong objection to flannelette, and with the object of pointing such objection, if any, out, that I was asked to make this investigation by the Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association. Therefore lapproached the matter without any feeling one way or the other as to whether it was dangerous or not. : 7163. You do not agree then in thinking that the presence of the nap renders it more inflammable than other things >—The nap in some low classes will ignite immediately, especially if it is hot. If you make a piece of flannelette very hot and dry it thoroughly, and then apply a match to it, the nap ignites all over at once. 7164. You mean that it will ignite P—It ignites, and burns all over at once, if it be a low class flannelette. But even when it is hot and dry, the nap on the majority of flannelettes of better quality will not ignite over an area of more than a few inches. My point therefore is that the nap on the flannelette is not as dangerous as people make it out to be. I made some experiments with a dummy child. I put the cloth made into a garment on this dummy, and then tried to set it on fire. As you have seen, the nap in some eases will flare round over a small area, but I could never get the nap to ignite all over. When the flan- nelette is dry and very hot, then the nap might ignite all over, but it would not do any damage to the skin of the child. But when you come to the question of young children, say up to seven years of age, I think they should be clothed in some garment which will not ignite easily, whether it be cotton or linen, or To my mind, as the result of my experiments, they are all equally dangerous with flannelette. 7165. You refer in your précis to a paper which you read in 1907, on the dangers of fiannelette, before the Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association, in which you give the results. of your experiments P—Yes, I give in it tables showing in what way flannelette will burn under certain conditions (handing in the paper).* _ 7166. In those experiments the material was held horizontally above the flame ?—The material was held horizontally, a small hole was made in the centre, and‘it was fired froma small Bunsen burner, so that it burnt horizontally along the cloth until it came to the circle. The table shows how quickly it burns. I give the. thickness of the cloth as measured by a small pressure arrangement by which you indicate the thickness, and it runs from about the ;,4,;th of an inch up to about the ;37,th of an inch in thickness; and it shows the differences in burning. For instance, the 745th of an inch in the ordinary condition requires 63 seconds to burn over a 5-inch radius in the cold—that is the thickest. 7167. Is that unraised ?—No, that is flannelette ; it is the seventh down from the top in Table C. In the ordinary condition of coldness it takes 63 seconds to burn over a 5-inch radius; that is burning all round at the same time; but when it is hot and dry it burns in 41 seconds. Then if you take muslin (washed), which is much more dangerous than flannelette, you see it burns over in nine seconds in cold and' seven seconds when it is hot. So that if you legislate for flannelette, a fortiori, you must legislate for muslin, because children are very often clothed in muslin. Still I think it would bea very wise thing if it could be enacted that children, say under seven years of age, should not be clothed in any fibre of the nature of linen or cotton, whether flannelette or anything else, unless it be rendered fireproof, or approximately fireproof; Dr. Perkins’ treatment makes it about as fireproof as woollen; it will burn, but the chances are that it will not burn up rapidly so as to kill the child. The asterisk put opposite the figures in the table shows where the nap flashed and went all over the piece; and the dagger shows where it not only went all over the piece, but set the cloth itself on fire. That is the only case in which a cloth was fired from the firing of the nap. * See Appendices.$