On the smokeless fire-place : chimney-valves, and other means, old and new, of obtaining healthful warmth and ventilation / by Neil Arnott.
- Arnott, Neil, 1788-1874.
- Date:
- 1855
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On the smokeless fire-place : chimney-valves, and other means, old and new, of obtaining healthful warmth and ventilation / by Neil Arnott. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
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![a room, being very light, readily passes away from it again by any openings near the ceiling, as at the tops of the windows and doors, and most certainly of all, into the chimney, where the new chimney ventilating valve is in use; fifthly, in cases of the escape of gas, long before the proportions required for the weakest explosion have accumulated, the smell is so strong that persons are fully warned and can withdraw lights, and open windows to remove all danger. A man would be deemed insane who deliberately applied a burning candle to muslin curtains or gunpowder, which he could see, and surely, henceforth, a man will be as little likely to carry a candle into explosive gas which he distinctly smells. The series of faults committed to bring about the Albany-street explosion was extraordinary indeed. 1. The gas-meter with its pipes and cock—a delicate appara- tus, likely to be damaged by a rough touch—was placed in an enclosed dark space under the window-shelf, which was made to serve also as the receptacle for the numerous heavy window- shutters pushed in and dragged out every morning and evening. 2. It was not a careful person of the shop who managed the window-shutters, but a thoughtless boy, who came night and morning for that purpose alone. 3. It had been often observed that gas was escaping, and ex- aminations and repairs about the meter were frequent; yet the hazardous arrangement remained unchanged. 4. When at last, on the night of the catastrophe, the boy, as was to be expected, at some time struck the meter forcibly with a shutter, and thereby instantly extinguished all the light in the shop, no natural alarm was felt by the persons in the shop; but his account that the shutter had accidentally touched the main cock, and so turned off the gas, was admitted as complete. The small cocks at the three burners were then shut, and he was allowed to depart. He had in reality left a leak at the meter by breaking the main cock and pipe, and in one hour and twenty minutes the shop was filled with explosive mixture. 5. Smell of gas was felt almost immediately near the shop- door, and before long at the top of the stairs ; and when Mr. Loten and the shop-woman were called down to supper in the back-parlour, which, communicated by a door wit]i the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21039045_0229.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
