Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 October 1881 — A Necessary Precaution. [ARTICLE]

A Necessary Precaution.

Industrious housewives, who are given to oiling and polishing furniture, will do well to follow this bit of advice from the Practical Farmer: “Dirty or oily cloths or rags should not be allowed to lie in outbuildings in small piles. There is great danger of spontaneous combustion, If you wish to

know what spontaneous combustion is, ask your druggist for a bit of phosphorous the size of a pea. Keep it under water until you wish to see it burn ; now take it out and place it on a piece of dry board or chip of wood ; it will begin to smoke in any warm place; take it out in the sun of a warm day and it takes fire immediately, and the heat from it is intense. It is a dangerous thing to handle. Oiled cloths from machine shops take fire spontaneously in a similar way. They generate heat in warm weather when piled up, enough to set themselves and the building in which they are on fire.”