Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 July 1893 — How Gas Injures Books. [ARTICLE]

How Gas Injures Books.

The most formidable enemy to bound books is gas. A couple of gas jets in a close room will in a few years ruin the bindings of any number of books. Almost any reader remembers taking books from a public or subscription library witti the bindings so decayed that they could be picked to pieces with-the finger nails. That was done by gas. The librarians of this country understand the fact, and are now. as fax as possible, lighting their rooms with electricity. In large foroign libraries the fact has been long known, and in some, like the British Museum, in order to preserve the books as well as to guard against fire, no artificial light of any kind is permitted. An English sparrow hopping about the street got its foot entangled , with a bit of thread, at the end of which was attached a piece of brown paper; and could not find out the cause of its trouble or rise on the wing in consequence. A small boy was about to catch the little bird, when down from the adjacent house-top came two other sparrows. and at once liberated their companion. This was witnessed by several persons on West Leigh street.—[Richmond (Va.) State.