Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 November 1876 — Iron Rust as a Cause of Fire. [ARTICLE]

Iron Rust as a Cause of Fire.

' The rather old notion that fires may be caused by iron rust is thus defended by a , recant English writer: ** When oxide of iron is placed in contact with timber excluded from the atmosphere, and aided by a slightly increased temperature, the oxide pans with its oxygen, and is converted into very finely divided particles of metallic iron having such aft affinity foi oxygen that, when afterwards exposed tn the action of the atmosphere from any cause, oxygen is absorbed so rapidly that tbesb particles become suddenly red hot, I and, if in sufficient quantity, wUI produce

a temperature fhr beyond the ignition point of dry timber. Wherever iron pipes are employed for the circulation of any heated medium (whether hot water, hot dr, or steam), an« wherever these pipes are allowed to become rusty, apd are also in close contact with timber, It is only necessary to suppose that under these circumstance* the finely divided particles df metallic iron become exposed to the action of the atmosphere (and this may occur from the mere expansion or contraction of the plff&ij fn order to account for many of the fires which periodically take place at the cppynencement of the winter season.” 1 t