Abstract
I SHALL be glad if you will insert the following letter in reference to fire test with textiles, as the conclusions at which I have arrived, after repeated experiments, are so different from those reached by the British Fire Prevention Committee that I feel I cannot allow the assertions of that committee to pass unchallenged. I have over and over again shown publicly and privately, including a demonstration to the members of the Home Office Committee referred to below, that “Non-flam” flannelette is only non-inflammable if it is washed in a certain way. If washed in the manner usually employed by the ordinary housewife, i.e. washed with soap and water, and finally wrung out of clear water until all trace of soap has gone, it burns as readily as ordinary cheap flannelette. This fact was testified to by many witnesses besides myself before the Home Office Committee. The manufacturers of “Non-flam” acknowledge this in a letter to me (a letter which was added as a footnote to my evidence before the Departmental Committee on Coroner's Law, second report, p. 42), from which the following are extracts:—“If a piece of Non-flam is washed... with plenty of soap to form a good lather, and then rinsed in water, but not beyond the point at which the water on wringing runs a little milky, showing that a little soapy water still remains in the cloth, it will be found to have lost scarcely any of its fire-proof qualities even after repeated washings.... You may perhaps ask why we have not issued instructions as to the method of washing to be adopted with Non-flam.... It has never been done for two reasons. One is that to issue such instructions would create suspicion.... The other reason is that, upon inquiry, we are satisfied that ninety-nine times out of a hundred the method which is followed in the domestic wash could hardly be improved upon.... The clothes, after washing, are seldom, if ever, rinsed until no soap is left in them”. My contention is that this method of washing is not the one employed by the ordinary woman who washes at home. My school nurse made inquiries for me of a dozen mothers as to their method of washing their children's flannelette garments, and, without exception, they all said they finally wrung out of fresh water to get rid of all traces of soap. (The reason for this is, I believe, that if any soap is left in it makes the clothes nasty and sticky.)
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PARRY, L. Fire Tests with Textiles. Nature 84, 429 (1910). https://doi.org/10.1038/084429b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/084429b0
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