CAUSES OF ELECTRICAL FIRES

CAUSES OF ELECTRICAL FIRES

许多电火是由使用未经训练的劳动来安装临时工作以及水管工，木匠和其他机械师的粗心大意引起的，他们经常撤消那些安装电线和安装电线的人，并安全地完成了工作的工作。灯。以下是由于喘着粗气而导致的恶作剧的一个实例。在一个大仓库中，电线已经安装得很好，不久之后，喘着气的人进来并安装了一种喘着气，触摸了其中一根电线的绝缘材料。在严重的雷暴中，经过非常生动的闪电闪光，在燃气管越过电灯线的点上看到火焰。当消防部门和电气检查员到达时，据悉，闪电融化了喘息的洞，为逃避的气体燃烧。幸运的是，这是白天，当时它立即被发现 - 这是一个事实，这阻止了损失不小的比例。如果没有发现应该归咎于谁，那么初期的大火将被认为是有缺陷的布线。为了展示业余爱好者或方便的人的工作可能会造成什么恶作剧它可以在窗户地板上用双重钉子钉住一些电线，并用电流提供到二十四（8c。p。）的灯光。 This one light was of 32 c. p. capacity, and was being used as a portable. The window-dresser left the window for a few minutes, carelessly leaving the lamp on a wax figure, which was covered with drapery. When he returned he found the figure in flames. The damage was about $1,000. The electrical work was installed by the window-dresser. The electrical inspector called the attention of one of the proprietors of a department store to the presence of wires in the show-window, the wires being held in place by double-pointed tacks, thus presenting a hazard. Upon inquiry the inspector learned that it was the work of the man of all work round the building. Another windowdresser attempted to utilise a star, the outline of which was made with incandescent lights, by connecting it to a socket in the window-fixture, using for conductors between the plug and star ordinaray cotton-covered magnet-wire. He also attempted to install a few extra lamps, the lamps to be fastened to and partially inclosed by paper flowers. Having no extra sockets, he soldered his wires directly to contact-pieces on the butt of the lamps. When the switch was thrown on the controling window circuit, a short _ circuit resulted; the goods in the window were ignited, and before the window-dresser who was in the window at the time, could get out, he was so badly burned as to necessitate his removal to the hospital. The loss to the insured was $1,630, all of which could have been avoided if a competent electrician had been employed, or if the local inspector had been invited to pass upon the work before the current was turned on. In the' stationery department of another department store was an electric fixture made in the form of an arch, with a radius of about 6 ft. This fixture had been decorated with colored crepe naper, paper butterflies and paper flowers, all made on wire forms. Shortly before closing time, a short circuit occurred at one of the sockets, and the paper decorations were ignited. Owing to the quick work of the attendants, the damage was confined to the fixture and its decorations. Investigation showed that one wire in the fixture was in electric connection with it. A short circuit was completed by wire used in the construction of a paper butterfly, one portion of which was in contact with the fixture itself, another portion coming in contact with the base of the lamn where it projected bevond the socket, which condition could have heen known before the fire, if the inspector had heen given an opportunity. Electrocraft, a magazine published in Detroit. Mich., says the “electric light, when properly installed, is the safest illuminant known. Statistics show that a remarkably small oercentage of fires is caused by electricity, and that most of these are due to defective work or fittings installed in violation of the code.” As there is no department of electrical construction which is less properly the subject of amateur and incompetent work than the inside wiring and oversight, and none which has been the purpose of more misapplied industry, with the expected adverse results, it may be suggested that a part of the agreement with a contractor should be embodied in the contract in black and white that the work he is about to install be inspected by a competent inspector, and that all changes and additions to an existing equipment be also reported and inspected. It not unfrequently happens, likewise, that, while the electrical work has been properly installed and not interfered with afterwards in any way, the equipment may be intrusted to some incompetent employe and a fire caused in that way. One case was that of an elevator boy who had cleaned the elevator motor, using about a quart of naphtha in his task. Then he went to the car and started up, and on the return trip down he heard an explosion. Sparks from the brushes on the motor had ignited the naphtha vapor, causing a fire, which, however, was quickly extinguished by occupants of the building. Another fruitful cause of electrical fires is a poor quality of flexible cord and its abuse. In one city an inspector found that ribbons and ribbon paper hanging over a brass rod in the front part of the store suddenly caught fire. At the same time, in the rear, a piece of No. 20 wire, which acted as one of the supports for a cash-carrier system and ran from cash-carrier to a screw-eye in the ceiling, melted. Some of the hot metal fell into a pasteboard box and among some waste paper and set both on fire. An investigation showed that the insulation of a pendant cord in the front part of the store, from continual chafing against the rod upon which the ribbons hung had become so frayed that the wire came in contact with the rod. This rod was in metallic connection with the cash-carrier system, which had as one of its supports the No. 20 wire before mentioned as running to the screw-eye in the ceiling. When making a test it was found that this screw-eye was grounded. A small hole was cut in the ceiling, when it was found that the point of the screw-eye was hard against the gaspipe, thereby completing a good ground and explaining how the trouble occurred. In a residence it was found that the cause of fire was the improper use of flexible cord. It had been run temporarily round the side of the room for the purpose of furnishing a light near the head of the bed. Suspended from the cord in several places, were paper flowers, which were attached to the cord by means of a common pin. Short circuit resulted at the point where one of the pins was inserted, resulting in fire with an attending damage of about $50. As to proper and improper fuses: In a paper read to the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, Dr. C. J. H. Woodbury said: “The most important part of a lighting plant consists in the safety-fuses, which are pieces of easily fusible metal introduced in the circuit, and of such dimensions that they will be melted by the heat resulting from an undue excess of current.” They are. in a sense, safety-valves for the electrical equipment and, like the safety-valve on a boiler, should not he tampered with or altered. Fuses have sometimes heen altered, and so altered that they cease to be safety-devices, and, in fact, were worse than no fuse at all. Some time ago an inspector removed a 3-ampere Edison fuseplug that had been entirely destroyed as a safetv-device by being filled with lead. To do this the lead was melted and then poured into the plug, the time costing many times more than the cost of a new fuse. Attention mav be called to one or two fires which resulted from improper fusing. Wires under the canonv of a fixture were grounded on a metal ceiling. The presence of a 30ampere fuse where there should have been a 70-ampere fuse permitted the arc to start a fire. A fire in a closet was caused by the blowing of an open fuse-link and molten metal icniting surrounding inflammable material. The closet was used as a storage-place for pictures and other articles, and the inclosure surrounding the cut-outs had been removed and proper fuses had been replaced by large fuse wires. In the process of decorating a show-window a large amount of tinsel was suspended from the ceiling and supported from the surrounding walls. When the exposed clips of a ceiling rosette were used as a means of suspension, a flash occurred, which caused the immediate ignition of decorations and goods in the window, with a loss of $120. Long pendant cord had been knotted to take up the surplus and provide for the proper adjustment of a lamp used for reading purposes over a bed. The constant abrasion and kinking of the insulation caused by this arrangement was finally sufficient to result in a short circuit in the flexible cord, which threw molten metal and burning insulation into the bed beneath, with a loss to the room and its contents of $100.

许多电火是由使用未经训练的劳动来安装临时工作以及水管工，木匠和其他机械师的粗心大意引起的，他们经常撤消那些安装电线和安装电线的人，并安全地完成了工作的工作。灯。以下是由于喘着粗气而导致的恶作剧的一个实例。在一个大仓库中，电线已经安装得很好，不久之后，喘着气的人进来并安装了一种喘着气，触摸了其中一根电线的绝缘材料。在严重的雷暴中，经过非常生动的闪电闪光，在燃气管越过电灯线的点上看到火焰。当消防部门和电气检查员到达时，据悉，闪电融化了喘息的洞，为逃避的气体燃烧。幸运的是，这是白天，当时它立即被发现 - 这是一个事实，这阻止了损失不小的比例。如果没有发现应该归咎于谁，那么初期的大火将被认为是有缺陷的布线。为了展示业余爱好者或方便的人的工作可能会造成什么恶作剧它可以在窗户地板上用双重钉子钉住一些电线，并用电流提供到二十四（8c。p。）的灯光。 This one light was of 32 c. p. capacity, and was being used as a portable. The window-dresser left the window for a few minutes, carelessly leaving the lamp on a wax figure, which was covered with drapery. When he returned he found the figure in flames. The damage was about $1,000. The electrical work was installed by the window-dresser. The electrical inspector called the attention of one of the proprietors of a department store to the presence of wires in the show-window, the wires being held in place by double-pointed tacks, thus presenting a hazard. Upon inquiry the inspector learned that it was the work of the man of all work round the building. Another windowdresser attempted to utilise a star, the outline of which was made with incandescent lights, by connecting it to a socket in the window-fixture, using for conductors between the plug and star ordinaray cotton-covered magnet-wire. He also attempted to install a few extra lamps, the lamps to be fastened to and partially inclosed by paper flowers. Having no extra sockets, he soldered his wires directly to contact-pieces on the butt of the lamps. When the switch was thrown on the controling window circuit, a short _ circuit resulted; the goods in the window were ignited, and before the window-dresser who was in the window at the time, could get out, he was so badly burned as to necessitate his removal to the hospital. The loss to the insured was $1,630, all of which could have been avoided if a competent electrician had been employed, or if the local inspector had been invited to pass upon the work before the current was turned on. In the' stationery department of another department store was an electric fixture made in the form of an arch, with a radius of about 6 ft. This fixture had been decorated with colored crepe naper, paper butterflies and paper flowers, all made on wire forms. Shortly before closing time, a short circuit occurred at one of the sockets, and the paper decorations were ignited. Owing to the quick work of the attendants, the damage was confined to the fixture and its decorations. Investigation showed that one wire in the fixture was in electric connection with it. A short circuit was completed by wire used in the construction of a paper butterfly, one portion of which was in contact with the fixture itself, another portion coming in contact with the base of the lamn where it projected bevond the socket, which condition could have heen known before the fire, if the inspector had heen given an opportunity. Electrocraft, a magazine published in Detroit. Mich., says the “electric light, when properly installed, is the safest illuminant known. Statistics show that a remarkably small oercentage of fires is caused by electricity, and that most of these are due to defective work or fittings installed in violation of the code.” As there is no department of electrical construction which is less properly the subject of amateur and incompetent work than the inside wiring and oversight, and none which has been the purpose of more misapplied industry, with the expected adverse results, it may be suggested that a part of the agreement with a contractor should be embodied in the contract in black and white that the work he is about to install be inspected by a competent inspector, and that all changes and additions to an existing equipment be also reported and inspected. It not unfrequently happens, likewise, that, while the electrical work has been properly installed and not interfered with afterwards in any way, the equipment may be intrusted to some incompetent employe and a fire caused in that way. One case was that of an elevator boy who had cleaned the elevator motor, using about a quart of naphtha in his task. Then he went to the car and started up, and on the return trip down he heard an explosion. Sparks from the brushes on the motor had ignited the naphtha vapor, causing a fire, which, however, was quickly extinguished by occupants of the building. Another fruitful cause of electrical fires is a poor quality of flexible cord and its abuse. In one city an inspector found that ribbons and ribbon paper hanging over a brass rod in the front part of the store suddenly caught fire. At the same time, in the rear, a piece of No. 20 wire, which acted as one of the supports for a cash-carrier system and ran from cash-carrier to a screw-eye in the ceiling, melted. Some of the hot metal fell into a pasteboard box and among some waste paper and set both on fire. An investigation showed that the insulation of a pendant cord in the front part of the store, from continual chafing against the rod upon which the ribbons hung had become so frayed that the wire came in contact with the rod. This rod was in metallic connection with the cash-carrier system, which had as one of its supports the No. 20 wire before mentioned as running to the screw-eye in the ceiling. When making a test it was found that this screw-eye was grounded. A small hole was cut in the ceiling, when it was found that the point of the screw-eye was hard against the gaspipe, thereby completing a good ground and explaining how the trouble occurred. In a residence it was found that the cause of fire was the improper use of flexible cord. It had been run temporarily round the side of the room for the purpose of furnishing a light near the head of the bed. Suspended from the cord in several places, were paper flowers, which were attached to the cord by means of a common pin. Short circuit resulted at the point where one of the pins was inserted, resulting in fire with an attending damage of about $50. As to proper and improper fuses: In a paper read to the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, Dr. C. J. H. Woodbury said: “The most important part of a lighting plant consists in the safety-fuses, which are pieces of easily fusible metal introduced in the circuit, and of such dimensions that they will be melted by the heat resulting from an undue excess of current.” They are. in a sense, safety-valves for the electrical equipment and, like the safety-valve on a boiler, should not he tampered with or altered. Fuses have sometimes heen altered, and so altered that they cease to be safety-devices, and, in fact, were worse than no fuse at all. Some time ago an inspector removed a 3-ampere Edison fuseplug that had been entirely destroyed as a safetv-device by being filled with lead. To do this the lead was melted and then poured into the plug, the time costing many times more than the cost of a new fuse. Attention mav be called to one or two fires which resulted from improper fusing. Wires under the canonv of a fixture were grounded on a metal ceiling. The presence of a 30ampere fuse where there should have been a 70-ampere fuse permitted the arc to start a fire. A fire in a closet was caused by the blowing of an open fuse-link and molten metal icniting surrounding inflammable material. The closet was used as a storage-place for pictures and other articles, and the inclosure surrounding the cut-outs had been removed and proper fuses had been replaced by large fuse wires. In the process of decorating a show-window a large amount of tinsel was suspended from the ceiling and supported from the surrounding walls. When the exposed clips of a ceiling rosette were used as a means of suspension, a flash occurred, which caused the immediate ignition of decorations and goods in the window, with a loss of $120. Long pendant cord had been knotted to take up the surplus and provide for the proper adjustment of a lamp used for reading purposes over a bed. The constant abrasion and kinking of the insulation caused by this arrangement was finally sufficient to result in a short circuit in the flexible cord, which threw molten metal and burning insulation into the bed beneath, with a loss to the room and its contents of $100.