The Danger of Lampblack.

Manufacturer and Builder ?, 1876

Within three years, says the Commercial (Boston) Bulletin, there have been three shops destroyed in Massachusetts from lampblack. A hand damp with perspiration, a drop of water, a bit of grease, or a sprinkle of oil, will create the combustion which will start the lampblack aglow like charcoal, and so ignite the package, and hence the blaze. In lampblack factories, while great precaution is taken to prevent fires, a rainy or sharp frosty day will start a dampness upon the inside of a window pane, and the flying particles of dust lighting upon this creates a spark which, communicating with the pile, sends a glow of fire with wonderful rapidity through the galleries of the shop. In cleaning up the smoke galleries, if the men let a drop of perspiration fall into a pile, they instantly scoop up the lampblack in and about where it lodges, and carry it out of the house.