Chemical fire proofer smothers fire bombs
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Title (Dublin Core)
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Chemical fire proofer smothers fire bombs
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Article Title and/or Image Caption (Dublin Core)
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Title: Chemical fire proofer smothers fire bombs
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extracted text (Extract Text)
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NEW WAYS to fight the menace of in-
cendiary bombs are proposed by O.
A. Hodnefield, after 19 years of re-
search in a small garage laboratory near
Montrose, Calif. One of his schemes calls
for spraying the fierce blaze with a fire-
proofing liquid of his invention, which he
maintains will prove an effective extinguish-
er. Another method would smother the
flames beneath fireproofed sawdust, previ-
ously treated with the same preparation.
Just what chemicals Hodnefield uses, and
how he blends them, remain his secret. It
takes only two men, however, to turn out
1,000 gallons an hour. At present he pro-
duces the fluid commercially for movie
studios, where it fireproofs large drapes and
cloth backings exposed to hot lamps. Avi-
ation factories also use the material, he
says, to safeguard walls, storerooms, and
combustible parts of planes themselves.
Another wartime application of the com-
position, Hodnefield foresees, may safeguard
stores or shiploads of petroleum. His tests
indicate that addition of a small amount of
his liquid will keep crude oil from burning.
‘When the oil is refined, it is separated from
the fireproofing agent, which may be re-
covered for further use.
Originally, however, the inventor con-
centrated his attention on peacetime appli-
cations. A two-bedroom wooden dwelling,
he estimates, could be rendered safe against
fire at a cost of only $200. He has also de-
veloped fire shields of treated grass, to com-
bat grass fires. Except in a high wind, a
row of these shields would halt the advanc-
ing flames.
Photographs on thesz pages include views
of striking tess applied to the fireproofing
fluid. Other trials, according to the inventor,
show that dry grass, treated 13 weeks
earlier, cannot be set aflame with an oxya-
cetylene torch; and that the preparation suc-
cessfully resists extraction from treated
lumber by more than 1,000 washings with
soap solution, or by steaming the wood and
then subjecting it to a powerful vacuum.
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Language (Dublin Core)
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Eng
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Date Issued (Dublin Core)
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1941-10
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pages (Bibliographic Ontology)
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66-67
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Rights (Dublin Core)
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Public domain
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Archived by (Dublin Core)
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Sami Akbiyik
Popular Science Monthly, v. 139, n. 4, 1941
