On the comparative value of certain salts for rendering fabrics non-inflammable : being the substance of a paper read before the British Association, at the meeting in Aberdeen, Septemeber 15, 1859 / by Fred. Versmann and Alphons Oppenheim.

  • Versmann, Fred.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the comparative value of certain salts for rendering fabrics non-inflammable : being the substance of a paper read before the British Association, at the meeting in Aberdeen, Septemeber 15, 1859 / by Fred. Versmann and Alphons Oppenheim. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    forth be forestalled. The candles of a Christmas- tree, the chandeliers in a ball room, the stage lamps, and household fires lighted for the purpose of warming the dressing-room of an invalid, or to cook a meal, have frequently called and continue to call for sacrifices like that recorded by Casimir Delavigne in one of his most touching ballads. One great calamity, however, we would recall to the reader’s recollection. When Prince Sclnvarzenberg, the Austrian ambassador in Paris in the year 1810, was entertaining the first Emperor of France in his residence at a brilliant ball, a curtain caught fire from a chandelier, and in a few seconds the whole of the curtains, blinds, paper-hangings, and the garlands of artificial flowers which covered the walls— nay, the very walls themselves, which were partly built of wood—became one mass of flames. The dresses of the ladies began to blaze, and a general panic ensuing increased the danger and confusion. The emperor and empress could scarcely reach their carriage. A number of thieves, finding their way into the crowd, carried off the jewels, which strewed the floor, and the emperor’s sister, the Princess Pauline, and the Countess of Sell war zenberg, the lady of the house herself, lost their lives through the disaster. If a monster accident like this has not availed yet, to induce the adoption of some of those preventive expe¬ dients hitherto proposed, it is but too obvious that a new investigation into the subject at large has become deeply urgent. Although we have deemed it both expedient and