THE WHARF FIRE—AN INVENTOR WANTED.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 461, 20 March 1909, Page 10

THE WHARF FIRE—AN INVENTOR WANTED.

Sir, —Is.it not time that somo'-fertilo mind invented a new theory to account for mysterious fires, other than tho worn-out one —"fusion of electric wires." If I remember rightly, Ngauruhoe was; in eruption the night the wharf firo occurrcd, and tho wind was from the,north. Is ;t not possible thata piece of burning pumice came through a ventilation in tho j shed and ignited tho flax ? • Or, again, it is well known that! a cat's fur will generate electricity if rubbed by a dry substance. Perhaps pussy was chasing a mouse among tho bales and becamo so highly electrified that tho sparks from its skin started a fire! Or, perhaps, an escaped prisoner or would-be stowaway, hidden in one of the bales, could not resist the temptation to have a smoke, and thereby caused the conflagration I Poor electric light I How mffty sins aro' laid at your door. Surely Frl'iday would have broken his apparatus to pieces" arid buried his knowledge if he

1 could have foreseen the terrible results of the science ho was developing. 'Wo ofton hear that " electricity is in its infancy." Perhaps, then, its incendiary tendencies are'due to its childliko ignorance, but, sir, in spite of its simplicity, 1 have never, during my practice, known it to fuse o wire when no current was flowing, as was evidently tho case when tho wharf fire occurred. This is a trick it, so far, has not learned. I have known of one fire caused by electricity, but that was duo to defective joints, and at the time of the outbreak there was an extra heavy current flowing. In ordinary installations the chance of a fire occurring through a leakage of current is too remote to'be seriously considered, v'For.-.once wo hear nothing of the match theory. Its supporters nro evidently puzzled to know why the wicked vesta should tenito at midnight instead of midday. And the spontaneous' combustion' theory—woll, that is not entertained''by tho "experts.'' Why? Because there was electric light in the building. Q.E.D.—I am, etc., , AMUSED. Wellington, March 15, 1909.