MAYOR’S COURT.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2622, 13 July 1871, Page 2

MAYOR’S COURT.

This Day. {Before his Worship the Mayor and the Hon. Dr. Buchanan, J.P.) ALLEGED ARSON. The hearing of the charge preferred against F. W. Kvichelt, was resumed at two o’clock George Howorth stated that he had seen a lucinie lamp burst upon one occasion ; the lamp had been burning for some hours, and had gone out for want of oil. lie had been trimming it; he then unscrewed the top, and on pouring the oil into the lamp the whole thing exploded. There was no report; it was more like a puff; but the puff was greater than that made by spirits. The Jomp had been cracked on one side, and he did nob discover the fact uniil after the lamp was filled. When the lamp exploded he dropped it. He called it an ■xpiosion, and could caT it nothing else. He felt the temperature of the top of the lamp when unscrewing it. The flame of the lamp when he first saw it was all but out, .Afcer having filled the lamp with oil, he vyas examining the interior of it with the aid of a lighted wick which he held over it, and then it exploded up in his face. The flame at this time was al out an inch or tw > from the interior of the lamp which, he had been examining. Chas \). Irvine, G.E., detaihd experiments made by him with lucine. Paraline, kerosene, and petroleum, are compounds of carbonate-hydrogen, and the vapour* of all them when mixed with air in certain proportions, is more or less explosive. It is the same as fire damp in mines, and explodes in a similar manner. The effect of-.such an explosion upon a man probably be to deprive him of his presence of mind. Witnessed opinion was the first effect of the explosion would be to partially blind him. Explosion can take place without detonation, anil by the word explosion he did not include anything but rapid ignition, with considerable change of volutnn. [Left sitting.]