SCIENTIFIC ARSON.

Temuka Leader, Issue 365, 19 March 1881, Page 3

SCIENTIFIC ARSON.

• The New York Sun gives the following account of what it terms a case of " Scientific Arson":—A large wire ring, strung with pieces of dried codfish, is one of the curious relices of fires that Chief Engineer Thomas F. Nevina, of the Brooklyn Fire department, possesses..- " The story of that relic," he •aid recently,''will tell of one of the most ingenious attempts at arson I have ever heard "of/ W&hadF-ah alarm'of fireone night from thf Clothing Store of a man who had locked up and had gone with a friend to the Theatre. The fire was under considerable headway, ;but we extinguished it while it was yet con-;flhed'-td-the store. In making our search for the cause, we found the bodies of three 4ead cat*, a broken kerosene lamp upon the floor near the counter, and this ring of wire and-dried fish. had been no fire in the •tore, and there was but one explanation of the mystery of the fire's origin. The cats weie much emaciated, and the pieces of fish were partly eaten. Now what do you think we concluded ? Why that the man, wishing to get his insurance, had invented an ingenious plan of having the cats set fire to the store, while he, accompanied by a witness, was at the Theatre. By starring the cats for two or three days, he got them into a condition to attack any food with ardour. Then he placed * "kerosene ?amp close to the edge of the: counter, and put this wire hoop strung with fish around the lamp. As he went away', he released the cats, and when they found the fish, the only food in the place, they began to pull at it, and naturally pulled the lamp off the counter. When it struck the floor it broke, the flame n?et the oil. and there was a fire. I never had proof enough to causa the man's arrest although myself convinced of his guilt, but I preserved his curious device, thinking perhaps to hear from- him again in this line at «ome future time. I have also in mind another clothing dealer, whose method of creating a fire was to heat ■a stove red hot, leave open the dampers, and then turn on all his gas jets. In the course of the night there was an explosion, and we had one more accidental fire where the facts all pointed to arson.