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Heating, Lighting, and Refrigeration: Dissolve

Note the total weight and subtract the weight of the tank. Divide this amount expressed in pounds by 13, and the result will be the number of pounds of soda required. The weight of acid required will be five sixths the HEATING, LIGHTING, AND REFRIGERATION weight of the soda. Dissolve the soda in the water and place the sulphuric acid in a glass bottle so arranged that when required for use the bottle may be turned over by a crank or otherwise and the acid spilled into the charge of soda water.

Carbonic-acid gas will be generated at once under strong enough pressure to force the whole contents with considerable power through a nozzle directed against the fire. Or dissolve copperas or ferrous sulphate, 5 parts; ammonium sulphate, 20 parts, in water, 125 parts. Or dissolve in 75 parts water, calcium chloride, 20 parts; salt, 5 parts. The two last may be kept conveniently at hand for use with a hand pump.

Hand Fire Extinguisher.-Another device consists of a mixture of suitable substances combined in a glass vessel, which must be thrown upon the fire with sufficient force to break the glass. To make hand grenades or fire extinguishers of this sort take pint or quart fruit jars or any large bottles and charge them with a mixture of equal parts of sugar of lead, alum, and common salt, dissolved in water.

Keep these tightly corked in various parts of the house. To extinguish a fire throw one or more of these bottles into or just above the burning parts, so that the liquid will fall upon the wood or flames.

Or charge these bottles with a mixture made of 2 pounds of common salt, 1 pound of muriate of ammonia, and 3 quarts of water. Dissolve, bottle, cork, and keep at hand in various parts of the house for emergency.

Throw the bottles into the fire with force enough to break them.

Or dissolve pearlash, soda, wood ashes, or common salt in the water which is being dashed upon the flames from pails or pitchers, or in which are soaked cloths to beat out the flames.

Fire Extinguisher Hand Grenades. -Fill round bottles of thin blue glass with a mixture of equal parts of common borax and sal ammoniac or calcium chloride. Add just enough water to dissolve these substances, thus making strong saturated solutions.

Fire Drills.-Boys should be encouraged to prepare, under proper supervision, one or more of these fire extinguishers, and practice with them in putting out fires made out of doors for this purpose. A few experiments will insure that the directions have been understood, and will give valuable practice as a sort of fire drill in advance of the emergency, as there is always danger of fire, whether from lightning or other cause, in isolated farmhouses and other buildings, not within reach, as in cities, of a fire department. A conflagration may not only destroy the results of the labor of a lifetime, but also lead to loss of life from the flames or from consequent exposure in severe weather. Hence the importance of such preparation can hardly be overestimated, especially when it can be done at very little expense. Moreover, such experiments have an important educational influence.

To Extinguish Kerosene Fire.-Do not throw water on the flames of burning kerosene, gasoline, benzine, naphtha, or other petroleum products.

The water will spread the flames and not put them out. Instead use milk, which forms an emulsion with the oil and extinguishes it. 66 Fire Escapes. You may remember Mark Twain's story of the poor white" in Arkansas whose roof leaked so badly that the bed in which he slept was wet by every storm. When asked why he did not mend the roof, he replied that he could not do so when it rained without getting wet, and when the weather was fair it was not necessary.