The House that Jill Built eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 187 pages of information about The House that Jill Built.

The House that Jill Built eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 187 pages of information about The House that Jill Built.

“By all means.  Otherwise we shall be cremated before morning.”

“If you understand my sketch you will see that but one thing is needful to retard the progress of hidden fire, even in a wooden building, long enough at least for one to go up the hill and fetch a pail of water.  This remedy consists simply in choking the flues and stopping the draught, which can easily be done by filling in with bricks and mortar between all the studs of both outer walls and inner partitions at or near the level of each floor.  A cut-off half way up is an additional safeguard.  The horizontal passages between the floor-joists should also be closed in a similar manner, otherwise the smoke and sparks from a burning lath next the kitchen stove-pipe will come up through the cracks in the floor of the parlor, chamber, or around some remote fireplace, where the insurance agent will be assured ’there hadn’t been a fire kindled for six months.’  These occasional dampers are a partial remedy, and if carefully fitted in the right places will save many tons of coal and greatly diminish the chances of total destruction in case of fire.  The complete remedy is to leave no spaces that can possibly be filled.

[Illustration:  A DORMER OF BURNED CLAY.]

“I supposed air spaces were necessary for warmth and dryness,” said Jill.

“So they are.  But there are air spaces in a woolen blanket, in a brickbat and in common mortar, as well as in sawdust, ashes and powdered charcoal, quite enough to serve as non-conductors of heat and of moisture too, if properly protected.  One of the best and most available materials at present known for this purpose is ’mineral wool,’ a product of iron ‘slag.’  If the open spaces between the studs and rafters of a wooden building (or in a brick building between the furrings) are filled with this substance, or anything else equally good, if there is anything else—­of course sawdust or other inflammable material would not answer except for an ice-house or a water-tank—­’fire-bugs’ would find it difficult to follow their profession with any success, and the insurance companies would build more elegant offices and declare larger dividends than ever before.  Houses might be burned possibly, but the inmates would have ample time to fold their nightgowns, pack their trunks, take up the carpets and count the spoons before vacating the premises.”

“How much will that sort of stuffing cost?”

“For a wooden dwelling house of medium size a few hundred dollars would cover the first outlay, and the saving in worry would be worth twice as much every year.”

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The House that Jill Built from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.