A Deadly Vapor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 24, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 42.

THE explosion of vessels carrying petroleum frequently occurs, and this is generally caused not by the cargoes of oil which they contain, but by the inflammable vapor which is left behind after the huge tanks of the ships have been emptied.

It is difficult to remove all the oil that adheres to the sides of the tank, and the evaporation of the oily film left in them after they have been pumped out takes place with great rapidity. Moreover, the vapor thus formed mingles readily with the air, and is capable of rendering more than two thousand times its own volume of the latter inflammable. A spark may thus cause a fearful explosion in the hold of a ship that is apparently empty.

A film of petroleum spreading over the surface of the water has been known to produce enough of this volatile and dangerous vapor to cause a conflagration by which a number of ships lying in a harbor have been suddenly unwrapped in roaring flames as if by a stroke of magic.

In some parts of the world, as at Baku, the center of the Russian petroleum trade, a film of oil continually covers the water for a considerable distance from shore, and warnings of the danger lurking there have more than once been given.—Harper's Weekly.