Cases now and then occur where the
firemen have been able to detect it, as for instance at Hibernia Wharf
in 1846, one of Alderman Humphreys' warehouses. It happened that a
porter had swept the sawdust from the floor into a heap, upon which a
broken flask of olive-oil that was placed above, dripped its contents.
To these elements of combustion the sun added its power, and sixteen
hours afterwards the fire broke out. Happily it was instantly
extinguished; and the agents that produced it were caught, red-handed
as it were, in the act. The chances are that such a particular
combination of circumstances might not occur again in a thousand
years. The sawdust will not be swept again into such a position under
the oil, or the bottle will not break over the sawdust, or the sun
will not shine in on them to complete the fatal sum. It is an
important fact, however, to know that oiled sawdust, warmed by the
sun, will fire in sixteen hours, as it accounts for a number of
conflagrations in saw-mills, which never could be traced to any
probable cause.
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