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This is especially true if your dryer and washing machine are not in the basement. Statistically fires are less likely to start in the basement than other rooms.

The basement is the most protected area in the initial stages of a home fire. Myth: The basement is the most protected area in a home fire. Even though only a limited part of the house had actual fire damage, almost every room in the house had water damage. Years ago a neighbor had a kitchen fire which burned up the back side of the house. This topic is covered in my later article on gun safe locations.Įven if your home is not at risk from rising rivers or seas, remember that anytime the fire department comes there will be water damage. Most gun safes are intended to protect against theft and fire, but you should consider floods and water damage too, especially in figuring out where you put it. This fact is rarely mentioned by gun safe manufacturers, presumably because they don’t have anything to sell you which will help in a flood. You can see floods and water damage are actually more common than fires. Myth: After Theft, Fire is the biggest risk. This article was originally published with the title "The Philosophy of Alum and Dry Plaster Filling for Fire-Proof Safes" in Scientific American 20, 18, 279 (May 1869)ĭoi:10.This article is continued from the previous page… Click here to jump Back to the Beginning. Any one desiring a double safe for their correspondence, or other purposes, will be likely to get some good hints by examining the one at our office before ordering. The doors are secured with Sargent's celebrated magnetic combination lock, and the whole safe is a remarkable specimen of good workmanship, both for convenience and in ornamental design. Two doors are provided on opposite sides of the safe, and a double row of tills, of the right capacity for folded letters, built within the walls access being had to the files through the doors from one side or the other, without the trouble of lifting out one case to get access to another set of pigeon holes "behind it. The safe in question has a feature not before used, which is very convenient for filing correspondence. Having deemed it necessary to obtain a new safe for tho security of our valuable correspondence, in addition to a number already in use for our books and more valuable papers, we have been supplied with one with alum and dry plaster filling, made to order, at the manufactory of Marvin Co., of 265 Broadway, this city, which is, in every way, so satisfactory both in elegance of design and finish, that we are constrained to bear testimony to the superior workmanship of the safes made by this firm. Nothing could be more simple than this action, and its efficiency has been often corroborated by the severest tests. The dry plaster absorbs the water as it is liberated, and holds it until the heat converts it into steam. Some other alums contain 55 per cent, of water, A safe, having alum in lumps as an ingredient in its filling, will, when heated, be immediately filled with steam, and, as long as it remains so, must preserve its contents. It gives off water gradually as the temperature is maintained, and commences to liberate it at 140. At ordinary temperatures it is a perfectly dry substance. All of this water, with the exception of -Jjj-r of the weight of alum, is liberated by a temperature of 856. Potash amm contains f f of its weight, of water, or nearly one-half. A train of serious evils will result from the use of such salts, as swelling of the filling, and consequent bulging of the plates corrosion of the metal until it becomes so rotten that a pocket knife may be thrust through its walls and dampness of the walls, producing mildew and destruction of papers and books. In order that the first requisite (dryness in ordinary use), may be attained, the filling should contain no deliquescent salts. So long as it is wet the temperature in the interior of the safe can never exceed 212 Fah., the boiling point of water, at which temperature everything within it is safe, no matter how excessive the external heat may be. The two essentials in a fire-proof safe are, that in ordinary use, it shall be perfectly dry, and that, when heated, it shall become wet. The use of alum and dry plaster as a filling for fire-proof safes, is based upon sound chemical and philosophical principles.