According to information in the hands of the West Coast Lumbermen’s
Association, an Iowa pharmacist after seventeen months experimenting,
has produced a liquid which makes wooden shingles absolutely fireproof.
In a test of the new fireproofing liquid, made at the University of
Iowa by the inventor, a block of wood one-half inch thick was saturated
with the fireproofing and then placed in running water for twenty-four
hours. After that it was thoroughly dried again and held for one hour
over a Bunsen burner, which had a temperature of between 700 and 1,000
degrees Fahrenheit, that being a much greater heat, it is said, than is
developed in a conflagration. The wood was not burned and only charred
very slightly at the point of the flame. The new compound is reported
to be sufficiently low in cost to make it practical in connection with
shingle manufacture, and when a shingle is saturated the moisture drys
out, leaving an insoluble mineral fireproofing substance in the fibre
cells of the wood, which cannot be washed out with water and is said
absolutely to prevent combustion.