h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have recently set fire to myself a couple of times when cooking, once when wearing a cotton jumper (bought in Sweden) and once when wearing a cotton dressing gown (bought in Germany).

Both times there was a lot of pale orange flame skittering over the surface of the garment, and neither time did the garment itself, (or thank god, my hair) actually catch light.

Now it takes quite a bit to light cotton, and it doesn't flare up that quickly, but when it burns it burns. So I am wondering if there is some sort of treatment that these clothes have undergone which prevents the cotton catching, but which generates these rather scary but easily put out flare-ups.

Any thoughts? (Other than only cook when fully dressed, and strike matches away from your body).

Ben
*buying an electric cooker when she moves*

I imagine that whatever they are supposed to put on nighties and dressing gowns (the ones that don't have *keep Away from Fire* written on them) might be used

Be careful will you, agcB?

I'm afraid I know little about fire retarding material although I'm guessing some materials are covered. I did, however, manage to set fire to my thumb nail once and not even notice until it started to smell bad. I used to have very long nails and one day I was very stupidly lighting a candle with a cigarette lighter, but holding the lighter so the flame burned up towards my thumb nail. There was a horrible smell (similar to burning wool) and I realised half my thumb nail was missing. For those who wish to know without trying it themselves, nails don't burn in a flame but blacken and disintigrate. I cut the nail off and washed my hands repeatedly but I could still smell that awful scent for days For those who wonder how I know that burning thumb nail smells like burning wool, I used to have a habit of singing holes in my jumpers with cigarette ends (not deliberately, I'm just not safe around naked flames). I have since quit smoking as it was obviously detrimental to my nails and clothing and my home is powered solely by electric.

Gas stoves, whatever maniac came up with that idea? How many people have been killed by those now?

Are you sure it is 100% cotton? Maybe there is some polyester in it, just less than 1% so they rounded up. But do make food when dressed It is a bad idea to fry something in oil when you're naked

Not answering the question at all here, but I did that to one of my dreads. Scared the wotsits out of me, but it was like the cotton. Flames burnt off all the wispy bits, but didn't light the dread. Not fun seeing flames rush towards your head, but it did make that lock nice and tidy (and smelly).

My grandmother didnt' cut her hair till she was in her 70s, but she used to twist it and singe the ends off. The fire sealed the ends of the hair and prevented them from splitting. Smelly though.

Ben

I never bought those "Keep away from naked flames" nighties for my girls when they were little.
My second daughter had hair all the way down to her backside and I used to have nightmares that she'd set fire to it.
I like to think they've treated material now so it doesn't catch fire immediately, giving the wearer chance to remove the item before a serious burn.
Please be careful, Ben, and everyone else who's had singes and near-burns.

It seemed to me that the cotton had been treated somehow. I didn't think that untreated cotton would have caught as easily, but if it had, it would have burned differently, and been much harder to put out.

I am more careful now. The first time was a match, and the second time was my dressing-gown cord.

B

I buy a fair amount on flame retardent stuff at work Ben, mostly plastics and foam but I do have some info stashed away on cottons, I'll see if I can find anything out next week.

Out of interest, had the clothes been washed or were they brand new?

Sue

I was burning off the fray on my flares once and I set fire to my boot polish....of course, I was eighteen at the time...

Combustion is aided by access to oxygen and the chemical composition of the fabric. Polyester, being essentially either stretched petroleum molecules or tortured trees (I forget which) would actually catch more easily than cotton.....

Gas or electric, I know family members who manage to make me wish we had take-out rather than appliances.

My spousal unit can massacre whole villages with an iron...

Some fire retardants (phosphates, and possibly borates) work by aiding the charring process, leaving must of the garment relatively non-combustible.
In general, I would have thought that tight-woven cotton would be one of the best fabrics.

You comment about the chemicals touches on what I was thinking, that modern washing liquids and powders might have a flame-retarding effect, too.

From her description of at least one event, I'd say she burned the fuzz off...Just as it is difficult to set off a car gas tank just by shooting it, it helpd to have an edge or an opening when you want to light cotton fabrics. You wanna see something go up, try steel wool!

I have to agree with tonsil here. It does sound like the fuzz or lint getting burned off. I use to do it all the time to my socks (on purpose). Makes for a fun time when you light someone elses though.

One reason shooting a gas(petrol) tank (or dropping a match in one) doesn't cause an explosion is that pure petrol vapour isn't explosive (Hollywood excepted). It's only between about 2% and 8% that explosions are easy.

If the garments had been washed, did you use fabric conditioner?

They had been washed and are not brand new. They show no signs of burning. There is very slight surface charing, which washed off the jumper. I haven't yet washed the dressing gown, and it shows less charring than the jumper did. Neither garment was damaged.

I don't use fabric conditioner.

I *think* that the last time I washed the jumper I'd have washed it with those put-in-the-wash use-no-soap-products lasts-for-700-washes green gadgets. (They ionise the water, or some such, and are very good if you are thinking of getting one). Before that I used liquid soaps.

So neither garment is damaged, but my feeling was that both garments caught fire more easily than normal cotton would have done. And as I said they flared over a lot of the surface with a bright orange surface flame that skittered all over the place but which was really easy to put out. My biggest fear was that my hair would catch.



Ben

Well, whatever the reason, you're still here with us and you're more careful now.

To the best of my knowledge such fabrics are treated with flame retardant (as if you hadn't worked that one out already ). You can in fact buy the stuff in cans to treat paper of all substances - we had to do it when I was teaching at a kids' summer school one year in case we burned down the International Convention Centre. In fact, about six months ago on Tomorrow's World they ran a story on a school who were building an after-school club entirely out of flame-retardant, strengthened, water-proofed paper. Pointless, yes, but the flame-retardant did seem to do its job when they set the stuff on fire. Just to prove a point.

On a more flippant note, Spike seems to get set alight on 'Buffy' almost on a weekly basis these days...

Buffy...don't talk to me about Buffy....

yu can talk to me about buffy!

i luv it

especially spike

wasn't giles really RIPPER when he was threatening spiike this week. yipeeee

i love that show.











sorry

obsessed.

dont get me started on xander/spike. i could go on for years............





FABT