From the The Universal Household Assistant or What Every One Should Know (1884):

Lamps — why they explode. — Many things may occur to cause the flame to pass down the wick tube and explode the lamp.    1. A lamp may be standing on a table or mantle, and a slight puff of air from the open window or the sudden opening of a door, cause an explosion.    2. A lamp may be taken quickly from a table or mantle, and instantly explode.    3. A lamp is taken into an entry where there is a draft, or out of doors, and an explosion quickly ensues.    4. A lighted lamp may be taken up a flight of stairs, or is raised quickly to a place on the mantle, resulting in an explosion. In all these cases the mischief is caused by the air movement -- either by suddenly checking the draft, or forcing the air down the chimney against the flame.    5. Blowing down the chimney to extinguish the light is frequently the cause of an explosion.    6. Lamp explosions have been caused by using a chimney broken off the top, or one that has a piece broken out, whereby the draft is rendered variable and the flame unsteady.    7. Sometimes a thoughtless person puts a small-sized wick in a large burner, thus leaving considerable space in the tube along the edges of the wick.    8. An old burner with its air drafts clogged up, which rightfully should be thrown away, is sometimes continued in use, and the final result is an explosion.

I just spent several hours trying to get these pictures to upload. Very frustrated with LiveJournal and Semagic. Will, of course, get over it.


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Each lines in this table contains three copies of the exact same icon set on different background colours. If you have a browser that handles .png images correctly, the same icon will look different on each background colour. I though it would be cool if different people saw different icons depending on their layout, and these icons will achieve that effect. Feel free to take any of the six icons here if you like the concept.

WHITE	BLUE	BLACK

Spent the better part of today trying to find mazzycat. When I arrived at home, I found that the food I had left for her last night was uneaten. That worried me a bit, but I thought that maybe there was something she didn't like about the food. I went upstairs and could not find her. i looked everywhere and could not find her. I moved my bed into the center of my room just in case I couldn't see her under it from the side, and I could not find her. I remember that the door to the back stairwell was for some reason open when I was leaving last night, which is odd. I had shut it and didn't think mazzycat had slipped through. Sara noticed my searching, and offered to help. We went down the stairs and searched the basement, and could not find her. At this point I was convinced that she had gotten out of the house. We searched the area around the house_of_clocks for some time, singing the food song, and could not find her. I called purpleglitter and she rushed over to help out. purpleglitter and I scowered the house again and searched around the neighborhood again to no avail. I reported mazzycat missing and ordered prints of her at Walgreens to use on fliers. Per purpleglitter's suggestion, I left the back door open, so that if she was hiding in the basement she could get back in. When the prints were finally done, I picked them up and brought them home. Upon my arrival back at home, who was at the top of the front stairs? mazzycat!! She had dirty paws from hiding in the basement, but she was okay!! I was so excited to see her. It was such a bad and stressful day, but I have my mazzycat back, and that is good.