NEAFC 32nd Annual Conference.pdf - New England Association of ...

1NIEW EiXlGLAI~ID _ASSOCIATION OF t~IRE CHIEFS
Thank you very much! (Applause.)
PRESlDEHT FORTIER: Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Are there any questions
that any one would like to ask Mr. Johnson?
CHIEF BOLANI~: Can you tell us what causes or what can be done to
remedy cooking ranges from exploding?
MR. JOHNSON: Yes, I think I can. First of all, all of the normal precautions
with regard to proper hook-up materials, etc., should be used. And,
customer instruction by the service man, the selling company, is extremely important.
"
The greates~ contributifig factor in oven explosions is. human error. In
other words,, whoever is responsible for lighting the oven turns, on the gas
prematurely, applies the match too late, or there may be any nur~ber of things
that human beings are prone to do. By statistics, that is the greatest cause
of oven incidents.
As to what can be done and what is being done, ~I might say that very
rapidly, the industry, as fast as they can get public acceptance, will put what
we call a safety pilot valve on the oven burner, and there will be no lighting
of the oven by match; the woman will merely turn on the oven and the burner
is ignited by the pilot.
Now, if .ignition is not present when she turns, on the gas, no gas. will flow
to the main burner, because o£ a device, keeping the-pilot valve open, when
the pilot is present, and allows it to close if the pilot should inadvertently go out.
Where those valves are used on domestic and commerci~iF6venS,,~ there is
no evidence of oven explosion or flash fire, which is usually the
Qu~.sTIOH: Are those coming out?
MR. JOHHSOH: They have been available for~twenty-odd years, but during
the past three .years, they have been extremely more prevalent, and most
ranges today, I am happy to. say, that is, the quality lines, not the price models,
have that valve on them. I should not be surprised to see it become standard,
shortly.
CHIEF BOLAHn: I have had follr of them, over a period of five years.
MR. JOHNSON: Yes; I am not surprised at tha~.
CHIEF A~Es: Don’t you believe that there should be some protection to the
copper tubing running across the cellar? You know, sometimes they hang the
lawn mowers, the rakes and everything on there. Don’t you think there should
be something to keep it from being damaged?
M~. JOHNSON: To the bestof my knowledge, there has been little
incidence of breaking of copper tubing~ within the home. The tubing used is
12 5-pound tested, and some of the copper has considerable strength in it.
The pressure is about 6 ½ ounces per square inch, so it is way over-geared,
as far as the pressure is concerned.
Of ..course, we certainly, do not ~ecommend ha~ging rakes, etc: on it;
that is an error on the p,art of the customer.
CHIEF BOLAHD: But they will do it.
~_ _ Ml~.._joi-i~s0H: Peopie_.will do mos.t._ anythi_.ng, un.~ort.unately~. How.-
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