Researched by AJ L.
2003-04

• PURPOSE 
• HYPOTHESIS 
• EXPERIMENT DESIGN 
• MATERIALS 
• PROCEDURES 
• RESULTS 
• CONCLUSION 

• RESEARCH REPORT 
• BIBLIOGRAPHY 
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

• ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Introduction 
Humans need fire to cook food, give heat and to help make materials for everyday life. We also need fabrics to clothe ourselves from the elements and to keep our heat inside at night with sheets. When fire and fabrics come together it can cause trouble and harm to us. 

What is Fire
Fire is heat resulting from the rapid combination of oxygen with a flammable substance. Fire needs three components in order to burn. First it needs a flammable substance, second it needs oxygen, and third it needs a temperature high enough to ignite the flammable substance. A flame is the glowing particles of the substance being burned. Flames are usually yellow, red and orange but sometimes may be green and blue. The color of the flame depends on the substance being burned. 

History of Fire
Fire was said to be discovered about 500,000 years ago, although no one knows how it first came about. Microsoft Encarta 95’ says “Maybe ancient civilizations got ideas from watching the natural wonders of volcanoes or land and forest fires started by lighting.” Those civilizations used fire to warm themselves, cook food and frighten away predators. As time progressed people learned that they could use fire to make light, weapons and create better tools for war. 

Kinds of Fires
Fire burns in many different ways. Some fires may be burning gases or wood. Others may burn fabrics. All substances do not burn in the same manner. All substances burn in different ways but all require plenty of oxygen. Different things burn at different rates. One fire may smolder while one might quickly flare up. 

Methods of Starting Fires
There are two main methods of starting fires. One way is using friction and the other uses percussion. Rubbing two things together long enough and quick enough to generate heat, to ignite the substance is the friction method. One famous example is rubbing two sticks together quick enough to generate heat to ignite other sticks. Another famous way could be the flint and steel method. One last way using the friction method to produce fire is using matches. An English physicist named John Walker invented the first match. The first match was a stick with a gum like substance on the end of the stick. The gum substance would be soaked in a chemical. When the tip was rubbed against something rough the chemical would ignite. However, the percussion way is different. The percussion method is where you use natural energy, such as the sun. When you direct the sun’s energy into one spot with glass or a magnifying glass, the area will get hot enough to burn. 

Ignition Temperature
The ignition temperature is when something can ignite due to heat. For most solids the ignition temperature is from five hundred degrees to nine hundred degrees Fahrenheit. For gasoline the ignition temperature can be negative thirty-six degrees Fahrenheit. 

Helpful Fires
Fire is often harmful but can be very helpful at other times. A controlled fire can thin brush and break down trees to make fertilizer for new growth. It also can help build many materials for weapons and tools, such as hammers or the barrel on a fully automatic M-16. Some modern uses of fire are stoves, ovens, hot air furnaces, water heaters, boilers, and clothes dryers. But mostly fire can give us heat and light. Some industries can use fire to dispose of waste products. People can also use fire during war to directly kill the enemy. But the most important use of fire is in jets, airplanes or anything that’s gasoline powered. Fire creates a small explosion in the cylinder, which makes the pistons move up and down to power the engine, which makes the wheels turn so the vehicle will move. 

Harmful Fires
Fire may be helpful but it can be very harmful at times. It can damage or even destroy buildings, forests, people and animals. In fact fires destroy billions of dollars in property every year. Fires also kill thousands of people and animals every year. 

FABRICS 
Fabrics can be made of almost anything and can be turned into almost anything. They can be made into clothes, draperies, or bed sheets. Some fabrics are cotton, rayon, silk, nylon, polyester and wool. 

Cotton
Cotton is a plant fiber. When ignited it burns with a steady flame and smells like burning leaves. The ash left is easily crumpled. Cotton, in an economic sense is a great source of money. Cotton is most likely the most important and the most used raw material as a fabric. 

Rayon
Rayon is a regenerated cellulose fiber, which is almost pure cellulose. Rayon burns rapidly and leaves only a slight ash. The burning smell is close to burning leaves. One interesting fact about rayon is that some parts can be used in building a spacecraft. 

Silk
Silk is a protein fiber and usually burns readily, but not necessarily with a steady flame. Silk smells like burning hair. Silk cloth can be warmer than cotton, rayon, and linen clothing.

Nylon
Nylon is a polyamide fabric made from petroleum. Nylon melts and then can burn rapidly if the flame can stay on the melted fiber. If you can keep the flame on the melted nylon fiber it will smell like burning plastic. 

Polyester
Polyester is a polymer fabric produced from coal, air, water and petroleum products. Polyester melts and burns rapidly at the same time. The melting, burning ash can bond quickly to any surface it drips on, including skin. The smoke from the burning polyester is black and has a sweetish smell. 

Wool
Wool is a protein fiber but is harder to ignite than silk. The individual “hair” fibers on wool are shorter than silk and the weave of the wool fabrics are generally looser than the silk fabrics are. The smell of burning wool is like burning hair. 

Summary 
In conclusion fires and fabrics do not make a safe combination. There are ways to stop them from meeting and causing trouble. Keep your draperies away from heaters and never leave anything hot running in your house unsupervised. Fire is not an impossible thing to figure out but it still causes many deaths and millions of dollars worth of damage each year. If you take the right precautions you will not have fabric fires harming people.

Block, Ira. “Wool” World Book Encyclopedia, 

Cosgrove, John H. “Rayon” World Book Encyclopedia, 

“Cotton” Fabrics.net 12/12/03 http://www.fabrics.net/cotton.asp 

“Fabric Identification: Burn Test” Fabrics.net 12/12/03 http://www.fabrics.net/fabricsr.asp 

“Nylon,” World Book Encyclopedia, 

Phoenix Public “Flammable Fabrics” City of Phoenix 10/22/03 
http://www.ci.phoenix.az.us/fire/firefbrc.html 

Quintiere, James B.  “Fire,” World Book Encyclopedia, 

“Rayon” Fabrics.net 12/12/03 http://www. fabrics.net/rayon.asp 

Sullivan, John M. Jr. “Silk” World Book Encyclopedia,