A Smiling Man at Work in a Smokey Fire, 1788

JF Ptak Science Books LLC  Post 834 

There’s not much that I can say at this point about C.J. Leroux,  the author of the work in which this magnificent engraving was  published, Decouverte contre les incendies...¹ Without a pretty good library to hike to Leroux’s efforts remain a mystery to me, except for what I can deduce from the image.  The shack in the image is burning, and the man inside is fine, evidently protected from the fire by a special suit made of fire-resistant materials.  It is an interesting idea in protecting people from fire—sidestepping the issue of making the house more fire resistant by making the people in the house resistant to fire.  I suspect that the inventor/designer/theorist of such a gown had in mind the sale of millions of such things—that way if a fire struck a house in a dense section of Paris the entire neighborhood would don their suits and escpae the flames.  The neighborhood might not survive, but the people would.  That might not be the chief interest of the royals at that time who I am sure would be more interested in the physical plant and the real estate than the people crawling around inside it.  This display also begs the question of manufacturing the house so that some portion of it would be fire resistant which would (perhaps) save neighboring dwelling. 

Be that as it may, it really didn’t matter, as the materials for creating such a suit as the test man is wearing didn’t yet exist. Certainly nothing existed at the time that would allow someone to read, write and work through smoke and flames in a fiery furnace (“fournaise ardente”) all the while with  no inconvenience (“en etre incommode”)². The large mushroom-shaped cap would be a supply of oxygen, I guess; the smile on the face of the suit must betray a secret knowledge as to why the paper and pen are not on fire. 

It seems to be a nice piece of different thinking.

Notes:

1.  Full title:  Découverte contre les incendies, les dangers des eaux, de l'air méphytique ou contagieux et de plusieurs autres maux qui affligent l'humanité, avec un supplément contre les dangers des voyages et des chutes. Par C. J. Leroux  Published and printed by the author in 36 pages in Paris, 1788. 

2. The legend reads: “ Experience d’une personne qui lit, ecrit,  travaille, &c. dans une fournaise ardente, au  milieu des flames et de la fume, ans en  etre incommode.”

Comments

[stainless steel barometer]

Wonderful Article. I am surprised to see the picture of a Smiling Man at Work in a Smokey Fire. After reading the article I came to know that The shack in the image is burning, and the man inside is fine, evidently protected from the fire by a special suit made of fire-resistant materials.

[JimmyTH]

Maybe there's another explanation. Maybe he's a baker and he's just mucked up a new recipe, now he's figuring out what he did wrong.