No abstract

The primary effect of grafting vinyl monomers onto cotton fabrics is a substantial increase in elongation and a moderate decrease in tensile strength, the net result in many cases being an increase in toughness. In some instances the grafted fabric exhibits a significant increase in wrinkle recovery level.The increase in fabric toughness is reflected in improved abrasion resistance of the grafted fabric and also of the wrinkle resistant fabric derived therefrom by typical cross-linking treatments. The best such grafts, notably those based on diethylaminoethyl acrylate or ethyl acrylate, are able to overcome most of the loss in abrasion resistance incurred by conventional cross-linking treatment.

Various modifications of the double-cure process for producing durable-press cotton are described. These include the use of moderately volatile additives for the simpli fication of the process and the use of co-reactive additives for the improvement of strength retention of the finished fabric. Several different compounds containing reactive hydro gen were investigated as co-reactants and it was found that high dry and wet wrinkle recovery can be obtained in their presence by increasing the concentration of the cross linking agent. With certain polyethylene glycols and ethoxylated higher alkyl diamines, high dry and wet wrinkle recoveries were obtained and substantial improvement of the flex abrasion resistance was achieved, in many cases surpassing that of the untreated fabric. It was found that the co-reactants can be used for the double-cure process with or without non-reactive additives.

The National Fire Incident Reporting System is the collection of national fire loss data for fires attended by the fire service. It includes information on factors involved in fire ignition, spread, and extinguishment. It has been developed with recognition of the importance of serving the needs of state, regional, municipal, and local fire jurisdictions, as well as those at the Federal level. A representative selection of states has been identified for cooperative preliminary studies of this system. The system is based on use of the fire data reporting procedures developed by the National Fire Protection Association. Data elements have been selected as usual with many compromises to provide the most versatile use of data readily available. A review is presented of the way in which the data collected could be used in locating and analyzing fire problem areas as they occur. Brief mention is included on work under way to report and classify fire incidents on an international scale.