Maligned Gas

Manufacturers of artificial refrigerators were distressed last fortnight by a report that two persons in Danbury, Conn., had been asphyxiated by "methyl chlorine" escaping from an artificial refrigerator (TiME, Oct. 25). They were distressed because:

1) Methyl chloride ("methyl chlorine" was a misprint) is a wholly safe refrigerant as proved by long experiment in U. S. laboratories and by 25 years' use in the French Navy.

2) Subsequent intelligence from Danbury, last week, showed that the gas which had escaped (and which may not have been the whole cause of the fatalities) was not methyl chloride but a compound of ethyl chloride and methyl bromide, called "Methide" by its manufacturers. Most manufacturers employ the safe methyl chloride in their machines.

The refrigerating effect of gaseous hydrocarbons is based upon the characteristically swift evaporation of their solutions. The safety of methyl chloride results from the fact that it does not decompose (i. e. evaporate) when breathed into the blood.