Hardly a nice place to bring the family for a Sunday picnic, yet these men, every working day, a profound influence on the lives of Canadian citibens....and, paradoxically enough, all with the purpose of everyday life safer for people all over the world.
"Destroy to save" is.the motto of this organization housed in the unimposing building. Its story of almost maniacal destruction goes back to the year 1892 when a young electrical engineer in the United States conceived the idea of advance testing of materials for fire hazard. He sold the idea to fire insurance underwriters who, with some hesitation, appropriated G$350 to finance a small test-cent. ing shop, an office and a helper.
The development of the idea sounds like a wild dream of Dante. Today, the result is an organization, known Laboratories Inc., safeguarded. manufacture anything; it sells nothing; it earns no profits; it pays no dividends; but its work has a direct bearing on the household of every Canadian between Charlotte-town and Victoria, All it issues is a small tag bearing three words, "Underwriters Laboratories Inspected," but before that tag can be attached to any article, be it curling iron, an electric machine, a steel safe, roofing material, garden hose, a baby incubator or an electric switch, that article must paso tests, io|fusing to pass safety factor has been increased to take care of such contingencies. And the list of equipment which the laboratories test, to make doubly sure ti extra safety factor is there, comprises 391 pages of fine print in two columns with a supplement of 85 additional pages.
The laboratories test such a variety of articles that it would require small book to list them. But they include such things as fire protective appliances, sprinkler systems, fire extinguishers, fire hose, safes, alarm systems.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.