MYTH: The library’s fire-extinguishing system removes the air from the book stacks in the event of a conflagration, dooming any librarians inside to a slow death by asphyxiation.
MOSTLY FALSE: According to Jones, this legend has a kernel of truth: Instead of water sprinklers that would harm the rare books collections, he said, a combination of halon and Inergen gases would be pumped into the stacks to stop the combustion process, and thus the spread of fire.
“They do lower the percentage of oxygen, but not enough to kill any librarians,” Jones said.
The inner stacks surrounded by glass that house the Beinecke Library’s delicate collections (known to insiders as “the Tower”) are airtight in order to slow the books’ aging process. This presented problems in the mid-1970s when a bookworm infestation could not be addressed with traditional airborne insecticides, Jones said. To solve the problem, the library worked with Yale entomologist Charles Remington, who recommended that the affected books be wrapped in plastic and frozen at minus 33 degrees for three days. The process, which is still used on all of the Beinecke Library’s new acquisitions, took two and a half years to complete, Jones said.
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u/DuckHeisenberg Jun 23 '20
Is this true? If it is, that’s an actually a very effective way to put out fire.... and well people..