Caution: Flammable

I got a kick out of Patt Morrison’s “Artistic License” article (“On the Town,” Oct. 29). However, she seems confused when she writes: “Tanker trucks labeled ‘flammable’ and ‘inflammable’; if an entire industry doesn’t know the difference between what will and won’t blow up, you don’t want to wind up a test case.”

I always thought “flammable” and “inflammable” meant the same thing, so I looked them up. Sure enough:

inflammable--Capable of being easily set on fire; combustible. See “flammable.”

flammable--Capable of being easily ignited, inflammable; preferred by many technical writers and publications to the older equivalent “inflammable” because of possible misinterpretation of the prefix “in-” as a negative.

Paul T. Grim

Van Nuys