Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1878-05-22
FLOUR MILL EXPLOSIONS.
The Record OF Disasters Suggestod by
the Minneapolis Mystery.
Worcester { Masi.) Gazette.

There are great many cases of this
kind of explosion on record; one of the
best known is the burning Of the Trades
town mills in Glasgow, Scotland. The
first explosion was caused by the igni
ton of the dust by sparks from the
friction of two of the grinding Stones
where the feed had been stopped but
not the motion ofthe stones, situation
very dangerous, but likely to happenm
any large mill with many runs Of stone.
Different processes were going on in
other parts of the mill, and the flour
dust was everywhere thick, so that
second and larger explosion natunlt
followed the first, blowing out the gabl
ends of the building, reducing it to ruin
and setting the woodwork on fire. This
disaster was scientifically STUDIED BY
Professor McAdam and Rankinee, and
the facts were clearly brought out by
inquiry and experiments with flour
dust sifted into gas jet and exploded
in boxes. The composition of the flour
dust is mainly starch and gluten, with
smaller proportions of gum, sugar and
oil. All these substances contain
largely carbon, hydrogen and oxygen,
and when burned. yield carbonic acid
gases and water vapor. These gases
necessarily occupy greater space than
the dust and air from which they are
derived, particularly under the high
temperature produced by the burning,
and their instantaneous expansion Is
called in common language IN explo'
sion.
The -four mill of Champion, Adams
4 Co., in Detroit, was burned in De
cember, 1875. A workman was shovel
ing niddlings at night by the light Of .
lamp with a broken globe. The dust
caught fire, and the room was almost
Instantly in flames in every part 50
that the man was badly burned before
he could escape. In September, lS64'
the .Macontah mills in Illinois were
burned because a miller carried a
lighted lamp to the middlings chest
when he went to jar down the mlddl.
ings. In 1868 Schmidt & Co.'s mill az
St. Louis was destroyed in the same
way, and the same thing happened q!
Evansville, Ind, in April, 1879. AZ
Dover, Ky, one of the floors broke, ana
the dust ignited at the boiler turnsce.
In 1869 Bertchy's mill in Milwaukee
was burned because candle was lev
near the feed spout. In 1869, also,s
fire and explosion occurred in the Az
lantic mills in Brooklyn from an open
light, which the miller carried TO the
boiling chest to which he went for tne
purpose of mending q broken rope;
The miller was burned, but the mn
was saved by a vertical stand plpe;;
One of the most curious cases o.
which we have heard occurred y
Binghamton, N. Y. The mill naa
been left safely shut up for the night -
was supposed, when a freshet SET ue
water over the gate and started VI.
machinery. The burrstones soon sem
out a shower of sparks, and conns,
grafton followed. Nor is it flour aus
alone that is dangerous. In the ful'
man palace car works, in 1879, an e. e.
plosion occurred in one OF wy
chutes for conveying rubbish INV
shavings, caused by the ignition "
~ood dust which for the first time ~
came mixed with the right quantity u
air to form an explosive COMPOUND.