Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1879-02-07
New Explosives.

1t will be remembered that little be-
fore Christmas, in 1877, conf, etionery
establishment in Barclay street, sud
denly exploded in mysterious manner.
The roof few up and the front wall flew
out, the bookkeerer were blown
through one window and the statesmen
another, and the air was transiently
clouded with gum-droes and packing
girls, all of whom luckily got off with
out injury. In the absence Of any ap-
parent cause for such an occurrence 1t
was, of course, laid to the engineer, who
was dead and could not answer for him.
self; but his boiler answered for him, as
it remained quite intact after the explo-
sion. 1t was lhen surmised by an anx-
ious public that some inventive Guy
Fawkes had rented premises in the
building, and that his explosives had
gone off prematurely, hoi ting him with
his own petard, and distributing him
through space as cats meat.
None of these coniectures turned out
to be correct. 1t is now known that a
certain degree of attenuation, and under
certain conditions, the dust of -four,
starch or sugar is as explosive as gun
powder, and that it was to the sudden
ignition of this impalpable substance
that Messrs. Greenleaf owed the de-
struction of their mandatory. On the
second of May, 1878, the Washburn
mill, at Minneapolis, with a single ex-
ception the largest in the world, in
CURED similar visitation, and one of
the most extensive and solidest struc-
lures in the country, built throughout
of stone, with walls two yards in thick
ness at their base, were in few seconds
reduced to shapeless mass of ruin. In
December of the same year the Anchor
mill, of the same place, was partially
destroyed by like catastrophe.
So many destructive accidents, origi-
mating in similar cause, have drawn
scientific attention to the subject, and
various remedies have been proposed.
Mr.. e. W. Spalding, of Philadelphia,
condemns the location of the wheat and
flour dust-rooms in the basement of the
mill: and thinks they should be in a
separate building. He shows that in
the -four dust-room of the Washburn
mill there accumulated in single day
sixty sacks of dust of 1875 pounds each,
the explosive force of which would be
enough to shatter the Memnonium. 1t
is his theory that the fire was started by
friction between the mill-stones, which
were being run dry in order to clean
them, preparatory to the reception of a
new grade of wheat. With improved
ventilation, to be secured by a large
brick chimney in the centre of every
mill to carry off the finer particles of
dust, he thinks such accidents would
be prevented in the future. DR.. Weber,
of Berlin, has likewise published his
views upon the subject in work which
obtained prize from the association of
German millers, and his recommenda-
tion is that the millstones be inclosed
in air-tight curbs, in which the dust is
condensed, and thus prevented from
diffusing itself through the air, which
is a condition of its explosiveness. The
cause of these accidents being defined,
remedies could not, of course, long be
wanting, and if those suggested by Mr..
Spalding and Professor Weber should
turn out to be inadequate, others will
without doubt be applied, until it will
become almost as safe to visit -four
mill as powder magazine or dyna-
mite factory. y.-Nee0 York Tribune.