The Newtown bee., 1879-02-11
New Explosives.

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 It will be remembered that little be- fore Christmas, in 1877, a conf, ctionery establishment in Barclay street, sud denly exploded in mysterious manner. The roof flew up and the front wall flew out, the bookkeer CTS were blown through one window and the salesmen another, and the air was transiently clouded with gum-drops and packing girls, all of whom luckily got off with. out injury. In the absence of any ap- parent cause for such an occurrence it was, of course, laid to the engineer, who was dead and could not answer for him. self; but his boiler answered for him, as 1t remained quite intact after the explo- sion. It was then surmised by an anx- ious public that some inventive Guy Fawkex Lad rented premises in the building, end that his explosives had gone off prematurely, hoi ting him with his own petard, ard distributing him through space as cats meat.
 None of these conjectures turned out to be correct. It IS now known that certain degree of attenuation, and under certain conditions, the dust of flour, 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 manufaetory. On the second of May, 1878, the Washburn mill, at Minneapolis, with single ex- ception the largest in the world, in- cured a 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 a few seconds reduced to shapeless mass of rum. In December of the same year the Anchor mill, of the same place, was partially destroyed by like catastrophe.
 So many destructive accidents, origi- hating in similar cause, have drawn scientific attention to the subject, and various remedies have been proposed. MT. E. W. Spalding, of Philadelphia, condemns the location of the wheat and four dust-rooms in the basement of the mill; and thinks they should be in a separate building. He shows that in the flour dust-room of the Washburn mill there accumulated in 8 single day sixty sacks of dust of 125 pounds each, the explosive force of which would be enough to shatter the Memnonium. It 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 new grade of wheat. With improved ventilation, to be secured by a large brick chimney in the centre of every mill to carry off tho 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 recommends tion is that the millstones be inclosed aldiEsig jl adiEaitighltt hlttss aRrhafh R tRa st a is g condition of it's explosiveness. The cause of these accidents being defined, remedies could not, of course, long be wanting, and if those suggested by MT: 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.-Noao York Tribune.