Morning journal and courier., 1882-05-12
tSournal arO Courier.
Friday Morning, May 12, 1882.
FLOUR EXPLOSIONS.

| Some mysterious explosions in flour mills, especially those which destroyed mills in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and in Glasgow, l Scotland, gave rise to the theory that flour would explode. This theory has just been ably advocated by Prof. T. w. Tobin in an address delivered before an audience of mil lers and farmers in Louisville.
 | Prof. Tobin called attention to the fact that the minute spores of the club moss form an almost impalpable powder, which is high | ly inf1ammable and is often used in the man. | ufacture of fireworks and the artificial rep resentation of lightning He maintained that the dust on the outside of the wheat grain contains similar organic spores, which rem der the dust shaft and dust rooms the most dangerous places in mills To illustrate the expIosiyeness of flour, the Professor has de- yised four gun, composed of pyramidal shaft and barrel, with a gas burner at it's base, air holes in it's sides, and hopper a' the top. At the bottom of the hopper is movable shoot operated by an outside trig- ger. The hopper Is loaded with flour or mill dust, and the mouth of the gun is GOV cred with stout newspaper. The lighted gas creates an upward draught and heats the air. When the trigger is pulled and the dust or flour is charged with the heated air, a tremendous explosion follows, the building trembles with the shock, the paper is blown to shreds and takes fire by the great heat generated in this way.
 The Professor thinks his apparatus and it's working explain the terrible explosion which occurred in the 'Washburn A" mill at Min neapolis. On the day of the explosion the mills had been running to their fullest capac- ity; the machinery was heated and the air was charged with dust, for the wheat of that year was exceptionally hard and dense. A workman carried an open lantern to the dust shoot to examine some machinery that had become defective. draught of air rushing in carried before it the flame and the dust, and in a few seconds, after three tremendous detonations, flames leaped up from the mass of ruins of three great structures.
 Professor Pobin not only makes very plausible explanation of explosions in flour mills, but he also has simple expedient for preventing them. He says : Ut is known to you all that fine flour will absorb moist ure and deprive the air of it's natural humid ity. The air of a flour mill is usually very dry dry air is conducive to making the dus. explosive, for it is with great difficulty that flour more than normally moist can be made to burn, much less explode. Could we have had register of the state of the atmosphere in the unfortunate Washburn mill imnedi- ately preceding the explosion, doubt not that it would have shown 8 marked absence of humidity. bring now before you little instrument that can be purchased at any op- tician's store for few dollars. Its modest title is the wet bulb thermometer and it shows at glance how mueh moisture the at mosphere of any place contains at any given time. I recommend the placing of these in mills, and constant watch kept upon their indications. Should the air become dry ab- normally from either natural or artificial causes I modestly suggest the remedy to meet the want. Inject live steam from your boilers into the open mill, into the shafts and elsewhere, and in a few minutes the thermometer will tell the story of your safety"