The Black range. (Robinson, Socorro County, N.M.) 1882-1897, 1884-07-04
Strange Explosives.


removal Of some barrels Of -four and
grain from a large warehouse.
That depends upon how II is cook.
ed" the reporter suggested.
"Just so. IL is dangerous In that
way; but was thinking Of It as an ex-
plosive. Just look across the room.
You see. when the suns rays come In,
the arr is loaded with fine gram dust,
and II you were provided with micro
seopic eyes you would see yourself fair
ly surrounded with small atoms of
grain. of all kinds. Now. suppose you
take a dried ear of corn and fire It. II
burns very slowly. and the chances are
II will go out. Shell 1t, or take the
kernels of. and IL burns much quick
or. Suppose. now. we grind the corn,
it will burn quicker still. say in min
ute: but If YOU pulverize it. reduce II
to powder or dust, and ignite il, II goes
of like u Fash, and has great expan-
sive power. That is just the case here,
II the room becomes overcharged with
dust and is ignited, off it goes, blowing
the house to pieces,
Zone of the most striking cases oc-
CURED several years ago in Minneapo-
lis when the Washburne mill caught
Those who knew anything about il got
out of the way as quick as they could
powder wouldn't have sent them any
faster.
"Blow upY"
"Well, | should rather think she did
The walls of the mill we're solid stone
six feet thick, and when the explosion
came they were just like paper, and the
roof. made of sheets of iron. was blown
so high from one mill that 1t landed
more than two miles from the spot
where 1t went up. OF course IL was
helped 10y the wind, but the force ex-
erted was shown. Men had been blown
out through the windows, hurled
through the air. and the walls of the
building completely demolished by a
man lighting his pipe in big grain
house.
"a curious accident once happened
IN Scotland in large house. A man
walked in with cigar in his mouth, and
IN a second the room seemed to be lill-
ed with fire and terrible roar, but a
minute later 1t cleared off. With excep-
tion of singeing.not apersOn was hurt,
but every one of the four walls was
Hat on the ground. and the roof had
been lifted bodily and dropped 200 feet
away. In such cases tnare must be
fire first. The dust burns and power
full heat is created and then follows the
terrific expansive force that nothing
can withstand. The explosion in Bar.
clay street several years ago may be
accounted for in this way. In the
manufacture of candy sugar and starch
are used in great quantities. This dust
accumulates and when lighted might
easily develop power. enough TO hurl a
building to atoms"
HAS the explosive power of differ
ent dusts ever been determined 2"
"Yes," the -four man replied. Prof.
Peck, the chemist, has made some ex-
periments that demonstrate the enor-
nous power Of sawdust, various fiours,
starch and grain of all kinds. In one
of the experiments he took three-quar-
ters of an ounce of starch, and by rails
ing it as dust in the air, ignited ii in a
compartment intended to represent a
room. When 1t exploded 1t threw a
box weighing six pounds twenty feet
into the air. You can judge yourself
of the power of the material. Half
an ounce of starch ignited in the same
way was shown by the professor to lift
the cover of box, and a heavy man
standing on it, three inches.
"0ne of the most dangerous materi-
ais is the wheat dust of flour mills
When burned it goes off like a flash
One of the first movements In making
flour is TO rattle the wheat and pass a
heavy draught at the same time over il
10 carry of the highly intlammable
dust. Yet despite all care. the air be-
comes perfectly loaded with IL. Pro
fessor Peck has shown what flour
would do by taking box with capac.
ity of two cubic feet and placing in IL
a little -four, the light of u lamp enter
ing through hole In one corner and the
nozzle of bellows through another
The cover of the box was nailed on and
a man took his place on 1t. The profes
sor then worked the bellows, and the
small amount of -four within immedi-
ately filled the air in the box as dust
the fac-simile of dust laden lmill be-
ing produced. The -four Immediately
igDited from the lamp, and in a second
the cover was blown off and the man
lifted several inches into the air. while
a blaze of fire burst out at all sides. A
number of interesting experiments
were performed By the same gentle