Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1884-06-13
SOME STRANGE E1PB~sIOXs.
dangerous Dusts That are Easily Ignited
With AstonIshing Elects.


removal of some barrels Of flour and
other grain from large warehouse.
"That depends upon how it is cook
cd" the reporter suggested.
Just so. 1t is dangerous in that
way; but 1 was thinking of it as an ex-
plosiye. Just look across the room
You see, when the suns rays come in,
that the air is loaded with fine grain
dust, and if you were provided with
microscopic eyes you would see your
self fairly surrounded with small atoms
of gram Of all kinds. Now suppose
you take a dried ear of corn and fire
it. 1t burns very slowly, and the
chances are that it will go out. Shell
it, or take the kernels off, and it burns
much quicker. Suppose, now, We
grind the corn, it will burn quicker
still, say in a minute; but if you pull
verize it, it goes off like a flash, and
has great expansive power. That Is
just the case here. If the room be-
comes overcharged with dust and is
ignited, off it goes, blowing the house
in pieces.
lone of the most striking cases oc-
Cured several years ago in Minneapo-
lis when the Washington mill caught
Those who knew anything about i
just got out of the way as quick as
they could; powder wouldn't have sent
them any faster. Blow up? Well, l
should rather think she did. The walls
of the mill were 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 it landed more
than two miles from the spot where it
went up. Of course it was helped by
the wind, but the force eXerted was
shown. Men have been blown out
through windows, hurled through the
air, and the walls of building COM
pletely demolished by mans lighting
a pipe in the big grain house.
ga curious accident once happened
in Scotland in large house. A man
walked in with a cigar in his mouth,
and in a second the room seemed to
be filled with fire and terrible roar,
but minute later it cleared off. With
the exception of singeing, not a per
Son was hurt, but every one of the
four walls was fiat on the ground, anc
the roof had been lifted bodily ant
dropped 200 feet away. In such cases
there must be fire first. The dus
burns, and powerful heat is created
and then follows the terrific expansive
force that nothing can withstand. TIT
explosion in Barclay street severa
years ago may be accounted for in thi
way. In the manufacture of candy
sugar and starch are used in grea
quantities. Their dust accumulate
and when lighted might easily develo
power enough to hurl building t
atoms"
HAS the explosive power of differ
ent dusts ever been determined?',
Eyes," the flour man replied. "Prot
Peck, the chemist, has made some ex
periments that demonstrate the enor
nous power of sawdust, various fours
Starch, and grain of all kinds. In on
of the experiments he took three-quar
tiers of an ounce of starch, and, b.
raising it as dust in the air, ignited
in compartment intended to repre-
sent room. When exploded it threw
a box weighing six pounds twent.
feet into the air. You can judge your
self of the power of the material Hal
an ounce Of starch ignited in the sam
way was shown by the Professor to lif
the cover of box, and heavy MAJ
standing on it, three inches.
zone of the most dangerous mate
rails is the wheat dust Of flour mills
When burned it goes off like flash
One of the first movements in maxim,
-four is to rattle the wheat and pass
heavy draught at the same time owe
it to carry off the highly inAammabl
dust. Ye, despite all care, the al
often becomes perfectly loaded with ii
Prof. Peck has shown what -four woulC
do by taking box with capacity 0
two cubic feet and placing in it a littl
-four, the light Of lamp entering
through a hole in one corner and tn
muzzle of a bellows through the other
The cover of the box was nailed on
and a man took his place on it. Th
Professor then worked the bellows
and the small amount of flour within
Immediately filled the air in the box a
dust, the fac-simile of a dust-laden mil
being produced, The -four immediate
ly ignited from the lamp, and in
second the cover was blown off and tn
man lifted several inches into the all
while blaze of fire burst out from a
sides. A number of interesting eS
periments were performed by the sam