The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1886-07-22
FLOUR AS AN EXPLOSIVE.
What Might Happen If 3Iillers We're to
=. Become Anarchists.

What Might Happen If 3Iillers Were to
Become Anarchists.
A Minneapolis man talked long with o
manufacturer Of mill machinery whom he
met at the Gilsey house the other evening.
The latest improvements in bran busters,
smut machines, cookie separators and corn
meal bolts were fully discussed. Then
came the strikes and both admitted that
in most cases the strikers were right-the
exceptions, of course, being those of strik-
ing millers.
''If the millers were Anarchists said
the Minnesota man, "they could blow up
every flour mill in Minneapolis without
using dynamite. God only knows the
power millers have in their hands if they
were devils enough to use it. A flour
mill in operation is almost as dangerous
as powder magazine, and has to be
watched us closely. Every coal miner is
afraid of fire damp, and every miller
knows his mill is likely to be blown up
with a terrible explosion at any moment.
To most people this would sound like an
exaggeration, but tell you it is solemn
fact. What blew up your mills in Bar
clay street few years ago? What leveled
q whole block of stone mills in Mime
apolis not long since, SO that it looked as
though a cyclone had struck the city,
Nothing in the world but flour-one OF
the deadliest and most powerful eXplo'
sives known.
'Tf you stand in flour mill, near the
stones, and look across the room toward
the sunlight, you will see that the air Is
loaded with fine grain dust. If you had
microscopic eyes, you would see yourseli
surrounded with small atoms of grain OF
all kinds. Those atoms form an eX-
plosive substance more powerful than any
known to NihiEsts, and their presence,
though inevitable, is what makes flour
mill as dangerous Us q powder pit. sup
pose YOU take u dry ear of corn and set 1t
on fire. 1t will burn slowly. Shell the
ear and fire the kernels and it burns much
more rapidly. Grind the corn and it will
burn like paper. Reduce it to powder
to dus;-and, if ignited, it goes off like a
flash. That is the state in which flour IS
dangerous, when it is finer than flour. IT
n mill becomes ovcrchargcd with this
dust, and it is ignitcd, away goes the
mill.
"Several years ago the large Washing
ton mills in Minneapolis caught fire.
They were going at the time. Those who
knew the danger gave the alarm and got
out as lively as they could"
"Did the mills blow up?"
'I should say they did. The walls
were made of stone, six feet thick, and
when the explosion came they tumbled
out like straw board. The sheet-iron
roof was blown so high from one of the
Washington mills that the wind carried
it two miles Men watching the fire at
distance were blown through windows,
knocked down, hurled through the air
and several were killed. Sometimes the
lighting of pipe in a grain house will de-
molish the building. In u Scotland mill
man once Lit cigar. In q second the
room seemed filled with fire, and there was
q terrible roar. When the smoke cleared
away the four walls of the mill lay. Hat
OH the ground and the roof Of the mill
lay several hundred feet away. With the
exception of Il bad scare and II singelng
not person was hurt. The dust burned
creating great heat.-New York Star.