The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-07-06

That Which Is Created in Factories
by Modern Machinery.
Terrible Explosions Sometimes Result from
the Accumulation of Flying Fibers of
Wood and Cotton-Head I'm
Powdered Metals.

EdCn utNtlOplnent OF manufacturing
| processes appears to augment the fire
hazard, not merely by reason OF the
dangers incident to the increased speed
OF operation, says the New York Jour
| nal of Commerce, and also to the con-
centration due to the greater units OF
larger buildings, but more especially
to the greater amount of dust thrown
OFF by the more rapid manipulation of
the stock in the new methods of manu-.
facture. The comparison of the readi-
ness of ignition of the shaving to that
of the log holds good in all combustible
material, namely, the finer the subdi-
vision the greater the facility of igni-
ton and the greater the rapidity of
combustion The severe accidents oc-
curing in those lines Of special manu-
featuring using powdered wood and
pulverized cork, so that these sub
stances can be classed as explosives
under such conditions, illustrate the
occurrences resulting from such
changed conditions. II would be trite
to make any references to the explo-
sives of grain dust in Touring mills o.
ufacture of malt, but there are continu-
ally occurring instances of the explo-
sion of materials not ordinarily in
cluded in the list of explosives and
which are made so solely on account
of rapid combustibility entirely due to
subdivision.
An explosion occurred recently in
~ ~
the cloth was received into the estab-
lishment ''in the gray" directly from
the mills without any treatment, and
was being wound into large rolls pre-
peratory to the processes carried on in
that establishment. The short, fine
cotton fbers were shaken out of the
cloth as dust by the rapid winding to
such an extent that it became neces-
sary to put ventilating hood over the
machine. An electric spark at the belt
ignited some of the dust, and 1t pro-
duced an explosion which blew off the
roof and wrecked the contents of the
building with such violence as to seri-
Ously injure five men at work in the
room.
With the old method of opening and
picking cotton by which it was blown
INTO ''gauzeroom, there were numer-
GUS instances of explosions occurring in
connection with such fires, but that
class of accidents has been very much
reduced by the present method of lap
per pickers, which wind the cotton into
a relatively compact cylinder. The ex-
plosion Of cotton flbars in mapping
rooms are still of frequent occurrence.
Within recent years fire starting in
the cardroom of a cotton mill produced
an explosion which was exceedingly
and spread the flames to an ex-
tent beyond the scope of the fire APP
paratus and comprised the destruction
Of the mill. The explosion from dust
in the various forms of continuous
driers used in textile mills have been
such as to require the utmost precau-
lions by way of construction and con-
tinuous cleanliness in order to secure
conditions of safety. When the facing
dust accommodating on the trusse. of a
foundry was being washed from the
beams by stream from fire hose,
when the works were shut down dur
ing an enforced vaca ton, such as has
during recent times, the dust
Tiled the building and was ignited by
The fire at the portable forge, where
repairs were under way.
But such fires are not by any means
confined to the dust of ordinarily rec
ognized combustible materials Fires
awe been known to occur in the dust !
If iron thrown out from the tumbling
barrels used for polishing tacks by !
heir attrtion on each other One /
orm of the well-known parlor fire.
works, which produces such bright I
is merely the combustion /
If finely divided steel, whose tempera- |
ure of ignition is so low that the hand |
an be held, not only with impunity, |
'ut also without any sensation of heat, |
lirectly in the scintillation of the fire.
works. The finely powdered zinc,
,nown as zinc auxiliary" which is
Lsed in connection with the rejuvena-
ion Of the indigo dye watts in the color
ng of cotton, is so rapidly oxidized by
small amount of moisture that fires
in that manner are Of fire.
uent occurrence, and the danger is so
veil known that many lines OF water
refuse to take this ma
erial under any condition whatsoever