Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1901-04-23
DANGEROUS EXPLOSIVES.
DUST, GAS, COMPOUNDS AND FLUIDS
DISCUSSED BY A CHEMIST.

At down town club yesterday, the
conversation turned upon the disaster at
the Tarrant factory In Greenwich Street.
One of the party was chemist to whom
the rest looked for an opinion as to the
cause of the accident and the danger OF
such occurrences In great cities.
1.-THE public" he said, "has a morbid
fear of few compounds, such as gun
powder, dynamite, and nitro-glycerine,
but feels little concern about numerous
other bodies which are explosive either
ordinarily or under abnormal conditions.
Explosives may be divided into two
classes-those which go off without the
action of any secondary substance, and
those which require secondary SUBJ
stance. Under the former head are the
substances named, the Eliminates which
are employed in making percussion caps,
rife cartridges, and toy torpedoes, picric
acid, potassium chlorate, collodion,
nitrogen chloride, nitrogen iodide, and
other and rarer bodies.
"Under the second head, the number
is almost unlimited. In general, 1t may
be stated that any body which will burn
in q stove, when mixed with air or sus-
pended in the atmosphere will explode
with more or less violence. The COM
monest illustration is that which occurs
when a leaky gas-pipe throws illuminate
ing gas into a room so as to form ratio
of one part gas to eight or ten air. This
mixture will blow out the windows, and
even the doors, and kill any person
within radius of few yards. A similar
result occurs from mixture of air with
acetylene gas, the vapor of benzine,
chymogen, rhigolene, naphtha, gasoline,
and low-fash kerosene.
sThe dust of nearly all hydrocarbons
aceous solids explodes when suspended
in the air. Some years ago there was
tremendous explosion down town In
New York in a candy factory. Investi-
CATION showed that it proceeded from
room in which the air was filled with
starch and sugar dust. In Minneapolis
there was similar explosion
in the eighties from flour floating
in the air in flour mill. The same
thing has occurred in close rooms where
charcoal is pulverized, in bone-black
factories, in saw mills where very dry
wood is cut, in malt houses, where the
powdered malt is shaken by the ma
chinery into the atmosphere, in oatmeal
works in Scotland, and in corn -four
works in Nebraska. If you desire, you
Can try the experiment in your own
home. Take the dust which is swept
from your rooms and throw it into u
barrel. Shake and jolt the barrel until
the fine particles are flying in every
direction, and then drop lighted match
into the interior through the bunghole.
1t will make report like a cannon, and
If the barrel Is old and dilapidated 1t
may blow out the head.
Sulphur flour when suspended in the
air makes not only an explosive, but
produces poisonous gas as we'll.
| Powdered metallic arsenic, zinc, alumni
mum and even iron behave in the same
manner. The paper dust in wallpaper
works, book binderes, and other estab-
| lishments acts in the same way.
"Nearly all fluids under certain condi-
tious assume an explosive character.
Put drop Of water on red hot stove,
and it forms ball which moves with
great rapidity. The water is said to be
in a spheroidal condition. If in this
state it be struck by hammer, or fl IT.
iron fall upon it, or heavy pot be
thumped on it, it will 60 off with the
force of gunpowder. The same thing
happens with the oils, animal, vegetable
and mineral. This is the reason or
cause of many steam boiler accidents.
The pressure is normal but the water
has run down, and some of 1t has as
sumed the so-called spheroidal condition.
A slight jar converts it into an explosive
of great intensity.-New York Evening
| Post