The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-11-11
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, D. G.
DEADLY DUST.

collecting dust in factories, supposedly
real safeguard, caused an explosion,
| chemists in government and private
laboratories are hunting more
anxiously than ever for solutions to
the dust danger.
1t has for some years been under
| stood that grain dust suspended in
sufficient quantities in the atmosphere
might cause an explosion if a match
were lighted or a spark of electricity
released. Lately, however, dust from
sugar, chocolate, rubber, fertilizer,
starch, paper, and other materials has
proved explosive. A campaign against
carelessness in dusty grain elevators
and flour mills has cut down the num-
Der of accidents there, but at a recent
| conference on dust explosions it was
shown that in the twelve months pre-
ceding there had been at-least seven
serious explosions in other kinds OF
factories, in which at least eighty peo-
pie were killed and 100000 worth
of property destroyed.
The bureau of chemistry in the de-
! partment of agriculture says that 1t
I receives many samples of dust from
manufacturers who want to know if
the particular kind of dust set loose in
| their plants is dangerous. The pre-
vailing tendency is for the factory
owner to think that his plant is i'm
| mune, but SO far tests have shown
| that every kind of dust submitted, ex-
cept inert dust-that is, finely ground
lime or rockville explode if suf-
ficiently concentrated, and ignited.
The reason for this is simply ex-
planned by the bureau of chemistry as
follows:
Why Dust ExpIodes.
| I'VE might try for some time to
| burn a block of wood with a lighted
match. If we take knife and chip
the block the shavings will ignite more
quickly. We might make excelsior
and find it would ignite still more
rapidly, and then continue by gradual
reduction to a degree of fineness until
dust is produced, when it is found that
the mass will burn rapidly when in
suspension and diffuSed in the air. The
rate of burning is SO rapid that a vio-
lent explosion may result
In short, anything that will burn as
a solid material will burn when re-
duced to the form of powder or dust.
There is no way entirely to eliminate
this dust from a product, and scien-
tific tests have shown that a very
small amount suspended in the air is
sufficient to start an explosion if
brought into contact with fire.
The main safeguards so far pro-
posed are to have dust collected by
special apparatus, and to keep it from
piling up where it can serve as a fuse.
| Special window construction for fac
| tories is suggested by one engineer to
allow the plant to be regularly flooded
with air in order to remove dust and
/ freShen the atmosphere. WOrkmen
and managers are being gradually
| taught to safeguard their own lives by
| observing precautions. Once it was
common thing for a workman in a
flour mill to carry lighted match into
| a dim and dusty flour bin. When an
| explosion occurred, it was attributed
to spontaneous combustion, and not to
the fact of flame and dust being
brought togeth1r. Now, factory work
ers are learning never to smoke or
carry matches about a plant, to keep
dust from accommodating on beams, ma
| chimes, pulleys, and floors, and never
to use an open flame in a dusty place.
| Even in factories where smoking is
absolutely forbidden as a fire preven-
ton measure. an open flame, such as
an acety1ene torch, is used without
thought of danger. How extremely
hazardous this is the government ex-
plosion experts have difficulty in prov
ing to workers. But the soundness or
their arguments and warnings was
plainly demonstrated last fall when an
explosion occurred in mill due 10
dust being ignited by the intense heat
from an acetylene torch.
Electric Bulbs Cause.
So slight a cause as dust collected
| on an electric light bulb may start a
fire, and then an explosion, if the heat
from the bulb ignites the dust, and
the the globe breaks. This has hap
pened, and it set the electric light
companies to work devising safety
globes for dusty factories. Experi-
ments testing the safety of electric
light fixtures are still being conducted.
A vapor-proof bulb with an unbreak-
able metal guard is being installed in
many factories as a precaution against
the danger from broken bulbs
!, ~Some investigations are still going
forward in the government, tho the
bureau of chemistry has no longer any
! funds to continue its work in this
field. Doctor AIsberg, chief of the
| bureau, said at the recent conference
that in spite of lack of funds his bu-
reau would not give up the work en-
| tirely. 1--WE always have a little money
that we can squeeze out here or
there" he continued, "but about the
; best that we can hope during the next
year is to keep the work alive and do
some of the fundamental research
that has to be done, so that if we are
ever able to take it up again we will
not have marked time"
The campaign waged by the bureau
of chemistry, together with the grain
corporation, has brought about greater
/. concern on the part of the manufac-
turers, but explosions still occur. Since
last autumn there have been several
: flour mill explosions, one with $125,-
900 property loss, a grain elevator ex-
plosion with IA men killed, and an
other with men injured. Four fire
, men. fighting a blaze in a spice mill
were killed last winter when spice
, dust exploded from fire, and 13
,, other firemen were injured.
Six Girls Killed.
Most terrible of all was the alumni
; mum dust explosion which several
months ago killed six girls in the pol
. ishing room of an aluminium products
factory, and burned five others so ter
: ribly that they will be SCARED and in
jured for life. This accident seemed all
the more a disaster because it was
started by a piece of wire becoming
tangled in the machinery for diSposins
} of the dust from the polishing. A
spark was struck and the dust ignited
causing a terrible explosion. Because
of this accident, several improvements
: in the dust-Gollecting systems were
/ suggested.
The country in general was first