The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1921-04-02
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occurred in any. plants where employees nau
pledged support to the campaign. This RECORD
is in marked contrast to the five disastrous expio-
sions in the United States and Canada which took
place in the preceding 20 months or between
March, 1916, and October, 1917.
Thirty thousand copies Of the booklet have peen
mailed to all former licensees Of the grain cor
poraton throughout the country. 1t will be placed
on record in Washington as public document
and the Department Of Agriculture Will supply
every library in the United States with copy
for educational purposes.
Since last fall D. J. Price, engineer in charge OF
the dust explosion Investigations. and DIR. a. II.
Brown of the bureau Of chemistry, Department
of Agriculture, have toured the country making
demonstrations and addressing owners OF mills
and elevators in every large city of the East,
Middle West, Northwest, West and South on the
dangers and methods of preventing grain DUST
explosions All of these meetings have been held
under the auspices of officials Of the grain cor
poration and have been well attended pr. j. W.
T. Duvel has supervised the work at the new
York office Of the corporation.
photograph reproduced herewith shows a de-
monstrator staging miniature explosion, wnicn
is however, quite large enough to be convincing
Miniature grain elevators like this one were car
ried all over the country. The demonstration got
the workmen in a factory together. They were
induced to gather spoonful Of dust-so that
plosiye had been juggled into it. Then the dust
was exploded Almost invariably new group OF
converts was made. Usually improvement in fac
tory conditions was made.
The miniature elevator Is made of heavy steel,
bolted through from side to side. There Is
sliding door in the 'front.' On the roof is square
four-nch ventilator. In the back wall is small
hole pair Of bellows, short rubber tube and
a candle complete the demonstrating outft.
<..... ~, dop,o,,cfrof for 10 staging an pYnlo-
s,or for the benefit Of starch factory. The
workmen collect spoonful Of starch dust from
sill. beam or bench The operator stuffs the dust
n the mouth Of the rubber tube. A plank Is put
over the ventilator and wephed down. The can
die is lighted and set inside the elevator. The
steel door is closed and fastened The end Of
tba rubber tube is inserted In the small hole In
the wall. The demonstratsF squeezes the bellows.
The starch dust and the candle fame do the
rest.
aRangi. goes the starch dust. The weights
IN the plank and the plank itself 60 sailing
through the air-in room they 60 slam up
against the ceiling Flame leaps from every Gre
vice of the elevator. The steel box jumps. The
noise is impressively loud. Every man who sees
the demonstration is set to thinking.
There is constant danger of dust explosion
in every factory where the air is dust-laden and
machinery constantly generates electricity. Wa
ter-drenches and devices to keep the dust out Of
the air lessen the danger Of explosion. Probably
still more effective preventive Is device which
allows every piece Of machinery to ground the
electrical current It may generate. In Short hitch
a special sort Of lightning rod to your machine
that generates electricity and prevent the spark
that fires the dust and destroys the establishment
SO frequent have been the explosions In thresh
ing machines that the cry Of s'bombs" has been
raised. They are really dust explosions. Dust
explosions on grain-threshers, and the expert
ments conducted by the Unitsd States Depart
ment Of Agriculture with view to their proven