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Show WARNS OF DUST " PERIL IN MILLS Department of Agriculture Tells of Tragedies Which Carry Own Lesson. LOSS OF LIFE AND PROPERTY Mer'ir Flour Mills, Cereal Mills and Eleva-ftirs Under Government Urge Are Using More Care Preventive Pre-ventive Devices Installed. Washington. Here Is a remarkable contrast : Between March, 1010, and October, 1917 twenty months dust explosions destroyed four of the largest grain and cereal plants in the United States and Canada, killing 21 people, injuring 30 and destroying $0,000,000 worth of foodstuffs food-stuffs and buildings. From October, 1917, to August, 1919 twenty-one months there has been only one disastrous dust explosion in a flour mill, cereal mill or grain elevator eleva-tor In this country. This explosion occurred in May, 1919, in an elevator In the Northwest. Three men were killed, four injured and property damaged dam-aged to the extent of $150,000. Did not the elevators and mills handle more grain and flour in the lat- equipped with an automatic sprinkler system and the fire was extinguished before much damage was done, By grounding every elevator head in the building this danger was eliminated, and since that time no fire or explosion explo-sion has occurred in the plant. Care Prevents Disaster. It was the custom at u certain cereal grinding mill In the middle West to keep the plant as free ;is possible from all dust. This practice, no doubt, saved the plant from a disastrous explosion ex-plosion and fire. Soma bits of foreign material got past the magnetic separator, sepa-rator, and upon entering the grinding machine caused sparks to fly. The sparks ignited the dust in suspension, blew open the doors- of the grinding machines, and dames; shot out to a distance of several feet; but because of the lack of dust to propagate the flame the fire went out. Had there been accumulations of dust near by It no doubt would have been thrown into suspension and another and very violent vio-lent explosion would have resulted. At an elevator in the East three men were transferring grain from a storage bin to a shipping bin when one of them smelled the odor of burning burn-ing rubber. "I guess we had better see what is the trouble," said one. "Let's finish running this bin first," a modern mill in the floulh still b lieves in smoking bvt not in a fiouv mill or grifcin elevator. While inspecting an e-evator In the East an insurance man found an extension ex-tension light with a flimsy wire guard lying on the floor and remarked, "This light should not be lyinjr on the floor." ."All right," said one of the men, and picked up the light. Intending tc throw It over a beam oVerhend. Tl bulb struck the beam and broke This disturbed and ignited the dust which lay thick on the beam. Flames burst V ter period than in the earlier one? And did they not have trouble with the changing of help and have to use Inexperienced men? More explosions, in the natural course of events, were to be expected In the later period. The secret of It is that all the men in the flour mills, cereal mills and elevators have been careful and preventive devices de-vices have been Installed. Carry Their Lesson. The following accounts of tragedies and near-tragedies supplied by the bureau bu-reau of chemistry of the United States department of agriculture convey their own lesson. A feed-grinding plant in Canada met with a $2,000,000 loss from an explosion ex-plosion and fire caused by foreign material ma-terial entering the grinding machine. The sparks created by this foreign material, ma-terial, passing through the grinding plates ignited the dust in and around the machine. A small explosion followed. fol-lowed. Dust-laden air propagated the flame to a large bin, where the dust had been stirred into suspension. This produced a second and violent explosion explo-sion and the fire that resulted completely com-pletely destroyed the plant, killing 17 hien and Injuring 16. Friction between any two dissimilar bodies will produce static electricity. A spark of this type started a fire in an elevator head of a southern export house. Since the elevator heads and legs were completely boxed in and the machinery was operating properly there was absolutely no possibility of any cause for this fire except static electricity. The discharge ignited the dust In the elevator head, the flames burst out and caused a fire on the top floor. Fortunately the plant was What a Grain Dust Explosion Followed by a Fire Did to a Grain Elevator. out for ten feet or more in every direction. di-rection. Fortunately there was llttlo dust in the air, so a disastrous explosion explo-sion did not follow. said another. "We can finish in about ten minutes." "AH right," said the first, and they continued working. A few minutes later an explosion, and then a fire. Flames spread rapidly rap-idly and the heat was so intense that the firemen could not get the fire under un-der control. The plant was completely destroyed, with a loss of $1,500,000. Enough grain was destroyed to furnish fur-nish Chicago with bread for a month. Seven Men Killed. A choke-up occurred recently in an export elevator in the East. One of the men hurried to Investigate and found it to be in leg No. 1. He signaled sig-naled in for leg No. 1 to be shut down, but because of some mistake leg No. 2 was shut down instead. The belt in No. 1 continued to slip until the heat produced- was so great that the belt began to burn, thus igniting the dust in the leg and producing a sharp local explosion, which blew the leg apart. This explosion stirred up the dust about the plant, ignited it, and produced pro-duced a very violent explosion. The fire which resulted completely destroyed de-stroyed the plant. Seven men were killed, 22 Injured and the property damage amounted to $1,500,000. The miller in a modern mill in the South believed in having his plant clean, In having efficient fire-fighting apparatus, and in using a flashlight if he must Inspect a bin by artificial light. Occasionally, however, he would go through the plant smoking his pipe. No Place to Smoke, One afternoon he wished to determine deter-mine the amount of flour in a bin, so he took a flashlight, lifted the trapdoor trap-door of the bin, and was about to flash the light when he found a mass of flames In front of him. He Was smoking smok-ing his :pipe at the time. His hands and face were badly burned, iitid the trapdoor sill was scorched. Fortunately, Fortu-nately, 'because of the lack of dust in the plant, the blaze vanished almost as quickly as 'It ' came. The miller In |