532 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 4 



CARBON BISULPHIDE EXPLOSION FROM HEATED CORN 



By W. E. Hinds, Entomologist, Alabama Experiment Station, Auburn, Ala. 



For many years carbon disulphide has been quite extensively used 

 for the destruction of insect hfe in stored grain and similar materials. 

 There has been some hesitation in recommending this for general use 

 because of the explosive nature of mixtures of the vapor of this material 

 with air. It has been customary to state in connection with direc- 

 tions for treatment with this material, an explicit caution against 

 allowing any form of fire to occur or be brought near the liquid carbon 

 disulphide or the room in which it was being evaporated. The cus- 

 tomary warning has been against lighted cigars, artificial lights of all 

 kinds even including the turning on and off of electric lights and fans 

 and also against exposing the liquid in rooms heated by steam while 

 the steam was on. 



So far as the writer has known personally, the accidents connected 

 with the use of carbon disulphide have been very few indeed. In 

 fact, the only explosion of which I have ever heard directly was started 

 by the blow of a hammer upon a nail head in nailing up a box in which 

 specimens had just been heavily treated with carbon disulphide. 

 The explosion resulting in this case is stated to have landed the work- 

 man on top of some exhibition cases in the U. S. National Museum. 

 No record of an explosion in connection with the treatment of store- 

 houses or stored grain or other products has ever come to me person- 

 ally until the present instance which I believe should be reported for 

 the general information of those who may have occasion to recommend 

 the use of this material. 



In the southern part of Alabama especially, the "black weevil" or 

 "rice weevil" is a most serious enemy to corn and many times accom- 

 plishes practically the complete destruction of corn even before Christ- 

 mas. To protect corn from this and other insect pests we have 

 recommended freely and used quite extensively carbon disulphide for 

 fumigation. This treatment has given fairly good satisfaction where 

 used in doses of from 15 to 20 lbs, per thousand cubic feet in tight 

 cribs or buildings. Probably the most successful case of weevil control 

 occurred on the very spot where the explosion which we are now 

 reporting took place. Certainly it was the most successful that we 

 have ever observed. 



The owner of a large plantation near Montgomery, Ala., constructed 

 a few years ago several solid concrete rooms for the storage of corn. 

 The floor and the walls to a height of ten feet, are of solid concrete. 

 A flooring occurs at the eaves line and the space under the roof is used 



