FLOUR-MILLS, EXPLOSION IK 



309 



horses, 8,835 mules and asses, 61,922 milch- 

 cows, 6,292 working oxen, 322,701 other 

 cattle, 26,599 sheep, and 158,908 swine. The 

 chief productions were 2,225,056 bushels of 

 Indian-corn, 114,204 of oats, 401,687 pounds 

 of rice, 157,405 of tobacco, 37,562 of wool, 

 39,789 bales of cotton, 64,846 bushels of peas 

 and beans, 10,218 of Irish and 789,456 of 

 sweet potatoes, 100,989 pounds of butter, 952 

 hogsheads of cane-sugar, 344,339 of cane-mo- 

 lasses, 50,884 pounds of honey, 6,052 of wax. 

 The total number of manufacturing establish- 

 ments was 659, employing 126 steam-engines, 

 of 3,172 horse-power; 79 water-wheels, of 528 

 horse-power; and 2,749 hands, of whom 2,670 

 were males above 16, 20 females above 15, and 

 59 youths. The capital employed amounted 

 to $1,679,000 ; wages, $989,592 ; materials, 

 $2,330,873 ; products, $4,685,403. 



The total number of religious organizations 

 was 420, having 390 edifices, with 78,920 sit- 

 tings, and property valued at $426,520. The 

 chief denominations were : 



The whole number of libraries was 253, 

 with an aggregate of 112,928 volumes. Of 

 these, 178, with 87,554 volumes, were private, 

 and 75, with 25,374 volumes, were other than 

 private. 



There were in the State 23 newspapers and 

 periodicals, with a total circulation of 10,545 ; 

 649,220 copies were annually issued. There 

 were 2 tri- weekly, circulation, 820 ; 1 semi- 

 weekly, circulation, 300; 20 weekly, circula- 

 tion, 9,425. 



FLOUR-MILLS, EXPLOSION IN. The report 

 on the causes of the disastrous explosion at the 

 Tradeston Flour-Mills, in Glasgow, made by 

 Prof. Rankine and Dr. S. Macadam, presents 

 the following important facts: 



In accordance with instructions received from the 

 secretary of the Committee of the Fire Insurance 

 Offices interested in the loss and damage sustained 

 in the fire and explosion which occurred in the 

 Tradeston. Flour-Mills and Granaries, on the 9th day 

 of July, at 4 p. M., we have made a searching investi- 

 gation into all the circumstances connected with this 

 disastrous affair, and, having inspected the premises, 

 examined all surviving witnesses, visited various 

 other mills, and inquired, by the examination of wit- 

 nesses and documents, into the history of other fires 

 and explosions of a like nature, we have to report as 

 follows : 



1. That the primary cause of the fire and explosion 

 was the accidental stoppage of the feed of one of the 

 pair of stones engaged in the grinding of sharps, 

 which led to the stones becoming highly heated and 

 striking fire. 



2. That the fire thus generated inflamed the finely- 

 divided dust which was diffused through the air 'in 

 the exhaust-conduits, and then passed on to the ex- 

 haust-box. 



3. That the sudden combustion of the dust dif- 



fused through the air would produce a very high 

 temperature in the gaseous products of that combus- 

 tion, and this would necessarily be accompanied by 

 a great and sudden increase of pressure and bulk 

 constituting, in fact, an explosion. 



4. That the first effect of this explosion would be 

 to burst the exhaust-box, and allow of the diffusion 

 of the dust and flame throughout the atmosphere of 

 the whole mill. 



5. That this communication of inflammable dust 

 and flame throughout the atmosphere of the whole 

 mill was the cause of the second explosion, by which 

 the gable-walls were blown out, the mill reduced to 

 ruins, and the wood-work set on fire. 



6. That the stores or granaries were set fire_ to 

 partly by the flame and fire from the mill travelling 

 along tha gangways, and partly from the burning 

 materials falling through the skylights. 



7. That no explosive or other foreign material was 

 used in the manufacture of _the flour, and that we 

 found the steam-boilers uninjured. 



8. That we have not been able to trace blame on 

 the part of the proprietors of the mill or of any one 

 in their employment, as every precaution known at 

 the time was used. 



We have ascertained, both from the evidence of 

 eye-witnesses and from printed and published docu- 

 ments, that fire-explosions, similar in their cause and 

 nature to that at Tradeston Mills, are accidents of 

 ordinary occurrence in flour-mills, especially since 

 the introduction of the apparatus called the "ex- 

 haust." This fact, however, is little known to the 

 general public, or, indeed, to any one except those 

 practically employed in working such mills, though 

 it appears to be better known on the Continent than 

 in Great Britain, being mentioned in French and 

 German treatises upon flour-mills! but not, to our 

 knowledge, in the standard English books on that 

 subject. 



Most of these fire-explosions have been compara- 

 tively trifling, and not accompanied with loss of life 

 or with serious damage the extent of personal injury 

 being confined to slight scorching of the hair and 

 skin. In certain instances, however, the effects 

 have been more or less disastrous, extending to the 

 firing and demolition of buildings and machinery, 

 the conflagration of wood-work and stores, and to 

 serious and sometimes fatal injury to workmen and 

 other persons. The recent Tradeston fire-explosion, 

 BO far as we know, exceeded all previous ones in its 

 violence and in its destructive and fatal effects, but 

 the difference is not one of kind, but purely or de- 

 gree. 



Indeed, it requires some consideration to see the 

 reason why such fire-explosions are not much more 

 frequent than they have been. A fire-explosion con- 

 sists in the sudden combustion of a mixture, whether 

 solid, liquid, or gaseous, or partly in each of these 

 conditions, containing a combustible substance and 

 a supporter of combustion, such as oxygen, finely 

 divided and intimately diffused throughout each 

 other, and either exactly or nearly in certain definite 

 chemical proportions ; and, to inflame that mixture, 

 there must also be present a body at a white heat, 

 such as a flame or spark. The failure of any one of 

 these conditions prevents the explosion ; for exam- 

 ple, if there be an excess or a deficiency of any of 

 the ingredients of. the explosive mixture, or if they 

 be not thoroughly mingled, the contact of fire will 

 either fail to inflame the mixture or will produce 

 only gradual combustion, and not explosion ; or, if 

 the spark or other hot body be below a white heat, 

 the inflaming or combustion will fail. It thus appears 

 that it is only through the coincidence of certain 

 conditions that a fire-explosion is possible, and this 

 accounts for these being of only occasional and not 

 daily occurrence in flour-mills. 



In such mills, the explosive mixture consists of 

 atmospheric air through which is diffused a very fine 

 impalpable dust, produced during the grinding and 

 previous cleansing of the grain, the sifting of the 



