WHAT CONSTITUTES SUCCESS 359 



The first thing to do, is to go over the plant and carefully remove 

 from the proximity of the jars any charges which may not for 

 any reason have "gone off." These bags of cyanide, if there are 

 any, are carefully collected and removed to a place of safety. 

 Then the workmen can remove and clean the jars. If the residue 

 is solid, it can be removed with any suitable iron tool, and it is 

 soluble in water. After the jars are thoroughly washed with hot 

 water, they are perfectly good for any purpose whatever. 



Theoretically, this liquid residue in jars is not poisonous, 

 although it is still acid, and will burn skin or clothes. But the 

 chemical action may not have been complete; hence great care 

 should be used in disposing of it. A very good plan is to dig a 

 hole in the ash heap or in the earth, dump the contents of each 

 jar therein, and cover the hole after all jars are emptied. The 

 jars should afterward be thoroughly cleaned and scrubbed. 



If by any chance any cyanide should have been overlooked and 

 should drop into a jar when a workman is by it, he and others in 

 the proximity should leave that floor instantly, closing doors 

 behind them. The windows being open at this time, the poisonous 

 fumes would soon be carried away. 



Limits of the Effects. Hydrocyanic acid gas will not penetrate 

 large bins of grain; nor will it enter fine stuff like flour, beyond a 

 very short distance, possibly an inch. It therefore behooves a 

 miller to take away and burn any refuse, or fine matter on the 

 floors or in the spouts which he has reason to believe is infested. 

 Marketable mill stuff, bran, etc., in sacks should be shipped before 

 treatment or immediately after, that the mill may not be rein- 

 fested from contaminated material. All machines, spouts, eleva- 

 tors, etc., should be left open to allow of free entrance of gas. 

 Since this gas is lighter than air; it would not be safe for one to 

 drop packages of cyanide into jars of acid in a basement and then 

 endeavor to leave by ascending stairs. Hence, even when we 

 drop by hand, we frequently string the basement. 



What Constitutes Success in Treating a Mill. It must be 

 borne in mind that a mill sufficiently infested to call for treatment 

 necessarily contains many millions of the moths in some stage. 

 A few "worms" or pupae concealed in some crack on the side of a 

 window or elsewhere may escape the deadly fumes, but the finding 

 of five, ten, or twenty live worms after the fumigation by no means 

 indicates failure. Far from it; for, eliminating all unfavorable 

 conditions, it might take several years for a mill to become suffi- 



