SF. Peckham—Mill Explosion at Minneapolis. 301 
ArT. XXXIV.—On the Explosion of the Flouring Mills at 
Slinneapohis, Minnesota, May 2, 1878, and the Causes of the 
same; by 8. F. PEcKHAM. 
As I was sitting at the tea-table on the evening of May 2d, 
I was startled by a noise that sounded as if something as heavy 
as a barrel of flour had been tipped over on the floor above. 
A few seconds later the sound was repeated, and we all ran 
to the door which commanded a full view of the falls and 
manufacturing portion of the city. An immense volume of 
black smoke enveloped the spot where the Washburn A Mill 
had stood, and a perpendicular column of smoke was projected 
into the air above the elevator at least four hundred feet. The 
_“rom my own point of observation, which was about a mile 
distant, but two di i 
heard three, the first not as violent as the other two; while 
those nearer still heard in addition a sound which they de- 
scribed as a succession of sharp hisses, resembling the sound of 
burning gun-powder. Those observers to the windward, whose 
Wind would carry the odor to them. Smoke was also seen 
issuing from what was known as the exhaust flour-dust spout 
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