Group: alt.2eggs.sausage.beans.tomatoes.2toast.largetea.cheerslove · Group Profile
Author: Ben newsamBen newsam Date: Sep 9, 2008 10:52
On Tue, 9 Sep 2008 16:06:04 +0100, Bear gmail.com>
wrote:
>Flour (and by implication wheat storage areas) is notorious for going
>boom when you don't want it to ... I clearly recall seeing the US news
>when I was on the farm in Ca., about 25 years ago, and seeing a report
>of a huge grain storage silo having gone up in the most spectacular way.
>While it looked entertaining, it killed a couple of folk, which rather
>took the shine off the amusing sight of a tidal wave of tens of
>thousands of tons of grain making its way down the road.
Flour has been known (in powder-in-the-air form) to cause huge
explosions. I also remember seeing an explanation of how to do your
own flour explosion: you put an inch or so of flour at the bottom of a
large container (say five gallons or so); you insert a tube through
the side of the container beneath the level of the flour; you place a
burning candle in the container[1]; you close and seal the container;
before the candle goes out, you blow hard through the tube, and
hopefully you get a satisfying boom as the flour dust ignites.
Hopefully the tube was long enough to put you far enough away. Don't
try this at home - do it in a field somewhere.
[1] All these things are not necessarily described in the correct
order of construction, as a little thought will reveal.
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