"A" Mill Explosion

Title: Article Describing Dust Explosions
Type: Newspaper
Date: 1878
Source: Minnesota Historical Society

Description: Many people had theories about the cause of the Washburn "A" Mill explosion. The writer of this magazine article is demonstrating experiments that he had done to prove that flour dust was the cause of the explosion.
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Activities:

1. This article is actually the transcript of a lecture given a month after the mill explosion. It presents one possible reason why the mill exploded. How do these experiments on the topic affect your opinion of the author's work?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: This author provides scientific knowledge of why the mill exploded, which makes his work more reliable than the work of someone who had not done any experiments.
2. The speaker who gave this lecture was asked by a milling association to speak on this topic. Why do you think his information might be especially interesting to the members of this association?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: The millers would want to be able to learn ways to prevent explosions in their own mills in the future.
3. The writer describes how fires can be started if the "feed" goes off, meaning if the grain stops feeding into the grinders. How might fire result from this?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: The millstones would have no wheat between them. This could cause sparks to fly. Even simple sparks could be enough to cause an explosion if the air is full of flour dust.
4. From this article, can you tell if the "A" mill explosion was the first of its kind?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: You can tell that it was not the first. The article states that these explosions have been happening in Europe, but that they were less frequent in the United States.