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From: benn@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP (T Cox)
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Dust explosions -- a non sequitur
Message-ID: <1586@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 4-Feb-86 14:36:03 EST
Article-I.D.: sphinx.1586
Posted: Tue Feb  4 14:36:03 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 7-Feb-86 06:07:24 EST
Organization: U of Chicago Computation Center
Lines: 32

[]
From 'spontaneous combustion of people' we have gone to 
'spon. comb. of hay and compost' [due to anaerobic
bacteria] and now to grain-elevator explosions.  No 
connection between the last two.  

A fine-enough powder of nearly anything will explode.
No, maybe not granite, but most METALS, and many other
substances, including starches.  If it *could* combust,
or even oxidize, then in powdered form it can likely 
explode.  Did you know that a cup of gasoline, when
turned to vapor [okay, not powder, but same idea]
it will explode [read that 'burn real fast'] with the
force of several sticks of dynamite.  Machining mills
that have aluminum dust particles in the air have been
known to blow up.  Ditto for iron and steel, and of
course for magnesium [no surprise there].  

I once witnessed a demonstration with wood:  a 2 x 4, several
match sticks, and some sawdust.  Each was in turn put
over the same flame.  The 2 x 4 sort of darkened.  The
match sticks caught fire.  The sawdust, held in a sort
of wire mesh strainer over the flame, went *poof* and
literally burst into flames.  And that was dust all
in a pile, not hanging in the air.

Clearly, the people who spontaneously combusted were
first finely powdered.  Probably by space aliens.
No, really.
-- 
T Cox
...ihnp4!gargoyle!sphinx!benn