Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 239, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1918 — The Danger Mark. [ARTICLE]

The Danger Mark.

* To the new munition worker the Red Line, or danger mark, is a source of wonder. He sees a large room divided by a line of red paint drawn upon the floor; on one side of the line a seething line of men in various stages of undress, on the other side few or none. He observes that individuals who cross that line do so in their stockinged feet as though entering a mosque, and that once across they do not return the way they went, but disappear through doors on the other side. Later he will discover that the reason for all these precautions is to prevent explosions, because inside that danger zone is the filling room and everything there is covered with a fine gray dust. That dust is gunpowder. The men working there wear few clothes, no shoes with nails in them, and change and bathe before leaving the factory, so that when they are safely home and, are having their evening smoke they won’t cause a sensation by suddenly going up in the air through the roof.