Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 300, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 December 1919 — Page 5

WARNS OF DUST PERIL IN MILLS

Department of Agriculture Tells of Tragedies Which Carry Own Lesson. LOSS OF LIFE AND PROPERTY f!en in Flour Mills, Cereal Mills and Elevators Under Government Urge Are Using More Care—Preventive Devices Installed. Washington.—Here is a remarkable ■contrast: Between M«reh, 1916, and October, 1917—twenty months—dust explosions ■destroyed four of the largest grain and ■cereal plants fli the United States and Canada, killing 24 people, injuring 36 and destroying S6,OOOJXK> worth of foodstuffs and buildings/ From October, 1917, to August, 1919 ■—twenty-one months —there has been only one disastrous dust explosion in a flour mitt, cereal mill or grain elevator in this country. This explosioh ■occurred in May, 1919, in an elevator In the Northwest. Three men w'ere killed, four injured and property damaged to the extent of $150,000. * Did not the elevators and mjlls handle more grain and flour in the latter period than in the earlier one? And did they not have trouble with the changing of help and have to use Inexperienced men? More explosions, Ip the natural course of events, were to be expected in the later period. The secret of it is' that all the men in the flour mills, cereal mjlls and elevators have been careful and preventive devices have been Installed. Carry Their Lesson. The following accounts of tragedies ®nd near-tragedies supplied by the bureau of chemistry of the United States department of agriculture convey their Own, lesson. A feed-grinding plant in Canada met with a s2,ooo,oooJoss from an explosion and Are caused by foreign material entering the grinding machine. The sparks created by this foreign material, passing through the grinding plates ignited the dust in and around the machine. A explosion followed. Dust-laden air propagated the flame to a large bin, where the dust had been stirred into suspension. This produced a second and violent explosion and the fire that resulted completely destroyed the plant, killing 17 wen.and injuring 16. Friction between any two dissimilar bodies will produce static electricity. A spark of this type started a fire in an elevator head of a’ southern export house. Since the elevator heads and legs were completely boxed in and the machinery was operating properly there w’as absolutely no possibility of any cause for this fire except static electricity. The discharge ignited the 'dust in the elevator head, the flames burst out and caused a fire on the top floor. Fortunately the plant was

Nose Sewed on After Being Off One Hour

London. —An unusual story was related at the King Edward VII hospital at Windsor. A stable boy, named'William Robertson, was preparing a hqrse to run iiv a race, when a skylight fell and cut his nose clean off, Hb was taken to the King Edward VII hospital without,his nose. The arteries were tied . and the surgeon then asked for the nose, it was stated that’ it was left behind in the stable at the race course. A -messenger immediately was dispatched to the stables and the nose was found in the straw. It was taken to the</hospltal where an operation was perfortned add the nose was put on again. It had then been off about an hour. A few days later 'Robertson was discharged from the hospital. He said it was a miracle.

First photograph from Corpus Christi, Tex, showing some of the destruction wrought by the tornado which kill* hundreds of persons and did Immense property damage. o

HOW THE TORNADO LEFT CORPUS CHRISTI, TEX.

equipped with an autdmatic sprinkler -system and the fire was extinguished before much damage was done. By grounding every elevator head in the building this danger was eliminated, and /since that time no fire or explosion has occurred in the plant , Care Prevents Disaster. dt’was the custom at a certain cereal grinding mill in the middle West to keep the plant as free as possible from fell dust. This practice, no doubt, saved the plant from a disastrous explosion and fire. Some bits of foreign material got past the magnetic separator, and upon entering the grinding machine caused eparks to fly. The sparks ignited the dust in suspension, blew open the doors of the gripding machines, and flames shot out to a distance of several feet; but because of the lack of dust to propagate the flame the fire went out. Had there been accumulations of dust near by it no doubt would have been thrown into suspension and another and very violent explosion would have resulted. At an elevator in the East three men were transferring grain from a storage bin to a shipping bin when one of them smelled the odor of burning rubber. “I guess we had better see what Is the trouble,” said one. z _ ' ‘‘Let’s finish running tljls bln first,”

What a Grain Dust Explosion Followed by a Fire Did to a Grain Elevator.

said another. “We can finish In about ten minutes.” • “All right,” said the first, and they continued working. A few minutes later —an explosion, and then a fire. Flames spread rapidly and the heat was so intense that the firemen could not get the fire under control. The plant was completely destroyed, with a loss of $1,500,000. Enough grain was destroyed to furnish Chicago with bread for a month. Seven Men Killed. ' A choke-up occurred recently in an export elevator in the East. One of the men hurried to investigate and found it to be in. leg No. 1. He signaled in for leg No. 1 to be shut down, but because of some mistake leg No. 2 was shut down instead. The belt in No. 1 continued to slip until the heat produced was so great that the belt began to burn, thus igniting the dust in the leg and producing a sharp local explosion, which blew the leg apart. This explosion stirred up the dust about the plant, ignited it, and produced a very violent explosion. The fire which resulted completely destroyed the plant. Seven men were killed, 22 injured and the property damage amounted to $1,500,000. The miller in a modern mill in the South believed in having his plant clean, in having efficient fire-fighting apparatus, and in using a flashlight if he must inspect a bin by artificial light; Occasionally, however, he would go through the plant smoking his pipe. No Place to Smoke. • One afternoon he wished to determine the amount of flour in a bln, so he took a flashlight, lifted the trapdoor of the bin, and was about to flash dip, light when he found a mass of flames in front of him. He was smoking his pipe at the time. His hands and face were badly burned, and the trapdoor sill was scorched. Fortunately, because of the lack of dust in I th 6 plant, the blaze vanished almost .as quickly as it came. The miller in

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

Red Ink, Not Blood, Scared Injured Man.

San Francisco, Cal. "My arm is bleeding, doctor—see the blood all over it,” cried Albert Fislmo, as he burst into the Harbor Emergency hospital, his right arm stained wijh gory streaks. Dr. A. Friedman gave one look at the arm. He put his nose td one of the streaks of red. and then he burst out in a roar of laughter. “That’s not blood, my good man; that’s nothing but red ink,” said the doctor, as Fisirao explained that he had scratched his arm while loading boxes on a wagon and had gone to the first aid box for what he thought to be iodine, but, instead; he»had taken red ink. .

a modern mill in the South still believes in smoking—but not in a flour mill or grain elevator. ' While inspecting an elevator in the East an Insurance man found an extension light with a flimsy wire guard lying on'the floor and remarked, “This light should not be lying on the floor. “All right,” said one of the men, and picked up the light, intending to throw it over a beam overhead. .The bulb struck the beam and broke. This disturbed and ignited the dust which lay thick on the beam. Flames burst

out for ten feet or more in every direction. Fortunately there was little dust in the air, so a disastrous explosion did not follow.

YANK WEDS ESCAPE PLOTTER

Bride Convicted of Treason by Ger. mans for Helping Prisoners Flee From Military Prison. Minneapolis. —James W. Shea of Grand Forks, N. D., a United States soldier, and Mrs. Margaret Gentzke who was convicted of. treason in Germany for aiding Shea and other allied fighters to escape Hun military prisons, obtained a license to marry in the city clerk’s office. Mrs. Gentzke is 31 years of age and Shea is 28. WMrs. Gentzke reached the United States a few weeks after completing the sentence imposed ors her for helping Shea escape. Her husband in Germany secured a divorce after her conviction for treason.

KAISER'S KITCHEN LIKE HIM

Shows No Sign of Ever Having Been Under Fire—Comes to Washington. Washington. —To the collection ol war trophies which the Smithsonian Institution is now gathering will ba added shortly the field kitchen of William Hohenzollern, late kaiser of Germany. . The kitchen followed the kaiser to all the fighting fronts he visited, but shows no signs of damage, which is taken to indicate that it was kept far to the rear, as did its imperial owner German prisoners of war loaded t£if kjtchen —which is said to be the most elaborate affair of its kind —aboard a transport at St. Nazalre, France, and it Is on its to Washington, with a large collection of war material of different kinds.

MOUNTED POLICE DISPERSING CROWDS IN M’KEESPORT, PA.

Mounted troopers of the Pennsylvania state police keeping the crowds moving in the streets of JdcKeesport, Pa., where thousands of steel workers struck.

Americans Help Hungry and Sick

Unbelievable Conditions Found z in Territory East of River Bug. DISEASE AND HUNGER STAY J Hed Cross and Jewish Relief Committee Working Hand in Hand to Help Sufferers —Fresh Clothing Dire Need. New York.—-The River Bug, which served* until recently as a boundary of the bolshevik fighting, is today a boundary of another kind. Its eastern shore bounds on one side the hungriest and most diseased and the most stricken territory in the world today. Five million people are at the point of starvation east of the River Bug, according to figures given out by, the American Jewish Relief committee and compiled by the American Red Cross and American Jewish Relief agents. A great number of thtem are Jews. The war has left 6,000,000 destitute and stricken Jews in Eastern Europe utterly helpless, in many cases ill, in every case hungry and dependent. East of the River Bug these people are living in devastated houses, in stalls of old stables, on roofless platforms bqilt for refugee families, one family to • a platform, in old freight cars, in holes in the ground or under the open sky. They are weak from many months of semi-starvation, for they have gone for five years without one square meal. They are still ter-ror-stricken from the war. Their number is. being reduced every day by a series of the -most terrible epidemics that ever swept any section of the world. Typhus, cholera and smallpox are all raging In the territory east of the River Bug. The first and m6st general of these epidemics is carried simply by body lice. At least one member out of every fifth or sixth family is stricken with some form of it, as is inevitable among a people clad in five-.

Aviators Must Fly High to Leave Churches Quiet

Santa Monica, Cal.—Hereafter all aviators flying here on ‘ Sunday will be banished into the highest clouds between the hours of 10 a. 'm. and 1 p. m. Thus did the city council decree, as the result of a protest made by the Rev. W. H. Cornett of the Presbyterian chujrch. He declared that airplanes traveling in Santa Monica during church hours fly so low that they disturb church services.

Tames “Outlaw” Ship

Youngest Commander in Navy z. Performs Feat. “Crankiest Ship Afloat" Comes to Be Real Peaceable Army Transport., i San Francisco.—The “devils” have been cast out of the good ship Great Northern.’ Chastened by the grim spectacle of war, In which she nobly “did her bit” by transporting 60,000 Yankee soldiers across the Atlantic,- the one-time “crankiest ship afloat” came back home a few days ago, obedient to the hand of the youngest commander in the United States navy. A He is Charles H. Porta, born in Turin, Italy, thirty-four years ago. His father is Prof. Albert E*. Porta, archaeologist, scientist and sun-spot observer.

year-old rags, people who have not had a bath with soap or a change of clothing since the beginning of the war. No estiitaate of the actual number of those smitten with typhus in Poland has yet been compiled, but it probably is greater than in Siberia, where the American Red Cross found 100,000 cases. Typhus, Cholera and Smallpox. Dirt and malnutrition are the two great causes of the epidemic of disease. All through Poland may be found children eight or ten years old no larger than youngsters half their age ordinarily are. Two out of three infants do not survive their first year of life. The average child in the territory east of the Bug river has never tasted milk, even mother’s milk. American Red Cross Investigators say that an abnormal number of children are born blind because of the malnutrition of their mothers. American Jewish Relief investigators discovered a new eye disease that had attacked thousands of children, beginning with constant blinking and ending in total blindness, resulting when long continued starvation had affected the muscles of the eye. So the great expanse of “the department of the East,” which sounds

Whole Town Insured

Death, Sickness and Accident Covered by Policy. -f Big Concerns at Kingsport, Tenn., Join in Protecting All Their Employees. New York.—AH the workers employed by the various Industries located at Kingsport, Tenn., have been insured against death, sickness and accident under a jingle group policy issued by one. of the big life insurance companies. In all about 2,000 persons employed by ten" large concerns are thus protected, and as the population of the town of Kingsport is estimated at about 10,000, almost every family in the community will receive a financial benefit in'case of accident, sickness or death overtaking one of its breadwinning members. The policy has been in effect since early in July. According to officials of the insurance company this is the first instance known where a whole community has adopted a standarized plan of insurance. The experiment is attracting the attention of many other municipalities, especially public officials who are interested in commuhW seKiter nnfl assn inswranw wren. ‘ The prospective financial benefit to be derived by individuals under the policy is heftl of far less importance than the general, good which has resulted from the quickening of the conscience of the Kingsport community.

“A ship is just like a grand opera prima donna,” he says. “She needs a bit of petting and pampering to keep her in good humor —but there's nothing uncanny about her. And when she is right—boys, how she can sing!” The Great Northern traveled more than 200,000 miles in the coastwise and Hoholulu passenger service before America entered the war. In those days she was forever “stubbing her to 6”— blundering Into pier heads, breaking her machinery and “fussing” generally. At that, she was the fleetest and sweetest craft on the western ocean. , Then Uncle Sam shouldered arms and the big “prima donna” of the sea donned a gray uniform and went east as a transport. Coincidentally she dropped the nonsense somewhere between San Francisco and Hoboken and never went back to look for it. From then on' she was all business. Once in the North sea the Great

like 'any other part of the map to the people of the United States, is a wilderness of horror and desolation to the American workers in Poland who are familiar with the unbelievable suffering there. In the battle against disease and starvation which is going om in the territory east of the Bug river, the American Red Cross is fighting; the former, with medicines and physicians and nurses, and attempts toward, cleanliness, while the American Jewish relief workers have entered th» lists against hunger with soup kltchensu and milk stations, and Children’s Relief bureaus, established here and there, all through the vast stretch of territory. Fresh Clothing the Dire Need. If all the people In the territory east of the Bug rtyer could be fed properly at once, disease would soon disappear, physicians in the afflicted region say.If they could replace the rags which they have worn since the beginning of the war with fresh clothing, the epidemics would cease to spread. If their living places could be made habitable and clean, it would no longer be as it is today the most desolate expanse of land in the world. It is toward this end that the two great organizations, one of Gentiles and the other of Jews, are working band in hand, difference of creed forgotten, in the great practical need that they face. The Red Cross personnel has been trebled in the last few weeks in this district. American Jewish Relief agencies are feeding hundreds of children there.

A health center, to which every resident of the city has access, as well as the employees of the particular industries covered by the group policy. has been established. A nurse furnished by the insurance company is in charge. Meantime the officials of Kingsport have selected a public health official, drawing salary from the municipality, to look after the sanitary conditions of the community. Among other things, an attractive .housing plan has been adopted and will be carried out as expeditiously as building conditions will permit After making a careful survey the nurse in charge of the health center found a large number of houses in the town that she regarded as insanitary and unfit to live in. At the suggestion of the insurance company these houses are to be burned, and all of Kingsport, as well as a large delegation of “movie” picture men, have been invited to watch the bonfire. ' The insurance company has become a sort of “big brother” to the town of Kingsport, and its suggestions as to improvements necessary to preserve the health of the community are adopted with a spirit of hearty cooperation by the leading business men and city- officials.

Dislikes Cottar, Dog Buries It.

Winsted. Conn. —Averse to wearing a heavy collar. Jerry, a French bulldog owned by Andrew’ Saxe, picked up the collar after it had been temporarily removed from his neck and buried it under his master’s cottage.

Northern ran afoul of a British patrolboat and lost two of her after com•partments, but she gamely struggled into port with her cargo of. about 4,000 doughboys, spent a week in dry dock and went back to work. In all she steamed 125,000 miles between America and France during and immediately after the war. Just now she is operating as a troop ship between San Francisco and Vladivostok, but rumor says she will soon be back on the Pacific passenger rub, and that Commander Porta will continue to “skipper” her between the mainland and Hawaii.

Pet Carp a Fishing Prophet.

Meadville. Pa.—One of best fish stories of the season comes from Crawford county, where a man owns a pet carp. Whenever he desires to go fishing he digs a few’ angle wornis and throws them into the tank occupied by the carp. If the pet fish grabs them, the man takes up his bait and tackle and proceeds’to the nearest fishing place. If, on the other hand, the carp passes them up, the man stays at home. . ■ ;