Corn silo collapse gets hotter than expected

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/08/01/corn-silo-collapse-gets-hotter.html

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Laser printer toner has similar properties. Carbon particles with a high surface area per unit volume.

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Okay, the collapse was due to some structural failure.
But I’m almost positive that the explosion was caused by vertical video.

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Large surface area + oxydizer = everything burns.

Edit:

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I’m glad the everyone is unharmed, but that is definitely some unsatisfying footage.

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Doesn’t even take a whole lot of dust. As he says in the video, they told him the amount was -2- grams. He says he wanted to use -4- grams. The fun part is at 2:50.
After the shot, he said “want to do it again?”
"I want to use -6- grams."
There was a resounding NO (almost a HELL NO) from the audience.

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As a teenager, I placed an electrically fired stage maroon inside a bag of flour; expecting to produce a satisfying bang and a big white cloud.

Instead, I produced a huge, translucent ball of flickering flame that seemed to hang in the air for minutes. It was at this moment that I became aware of the miles of dry bracken and pine trees surrounding me in all directions.

You know they say, “Only you can prevent forest fires”; well, I think I did so by the power of fervent prayer.

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We had an elevator dryer fire near us a few years back and the heat from the fire was amazing.

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Lycopodium powder is the classic example.

Powdered milk was the best household equivalent when I was a youth; much better than flour or icing sugar.

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Non-dairy creamer:

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Farming is a dangerous industry.

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Yup. Every time I see a silo all I can think of is grain entrapment

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I assumed god was trying to make enough popcorn for the week we’ve been having.

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Son-of-a-gun-don’t-ya-know. It seems that farm living is apparently cleaner than most.

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It’s just more viral advertising for Micheal Bay’s forthcoming video game movie, Farming Simulator.

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Yep, that dust is SUPER dangerous and flammable.

I figured out non-dairy creamer was flammable when I was like 17 or so. For a few years I didn’t have a lot of unsinged hair on my arms…

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It’s likely changing now, but most farmers I’ve met over my life would tend to reject the concept of formal safety controls and rely instead on their “common sense”. The statistics tended to show the folly of this approach. (I am in mining so industry-comparative statistics were an area of interest).

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Silos are dangerous enough that they use special phones to prevent sparks.
http://www.paul-f.com/we520.htm

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My dad used to work at a Co-oP grain elevator. Lost the tip of his middle finger in an accident there. Crushed it when a grain grate shifted.

I know that that was a potentially very dangerous situation but… GET THE SHOT! If you are filming you have the responsibility to film it even if the resulting explosion burns off your eyebrows… (right?). None of this running away just at the good explosion part.

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