Many accidents and explosions are left unexplained, either because the evidence is destroyed by the resulting fire or by the death of the witness or witnesses, or because of the difficulty often experienced in getting the workpeople to give a full and faithful account of what occurred, fearing to cause trouble for themselves or others concerned.
There can be no doubt that the cause is frequently carelessness or mistakes on the part of workers. In a large number of cases, however, this explanation gives no help and the cause remains obscure. One such may be mentioned:
In 1902 an explosion occurred in a store for non-explosive ingredients, in which were kept the chemicals used in a firework factory. In the building at the time was a workman who appears to have been engaged in sifting chlorate of potash, and the technical manager of the factory who seems to have been weighing out ingredients. There is no doubt that he was a man of very considerable experience, and from his responsible position unlikely either to take risks or be guilty of carelessness.
An explosion occurred in the building, killing both occupants, and of so violent a nature as to sever the foot of the manager and to project one of the sheets of corrugated iron with which the roof was covered a distance of thirty yards.
No explanation of this occurrence was arrived at other than that in some way some of the chemicals must have become mixed to form a sensitive and violent explosive; so much is obvious, but how the chemicals became so mixed remains a mystery, as no mixing was actually done in the building. The ignition of such a mixture is less obscure as magazine boots were not necessary in the building owing to the non-hazardous nature of the work carried on there, and sufficient friction would be produced to fire even a fairly sensitive mixture between a nailed boot sole and a wood floor.
