Franco-Prussian War
The conflict was caused by Prussian ambitions to extend German unification and French fears of the shift in the European balance of power that would result if the Prussians succeeded. On 16 July 1870, the French parliament voted to declare war on the German Kingdom of Prussia, the German coalition mobilised its troops much more quickly than the French and rapidly invaded northeastern France. The German forces were superior in numbers, had training and leadership and made more effective use of modern technology, particularly railroads. The German states proclaimed their union as the German Empire under the Prussian king Wilhelm I, the Treaty of Frankfurt of 10 May 1871 gave Germany most of Alsace and some parts of Lorraine, which became the Imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine. French determination to regain Alsace-Lorraine and fear of another Franco-German war, along with British apprehension about the balance of power, the causes of the Franco-Prussian War are deeply rooted in the events surrounding the unification of Germany.
In the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Prussia had annexed numerous territories and this new power destabilized the European balance of power established by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 after the Napoleonic Wars. France was strongly opposed to any further alliance of German states, in Prussia, some officials considered a war against France both inevitable and necessary to arouse German nationalism in those states that would allow the unification of a great German empire. Bismarck knew that France should be the aggressor in the conflict to bring the southern German states to side with Prussia, many Germans viewed the French as the traditional destabilizer of Europe, and sought to weaken France to prevent further breaches of the peace. The immediate cause of the war resided in the candidacy of Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, France feared encirclement by an alliance between Prussia and Spain. The Hohenzollern princes candidacy was withdrawn under French diplomatic pressure, releasing the Ems Dispatch to the public, Bismarck made it sound as if the king had treated the French envoy in a demeaning fashion, which inflamed public opinion in France.
They argue that he wanted a war to resolve growing domestic political problems, other historians, notably French historian Pierre Milza, dispute this. According to Milza, the Emperor had no need for a war to increase his popularity, the Ems telegram had exactly the effect on French public opinion that Bismarck had intended. This text produced the effect of a red flag on the Gallic bull, the French foreign minister, declared that he felt he had just received a slap. Napoleons new prime minister, Emile Ollivier, declared that France had done all that it could humanly and honorably do to prevent the war, a crowd of 15–20,000 people, carrying flags and patriotic banners, marched through the streets of Paris, demanding war. On 19 July 1870 a declaration of war was sent to the Prussian government, the southern German states immediately sided with Prussia. The French Army consisted in peacetime of approximately 400,000 soldiers, some of them were veterans of previous French campaigns in the Crimean War, the Franco-Austrian War in Italy, and in the Mexican campaign.
Under Marshal Adolphe Niel, urgent reforms were made, universal conscription and a shorter period of service gave increased numbers of reservists, who would swell the army to a planned strength of 800,000 on mobilisation. Those who for any reason were not conscripted were to be enrolled in the Garde Mobile, the Franco-Prussian War broke out before these reforms could be completely implemented
World War I
World War I, known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world.
On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors.
During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary and Germany
Willy Coppens
Willy Omer François Jean baron Coppens de Houthulst was Belgiums leading fighter ace and the champion balloon buster of World War I. He was credited with 37 confirmed victories and six probables, Coppens was born in Watermael-Boitsfort, son of Omer Coppens a Belgina impressionistic painter that studied in the Royal Academy of Ghent. He was conscripted into the army in 1912, to serve with the Premiere Regiment Grenadiers, in 1914, following the German invasion of Belgium, Coppens transferred to The Motor Machine Gun Corps. On 6 September 1915, he signed up for training in the Compagnie des Aviateurs. Ultimately, due to insufficiencies in Belgian training, he took eight weeks of leave to train to fly and he and 39 other Belgians learned to fly on their own expense in Britain. He received his pilots certificate on 9 December 1915, after this training in Britain he had further training at the Farman School in Étampes and joined the Sixieme Escradrille as a sergent 1st class on 8 April 1917 flying BE-2c two seaters.
Later that month, he was assigned to Quatrieme Escadrille to fly a Farman pusher, on 1 May, he received a Sopwith 1½ Strutter two seater and promptly flew it into his first aerial combat. In mid July, he transferred to the single seater fighter unit 1ère Escadrille de Chasse and he received the last remaining Nieuport 16 in the squadron, everyone else had upgraded to Nieuport 17s. When Hanriot HD. 1s were offered to the squadron, he was the pilot to initially accept one. His enthusiasm for the aircraft type prompted other pilots to move over to Hanriots. On 19 August Coppens was promoted to Adjutant and he continued his nervy but unsuccessful combat career against enemy aircraft until 17 March 1918. On that day he carried out his first attack on German observation balloons, though handicapped by lack of incendiary ammunition he punctured two balloons, causing the observers to bail out and the balloons to collapse to the ground. Finally, on 25 April Coppens scored his first victory by downing a Rumpler two seater, on 8 May he finally found his metier, when he shot two balloons down in flames.
A week later, using his usual tactics of close range fire and it bounced up beneath him and momentarily carried his Hanriot skyward. After his aircraft fell off the balloon, he restarted its engine, the balloon sagged into an explosion. Later when on another run, he got shot at from a balloon. He parked his plane on top of the balloon, shut down his engine in order to protect its propeller. From on, Coppens record was spectacular, between April and October 1918 he was credited with destroying 34 German observation balloons and three airplanes, nearly as many victories as Belgiums other five aces combined
Siege of Ladysmith
The Siege of Ladysmith was a protracted engagement in the Second Boer War, taking place between 2 November 1899 and 28 February 1900 at Ladysmith, Natal. Some of these troops were diverted while returning to Britain from India, others were sent from garrisons in the Mediterranean, lieutenant General Sir George White was appointed to command this enlarged force. White was 64 years old and suffered from a leg injury incurred in a riding accident, having served mainly in India, he had little previous experience of South Africa. Instead, they regarded it as evidence of Britains determination to control of the Boer republics. With the complete breakdown in negotiations, both declared war and attacked on 12 October. A total of 21,000 Boers advanced into Natal from all sides, White had been advised to deploy his force far back, well clear of the area of northern Natal known as the Natal Triangle, a wedge of land lying between the two Boer republics. Instead, White deployed his forces around the town of Ladysmith, with a detachment even further forward at Dundee.
The entire British force could concentrate only after fighting two battles at Talana Hill and Elandslaagte, as the Boers surrounded Ladysmith, White ordered a sortie by his entire force to capture the Boer artillery. The result was the disastrous Battle of Ladysmith, in which the British were driven back into the town having lost 1,200 men killed, wounded or captured, the Boers proceeded to surround Ladysmith and cut the railway link to Durban. Major General French and his Chief of Staff, Major Douglas Haig escaped on the last train to leave and this town was besieged for 118 days. White knew that large reinforcements were arriving, and could communicate with British units south of the Tugela River by searchlight, his troops carried out several raids and sorties to sabotage Boer artillery. Louis Botha commanded the Boer detachment which first raided Southern Natal, on 15 December, the first relief attempt was defeated at the Battle of Colenso. Temporarily unnerved, the force commander, General Redvers Henry Buller, suggested that White either break out or destroy his stores and ammunition.
White could not break out because his horses and draught animals were weak from lack of grazing and forage, but refused to surrender. On Christmas Day 1899, the Boers fired into Ladysmith a carrier shell without fuze, the shell is still kept in the museum at Ladysmith. The Boers around Ladysmith were growing weak from lack of forage, with little action, many fighters took unauthorised leave or brought their families into the siege encampments. The British line south of Ladysmith ran along a known as the Platrand. The occupying British troops had named its features Wagon Hill to the west, under Ian Hamilton, they had constructed a line of forts and entrenchments on the reverse slope of the Platrand, of which the Boers were unaware
Barrage balloon
Commonly the designs were kite balloons, having a shape and cable bridling which stabilise the balloon in windy conditions, allowing operation in higher winds than a spherical balloon. Some examples carried small explosive charges that would be pulled up against the aircraft to ensure its destruction, barrage balloons are not practical against very high-flying aircraft, due to the weight of a very long cable. France, Germany and the United Kingdom used barrage balloons in the First World War. Sometimes, especially around London, several balloons were used to lift a length of barrage net and these nets could be raised to an altitude comparable to the operational ceiling of the bombers of the day. By 1918 the barrage defences around London stretched for 50 miles, in 1938 the British Balloon Command was established to protect cities and key targets such as industrial areas and harbours. By the middle of 1940 there were 1,400 balloons and they proved to be mildly effective against the V-1 flying bomb, which usually flew at 2,000 feet or lower but had wire-cutters on its wings to counter balloons. 231 V-1s are officially claimed to have destroyed by balloons.
The British added two refinements to their balloons, Double Parachute Link and Double Parachute/Ripping, the latter was intended to render the balloon safe if it broke free accidentally. In 1942 Canadian and American forces began joint operations to protect the sensitive locks, marie along their common border among the Great Lakes against possible air attack. During severe storms in August and October 1942 some barrage balloons broke loose, in particular, the metals production vital to the war effort was disrupted. Canadian military historical records indicate that the October incident, the most serious, the idea of free-floating balloons was used in Operation Outward. After the war, some surplus barrage balloons were used as tethered shot balloons for nuclear weapon tests throughout most of the period when nuclear weapons were tested in the atmosphere. The weapon or shot was carried to the required altitude slung underneath the barrage balloon, several of the tests in the Operation Plumbob series were lifted to altitude using barrage balloons
Balloon (aeronautics)
In aeronautics, a balloon is an unpowered aerostat, which remains aloft or floats due to its buoyancy. A balloon may be free, moving with the wind, or tethered to a fixed point and it is distinct from an airship, which is a powered aerostat that can propel itself through the air in a controlled manner. Many balloons have a basket, gondola or capsule suspended beneath the envelope for carrying people or equipment. A balloon is conceptually the simplest of all flying machines, the balloon is a fabric envelope filled with a gas that is lighter than the surrounding atmosphere. As the entire balloon is less dense than its surroundings, it rises, taking along with it a basket, attached underneath, which carries passengers or payload. Although a balloon has no propulsion system, a degree of control is possible through making the balloon rise or sink in altitude to find favorable wind directions. There are three types of balloon, The hot air balloon or Montgolfière obtains its buoyancy by heating the air inside the balloon.
The Rozière type has both heated and unheated lifting gases in separate gasbags and this type of balloon is sometimes used for long-distance record flights, such as the recent circumnavigations, but is not otherwise in use. Both the hot air, or Montgolfière, balloon and the gas balloon are still in common use, Montgolfière balloons are relatively inexpensive, as they do not require high-grade materials for their envelopes, and they are popular for balloonist sport activity. The first tethered manned balloon flight was by a larger Montgolfier balloon, the first free balloon flight was by the same Montgolfier balloon on 21 November 1783. When heated, air expands, so a given volume of space contains less air and this makes it lighter and, if its lifting power is greater than the weight of the balloon containing it, it will lift the balloon upwards. A hot air balloon can stay up while it has fuel for its burner. The Montgolfiers early hot air balloons used a solid-fuel brazier which proved less practical than the balloons that had followed almost immediately.
In the 1950s, the convenience and low cost of bottled gas burners led to a revival of hot air ballooning for sport and leisure. A man-carrying balloon using the gas hydrogen for buoyancy was made by Professor Jacques Charles and flown less than a month after the Montgolfier flight. In the 19th century, it was common to use gas to fill balloons, this was not as light as pure hydrogen gas, having about half the lifting power. Light gas balloons are predominant in scientific applications, as they are capable of reaching much higher altitudes for longer periods of time. They are generally filled with helium, although hydrogen has more lifting power, it is explosive in an atmosphere rich in oxygen
Battle of Magersfontein
The Battle of Magersfontein was fought on 11 December 1899, at Magersfontein near Kimberley on the borders of the Cape Colony and the independent republic of the Orange Free State. The British had already fought a series of battles with the Boers, most recently at Modder River, the Highland Brigade suffered the worst casualties, while on the Boer side, the Scandinavian Corps was destroyed. The Boers attained a tactical victory and succeeded in holding the British in their advance on Kimberley, the battle was the second of three battles during what became known as the Black Week of the Second Boer War. Following their defeat, the British delayed at the Modder River for another two months while reinforcements were brought forward, General Lord Roberts was appointed Commander in Chief of the British forces in South Africa and moved to take personal command of this front. He subsequently lifted the Siege of Kimberley and forced Cronje to surrender at the Battle of Paardeberg, substantial British reinforcements arrived in South Africa and were dispersed to three main fronts.
Methuen advanced along the Cape–Transvaal railway line because a lack of water, Buller had given him orders to evacuate the civilians in Kimberley and the railway was the only means of mass transport available. But his strategy had the disadvantage of making the direction of his approach obvious, his army drove the Boers out of their defensive positions along the railway line at Belmont and the Modder River, at the cost of a thousand casualties. The British were forced to stop their advance within 16 miles of Kimberley at the Modder River crossing, the Boers had demolished the railway bridge when they retreated, and it had to be repaired before the army could advance any further. Methuen needed several days for supplies and reinforcements to be brought forward, the Boers were badly shaken by their three successive defeats and required time to recover. The delay gave them time to bring up reinforcements, to reorganise, after the Battle of the Modder River, the Boers initially retreated to Jacobsdal, where a commando from Mafeking linked up with them.
Although closer to the British camp than the Boer camp, Jacobsdal was left poorly defended, the Free State government decided to reinforce Cronjes position after the Battle of Belmont. Reinforcements were brought up from the Bloemhof and Wolmaranstad commandos who were besieging Kimberley, the remainder of Cronjes force arrived from the Siege of Mafeking. Their force now numbered 8,500 fighters, excluding camp followers and he arrived at the defensive positions on 1 December and surveyed the Boer lines the following day. He found the defences lacking, and realised that Cronjes position at Spytfontein was vulnerable to long range fire from the hills at Magersfontein. He therefore recommended that they should move their defensive position forward to Magersfontein, who was the more senior officer, disagreed with him, so De la Rey telegraphed his objections to President Martinus Theunis Steyn of the Orange Free State. After consulting with President Paul Kruger of the Transvaal, Steyn visited the front on 4 December at Krugers suggestion.
Steyn wished to settle a rift that had developed between the Transvaal and Free State Boers over the performance of his Free Staters in the battle on 28 November. He spent the day touring the camps and defences, summoned a krijgsraad
Anti-submarine weapon
An anti-submarine weapon is any one of a number of devices that are intended to act against a submarine and its crew, to destroy the vessel or reduce its capability as a weapon of war. In its simplest sense, a weapon is usually a projectile, missile or bomb that is optimized to destroy submarines. Prior to about 1890, naval weapons were used against surface shipping. With the rise of the submarine after this time, countermeasures were considered for use against them. The first submarine installation of tubes was in 1885 and the first ship was sunk by a submarine-launched torpedo in 1887. There were only two ways of countering the military initially, ramming them or sinking them with gunfire. However, once they were submerged, they were largely immune until they had to surface again, by the start of the First World War there were nearly 300 submarines in service with another 80 in production. World War I marked the first earnest conflict involving significant use of submarines, in particular, the United Kingdom was desperate to defeat the U-Boat threat against British merchant shipping.
When the bombs that it employed were found to be ineffective it began equipping its destroyers with simple depth charges that could be dropped into the water around a suspected submarines location. During this period it was found that explosions of these charges were more efficient if the charges were set to explode below or above the submarine, many other techniques were used, including minefields, barrages and Q-ships and the use of cryptanalysis against intercepted radio messages. The airship was used to drop bombs but fixed-wing aircraft were used for reconnaissance. However, the most effective countermeasure was the convoy, in 1918 U-boat losses became unbearably high. Most of the losses were due to mines but two were torpedoed, french and Russian submarines were destroyed. Before the war ended, the need for forward-throwing weapons had been recognized by the British, hydrophones had been developed and were becoming effective as detection and location devices. Also and airships had flown with depth bombs, albeit small ones with poor explosives.
In addition, the specialist hunter-killer submarine had appeared, HMS R-1, the main developments in this period were in detection, with both active sonar and radar becoming effective. The British integrated the sonar with fire control and weapons to form a system for warships. Germany was banned from having a fleet but began construction in secret during the 1930s
Parachute
A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag. Parachutes are usually out of light, strong cloth, originally silk. Parachutes often take the shape of a dome, but shapes may vary including some taking the shape of an inverted dome, depending on the situation, parachutes are used with a variety of loads, including people, equipment, space capsules, and bombs. Drogue chutes are used to aid horizontal deceleration of a vehicle, the earliest evidence for the parachute dates back to the Renaissance period. The oldest parachute design appears in a manuscript from 1470s Renaissance Italy. As a safety measure, four straps run from the ends of the rods to a waist belt, shortly after, a more sophisticated parachute was sketched by the polymath Leonardo da Vinci in his Codex Atlanticus dated to ca. Here, the scale of the parachute is in a more favorable proportion to the weight of the jumper, Leonardos canopy was held open by a square wooden frame, which alters the shape of the parachute from conical to pyramidal.
It is not known whether the Italian inventor was influenced by the earlier design, the feasibility of Leonardos pyramidal design was successfully tested in 2000 by Briton Adrian Nicholas and again in 2008 by the Swiss skydiver Olivier Vietti-Teppa. The Croatian polymath and inventor Faust Vrančić examined da Vincis parachute sketch and he kept the square frame, but replaced the canopy with a bulging sail-like piece of cloth that he came to realize decelerates the fall more effectively. However, in book, John Wilkins wrote about flying. The modern parachute was invented in the late 18th century by Louis-Sébastien Lenormand in France, Lenormand sketched his device beforehand. Two years later, in 1785, Lenormand coined the word parachute by hybridizing a Latin prefix para, and chute, in 1785, Jean-Pierre Blanchard demonstrated it as a means of safely disembarking from a hot-air balloon. Subsequent development of the focused on it becoming more compact. In 1797, André Garnerin made the first descent using such a parachute, Garnerin invented the vented parachute, which improved the stability of the fall.
In 1907 Charles Broadwick demonstrated two key advances in the parachute he used to jump from hot air balloons at fairs and he folded his parachute into a pack he wore on his back. And the parachute was pulled from the pack by a line attached to the balloon. When Broadwick jumped from the balloon, the line became taut, pulled the parachute from the pack. In 1911 a successful test took place with a dummy at the Eiffel tower in Paris, the puppets weight was 75 kg, the parachutes weight was 21 kg
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War, usually known as the Boer War and at the time as the South African War, started on 11 October 1899 and ended on 31 May 1902. Great Britain defeated two Boer states in South Africa, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, Britain was aided by its Cape Colony, Colony of Natal and some native African allies. The British war effort was supported by volunteers from the British Empire, including Southern Africa, the Australian colonies, India. All other nations were neutral, but public opinion in them was largely hostile to Britain, inside Britain and its Empire there was significant opposition to the Second Boer War. The British were overconfident and under-prepared, the Boers were very well armed and struck first, besieging Ladysmith and Mafeking in early 1900, and winning important battles at Colenso and Stormberg. Staggered, the British brought in numbers of soldiers and fought back. General Redvers Buller was replaced by Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener and they relieved the three besieged cities, and invaded the two Boer republics in late 1900.
The onward marches of the British Army were so overwhelming that the Boers did not fight staged battles in defense of their homeland, the British quickly seized control of all of the Orange Free State and Transvaal, as the civilian leadership went into hiding or exile. In conventional terms, the war was over, Britain officially annexed the two countries in 1900, and called a khaki election to give the government another six years of power in London. However, the Boers refused to surrender and they reverted to guerrilla warfare under new generals Louis Botha, Jan Smuts, Christiaan de Wet and Koos de la Rey. Two more years of attacks and quick escapes followed. As guerrillas without uniforms, the Boer fighters easily blended into the farmlands, which provided hiding places, the British solution was to set up complex nets of block houses, strong points, and barbed wire fences, partitioning off the entire conquered territory. The civilian farmers were relocated into concentration camps, where very large proportions died of disease, especially the children, the British mounted infantry units systematically tracked down the highly mobile Boer guerrilla units.
The battles at this stage were small operations with few combat casualties The war ended in surrender, the British successfully won over the Boer leaders, who now gave full support to the new political system. Both former republics were incorporated into the Union of South Africa in 1910, the conflict is commonly referred to as simply the Boer War, since the First Boer War is much less well known. Boer was the term for Afrikaans-speaking white South Africans descended from the Dutch East India Companys original settlers at the Cape of Good Hope. It is officially called the South African War and it is known as the Anglo-Boer War among some South Africans. In Afrikaans it may be called the Anglo-Boereoorlog, Tweede Boereoorlog, in South Africa it is officially called the South African War
Combustibility and flammability
Combustibility is a measure of how easily a substance will set on fire, through fire or combustion. This is an important property to consider when a substance is used for construction or is being stored and it is important in processes that produce combustible substances as a by-product. Special precautions are required for substances that are easily combustible. These measures may include installation of fire sprinklers or storage remote from possible sources of ignition, substances with low combustibility may be selected for construction where the fire risk needs to be reduced, such as apartment buildings, houses, or offices. If combustible resources are used there is chance of fire accidents. Fire resistant substances are preferred for building materials and furnishings, for an Authority Having Jurisdiction, combustibility is defined by the local code. BS 476-4,1970 defines a test for combusibility in which 3 specimens of a material are heated in a furnace, the material shall be deemed combustible.
Various countries have tests for determining noncombustibility of materials, most involve the heating of a specified quantity of the test specimen for a set duration. Usually, the material cannot support combustion and must not undergo a loss of mass. In Canada, for instance, firewalls must be made of concrete, in building construction, buildings are typically divided into combustible and noncombustible ones. Combustible structures have more stringent limits on building height and area. A number of industrial processes produce combustible dust as a by-product, the most common being wood dust. In addition to wood, combustible dusts include metals, especially magnesium and aluminum, there are at least a 140 known substances that produce combustible dust. While the particles in a combustible dusts may be of any size, as of 2012, the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration has yet to adopt a comprehensive set of rules on combustible dust. When suspended in air, the particles of combustible dust present a potential for explosions.
Accumulated dust, even when not suspended in air, remains a fire hazard, collectors designed to reduce airborne dust account for more than 40 percent of all dust explosions. Other important processes are grinding and pulverizing, transporting powders, filing silos and containers, investigation of 200 dust explosions and fires, between 1980 to 2005, indicated approximately 100 fatalities and 600 injuries. In January 2003, a powder explosion and fire at the West Pharmaceutical Services plant in Kinston, North Carolina resulted in the deaths of six workers
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