In article ,
on Mon, 21 Jun 2004 23:45:33 -0400,
Peter Stickney attempted to say .....

In article t,
Tank Fixer writes:
In article ,
on 20 Jun 2004 03:48:41 GMT,
So coal caught fire in a very politically correct location and time.

No, coal bunker fires were known in the period to burn for weeks before
flairing up.

Indeed they were - one of the factors on the catastrophic nature of
teh loss of the Lusitania was an ongoing bunker fire that had been
going for about half the voyage - when teh torpedos hit, they stirred
up the coal dust in the bunkers. Aerosol-ed coal dust is very
explosive.

I had not heard that before, thanks.
Wheat chaff and flour have similar properties.



Warships were blowing up all over the World, in just abpot all navies
at that time. Coal fires aren't great seeping conflagrations -
without some sort of draught, they're slichtly smouldering piles of
very hot rocks. Ammunition handling wasn't particularly rigorous,
either.

I've read of concerns over magazine temperatures many times. And the powder
of the time was not as stable.


--
When dealing with propaganda terminology one sometimes always speaks in
variable absolutes. This is not to be mistaken for an unbiased slant.