The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 3, 1926, Page 16

By N. [. KISHOR, OME industries will probably never be safe, The dangers of explosion and fire brood over them continuously. The flying bricks and steel, the flam- ing tar, and the shower of acid at Gary are typical of a by-product coke plant catastrophe, The dangers in by-product coking are not as apparent as in coal mines and other industries generally listed as “dangerous,” and are more likely to. be underestimated by the worker when he applies for a job or while he works, But almost every point in a coke plant is a danger point, and this is thoroly well known to the manage- ment and calls for something more than “Safety First” campaigns to bring the risks down to the scientifi- cally irreducible minimum, By-product coking is one of the most important links in the industrial chain. In fact, the progress of a country to- ward industrial independence can al- 4 most. be measured by the size of its ‘ by- -product coke industry. Of the chief products of the by-product coke plant the coke is indispensable for iron production and the coal tar and benzol serve as the basis of a huge section of the chemicals—aside from the increasing use of benzol as a mo- tor fuel, When soft coal is heated in the open air, it burns, but when it is heated in a chamber or oven where no air can enter, gas and vapors amounting to about one-fourth of the weight of the coal are driven off. The residue in the oven is a hard mass all coked together, This is coke, which is used in blast furnaces to reduce the fron ore to metal, and also as a more efficient fuel than coal. Of the vapors, some con- dense almost immediately after leav- ing the oven in a thick, black, evil- smelling liquid. This is the famous coal tar. The rest of the gas does not condense at all, but is drawn away and used for lighting and heating pur- poses in homes and factories. This is our ordinary, familiar “gas.” UT this gas still contains two im- mensely important substances which must be extracted before the gas is used. By passing the gas thru sulphuric acid, ammonia is washed out of it, forming an important fertilizer. Then by passing the gas thru creosote oil, benzol, with its myriad uses, is extracted. From the entrance of the coal into the plant the struggle for safety com- mences. The coal must be crushed before charging into the ovens. Un- less special precautions are taken a large amount of coal dust is formed. This dust, if allowed to lie around in warm temperatures, becomes partially coked. In this condition it is explo- sive. Danger? point number one. “From the time the coal is charged into the ovens the danger may be said in general to follow the path of the gas. Fifty to sixty ovens are gener- ally run as one unit, the gas from all these passing from the ovens into a common gas main and being drawn to Historic Dates 1776. The Declaration of Independ- ence of the young commercial and cap- italist class of the thirteen colonies from the mother country, England, was made on July 4th. 1789. The United States of America was instituted under the new constitu- tion on March 4, the first step towards centralization since the failure of the loose Articles of Confederation of March 1, 1871, George Washington was chosen the president, 1823. President Monroe sends mes- sage to congress, later known as the Monroe Doctrine, establishing Amer- ica’s demand for exclusive control of the Western Hemisphere, 1850. The first international union was started by the “National Conven- tion of Journeymen Printers” in New York. Permanent organization was perfected in 1852 at the Cincinnati convention under the name National Typographical Union, 1856. The first national convention Sve: Py ~_ a situated there. This pump (or ex- hauster) must always be regulated so as to keep a slight pressure in the ovens, a slight pressure in the tar main (where the tar condenses) and a slight suction in the gas main coming to the pump. If the exhauster does not suck hard enough (or if the mains get blocked up—which amounts to the same thing). pressure will accumulate in the ovens, and although an ordinary increase would probably only blow off the doors without doing much harm, a sudden large increase of pressure might blow up the ovens. If the ex- hauster sucks too hard air will be drawn into the gas main from outside, possibly in a sufficiently large amount to form an explosive mixture with the gas. Once the gas is mixed with air any spark or temporary overheating will cause a-terrific explosion, Beyond the exhauster the gas is un- der pressure and here gas leaks may be expected. If a small amount of gas escapes the worst it can do is to make the workers somewhat sick. It should be clearly understood that gas is not explosive “by itself” like T. N. T. It is only explosive when mixed with air and when the percentage of gas in the gas-air mixture lies between certain limits. Since gas is less than half as heavy as air, it mounts to the top of the building on escaping, and there would have to be considerable leakage indeed before enough gas would diffuse thru the air to make an explosive mixture. Once this mixture is formed, however, any spark, even a a spark of static electricity from a driving belt, will explode it. Any at- tempt to put the blame for an explo- sion at this point on “a careless match- thrower” is ridiculous. If a little gas escapes from a leak a match can be safely brought directly up to it and the gas will only catch fire and burn quietly. It will not explode. Only when so much gas has already es- caped that the atmosphere nearby con- sists of an explosive mixture of gas and air can an explosion take place, and not till then. And when this is the case, not even a match is required ‘o set it off. The spark that follows on pulling an electric switch, or a spark of static electricity, is all that is needed. MPYHERE is another kind of gas that is generated and used in the plant. The coke ovens have to be maintained at a temperature of «bout 1700 degrees Fahrenheit. They are heated with gas, but with a weaker and cheaper gas than that made in the ovens from the coal. Either “producer gas,” “‘blast- furnace gas” or “blue gas” is used for this purpose. All three are explosive; all three are poisonous, containing high percentages of carbon monoxide. Blue gas has the widest explosive lim- its and contains about 40 per cent of carbon monoxide, making it intensely poisonous. Even small leaks of such a gas are exceedingly dangerous. Coming to the fire risks, any place where coal is stored, any place where of the republican party was held in Pittsburgh in February. Its address demanded not the abolition of slavery, but its confinements to existing limits and a practical demand that the north- ern capitalist class be given “adequate recognition.” 1860. At the opening of the Civil War, in December, a joint resolution of house and senate was passed pro- viding for a constitutional amendment to prohibit the adoption of any future amendment interfering with slavery in any existing state. 1863. Draft riots against conscrip- tion took place, during which the en- raged people held the city for a few days. In the same year, at the end of February, was created the system of national banks, 1869, Formation of the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor in Philadel- phia on Thanksgiving Day, with Uriah S. Stephens at the head, 1870-1, The first units of the Inter- Remembering the Gary Disaster | Dangers in By-Product Coking Fe the by-product plant by a large pump aust is" allowed to accumulate, * pre- sents the danger of spontaneous com- bustion, Coal tar, creosote and ben-. zol are all highly inflammable. The wells into which the tar runs down from the tar and gas mains and ac- cumulates, are fire risks. All places where tar, creosote or benzol are stored or ‘handled may be the scenes of disastrous fires. In the benzol plant extreme precau- tion must be observed. Benzol is capable of penetrating the slightest leak in a pipe or connection—a leak 50 small that water would not pass through it. Benzol vaporizes readily. The vapor is about three times as heavy as aid and therefore has a ten- dency to accumulate near the floor of a building. It also forms an explo- sive mixture with air, but in most cases of benzol disasters the first stage is fire, explosions possibly fol- lowing secondarily. No spark of any kind should ever be permitted in a benzol building. No electric switches (except of the totally-enclosed type) should be allowed. All precautions should be taken against sparks of static electricity from driving belts, etc. Benzol has even been known to acquire a static charge itself, from friction, when passed rapidly thru a pipe, resulting in a spark and a con- flagration. For this reason the benzol piping system should be electrically grounded if conditions favor the ac- cumulation of static charges. ‘Some coke plants sell their coal tar to distillers; others distill it them- selves. In the latter case the plant presents still another series of possi- bilities of disaster. If the tar is wet the distillation proceeds very turbu- lently, drops of water being vaporized suddenly with almost explosive vio- lence. Cases have been known where the tops have been blown off stills in this way. Blockages due to naphtha- lene may-stop- up the.yapor pipes lead- ing from the still or the condensers, causing an accumulation of pressure in the still and a consequent explo- sion. Towards the end of the distilla- tion—particularly if it has been car- ried too far, partially coking the resi- due, the bottom of the still may burn thru, precipitating tons of pitch onto the fire. Naphthalene, one of the products of the dist@lation—the white flaky mate- rial of which moth balls are made—is exceedingly inflammable and gener- ates a terrific heat when burned. A few years ago a naphthalene fire in one of the big distillation companies’ plant reduced the entire building to absolute wreckage. NOUGH has been given already to show the manifold dangers in by- product coking. And yet only pri- mary dangers have been touched upon. In practice, secondary dangers also cause great loss of life. By secondary dangers are meant those which come into play only when a disaster, such as a fire or explosion, is already in ac- tion. For example, an explosion in the by-product plant blows up the national Workingmen’s Association were formed in the United States. 1881. On November 19, in Pitts- burgh, was formed the direct fore- runner of the American Federation of Labor, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada. (A, F. of L, formed December 8, 1886, at Co- lumbus, O.) 1877. The historic railroad strikes, which spread thru east and west, and in which workers heid several towns for numerous days, took place, 1898. Declaration of the Spanish- American war on April 20, marking a turning point for American capitalism and the launching of the imperialist era, 1917. Rounding out of America’s imperialist career by the entry into the world war in April, following im- mediately on the second inauguration of Woodrow Wilson, elected because he kept us out of the war. tanks of sulphurie acid (“vitriol”) which is used there, and precipitates the acid onto the bodies of those be low. The same thing might occur in the benzol plant. Or a fire in the far distillation plant might heat up the tank of benzol obtained from the dis- tillation sufficiently to cause it to ex- plode. And so on, Furthermore, onty those. dangers have been discussed which are capable of giving rise to accidents of the: dl- mensions of a_ catastrophe.. The humerous possibilities of accident thruout the plant which might cause the death of an individual worker here or there have not been mentioned, These are mostly mechanical in na- ture. The coal crushing plant pre sents the same dangers as any other crushing plant anywhere else. There are numerous possibilities of accidents among those working on the ovens and around the heavy oven machinery— the coke pusher and the quenching car. The workers who go inside tanks that have contained benzol to clean them out are often taking their lives in their hands.. Benzol vapors, being so heavy, are exceedingly difficult to remove from a tank and many a worker has died from benzol poisoning on entering a tank that was suppos- edly freed from vapor, In which direction, then, does safety lie? Not in the direction of moral speeches to the employes, safety com- mittees and brigades, and notices “A fire in this plant may cost every man his job.” We can be frank and agree with the companies this far:: That care on the part of the employes is extremely necessary. And then we can inform them that this only scratches the surface of the safety question. Safety requires two ele- ments: a safe installation, and safe operation. In every part of the Plant there is a safe ‘way and an u in which the apparatus can in- stalled. There are safe and unsafe types of apparatus. Usually the safe installations are more expensive. Probably, in any particular plant, some of the dangers enumerated here do not exist; they may have been minimized or obviated. There are aften special safety devices that cover certain risks. But these also cost money. In general, it may be said that with an unsafe installation, no amount of care in operation can guard against disasters. In the same way there are safe and unsafe methods of operation. The safe methods usually take longer or are more expensive in other ways. It is easy to trumpet “Safety First” in speeches, in written notices and on signboards, and yet to give verbal in- structions or demand certain results that involve unsafe methods of opera- tion. No safe installation can be so foolproof as to guard against unsafe methods of operation. some industries will probably never be absolutely safe. Even under Communism we will still have industrial catastrophes. Industry rep- resents our conquest over Nature. This conquest is woefully incomplete and even under Communism the strug- ‘| gle with Nature will still be going on. We will probably still have an occa- sional mine disaster, a death roll at sea and in the air, a by-product coke catastrophe. Even increased research will probably never entirely eliminate the danger, The greatest industrial explosion in history—that at Oppau, Germany, in 1921—the explosion of an immense mass of material that ig or- dinarily never considered explosive, is still unexplained. But the enormous difference lies in this: under Commu- nism industrial disasters will be at the scientifically irreducible minimum, So long as an economic system pre- vails which puts profits before life, so long as the machinery of industry is used to enslave the worker to the boss instead of to free the workers from slavery to Nature, disasters like the Gary explosion will be periodical and will be duly noted as “regrettable oc- curences.” And the motto, “Safety First,” should be understood as mean- ing “Safety First—but be reasonable!” Pa = gm a nr a ee, ag go . |