Exploding trousers
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In New Zealand in the 1930s, farmers had trouble with exploding trousers as a result of attempts to wipe out the weed ragwort. Farmers had been spraying sodium chlorate, a government recommended weedkiller, onto the ragwort, and some of the spray had ended up on their clothes. Sodium chlorate is a strong oxidizing agent, and reacted with the organic fibres (i.e. the wool and the cotton) of the clothes. Reports had farmers' trousers variously smouldering and bursting into flame, particularly when exposed to heat or naked flames. One report had trousers that were hanging on a washing line starting to smoke.[1][2]
[edit] On television
The idea that trousers could explode like this was investigated by the U.S. television show MythBusters. Experimenters tested four substances on 100% cotton overalls:
- A paste comprising a mixture of gunpowder and water
- A herbicide from the 1930s
- A fertilizer from the 1930s
- An acid (nitrocellulose/guncotton)
along with four different ignition methods: flame, radiant heat, friction and impact.
Using the show's "Buster test", they confirmed that trousers would indeed combust with sufficient herbicide and a suitable detonator present.[3]
ABC's The Science Show described exploding trousers as "the scenario for a Goon Show"[2], and, in an example of art imitating life, it actually was. The Goons wrote a script about a chemical which "when applied to the tail of a military soldier shirt, is tasteless, colourless, and odourless" but that "The moment the wearer sits down, the heat from his body causes the chemical to explode.".[4]
[edit] References
- ^ "Dr Watson and the exploding trousers", Massey University, 2005-10-10.
- ^ a b "Exploding Trousers", The Science Show, ABC, 2004-12-18.
- ^ Episode 53: Exploding Trousers, Great Gas Conspiracy. Unofficial MythBusters: Episode guides (2006-05-28).
- ^ Tales of Men's shirts. The Goon Show.
[edit] Further reading
- James Watson (2004). "The significance of Mr. Richard Buckley's exploding trousers: Reflections on an aspect of technological change in New Zealand dairy farming between the world wars". Agricultural History 78 (3): 346–360. DOI:10.1525/ah.2004.78.3.346. The author won an Ig Nobel Prize in 2005 for this paper.
