Continued...

In the early 1970s Cox was busily pumping out model rocket motors from their custom built machines.

Black powder is an abrasive substance. As the second motor machine would ram/press the black powder pellets into the paper casing the ram would wear down a little. Over the course of producing thousands of motors the ram had worn down and little particles of BP had escaped due to the shrinking outside diameter of the ram.

BP dust particles levels were noted in the atmosphere in the building but no effort was made to replace the ram heads.

The process by which the BP pellets were transferred from the first machine to the second was done by a person. A tray of the BP pellets was carried to the second machine and dumped in a hopper. When everything was set the machine was turned on and started making rocket motors.

Everything worked fine until one day...

The later investigation never conclusively determined the initial source of the spark/fire but a tray of BP pellets suddenly ignited. This caused the BP saturated air in the room to flash off.
Two or three people were in the room at the time. One was killed and the other one/two received serious burns.

Cox was sued by the families of the deceased and injured individuals. Cox was found guilty and paid the families. After that, Cox ended their model rocket product line.

__________________
Bob
S.A.M. # 0014