Started with a lie

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Latest best theory on the U.S.S. Maine is a slow burning coal fire in the forward coal bunker. After slowly burning for hours undetected (an all-too-common problem of the era) the heat alone set off the powder bags in an adjacent magazine. Hearst did the rest.

France did indeed launch an assault on Germany as a way to belatedly "intervene" on behalf of Poland, but the event came to nothing. To argue that this was the trigger for the second world war, however, flies in the face of a good volume of historical documentation.

Seamus

[Red Harvest]

Latest best theory on the U.S.S. Maine is a slow burning coal fire in the forward coal bunker. After slowly burning for hours undetected (an all-too-common problem of the era) the heat alone set off the powder bags in an adjacent magazine. Hearst did the rest.

Yep, the magazines were not well situated. Coal fires like this are stil a problem for power plants, coal trains, and the like. It is rather easy for a fire to start in a mound of coal from spontaneous oxidation and heating from what I've gathered. Various things can cause a pile of coal to start heating from the inside, this can lead to a fire. I've not worked with coal much myself, but I am aware it can provide its own heat to ignite a fire.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Yep, the magazines were not well situated. Coal fires like this are stil a problem for power plants, coal trains, and the like. It is rather easy for a fire to start in a mound of coal from spontaneous oxidation and heating from what I've gathered. Various things can cause a pile of coal to start heating from the inside, this can lead to a fire. I've not worked with coal much myself, but I am aware it can provide its own heat to ignite a fire.

Quite right, only a few environmental factors have to line up and then the coal ignites. Can even cause a fuel-air bomb effect if coal is stored in a warehouse and there's enough coal dust whirling about. Living near one of the largest coal-exporting ports, you become aware of this when you see huge hoses wetting down the coal heaps -- open air -- as they sit there waiting for the next collier.

Seamus

[Meneldil]

Well, I think the Japanese invaded China because there was a 'terrorist attack' (officially caused by Communists) on some railroad owned by a Japanese company. At least that's how it goes in 'Tintin and the Blue Lotus' (though I think I read that in a History book).

Edit : Look like it was true. Search for the Mukden Incident

[Papewaio]

Can even cause a fuel-air bomb effect if coal is stored in a warehouse and there's enough coal dust whirling about.

Custard factories have blown up from the same effect... powdered custard in the air igniting...

Epitaph: He died with custard on his face.

[Red Harvest]

Custard factories have blown up from the same effect... powdered custard in the air igniting...

Epitaph: He died with custard on his face.

People don't appreciate the danger of dust explosions...there are all sorts of potential sources, like grain elevators. Blowers and ducts in much of the air conveying equipment have blow out panels.