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Static Electricity

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longreyhair

32 Cal
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I am new to black powder and was wondering about concerns regarding static. My primary question relates to a plastic bottle for use as a powder horn. Is this a good idea, or practice?
 
In short, there are two basic kinds of plastic.
Plastic that can create a static charge, and plastic that does not.

The plastic containers that powder now comes in is anti-static.
 
On top of that a person can’t generate enough static to cause a problem. I and many others with static generators have proven that in independent tests many times. The nastiest spark you ever made to a metal object doesn’t have the BTUs to ignite black powder.
 
The United States Bureau of Mines reports that confined powder can be ignited by electrostatic discharge energy of 0.8 J, whereas 12.5 J are required for unconfined powder. Dahn and Reyes (1994) have reported that, under certain conditions, black powder can be ignited by a 0.04 J spark.
The presence of the graphite glaze on most black powder grades reduces the static hazard, since graphite is a relatively good conductor and allows charge transfer over the grain surface through the grounding without ignition.

Carpet shocks:
  • 750V, 0.04mJ - Spark threshold, visible in darkness
  • 4KV, 1.2 mJoules - Winter doorknob spark, small snap, little pinprick
  • 7KV, 3.7 mJoules - Fairly nasty spark, louder snap. Ouch.
  • Taser, tens of mJoules
  • 35KV, 100 mJoules - Highest measured spark: northshore Alaska winter, vinyl truck seat.
  • 100KV, half a joule - VandeGraaff machine with chain of children connected
 
I am new to black powder and was wondering about concerns regarding static. My primary question relates to a plastic bottle for use as a powder horn. Is this a good idea, or practice?
Simply put, don't worry about it.
In order for static electricity to ignite black powder it has to create a lot of heat in the powder itself.
Because of the carbon in the charcoal and the graphite applied to the outside of the powder granules, the electricity will just zip around the outside of the powder grains and make a spark without making any heat.

For a good link that talks about this issue, click on the link below

http://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/ctml_experiments/sparks/sparks.html


edit: I should add, the sparks given off when the flint strikes the frizzen on a flintlock are bits of burning steel. They are very hot and they burn for a comparatively long time when compared with a static discharge which is an almost instantaneous flash. That difference is why a flintlock spark can ignite the powder in the flash pan but a static spark cannot.
 
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run of the mill static is a very remote possible ignition source. Unless you frequent high latitude windy dry places where static can build up to dangerous amounts. (During the dust bowl in the US chrges would build up in some farm equipment from the bllowing dust. Enough charge to knock an adult unconscious.) Electrical workers in artic climates have to take special precautions to dissapate static charges before climbing high steel power structures. Lightning is about the most powerful static charge developed on the planet. Then there are still a few cans of powder kicking around that do not have graphite coatings. Lastly, ever sleep under two hudson bay blankets in January in an unheated cabin up north? Just rolling over at night creates sufficient fire works to wake you up. So run of the mill static is not normally a problem. There are ways to increase the risk, but it almost requires intentional action to do it. Very high energy static, like lightning is surrounded by a sleeve of super heated air that can ignite almost anything. A fellow I knew supplied valves and pumps for municipal pumping stations. He showed me huge 12 inch gate valves that were fused into solid metal from lightning strikes. Steam would be created so rapidly from water inside the pipes that the pipes would explode from the pressure. So if you attach a leyden jar topped off with gun powder to a wire and used that wire to fly a kite in a thunder storm with a key on the kite's tail, , you might get the powder to ignite.
 
I believe the owner of Stonewall Creek Outfitters lost several fingers a few years ago due to a brass priming charger exploding on him, but I believe that may have been due to a pan flash going off too close to the charger. All powders are dangerous in one way or another.

In the summer of '68 after graduating high school I worked at a Naval Ammunition Depot. We were shipping ammo to the USS New Jersey in Vietnam, which was appropriate since were we in New Jersey. My shift started at 11pm (till 8:30am) inspecting 16" powder bags that had been in storage since the mid 1940's. We all wore rubber ankle anti-static straps that wrapped around the sole of our boots. The inspection building was a 3 sided brick shed (no back wall) with a concrete floor along a railroad spur far away from the base roads just in case - well, you know if there was an accident. Three 110 lb.powder bags in each aluminum can that had an overpowering smell of ether when it was first opened. The bottom of each silk bag was black colored and filled with black powder as an igniting charge. Fun times when you're 18 and not fully realizing how bloody dangerous the work you were doing.
Mike
 
Cold and dry and synthetic fabrics are the worst combination. People assembling pyrotechnics wear cotton for this reason.
 
It is not the powder itself it is dust from the powder which is the main concern ,covered in shooting ranges can be a problem with little or no ventilation which can result in a build up of powder dust in the timbers which can result in a fire or worse from static electricity . I had a good friend badly burnt because on loading a cannon and carrying loose powder in a container while wearing a nylon boiler suit for which the static ignited the powder and melting the nylon which left him scared for the rest of his life.
Feltwad
 
...covered in shooting ranges can be a problem with little or no ventilation which can result in a build up of powder dust in the timbers...
Mid '80s, Southern California around maybe Upland, an indoor range where they did a lot of black powder shooting blew up. It was believed at the time that the ignition started with residue build-up in the stalls. A friend who had a gun shop in Riverside suspected the owner also had improperly stored powder.
 
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