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View Full Version : The case of the exploding chicken coop



pendell
2011-04-17, 09:41 AM
Seen In Manitoba (http://www.altonaecho.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3071368)



Joyce Penner's day started off with a bang.

The Morris area woman says she's lucky to be alive after a chicken barn exploded just 50 feet from her house.

Penner had put the two children in her care on the school bus on the morning of April 8, and was settling down to work at her computer when, shortly after 9:30 a.m. she heard what she describes as the "loudest boom" she's ever heard in her life.

"It was just insanely loud and very sudden - like somebody set off a giant firecracker," she says.

"I'm so surprised I wasn't knocked right off my chair and that my ears aren't ringing."

She ran to the west window of her rented farm house, located five miles west of Morris, and says all that she saw was a massive cloud of smoke. There was no fire, and Penner says the smoke cleared within minutes.

"But even then, it still didn't register. I saw that my east entrance door was open, so my first thought was to go check on my dogs."

It was only after she walked across broken glass in her kitchen, and stood on the patio on the south side of the home that she realized that the large chicken barn that used to be a big part of the landscape was gone.

"It was like somebody chopped it up into little pieces and just flung it everywhere."


The reasonable solution, of course, is as Jerry Pournelle explains the phenomenon:



You can make a fuel air explosion of just about any flammable powder, as witness silo explosions. Chicken offal can make a very fine dust in the right circumstances. Only guessing, of course.


Well yes. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpmVds9kI1Y). Under just the right conditions you can blow up a building with flower, or sugar, or chicken "stuff" , as the case may be.

That's the rational, logical explanation.

Who knows what the truth would be? Did the chickens save us from a zombie invasion by blowing up the coop? There's probably a tale waiting to be told ... but by someone who's a better storyteller than I am. :)

Respectfully,

Brian P.

Eldan
2011-04-17, 10:57 AM
And here I thought it said "Chicken Soup". I'm disappointed.

Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll
2011-04-17, 11:15 AM
I personally have never exploded a chicken. I have exploded a remarkeably small number of object, most of them meant to be exploded. Which is disappointing, now that I think about it. I should go rectify that...

Dire Moose
2011-04-17, 11:34 AM
Just be glad that Link wasn't anywhere nearby.

Crow
2011-04-17, 12:00 PM
Hmmm... I can't seem to find "chicken poop" with my copy of ATblast. Time to upgrade I guess!

grimbold
2011-04-17, 08:18 PM
this...
seems,
midly awesome
its a cool story

ScottishDragon
2011-04-17, 09:33 PM
this...
seems,
midly awesome
its a cool story

I just got an idea for a very interesting science expeeriment:smallbiggrin:

Juggling Goth
2011-04-18, 08:29 AM
I work with birds. Including chickens. *Is worried for her non-exploded state of existence*

polity4life
2011-04-18, 09:40 AM
I think Buckethead went militant and is now actively freeing chickens. Check his tour schedule to see if he was playing nearby.

thubby
2011-04-18, 10:03 AM
I personally have never exploded a chicken.

it's not as interesting as you might think.

Haruki-kun
2011-04-18, 10:42 AM
What, really? These things just blow up on their own? I didn't think raising chickens was so dangerous. :smalleek:

pendell
2011-04-18, 11:42 AM
What, really? These things just blow up on their own? I didn't think raising chickens was so dangerous. :smalleek:

You'd be amazed at the number of things that just explode when the air is saturated with particles. Sure you wanna light that cigarette :smallamused:?

Respectfully,

Brian P.

MountainKing
2011-04-18, 12:17 PM
You'd be amazed at the number of things that just explode when the air is saturated with particles. Sure you wanna light that cigarette :smallamused:?


On top of the silo, where there's tons of moving air that keeps the air clean? Yep, as long as I can get a lighter to work. INSIDE the silo? I have no desire to ride a giant Roman candle into the sky, so... Oh. My. No.

grimbold
2011-04-22, 10:17 AM
On top of the silo, where there's tons of moving air that keeps the air clean? Yep, as long as I can get a lighter to work. INSIDE the silo? I have no desire to ride a giant Roman candle into the sky, so... Oh. My. No.
i think i am now scarred for life