It is a real shame when people actually believe these tests that show static electricity will not ignite black powder
Any test is just a test.
It may or may not predict what can happen in actual service
In the case of these tests, the researcher apparently ASSUMES that black powder comes as FFFg, FFFFg, &c. If that were true, these test would be correct.
Ever hear of flour mill explosions? Flour is not explosive
How about coal dust? Coal is not explosive
In the Real World, black powder comes as fine dust. Well, it is fine dust if it is in a can that has traveled around a bit. Most of that can may be FFFg, but not all. I observed this a coupla years ago filling a horn from a can I had bought at Friendship & carried through I don't know how many states over the years. It poured just fine, but I saw a very fine black cloud form & hang in the air above the pour
.
Hmm.
You might check out the Lyman #55 Classic Powder Measure, with 24" drop tube . . . "A must for the black powder cartridge silhouette and cowboy action shooter. The internal metering bars rotate in a non-sparking brass sleeve. A large non-static aluminum powder reservoir holds a pound of powder . . . "
Do you really think these Researchers know more than Lyman?
Yeah, its just a marketing gimmic, or maybe their crazy lawyers get control Lyman has been doing this longer than any of us have been alive but they really don't understand gunpowder.
Ever notice that your plastic powder cans are dead black in color? Bet that plastic conducts enough electricity not to cause a spark. Of course, I do not know this.
Then there is what researchers fondly call "anecdotal evidence" Right now I do not have the reference, but I understand that one of our naval commanders ordered that powder casks aboard ship be turned over now & again. This to prevent accumulation of powder dust in the bottom, which dust would be @!*% hard on that iron gun when fired.
In the '40's and early '50's I lived in a coal mining town in Pennsylvania. We heard about coal dust. Maybe it was really methane and I remember wrong. I DO remember Dad telling me one should stand to the side when shoveling coal into the furnace. Not very often, but often enough, a fireball would come whooshing out that furnace door. Very hard on the shoveler. I remember, again perhaps I am in error with this 1948 memory, that one of my classsmates lost his father to such a fireball.
And finally, I am a metallurgical engineer. I have, particularly over the last three decades of my working life, had to translate what the lab guys said into reality useful for a customer's engineer. The lab guys would put out the most unrealistic stuff, because that is what their test data showed. Flat out wrong, or backwards. Because that test didn't take into account one or more important variables, which the researcher did not consider important. I have developed a strong cynicism about any laboratory data. I have dealt with very intelligent PhDs from Pittsburgh through Germany. No, I'm not all that smart, but where metal equipment is glowing red (or orange) hot I can hold my own with anyone on this planet.
Do not accord "science" unquestioning faith just because someone says it is Science.
And keep your powder away from static electricity. The can may say FFFg, but some of it may actually be POWDER.
