Last December, I posted a story on the O'Connor Electo-Plating explosion of February, 1947. A few days ago, the L.A. Times had an article on the blast, with a series of pictures, showing the devastation:
L.A.Times
L.A. Times
In their story of the accident, the Times had this gem:
"The O’Connor Electro-Plating Co. had been in business in the same one-story brick building for almost 20 years. The plant was managed by Robert J. O’Connor, son of the company’s founder. O’Connor knew little about chemistry, so he had hired Robert Magee, who presented impressive credentials. But in truth, Magee had been working as a foreman at a local dairy and was only an aspiring chemist without even a high school diploma.
For almost a year, Magee worked on a revolutionary process for polishing aluminum, anxiously waiting to get it patented. He was using a mixture of 140 gallons of perchloric acid and 70 gallons of acetic anhydride, nearly as volatile as nitroglycerin. It was imperative that the acid be kept under refrigeration. But an hour before the blast, the refrigeration unit broke down. About the same time, as investigators later surmised, Magee apparently inserted a plastic rack into the solution, triggering the blast."
Magee and his assistant were vaporized in the explosion.
The L.A. Times story and a bunch more pictures are here:
http://framework.latimes.com/2012/02...ating-corp/#/0
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very cool that they left the old rooftop sign intact.
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