Saturday, March 18, 2017

New London

Eighty years ago today, in one of the worst disasters in Texas history, the New London School near Overton exploded.
Of the 500 students and 40 teachers at the school, 294 are known to have lost their lives when the school blew up.
It is said that a shop teacher turned on a sander which ignited natural gas that had permeated the building.
Natural gas, CH4, is odorless, and the New London disaster is one reason that Mercaptan, CH3SH, is now added to natural gas to give it a distinctive smell.

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