The issue of dust explosions has been a hot topic since the early 20th century. In Dust Explosions, a book published by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) in 1922, authors David J. Price and Harold H. Brown acknowledge the need for a vacuum that can withstand the rigors of an industrial environment. They state that, despite every precaution to capture dust at the source, small amounts of it “will get out into the atmosphere of the mill and gather on floors, walls, and ledges.” In addition, the authors knew that “if there is no accumulation of dust and the plant is perfectly clean, the explosion cannot propagate and the plant will not be destroyed.”
Even without a sufficient vacuum cleaner for industrial environments at the 1922 publication of the book, the authors still warned against using brooms and
compressed air in housekeeping practices because those methods often cause dust to be suspended in the environment during cleaning. This suspended dust could itself ignite or settle back onto floors, equipment and beams, lending itself to potential secondary explosions later.