Back in the 1950s and '60s, there used to be a show on the BBC called the Billy Cotton Band Show. One time, during a pre-filming photo shoot, the photographers were using a small explosive flash in one of their pianos. A technician packed some flour around the explosive, thinking it would look like smoke for the shot. Flour can be highly flammable, however, and there was a large explosion that seriously injured several people.
The injuries led to a lawsuit, and Colonel B.D. Smith, then a chemist at the University of Nottingham, was brought in as an expert witness.
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