In response to the thread on live ammo, our Curator of
Collections Management offers the following:

When I was working as an intern, packing a collection for a
move to a new storage building, one of the collections that
we encountered was a Civil War medical kit.  The curator I
was working with decided to dispose of the small amounts of
liquid remaining in the vials (so as to eliminate the worry
they would leak in transit, as he determined the contents to
be nonessential to that museum's collections).  He called
the appropriate disposal number to determine if the
materials could be poured into the drain or what other
course of action he should take.  As he was talking on the
phone, he was reading the names of the materials off of the
vials.  On the last one, he had a difficult time reading it
due to the powder residue which had formed from leaking
liquid.  Turning it this way and that in the light, he
finally was able to read the name (which unfortunately I
have forgotten).  Whatever the person on the other end of
the phone said caused him to gently place the vial on the
desk and slowly back away.  The bomb squad came in full gear
with a padded box to take the vial away!  Apparently
whatever the liquid was deteriorated into a powder that was
_extremely_ explosive if abraded.  If we had tried to turn
off the lid without first calling the authorities, we would
have surely been injured.  It was quite the lesson for a
young intern.  You can tell it made quite an impression on
me!

Carol Fenner
Curator of Collections Management
State Historical Society of ND

*****

Keep in mind that not only shells, mines and the like are
potentially explosive!  Regards.  Chris Dill


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C. L. Dill, Museum Director
State Historical Society of North Dakota
612 East Boulevard
Bismarck  ND  58505-0830
P: (701)328-2666
F: (701)328-3710
E:  [log in to unmask]
Visit our Web site at: http://www.state.nd.us/hist/
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