The issue of dust explosions has been a hot topic since the early 20th century. In a book published by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) in 1922, titled Dust Explosions, authors David J. Price and Harold H. Brown acknowledge the need for a vacuum that can withstand the rigors of an industrial environment, stating 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.” The authors of the book knew then, and the same is true today, 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 in 1922, the authors still warned against using brooms and compressed air in housekeeping practices since those methods often caused dust to be suspended in the environment during cleaning and could itself ignite, or would settle back onto floors, equipment and beams, leading to potential secondary explosions later.