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{{Short description|Phenomenon where trousers burst into flames}}
In [[New Zealand]] in the 1930s, farmers reportedly had trouble with '''exploding trousers''' as a result of attempts to control [[Jacobaea vulgaris|ragwort]], an agricultural [[weed]].<ref>[http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=EP19330421.2.104&srpos=1&e=--1933---1933--10--1----0-- "Trousers Explode], Evening Post, 21 April 1933</ref><ref>{{cite web|title= Blazing saddles: The curious case of the exploding pants|url= https://www.medicalindependent.ie/life/the-dorsal-view/blazing-saddles-the-curious-case-of-the-exploding-pants/|website=Medical Independent|access-date=11 February 2022|last=Witherspoon|first=Doug}}</ref>

Farmers had been spraying [[sodium chlorate]], a government recommended weedkiller, onto the ragwort, and some of the spray had ended up on their clothes. Sodium chlorate is a strong oxidizing agent, and reacted with the organic fibres (i.e., the wool and the cotton) of the clothes. Reports had farmers' trousers variously smoldering and bursting into flame, particularly when exposed to heat or naked flames.<ref>{{cite news|title=Dr Watson and the exploding trousers|date=2005-10-10|url=http://masseynews.massey.ac.nz/2005/Massey_News/issue-18/stories/11-18-05.html|publisher=Massey University|access-date=2006-09-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061003081357/http://masseynews.massey.ac.nz/2005/Massey_News/issue-18/stories/11-18-05.html|archive-date=2006-10-03|url-status=dead}}</ref> One report had trousers that were hanging on a washing line starting to smoke. There were also several reports of trousers exploding while farmers were wearing them, causing severe burns.

The history was written up by James Watson of [[Massey University]] in a widely reported article, "The Significance of Mr. Richard Buckley's Exploding Trousers"<ref>[http://aghist.metapress.com/content/q3224660874x8q51/ "The Significance of Mr. Richard Buckley's Exploding Trousers: Reflections on an Aspect of Technological Change in New Zealand Dairy Farming between the World Wars"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131023043832/http://aghist.metapress.com/content/q3224660874x8q51/ |date=2013-10-23 }}, Agricultural History magazine</ref> − which later won him an [[Ig Nobel Prize]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://improbable.com/ig/ig-pastwinners.html#ig2005|title=James Watson for "The Significance of Mr. Richard Buckley's Exploding Trousers."|website=improbable.com|access-date=2011-01-04|archive-date=2009-08-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090830181439/http://improbable.com/ig/ig-pastwinners.html#ig2005|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==On television==
In their May 2006 [[MythBusters (2006 season)#Episode 53 .E2.80.93 .22Exploding Pants.22|"Exploding Pants" episode]] the popular U.S. television show ''[[MythBusters]]'' investigated the idea that trousers could explode based on the events of New Zealand in the 1930s.
Experimenters tested four substances on 100% cotton overalls:
* a paste comprising a mixture of [[gunpowder]] and water;
* a "herbicide from the 1930s" which was sodium chlorate, a potentially explosive herbicide used at the time of the events;
* a "fertilizer from the 1930s" which was [[ammonium nitrate]] mixed with a liquid fuel (most likely [[Diesel fuel|diesel]], as an ammonium nitrate bottle, with the label facing the camera, was in the foreground of the shot, in the presence of a red plastic fuel can on the table);
* gun cotton, the common name for nitrocellulose.

Each of these were put to four different ignition methods: [[flame]], [[Thermal radiation|radiant heat]], [[friction]], and [[Impact (mechanics)|impact]]. Although not naming "the herbicide" as [[sodium chlorate]], they confirmed that trousers impregnated therewith would indeed vigorously combust upon exposure to flame, radiant heat, and impact, though their friction tests did not cause ignition. However, [[combustion]] (i.e. an [[exothermic]] chemical reaction between a [[fuel]] and an [[oxidant]]) is not the same as an [[explosion]], which involves a rapid increase in volume accompanied by the release of energy in an extreme manner (i.e. a [[shock wave]]). Even so, a person witnessing such an event (especially if they were wearing the trousers) would likely describe such a sudden event as an explosion.

The tests also revealed that none of the other three substances caused combustion of the trousers, thus indicating that sodium chlorate was probably a cause for the events that occurred.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://kwc.org/mythbusters/2006/05/exploding_trousers_great_gas_conspiracy.html|title=Episode 53: Exploding Trousers, Great Gas Conspiracy|work=Unofficial MythBusters: Episode guides|publisher=|author=|date=2006-05-28}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Agriculture in New Zealand]]

== References ==
{{Reflist|2}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite journal|journal=Agricultural History|year=2004|volume=78|issue=3|pages=346–360|author=James Watson|title=The significance of Mr. Richard Buckley's exploding trousers: Reflections on an aspect of technological change in New Zealand dairy farming between the world wars|publisher=University of California Press|doi=10.1525/ah.2004.78.3.346}} (The author won an [[Ig Nobel Prize]] in 2005 for this paper)

[[Category:Explosions|Trousers]]
[[Category:Agriculture in New Zealand]]
[[Category:Pesticides in New Zealand]]
[[Category:Trousers and shorts]]
[[Category:Occupational safety and health]]

Exploding trousers - Revision history

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