The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-21 00:00:00

L 1? P FDITIOY•

SUN OFFICE, 6 •o'CLocK.

LATEST CITY INTELLIGNCE.

CITY, 4.30 P.M.
There is no change to report in the English
Stock Market. Consols closed steadily at 94 for
money, and at 9214 for the account.

Business in Foreign. Stocks have closed with a
arm appearance. Italian have advanceed to 451_
; Spanish Passive 1, to 26 261 ; New 3 FT Cent.
ditto I, to 36 361 ; and Turkish 5 per Cents. to
to 33i ; while Greek remain steady, at 12i i ;
and Mexican at 15i

United States 5-20 Bonds have closed at 72f ;
Erie Shares, at 49 49f ; and Illinois, at 89 89k.
The following are the latest current quotations of
same of the principal shares :—Caledonians, 724
73 ; South-Eastern, 664 71 ; Great Eastern, 311 ;
Great Northern, 107 108; Lancashire and York-
shire, 1204 to 121, ; North Western, 113 f 113 f ;
Brighton, 494 49i ; Metropolitan, 1141 15 ; Mid-
land, 1014101} ; North-Eastern (Berwick), 99 99k;
Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln, 45 to 45f.

USES OF NITRO-GLYCERINE IN MINING.

Mr. Warrington Smythe, in a course of profes-
sional lectures, delivered to the students at the
Royal College of Mines, Jermyn-street, described
yesterday afternoon the various explosive agents
used for breaking down the rook or country (as it is
technically called) by miners. One of the most im-
portant of modern explosives (said Mr. Smythe) was
nitro-glycerine, a substance which within the last few
days had been productive of such a sad loss of human
life at Newcastle-on-Tyne. Accidents were apt to
produce a violent prejudice against that which caused
them ; but all explosives, until they were under-
stood by the men who had to deal with them, were
liable to produce accidents. Although gunpowder
was so well known they must expect accidents even
with that when it was put into the hands of persons
who did not know how to use it ; and so with all
other dangerous materials. The three explosives
now chiefly used by miners were gunpowder, gun-
cotton, and nitro-glycerine. Gunpowder, as the olde
and best understood, was most used and best liked
by the miners. Gun-cotton would probably in the
future play a much more important part in these
operations than it seemed likely to do a few years
ago. Some important improvements had been intro-
duced into its preparation by the Austrian Artillery
Department (and those improvements were now
being thoroughly tried, and the material tested, by
Mr. Abel, at Woolwich), rendering it more useful
and safe than it was formerly. It was now Man
factured into a kind of rope and should be cut to
the exact lengths wanted by miners ; and if it
turned out that it would bear keeping iu a damp
atmosphere better than gunpowder, it would conic
into use is mining far more largely than it hitherto
had done. With regard to these three explosives he
could state an interesting fact which had been brought
within his own knowledge. In the North Wales slate
districts enormous quantities of explosive mate-
rial were employed ; and it was the practice

in bargaining with the workmen to allow them
to select whichever explosive they preferred from
the stores of the employers. It was found that
although the majority of miners preferred gunpow-
der over gun-cotton and nitro-glycerine, although
they were well acquainted with the conveniences of
the one and the enormous force of the other, the
most careful of the men were fast taking to nitro-
glycerine, which they had hitherto managed without
the slightest accident, and with the most profitable
results in respect to the work done. Nitro-glyce-
rine had ten times the force of ordinary gunpowder,
and if it could be used with the same amount of
security, it needed no argument to show how advan-
tageous it would be in mining. It certainly was much
easier and simpler in its mode of application. Thus in-
stead of the " tamping" required when gunpowder
was used, and the adjuncts required by gun-cotton,
all that was necessary was to fill the hole with water
and pour the nitro-glycerine in. It sank to the bottom
by its own specific gravity, and the fuse being
lighted the explosion took place with a force and
effect far greater than anything produced by powder
or gun-cotton. He had lately been invited to wit-
ness at Llanberris a series of experiments on a
newly-invented explosive. It was the discovery of
M. Nobell, of Hamburg, who was the inventor also
of nitro-glycerine. It was a powder, and if proved
capable of safe removal from place to place would
no doubt also he much used. There was, however, a
peculiarity about it which also belonged to nitro-
glycerine. When a train of it was laid on a board
it could be fired by a match with no more noise or
effect than so much gunpowder ; but if it were ex-
ploded by the percussion of a sudden blow it went
off with a force and report that were tremendous.
It exerted a kind of force which was exactly that
which was required in mining, and he looked for-
ward to the time when it and nitro-glycerine would
become auxiliaries of the greatest importance to the
work of the miner.