The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-27 00:00:00

THE St,N, LONt}ON, .FRIDAY EVESING; DECEMBEf 27, 1867.

STARE LlST.—This Day.

THE FENIAN OUTRAGES.

DEPUTATION TO THE CHANCELLOR OF THE
EXCHEQUER
Yesterday afternoon a deputation from the com-
mittee appointed to relieve the sufferers_ by the recent
Fenian outrage at the House of Detention waited upon
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, at. Downing street, for
the purpose of ascertaining tne views of the Government
regarding indemnification. me deputation was composed
of, amongst others, the following : The Rev. R. Maguire,
incumbent of Clerkenwell ; the Rev. A. Herring ;
Churchwarden Willcocks ; Mr. Churchwarden Nunn ;
Mr. H. Pownall, chairman of the Middlesex magistrates ;
Mr. E. J. Thompson, member of the Metropolitan Board
of Works; Messrs. R. H. Jones. E. D. Johnson, T. Dix,
J. W. Franklin, G. Savwell, W. Gilimawater, vestrymen
of the parish of Clerxenwell ; Mr. Overseer Chubb,. Mr.
Wortaey, Mr. Ayers, &c.-
The Rev. IL MAGentE, in the absence of Mr. Torren',
M.P., introduced the deputation. He said it was felt by
the Reliof Committee to be the proper time to put them-
selves in communication with the Government on this
important subject. The application that day was on
public grounds. Clerkenwell had become the vicarious
sacrifice for all England. Therefore he thought the maxim
ought to be, that if one member suffer all the members
suffer with it. Hence the deputation. The committee
represented a benevolent fund, which at first did not con-
template any more than the supply of the ordinary neces-
sities of the sufferers—that was, the provision of new a`i odes,
furniture, help to those thrown out of work, the care of
the cLiidren of the sufferers, the purchase of tools, and
the general reparation of shattered tenements. All this
the committee had been doing, and would continue to
do until their task was complete. But besides all these
things, there was the much larger and greater question of
the buildings, some of which were in ruins, and many
more in a shattered condition. He had himself person-
ally taken account of the number of houses thus affected
—in all 200, and containing some 600 families. The
solicitor acting for the sufferers had stated, at the com-
mittee that already fifty of the householders had claimed
for damages under £3O each, and the claims of fifty more
ranged from £3O to £2,000 respectively.. It was felt by
many that the case was similar to that of a bombarded
town wherein inoffensive inhabitants suffered by reason of
their vicinity to the place attacked. He felt that on a
moderate calculation this destruction of property would
involve an expense of from £12,000 to £lO,OOO to repair
and restore it. He was the more anxious to .state this
because of his assertion in .a letter to the Tizzies last week
that the total loss Nv ould be about £6,000. That statement
referred only to the ordinary needs created by the cata-
strophe, but would be far from covering the whole loss,
which would include dismantled houses, shattered furni-
ture, homes in utter ruin, tools and working materials lost,
forty persons in hospitals maimed and disfigured, some of
them for life, and for many of whom annuities would have
to be provided. And then, above all these, there was the
matter of the buildings themselves—a matter which,
unless seriously provided for, 'svould involve the owners in

NIT.RO-GLYCERINE.

Nine persons were recently killed at the Newitzk and
New York railroad station in South Bergen, New Jersey,
')y the explosfon of a can of nitro-glycerine. At the
inquest held upon the bodies, professional testimony itas
adduced as to the nature of this terrible compound.

Otto Burstenbinder testified : I am now in the blasting
business, and reside in the city of New . York ; nitro-
glycerine is composed of nitric acid, sulphuric acid, and
glycerine oil ; it is a liquid of light yellow colour, and
about six-tenths heavier than water ; in exploding it
expands 10,400 times, and powder expands about 800
times ; this compound called nitro-glycerine will not ex-
plode by simple contact with fire ; it requires about 360
degrees of heat to make it explode ; it will not easily
explode by concussion or friction when fill& but it
changes its qualities entirely when frozen ; if frozen if will
explode very easily by a stroke or slight concussion.

William H. White said : I know that glycerine, is no
more explosive when frozen than when in a liquid state;
frozen, it is less liable to explode ; it is very hard to explode
a cartridge when frozen ; a very heavy weight coming on
glycerine either in a frozen or liquid state would exrloie
I have seen a man let a can of frozen glycerine fall from
his shoulder on a rock without exploding it ; I consider
nitro-glycerine twenty-five times safer than powder for
blasting purposes ; I have seen a chunk of nitro-glycerine
a big as my hat cut open with an axe.
Professor It. Ogden Doremus testified : I am Professor
of Chemistry at Bellevue Hospital Medical College, and
A the College of the City of New York. On December 2
I received from the coroner two bottles of nitro-
glycerine, with a request to report upon its properties.
I have subjected it to ultimate chemical analysis,
and find it to correspond to the formula C. 6, H. 3,
0. 3, and (N. 0.) 5. The substance freezes at about 46;
it does not explode when red-hot copper is placed in it.
We tried it with the most intense heat we can produce
with a galvanic battery, with two hundred cella, holding a
gallon and a half each. Some nitro-glycerine was placed
in a cup and connected with one of the poles of the bat-
tery; through a pencil of gas carbon the other poles of the
battery were connected with the glycerine, and no explo-
sion ensued ; but when the point touched the britannia
vessel, the nitro-glycerine took fire, a portion burning, and
the rest scattering about. This is as severe a test as we
can submit it to in the way of heat under the pressure
of the air; we therefore would -conclude that nitro-
glycerine carried about exposed cannot explode, even
if you drop a coal of fire into it ; if the liquid is
confined under pressure, then an explosion will
ensue ; if paper be moistened with it and put
on an anvil and a smart blow- given with a hammer, a
sharp detonation ensues. Nitro-glycerine is more diffi-
cult to explode than powder. Much less is known of nitro-
glycerine than of gun-cotton, and probably several varieties
of this article may be formed, as of gun-cotton ; this would
explain cases of spontaneous explosion. If the nitro-
glycerine is not carefully washed, to get rid of the acid,
a gradual decomposition will ensu", producing gases which,
if the vessel be closed, will explode. My opinion is that
nitro-glycerine should be used in the most careful hands.
Do not think I would put it in the hands of a common
labourer for blasting purposes ; it is less dangerous in a
frozen than a liquid state. I think concussion would ex-
plode frozen nitro-glycerine.

The following letter from Professor Doremus was read
to the jury: " Since leaving you I have learned that the
can of nitro-gl3 cerine, the explosion of which proved so
fatal, was full of frozen or solid nitro-glycerine. Now,
although the cork might have been removed, it is possible
that the red-hot irons melted and decomposed the material
at the bottom of the can, leaving a quantity of solid nitro-
glycerine above, which, by preventing the escape of the
gases, produced the pressure required for an explosion.
A red-hot iron, or the more intense heat of a powerful
Talvanic battery, will not explode the nitro-glycerine
unless it is under pressure. This stopper of frozen nitro-
glycerine might have closed the orifice of the can suffi-
ciently to produced the required pressure."

The jury, being out over five hours, found that the
deceased came to their death by the explosion of a can of
nitro-glycerine, consequent upon the careless handling of
the same by Thomas Burns, one of the decea ci ; and
they censured the contractor, Colonel Schafner, for not
being more careful in the selection of a man to use the
article of nitro-glycerine, and recommended that in future
men should be employed in its use who understand its
explosive qualities, and requested the council of the town
of Bergen to order that there shall not be any more than
100 lb. of nitro-glycerine stored or kept in the town of
Bergen, the same to be stored in a fireproof vault when
not required for use.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE—This Day,

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.

CAUTION TO CAB PROPRIETORS.—SamueI Tugg,
a cab driver, badge 10,026, was charged before Mr.
Knox with cruelty to a horse, by working it while
in an unfit state, the charge being preferred by the
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals.

Simon Sell, officer of the Royal Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, saw a horse
attached to a cab near St. James's Hall last
night, and on examining it found it to be old, worn
out, in a very low condition, and totally unfit for
work, and in answer to questions he put to the de-
fendant, he said that the horse had been in the same
state for a month, and that his master, Mr. Martin,
of Charlwood-street, Pimlico, knew its condition.
Mr. Knox remanded the prisoner on bail, and
ordered the proprietor of the horse to be s'unmoned,
and iu the meantime the horse was to remain at the
Greenyard for the inspection of Mr. Cherry, thr
Government veterinary surgeon. •

SCANDALOUS CONDUCT IN A WORKHOUSE.
Albert APGrady, a young man, was charged before
Mr. Knox with behaving in a refractory manner in
St. James's Workhouse.

Robert Bradley, the porter of the workhouse,
said that at half-past seven the previous evening
the prisoner, an inmate of the workhouse, returned
from three days' leave in a state of drunkenness,
and as soon as he was admitted he began making
a great disturbance. The prisoner was put to bed
but shortly after got up and again made a disturb-
ance, made use of the most disgusting language, and
set the officers of the house at defiance, and they
were obliged to have him locked up. The prisoner's
conduct in the house was of the worst description,
and he had been in prison three times, once for six
months.

Police-constable Wm. Burgess, 129 A R, said
he was called to the workhouse to take the prisoner
into custody, when he found him to be very drunk
and violent, and making use of bad language. lle
said that he had done one six months, and that he
could do another on his head.

Bradley said that the room where the prisoner
made the disturbance was over the sick ward, where
a man was dying at the time.
Mr. Knox asked if the person was present who
could prove the convictions against the prisoner ?
Bradley said he was not.

Mr. Knox said he thought. the prisoner might re-
flect on what the porter had said, and think of others
as well as himself. The prisoner had got drunk,
and made a disturbance, a poor creature passing
from this world to another at the time. As the
other convictions could not be proved, he should
deal with the case as a first offence, and commit the
prisoner for 21 days' hard labour.