The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1866-05-10
Miscellaneous Selections.

The LATE FRIGHTFUL EXPLOSION
WHAT'S NITRo-GLYCERINE?- ?-The fluid
known as nitro-glycerine is the same
that exploded in Greenwich street, New
York, last November, wounding several
persons and blowing out the front of
the Wyoming Hotel and also another
in San Francisco, lately, causing the
death of eight or more persons, and
damage of property to the value of
5000, 900. Glycerine is the sweet prin-
ciple of oil, and is extensively used for
the purpose of toilet; but it has now
received an application of rather an UNI
expected nature. In 1S47 pupil of
NJ. Pelouse's, NJ. Sobrero, discovered
that glycerine, when treated with nitric
acid, was converted into 4 higly explo-
sive substance, which he called nitro
glycerine. 1t is oily, heavier than wa
ter, soluble in alcohol or ether, and
acts so powerfully on the nervous sys-
TEN that single drop placed on the tip
of the tongue will cause a violent head
ache, which will last for several hours.
The LIQUID seems to have been almost
forgotten by chemists, and it is only
now that NJ. Nable, Swedish engineer,
has succeeded in applying it to a very
important branch of his art-namely,
blasting From a paper addressed by
him to the Academy of Science, we
hear that the chief advantage which
this substance, composed of one part of
glycerine and three parts of nitric acid,
possesses, is that it requires a much
smaller hole or chamber than gunpow
der does, the strength of the latter be-
ing scarcely one-tenth of the former.
Hence, the miners work, which, accord
ing to the hardness of the rock, repre-
sents five to twenty times the power of
the gunpowder used, is so short that the
cost of blasting is often reduced by
fifty per cent. The process is very
easy. If the chamber of the mine pre-
sents assures, it must be lined with
CLAW to make it water-tight; this being
done, the nitro-9lycerine is poured in
the water after it, which, being the light
er liquid remained at the top. A slow
match with we'll charged percussion
cap at one end then is introduced into
the nitro-glycerine. The mine may be
sprung by lighting the match, there
being no need of tamping. On the 7th
of June last, three experiments were
made with this new compound in the
open part of the tin mines of fAltenburg
in SaXony. In one of theses a chamber
thirty-four millimeters in diameter was
made perpendicularly in Il dolmitic rock,
sixty feet in length, and at distance
offourteen feet from its extremity, which
was vertical At a debth of eight feet
vault filled with clay was found, in con-
sequence of which the bottom of the hole
was tamped, having depth of seven
feet. One litre and half of nitro-gly-
| oorino ,,-oC thor, ,oI1ra1 in II Occ,,,,ia5
five feet match and a stopper were
then applied, as stated and the mine
sprung. The effect was so enormous as
to tiss,,re fifty feet i'll length, and an
other twenty feet.
The blasting oil, or nitro-glyccrine of
Mr.. Noble, is chemical compound of
six equivalents of carbon, five equiva-
lents of hydrogen, three equivalents Of
oxygen, and three of nitric acid, express
ed scientifically by the formula
| JIs 10 M nENo