Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1870-11-09
FAIRPORT

enables US to lay before our readers
the full and complete details.
FAIRPORT
is a small town-Or rather the decayed
remnants of what was once a place of
no mean pretentiOns-situated on the
lake shore, at the mouth of Grand
river, about three miles from Paines-
vile. 1t contains fifteen or twenty
old houses, generally of a decidedly
rickety appearance, inhabited by q
mixed population of sailors, a few
small farmers and recently persons
who have been employed in the gly-
cerine establishment. The town is
wholly upon the east side of the river,
the opposite side being, for a cOnsid-
cradle distance from the lake, a low,
sandy fiat.
Years ago it was n busy port of
entry, having an excellent harbOr,
and was a stopping place for steamers
in the palmy days OF lake steamboat
ing. Probably there has not been a
new building erected in the place for
a dozen years, and many of the old
ones have entirely disappeared. Two
or three tumble-dOwn warehouses
alone remain upon the decaying
wharves, as monuments of former
greatness. OF late years there has
been absolutely no business in the
place until the establishment of
THE GLYCERINE MANDATORY,
by the Lake Shore NitrO-Glycerine
Company. This company was organ
lied some three years ago. and now
consists of Messrs. Wheeler, King,
Hinkley and Barber, the two first
named being residents of Painesville,
and the others of Titusville, Pennsyl-
vania. The manufacture of glycerine
was commenced early in 1868, upon a
small scale, the first year being Occu-
pied in experimenting and getting the
works into successful operation. Dur
ing the year 1869 a large amount was
made and shipped. The demand for
this mGvelOusly powerful explosive
agent rapidly increased and within
the last year the facilities for manu-
facture have been greatly extended,
and the establishment has turned out
an average OF six hundred pounds
per day. y thousand pounds were
made, ecently, in a single day.
THE MAGAZINES,
two in number, for the storage OF
nitrO-glycerine, when ready for mar
ket and awaiting shipment, were To-
Gated on the west bank of the river,
four or five hundred feet from the
waters edge, anu twice that distance
from the lake. They were constructed
by eXcavating in the sand to the depth
of six or eight feet, placing therein a
wooden structure, about twelve by
fourteen feet in size, and banking up
around it with sand. These two maga-
zines, which were about a hundred
feet apart, contained on Tuesday six
teen thousand pounds of nitrO-gly-
cerine, packed in stone jars, holding
about sixty pounds each.
SHIPMENT OF GLYCERINE.
All common carriers, such as rail-
roads, steamboats,, etc, of course will
not transport glycerine under any
circumstances, and the company own
n little schooner, OF about forty tons
burden, called the "Myra," for ship
ping their manufactures to market.
a vast amount is used in the Lake
Superior region, for mining purposes,
and on Tuesday preparations were
being made for loading all the glycer-
inc in the magazines upon the schoOn-
er, for shipment to Marquette. The
manner OF packing is to transfer it
from the stOne-jars to sheet-irOn cans,
containing forty pounds each. The
vessel is ballasted with sand and these
cans are then carefully packed in it..
PECULIAR PROPERTIES.
1t may be well to state here a few
facts in regard to nitrO-glycering, in
which lea possible explanation Of the
cause Of the explosion. The process
of manufacture will be briefly de-
scribed hereafter. When tleaves the
mandatory it is a liquid, about the
cOnsistenc6, as described by one of the
employees, "Of fresh buttermilk.u It
is u singular fact that it soon congeals,
actually freezes, by its inherent pro-
perties, ice forming similar TO that by
the natural freezing process. lt is
also remarkable that glyceline will
not ignite or explode 10y the agency
OF heat until temperature of about
three hundred and sixty degrees is
reached. \ simple blaze has no effect
whatever upon it, Notwithstanding
which we cannot cOnsciefitiously rec
Ommend it for domestic use. as fuel.
Conclusion, however, is 4 sure way
to develop the explosive properties OF
nitrO-glycerine. Neither does il re-
quire a severe blow to produce an ex-
plOsiOn, the effect often following a
very slight conclusion. This much
by the way of explanation, inasmuch
as, confessing our own Ignorance
hitherto, we believe that few persons
have a clear idea of the peculiar
characteristics OF this mighty, mvs-
teriOus agent, which can scarcely be
mentioned without a shudder
BEFORE THE CATASTROPHE.
Tuesday afternoon three men-NeI-
son Malone, Patrick Scribner and Ed
ward Duncan-were engaged in trans
ferring the glycerine from the lars to
the cans, preparatory to shipment.
The elder Malone, father of the first
named, over sixty years of age, who
was employed as man of all work
about the establishment, was engaged
in digging for the third magazine a
short distance from the others.
A number of jars had been removed
from one Of the magazines, and that
portion of the contents which was in
a sufficiently liquid state, transferred
by pouring, into the cans. That part
which was frozen it was necessary to
''thaw OUT and three men, at the
time of tue explosion, were engaged
in carrying these jars down to the
river, to be transported to the east
side for that purpose.
TIE EXPLOSION.
Suddenly, at a quarter before five
o'clock, the people in that vicinity,
and, indeed, for many miles around,
were startled by fearful report, as il
q score of cannon had been discharged
simultaneously, and, at the same in
stant, the rattle Of broken glass, the
tumbling of chimneys and such a
shaking of buildings that they nearly
fell to pieces. From past experience,
everybody i'm Fairport knew what il