Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1872-11-09

anu Niaue our railways possible. For
purposes of tunneling and rock-cutting,
one key of powder weighing twenty
pounds is about equal to ten or eleven
days work of man with drill and
pick and hammer slowly gnawing his
way through the rock.
Fifty thousand tons of solid lime
stone were thrown down and broken in
England two years ago, by an explo-
sion of six thousand pounds of powder
"a task which would have required an
endless amount of hand-work.
Twenty-Five pounds of powder enter
into the production of every ton of pig
iron, saving thereby-that is to Say,
reducing its c9st-nearly five dollars a
ton.
The Central Pacific Railroad used
three hundred thousand kegs twenty
five pounds to the keg) on the
western side of the Rocky Mountains.
No less than forty thousand kegs were
used Oh this side. Here, again, gun
powder, in the building of the Pacific
railway, did the work of more than
twenty-five thousand men working one
year each. Gunpowder did work for
us which, had it been done by hand,
would cost, at a very moderate estimate,
more than twelve million dollars. Is it
Aat we'll, then, tn call gunpowder our
servant?
Not far from one million kegs of gun
powder are used annually in these Uni
ted States for mining and engineering
purposes, doing the work of sixty-six
thousand laborers, whose waves would
not be far from forty-seven million dol
lars. Is not gunpowder a famous
worker?
But not only thus in the aggregate
of work, but in the fact that gunpow-
der does work that man cannot do, we
come at an estimate of it's worth.
There was n land slide in steep rail-
way cut on the Stantos and Sao-Paulo
railway. Huge boulders, unmanaga-
bic, slid down upon the track. There
was no end of laborers available, and
steam power in abundance. But how
to get hold of boulder and apply the
strength of thousand men, or of a
steam engine half mile off, is trou-
blosome problem. If enough men
could get hold of one side with their
fingers, and pull against an equal num-
Der on the opposite side they could
break it in two, as one breaks an orange.
But enough cannot get hold, here how
ever, comes the foreman, and sets one
of the workmen drilling little hole on
the top of the offending rock-two
hours work for one man. He dries it
out, puts in pound of powder worth,
say fifteen cents, drops in a wooden
plug, and over it pours dry sand. A
touch of fire and the boulder is mana
geable.
The work done by this powder now
is peculiar in this: not merely that it is
so powerful, surprising the power of a
thousand men, not merely that it can
be applied at the precise spot where
We want power, but also that it is an
instantaneous power, without waste be-
fore OF lingering afterward. It does it's
work and quits. 1t lives just long
enough to do its work, SO that there is
no atom of waste.
Steam could have done this work:
but after doing it there would have been
fuel and boiler and apparatus, all of
them kept at great cost as an invest
ment. But that pound of powder was
very cheap to begin with. It did it's
work and was out of the way without
any murmuring or after COST
See, too, how convenient this, our
servant is in the matter Of easy trans
portation to where we need his services,
We have portable steam engines and
steam saw-miils Of miraculous power
and strength. Yes, we have devices
even for saving trees down by steam
power. But the best of these devices
are troublesome things to handle and
transport through IN unbroken wilder
ness, where there are neither roads nor
bridges. But We may sling eight or
ten kegs of blasting powder across a
mules back, and go with them where
ever man can go, and for certain uses
have at our command all its gigantic
power at moments notice. Gunpow-
der is concentrated. transportable ener-
gy, and is not only thus most efficient
servant, but an eminenty safe, manage
able and obedient servant.
Moreover, contrary to the general
impression, g'npowder is an adiusta-
ble worker. Within certain very lin,
tied range, that is, it will do it's work
rapidly or slowly, as need may be.
The most thoroughly incorporated
Underground rifle powder sometimes
marked on the cans "lightning, will
drive the little ball through the steel
barrel safely; but it would be worse
than useless for tho supply of the huge
laodman guns, propelling ball weigh
ing fivo hundred thousand pounds.
The little bullet starts instantly and the
rifle barrel is not burst. But the huge
cannon ball capnat start the moment it
is spoken to. 1t takes an appreciable
space OF time to get under headway.
Hence the impatient rifle powder is not
suited to the slower and more majestic
service. But we have only to enlarge
the grain of gunpowder, and even to