Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1876-02-25
NI,ro-eIreerlne ExplosIons.


An Oil City correspondent of the
New York San relates the following
incident:
The dynamite explosion at Bre-
merhaven has interested the public
in this powerful explosive. In the
oil country nitro-glycerine is used
daily, either in fuse form, or adul-
terated and known as dynamite. 1t
is confined in tin cans, lowered into
oil wells and there exploded, the ex-
plosion opening the creyices OF the
rock and causing the oil to flow more
freely. In handlingi it daily men be-
come more familiar and careless, and
consequently terrible accidents are
frequent. The power of this exPlo-
siye is tremendous. A single drop
placed on an anvil and struck with
hammer is sufficient to hurl the ham
mer through the roof or crack the
anvil.
The first explosion of nitro-glycer-
inc in the oil region which proved
fatal to life was in the infancy of
the business. A teamster was carry
ing several cans of the article on his
wagon from Titusvilleto a small vii
lage. The road was rough and sto-
ny, and he had been told to drive
with caution, as a slight conclusion
would explode the stuff. Soon after
his departure an explosion shook the
ground. At the distance of half a
mile the horses were found. One
had been killed but the other was
uniniured. The wagon was in splin-
ters and the iron was twisted and
broken. After diligent search the
thumb and fore finger of the man
were found hanging to the limb of a
tree, some distance in the woods
Several hours work discovered 9TH
er parts of the body, but all the re-
mains collected of the unlueky team
ster did not fill cigar box.
In 1872, family living on Dennis
Run, near Tidioute, was destroyed
by the explosion of a torpedo con-
tanning dynamite. The family con-
sisted Of a man and wife and child.
The man was a moonlight torpedo
ist, or one who puts torpedoes in a
we'll for which he has no patent. For
doing this he was liable to arrest
and Imprisonment. From the cir
cumstances it was inferred that he
was holding the torpedo between his
legs. and that while he was in the
act of attaching the head it explod-
ed. His shoulders and head were
thrown several hundred feet in the
air. The lower portions Of his body
and extremities were scattered in
every direction. His wife was Kill
ed instantly, but her body was not
mutilated. The house in which they
lived was demolished; in the centre
of this destruction lay a little baby
alive, her only injury being a slight
flesh wound.
In 1874, a teamster who was drly-
ing a load of nitro-glycerine from
Parker to Petrolia was killed in the
explosion. A portion of his face
was found in the top of a tall pine
tree, 100 feet from the place of the
accident. The remainder of bis body
was~wholly destroyed.
Some months ago an old man who
owned a well, and was unused to
handling torpedoes, put one of them
down to the depth of 1900 feet, and
was unable to explode it. he then
let down another, and for some rea-
son this also failed to explode. The
old man became very angry, and ran
down set of drilling to Is, weigh.
ing several thousand pounds, 'on tor
of the torpedoes. The result was
told by himself as follows:
81 hadn't no more than got out
about 1900 feet of range before
felt the earth shake, and those tools
shot up out of the hole, and the-old
well spouted oil and water like al
possessed. 1 thought that I'd tap
ped the crust of the internal regions
and released fires of hell"