The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1876-02-17
Handling Nitr0-Glycerine.

When the oil wells began to "play
out" says correspondent, torpedoing
was resorted to as ameans of keeping up
the failing production, and in most in
stances with success, although its effects
we're generally short lived. In the pre-
paration Of these torpedoes the explo-
sive element used is nitro o-glycerine, the
force of which is we'll known to every.
body. The dangerous qualities of this
compound rendered it an extremely un-
pleasant neighbor to have around, and
consequently, after the discovery was
made that hundreds of pounds OF it
were daily being transported through
the hearts Of cities and towns, the citi-
zens awoke to something like sense Of
their danger, and laws were passed i'm
posing heavy fines and imprisonment on
those found guilty of carrying it through
or storing it in any inhabited locality.
After these steps we're taken the people
fancied themselves secure against all
danger; but if they knew some Of the
facts which have recently come to the
knowledge of your correspondent there
would be something like CONSERVATION
among them.
ro-glycerine is carried by night in
wagons with false bottoms, peddlers'
wagons, stored away in loads of hay,
and even carried in trunks and valises as
personal baggage. Of course those who
undertake the work have got to be per-
fectly sober, cool headed, and ready for
any emergency, and their wages are
enormous. In conversation with a
"glycerine driver" few days ago, ]
learned few incidents of his career at
the business. In response to my inter
rogation as to whether he ever expert
enced any fear, he said
"Of course, we always do when we
first commence, or go on route while
we are green. Why, the first load l
ever took out I wouldn't even pack OF
unload the wagon myself, and strayed
two miles away while the packing was
being done. I mind one morning, after
l had been two years at the business,
and had got so that handled torpedoes
almost as recklessly as you would pig
iron, l was unloading wagon neal
Millertown, and 1 dropped torpedo,
dropped it fully four feet, right onto the
hard road. Was 1 scared2 Well, mis-
ter, when 1 realized my escape, was SC
weak that sank down all in heap, and
|
Another incident which he related tc
me is the following, which was told with
every appearance of candor and sin
cerity
81 was driving $50 pounds, packed il
false BOTTOM" said the narrator, "from
the Titusville factory to Petrolia. 1 wa;
making my trips mostly at night. but
knew the roads well, and didn't antici
pate any trouble. On my second night
out it was so dark that l couldn't see
the horses at all, and 1 had been think
ing of pulling up to some house and an
choring over night, whei suddenly
felt the off horse going down. pulled
on the reins and yelled at him, but he
slipped down, the wheels went over
and the first l knew of what happened
there we were, horses, glycerine and all
lying at the bottom of twenty-foot EN-
bankment. Close2 Yes, tolerable.
wouldn't care to try it more than half {
dozen times"
Some drivers are not so fortunate, ant
more than one poor fellow has gone of
on his long journey very suddenly by
means of nitro glycerine. In 1872, ;
man named Clark. while going from I'll
tusville to Enterprise with load o
nitro lycerine, which had been poorl,
packed, was driving down p steep hill
and some of the explosive leaked out o
the box and got in the springs. Their,
was an explosion, and horse, wagon and
driver disappeared. The horse wa
found, or part of him, some two hun
dred feet from the scene, the wagon dis
appeared totally, and nothing but
piece of one of the trees was ever found
OF the unfortunate driver no traci
whatever was ever found.