The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1876-02-04
MODERN EXPLOSIVES.
Something About Nitr0-(slycerines Gum
Cotton and Giant Powder.
From the New York Times. I

Something About Nitr0-<slycerine, Gun
Cotton and Giant Powder.
(From the New York Times
The fearful explosion of dynamite,
and consequent loss of life at Bremen
haven, will remind many of similar
disaster which took place at Aspinwall
some nine years since. The dynamite
on the pier at Bremerhaven, it is said,
was in the personal baggage of pas
senger. The nitro-glycerine which ex-
ploded on board the steamship Euro
pean, at Aspinwall, in 1S66,was invoiced
as coll Its powerful properties
were quite unknown at that time in this
country. There were about seventy
cases of the stuff in the hold of the ship,
which had been transported from Ham,
burg to Hull, England, and thence to
Liverpool by rail. It will never be
known whether the explosive quality of
the compound had been heightened by
partial decomposition in the tropical
heat of that latitude, or whether the
careless handling by the laborers in the
vessels hold brought about the disaster.
The steamer was blown up, many peo-
pie were killed, and much shipping and
wharf property and buildings were
wrecked. Great Indignation was ex-
pressed against the shippers who had
disguised their consignment in order to
insure its transportation. In the shape
in which it was carried it completely
deceived the very people who should
have been made aware of the dangerous
properties of the cargo which they were
obliged to handle. This shipment was
designed for San Francisco, and, by
curious coincidence, a similar disaster
occurred in that city at about the same
time. Tidings of the two explosions
reached New York almost simultane-
ously. An express company in San
Francisco had received, in the course of
business, case containing several pack
ages of nitro-glycerine, the outer wood
en- covering of which was saturated with
the perilous stuff leaking from the in
side cases. Nobody called for it, and
some man was instructed to open it in
order to see what the contents might be.
The first blow of his mallet caused an
explosion which killed eight or ten peo-
pie, wrecked the warehouse, wounded
many persons, and destroyed property
to the value of two hundred thousand
dollars.
Both these disasters occurred when
the manufacture of nitro-glycerine was
yet new, and while the art of packing
it safely for transportation was compar-
atively unknown. Of the various seri-
Gus accidents which have happened from
careless use of this explosive, that by
which eight men were killed and several
were wounded, at Bergen, N. j in 1867,
was most notable. In this instance a
laborer attempted to dry can of nitro
glycerine by tnrusting red-hot poker
into it. We now know enough of most
powerful explosives to handle them, at
least, with great care, and to transport
them from place to place without incur
ing any such awful penalties of igno-
rance as those which followed its igno-
rant disposition less than ten years ago.
Indeed, the article of commerce known
as dynamite, which caused the explo-
sion at Bremerhaven, was the result of
| Alfred Nobel's experiments to discover
form in which nitro-glycerine might
be safely handled. Nobel, Swedish
chemist of Hamburg, after studying the
composition and properties of such ex-
plosives as the "wood-gunpowder" OF
Schultze, and the compressed gun-cot-
ton of Abel, introduced nitroleum, OF
trini.ine, to the world on large scale.
1t was not until 1865 that it became
well-known in the arts, and the series
of shocking disasters which followed its
introduction brought it at once into
great disfavor; those who saw it's i'm
mense value as an explosive dreaded its
hidden forces.
1t was then proposed to diffuse the
explosive fluid in sand, or chemical sub
stances, by which means the explosive
force would be divided, and any laten
heat would be conducted off. Another
with wood naphtha, which
would form a non-explosive com
pound, the naphtha being easily drawn
off when the nitroleum is required fo
use. None of these expedients wer,
found practicable, and the latest resul
of all experiments was dynamite, or gi
ant powder. This is simply pulverizet
slick, saturated with nitro-glycerine.
cheap substitute for the silexis depos
it of infusorial earth, found in SOM
parts of Germany, and which answer
every purpose of the artifcially prepar
i, ed material. The saturated mass look
, like a damp grayish sugar. If care
lessly prepared, the nitro-glycerine set
, ties or collects in Drops, and is, Q
T, course, dangerously explosive.
| OF each of these compounds it ma
be said, as of fire; that 1T is goo
servant but bad MASTER" Railroa
a building, and all enterprises requirin
a blasting, tunneling or excavation, hav
hoor, x,a rtlx- q no ronad by, tho infrod,,o