Weekly Chillicothe crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1878-19??, 1882-06-08
Dynamite and other Destructives,

Cincinnati Enquirer.
The probabilities are that internal
machines will come into more general
use than is desirable either for pur-
poses of private revenge or the re-
mOval of tryants and nuisances. With
the invention of such explosive sub.
stances as gun.cottOn, nitro.gly ycerine,
dynamite, litno.fracteur, cOtton.pow.
der, gionite, gionine, daulinc, saxafra-
gine, math2iette, glyoXiline and blast
ing gelatine, there are substances
enough to terrify the lords Of the
earth for years TO come. In general
forms it can be said that all these sub.
stances resolve themselves substan.
italy into two, namely, gun cotton and
nitro glycerine. Both are nitro com
pounds, the former in solid form
the latter liquid, cotton powder is
gun.cottOn reduced to fine state of
division; ,onite is The same with the
admixture of a nitrate or similar body;
dauIine is nitro-glycerine and sawdust,
and blastipg-gelatine is nitro glycerine
in which gun.cotton has been dis
solved 80 as 10 form jelly. Nitro
glycerine is prepared by mixing gly-
cerine with nitric acid and then per-
mitting the mixture 10 drop or fall
in narrow stream into water, when
the nitro-gIycerine at once separates.
iun-cotton is simply cotton immersed
in nitric acid. 1t was discovered in
1876 by SChonheim, Il Swiss chemist,
A solution of camphor is extensively
employed TO initiate bone and ivory,
and is known under the trade name Of
celluloid. GuncOtion is also exten-
sively used in photography. That
which is sold in this country is soluble
in a mixture Of alcohol and ether, and
is not explosive, That used in the
iHterual machines sent to Field and
Vanderbilt was made of the strongest
kind Of nitric and sulphuric acid, and
was not easy soluble in alcohol and
ether. Another popularity of gun
cotton is that vet gun cotton can
be exploded Dry gun'Cotton
burns vthemently; wet gun'cotton
is absolutely uninilammable. You
can put out a fire with wet gun cotton
just as you would with a wet blanket,
and yet You can use tie same material
for blowing up a fortress. Nov, see
The advantage It has over gunpowdtr.
This must be as much protected FROM
water and damp as from lre in order
to be effective, while gun.cottOn the
wetter it gets the safer and more unin.
tammable it becomes, yet detonates
if it has absorbed 80 or 40 per cent of
water as readily as if it bad absorbed
but 2 or 3. This is the character of
the explosive substance that formed
the greater part Of the Field and Van
derbilt machines. 1t may not be i'm.
proper here to relate how this gun
cotton is exploded under water or wet.
There is no difficulty with dry gun
cotton, it producing an explosion.
The wet is detonated by using an inter
mediary between the primary charge
of illuminate and the wet gun cotton.
The intermediary is a slab o. dry gun
cotton termed II primary. The full
inmate, for convenience sake, is put
in quill tube, and this quill tube
inserted into a hole in the cotton
slab or primer. The quill of illuminate
thai furnishes the primary cause of
the explosion is called IA detonatOr,
and the detOnatOr fixed into the primer
OF dry gun,cotton slab causes the lat
ter to explode. A torpedo Of $50 pounds
OF gun.cottOn sunk in the water will
throw up Il cone Of water sixty feet in
height, having base o. no less than
two hundred and twenty feet. This
was TIE principle by which The rocks
in He'll Gate were blown up, ard il is
the same principle used by the Rus
SLAMS in the ClimeHn war. Then it
Will be seen how easy it is to construct
an internal machine which, wet or dry,
will easily explode. Dynamite car
tridges are about as explosive internal
machines as an ordinary cOnspirator
would need. At a bali in Schwarzen.
burg, SAxony, lately a young man
entered with something in his mouth
which appeared TO be cigar. lie
went TO the chandelier as to light it,
and a terrible explosion ensued, The
lights were extinguished, the walls
partly gave way, some of the dancers
were covered with blood and pieces oI
flesh, and the young man had hIowr
! himself clear out of Identification by
, means of a dynamite cartridge.