Omaha daily bee., 1882-10-05
a NEW EXPLOSIVE.
Something Said to be More Powerful
Than Dynamite.

Philadelphia Record.
In February last tho pyrotechnic
establishment belonging to Ptof.
Samuel jackson, at Chester, was de.
stroyod and u number of lives lost.
Siuco that time the owner of the i'll.
tated place has devoted much time in
learning the true cause OF tho explo-
sion, and he believes that at last ho
has solved the mystery. In a
small building attached to the
factory proper were stored o number
of stars made of a material known rs
blue light. 1t wal this that detonsted
with such terrific force aa to demolish
the structure where they were stored.
Prof. jackson yesterday told u Record
reporter tho result of his recent dis.
coveries, which no claims will greatly
benefit science and show that u new
force has been found for blasting pur-
poses which he believes is even more
powerful than nitro. glyce,ine and half
again of the power of dynamite.
II have been making blue fire, such
az caused this trouble since 1854"
said the professor, land never knew
it to explode, detonate or develop any
extraordinary force until last Feb.
ruary, Up till within q short time
ago | was ignorant of the real cause of
the disaster, but happening to read i'll
an English paper of an explosion in
New Zealand which was exactly sim
liar, and there being an explanation
OF the subject, l set about to make
experiments. In company with my
counsel, MIR. Joseph l..
Caven, Mr.. John NJ. Broom
all and u dozen other gentle
men l made a trip Co Woodbury., NJ
j. Here a tube containing a couple
OF pounds of the blue fire was placed
in the earth and a huge atone laid on
top of it. The party went off a cou.
pie of hundred ioet and the detona.
zion was ctused by electricity being
applied to ii porcusaion cap. The of.
feet WAS startling, Eho stone was
shattered into fragments, a large hole
was dug into the grouad and a cloud
If dirt and dust thrown into the air
Az least a huadred feet.
At the second the detonatiop
occurred, Mr.. Broomal turned to
me and remarked: "There, that
sounded just the same as the explo-
tiJn ut your works at Chester" At
SIR. Caven's suggestion tho same
amount o, powder was exploded under
exactly SIMILAR conditions. but the
result wos nathing worth speaking Of.
a little gunpowder was placed in the
top of the u OF blue fire and it was
exploded with about the Same result
as the previous one had been. Fire
was placed to a a of blue fire and it
merely burned up.
~ repeated these experiments at
Lake Side park q few weeks ago and
gave a brief lecture, because / desired
the public to learn of this discovery,
more especially as there was no trial
of n cast against me and no oppor-
tunity afforded for making il public.
1t has been learned that copoussion
will cause q defamation OF the blue
fire, and this is more especially the
where the latter has been sub.
jected to intense heat. Had the fire.
kept away from the small build.
ings of Chester the chances are that
it would not have exploded. A dash
of water on the cans containing
tho blue fire would have converted
the water into hydrogen gas and thus
caused the oOncussion, especially as
the mass he'd been in a fuse state,
caused by the burning of the other
building, A direct stream of water !
would not possibly have resulted in a
defamation. BY the aid of a percussion
cap or the conclusion of a little pow
der the blue fire can be exploded Just
as readily, We or dry. 1t is safer
than nitro glycerine, because if 1t
falls to the ground there will be no
explosion. One can strike a mass of
with a hammer and only that por-
ton directly stuck will detonate, and
then only slightly.
"At the New Zsaland accident a
chemist had prepared sone blue fine,
which he found had not been correctly
compounded, so he sent an asaistant
into the yard 20 destroy it. He net
fire to il and left it 70, a moment.
his absence his wife came
along with 4 bucket OF water, ard
dashed it in the direction of the burn
ing chemicals. The result WAS q most
frightful explosion, which tore out the
women's arms end mi leg, and other
wise mu.ilated her. All the glass for
around wss scattered. Tie
similarity between this accident and
one ut Chester was 20 great as to
.ead at once to tho beli0f that the
Iprsy from tho firsmen's hose had pro.
iuc9d the conclusion, and the result
vas the d~etonntion aud it's oonse-
.IuenceS. Tho safe plaOo for thooo
hereafter will be Ia the maya
.lne. l. is strange that in the long
years that this blue fire has beon in