Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1883-06-06
fNitrO-GIycerine.
SOME SINGULAR STORIES CONCERNING
ITS TREMENDOUS EXPLOSIVE Force.

ITS TREMENDOUS EXPLOSIVE Force.
A gsnIl, man well acquainted with
the properties Of ultro-glycerinc says
of this terrible explosive:
81 have good deal to do with
nitro-glycerine, I did some impor-
taDt government work, such as the
making of breakwaters, where the
rock was brought to me in large
pieces, and we had to blow it up, and
used pitro-glycerine for that purpose
II is the most destructive thing you
can conceive Of. A little cartridge
of it ss thick as the end OF a 'musket
barrel dropped to the bottom Of an
oil well will shatter the most tremen-
dous primitive rock. You can take a
piece Of it half as big as your hand,
and it will blow rock as big as this
room in which we are sitting all to
flinders. can tell you Of very
singular property about nitro-glycer'
inc. On one occasion an ordinance
was passed in a certain city where !
was doing public. work, imposing a
peDslty of $500 for bringing nitro
glycerinc within the city limits. I
had to have it, so l told my foreman
to put that glycerine under my table,
at which I sat writing. AS it is exc
ploded by concusson, you may ina
glne that for few days | was a lit
tie sklttisb. There was enough
glycerine there concealed by that
tablecloth to have blown up half a
dozen blocks of that city. People
used to come into my room, sit few
minutes and suddenly one or more
would put their hands to their head
aud mplain of head 'che. Mo- be-
ing subject to headaches myself. /
could not understand il. | suppose
that from ore-hslf 10 ihree-f urths Of
all my visitors who sat with me more
than ten minutes wonld have those
headaches. One day man came IN =
to my office who bad been blowing
out oil wells 10 Pennsylvania. lie
sat there fifteen minutes and sudden
ly said, why, | have headache;
you must have nitro glycerine here"
"Oh, no. said l, With smile. Yes,
said he, this is nitro ly cerine head
ache. | think | smell it, too" He
began to sniff his nose. There is a
very slight odor, hardly percePtible,
in the stuff, and it looks like a box Of
lard. With this my visitor lifted the
tablecloth and said, "Haye you got it
there ?" pointing to the boxes. yes,
said I, with laugh, chat ls nitro
plycerine.7 Wv H., said he, sit
gives the headache to a large proper
ton of people who sit near it,"
"Did you have any accident =
said |,
"No. l did not: but a fellow con-
tractor, who was doing some work IN
Conada, was driven out of that coun
try by an accident THAI happened to
him in very simple way. lie bad
been using nitro.glycerlne, and it is
opposed that some of it got spilled
on the tire of a wagon. which was
left ANNOYED for some time. One
day lie hiIcbed horse 10 the wagon
and started to drive ii oG, and then
that small amount Of stuff adhering
10 the tire blew up and really DIES
troyed twOeihirds of that little town.
The people around were killed, the
hotel was blown to pieces. two or three
blocks were devastated, and my asso .
ciate was uuatle to DO any contract
ing work in Canada. Il" hastily sold
what be left there to 4 native, and
crossed the river and came away,
otherwise they would have sued "Im
for all the damSge done to that
town."
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