The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1883-05-05
Nitro.GIycprine,

tGath's " l. Dispptch to the Cincinnati ssquii er'1
One of nv friends in this conference
had been an eminent contractor, Sets
something was said about the lrlsh max
fng dynamite war en- England, on when
this gentleman remarked " have q
good deal do with nitro glycerlne. IoN'
some important government worBs socu
as the making of b1eek-waters, where
the rock was brought 10 me IN laIge
pieces and we hal to blow 1T mp, ana
used nitro-glycerine for that purpose. IL
is the most Destructive thing YOU can
conceive of. A little Cartridge on IL sss
thick as the end of a muskct-Dafref
dropped to the bottom OF an Driven
will shatter the most tremendous prliai-
tive rock. You can take piece hal1 as
big as your hand, and it will blow rock
as big as this room in which we are SIT
ting all to finders. l can tell you ol a very
singular property about nitro glycerlht:
On, one occasion an ordinance was passed
in a certain city where ! was dong pno-
lie work imposing penalty OF 300 1or
bringing nitro -glyceriue inside OF The city
limits. / had to have IL, 90 told my
foreman to put that glycerine under my
table, at which [ was writing. as if Is
Ca AplOdtU pN 10y
that for few days / was little sk1ttisfl.
There was enough glycerlne there con-
cealed by that table-cloth TO hfva blown
up half dozen blocks of that city.
People used to come into my room, SIT
few mioutes and suddenly one
or more would put their hands 10
their head and complain of beadache.
Not being subject to headaches pyselt,
| could not understand it. l suppose
that from one-half to three-fourths OF my
visitors who sat with me more than ten
minutes would have those headaches.
One day man came into my office who
had been blowing out oil-welis IN Penn
sylvania. He sat there fifteen min utes,
and suddenly said: Why | have
headache; you must have nitro-glycerire
here oh, no, said /, with smile.
Yes, said he, this is nltro-glycerlne
headache. | think l smell il, too He
began to sniff his nose. There is q very
slight odor, hardly perceptible, in the
stuff, and it looks like box of lard.
With this my visitor lifted the table
cloth, and said: Have you got it there?
pointing to the boxes. 'Yes, said 1 with
a laugh, that is nitro-glycerine.
well, said he, it gives the headache
to large proportion OF people who SIT
near it.
"Did you have any accident?" said l.
Ono, did not; but fellow contrac-
tor, who was doing some work in Can
ada, was driven out of that country by
an accident that happened to him in a
very simple way He had been using
nitro-glycerine, and it is supposed that
some of it got spilled on the tire of
wagon, which was left unmoved for some
time. One day he hitched horse 10
the wagon and started to drive off, and
then that small amount of stuff adhering
to the tire blew up as the wheels moved,
and really destroyed two-thirds of that
little town. The people around were
killed, the hotel was blown to pieces, two
or three blocks were devastated, and my
! associate was unable to do any contract
ing work 10 Canada. He hastily sold
what he had left there to native, and
crossed the river and came away, other
wise they would have sued him for all
the damage done to that town.