National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1884-05-19
TERRIBLE NrrRo.eLYcnnINE.
It's Power OF Annihilation as Proved by
Many Dreadful Instances.

ANcW lOfE sun,
Attending tho frightful deaths that so
frequently follow tho handling of nitro.gly-
cerine in tho oil regions" said Myron X.
Paige, formerly an oil operator in Pennsyl-
vania, there is one feature the mysterious
nature of which Is startling It has puzzled
scientific observation and study, aud / do not
believe to-day that any satisfactory explana-
tion can be given of 1t. This singular feature
is the almost complete humiliation Of matter
especially of the human body, which in q
majority Of cases results from fatal explo.
sion of this deadly compound. have noticed
it in many instances and tho fact
was again called to my mind by tho article I
read in tho SlW the other day about tho find
ing of human hand by fisherman in IN
isolated portion Of the oil regions and the
absence of all trace of any other remains.
That story, by tho way, was doubtless n
startling one TO many who read IT, but to any
ono who ever lived in tho oil country IL was
simply tho telling of the old tragedy in new
form. h.
IL had tcamstor once In my employ
poor Hank France. Like all men Of his
kind in the oil country, there was nothing
either above, below, or on the earth that he
feared. lie was in the habit of carting nitro
glycerino to any well whore | wanted to use
4
actually got so reckless in handling the stun
that other help had would not stay ut work
when they knew Hank was coming in with
| glycerine, but went to q safo distance until he
had deposited the explosive they required
and had como away.
Hank and Warren actually used 20 unload
| the stun tho same as they would lot OF
bricks, Hank standing in tho wagon aud
throwing u can to Warren some feet away,
and Warren catching it and placing il on the
! ground in time to catch tho next ono that
| Hank tossed him. AS 10 takes a man with q
good set of nerves to oven ride in n wagon
! when no knows there is nitro glycorno under
the seat, this manner of handling compound
| that tho slightest jar explodes will give you
an idea of tho sort of nerves these two men
had. Each one knew that if Warren hap.
| penod to miss catching can there wouldn't
DO enough left of them to cover the bottom Of
q snuff box, but they had the daring TO take
the chances.
| mo one ever knew what caused il, and nc
one would over have known who il was that
was wiped out, except from tho fact that they
know who it was that would be coming thai
way with nitro-glycerine just about that
time, and from ono or two things we found
but when we heard the explosion that day WI
said: That's Hanks last trip' Tho glycer
inc had exploded about quarter of mile
from the vol. We walked down there. There
was the usual cellar that few cans of the STUFF
always digs when it goes off, and the usual 10
of timber felled. Three hundred feet Off to tn,
right of the road, in the woods, we found ,
wagon tire. We found tho tail of one horse
and portions of the body of another. In an
other part of tho woods mans knee wa
picked up, and, although we searched over al
area that it would have been impossible TO
any of the wreck to have been thrown, tina
was all We found, except Hanks greasy OF
Ci nnfn CT md hfg nj
hanging on the limb of tree
AS thoroughly as that does nitro glycerine
do its work. All who have had anything Il
do with it in the oil regions have had illus
tration after illustration of its annihilativI
power. The iron frames of wagons, and
even nitro-glycerine safes, have been removed
from human vision by an explosion as otiectu
ally as If they had mover been formed. Lool
ut that poor reckless devil, George Doran
who disappeared at Rcd Rock few year
ago. He was walking along with two O
three cans Of glycerine slung over hi
shoulder in bag To rest himself he SHIFTED
the bag to the other shoulder. In doing O.
he Jared the cans together and disappeared
with goodly portion of Red Rock. NTha
man weighed all of 200 pounds. All that til
most thorough search over recovered of tina
200 pounds Of flesh and bone was part @
one foot-less than ono pound
Some savants have attempted to explai
the mystery of this characteristic of nitro
gycerine by the theory of instantaneou
vaporization of matter. That might be tru
to flesh, but could the great masses of bone il
the human body be vaporiaed in the twink
ling of an eye? Could iron be reduced t.
vapor in an instant? II doesn't seem 80 tt
me.
"Others offer the theory of atomization o
matter. This theory was disproved by anothe
most melancholy occurrence in Allegan,
county, N. Y, two or three years ago
This case was not characterized by sucl
utter annihilation as others. Charles Der
ridge, n woll-known oil man, was blown
up by nitro-glycerine. Tho grounC
around was covered with spotless new. aller
snow. On either side was u high an,
abrupt hill, only a few rods apart. Berridg
was very large man, of perhaps $50 pound
weight. The remains of the poor man wer,
searched for carefully and long, for no was
| good man and popular one. The coffin il
which they were borne to the grave, content
and all, weighed but fifteen pounds Now TO
the atomization theory. The greatest fore,
Of nitro-glycorine explosion is always up
ward. If tho matter had been reduced L
atoms however intlnitesimal, in falling bacl
upon that spotless snow some trace of then
must have boon seen upon it, But it remained
as spotless Us before"
I HaaRN H. =.