Omaha daily bee., 1885-10-09
THE HE'LL GATE HOIST.
The Most stupordous Convulsion Ever De-
signed and Executed by Man.
what viii he tho Effect OF the ENplo-
sion?-No Certainty as to tho Re-
sult-A Timely Warming.


York Mercury "will be touched
of beneath Flood Rock, near
Hcll Gate, on Saturday morn
ing next ut II O'Clock Many hundred
thousand rounds of dynamite and "rcnd-
rock" powder were employed in blowing
up Hallcts Reef, some seven or eight
years since, but that famous explosion
was mere infant at the breast, so to
speak, to the brawny Hercules whose
colossal energies will be suddenly let
loose on the 10th instant Yet the explo-
sion at Hallct's Reef was by far the
largest of its kind known to engineering
science, and as we all remember nervous
New York lay awake several nights try
ing to imagine and forecast tho effects of
that cataclysm.
THE EEFECrS OF THAT SUNDAY BLAST
demonstrated that no forecast of even
tolerable accuracy can be made of the
effects of any great explosion when oc
curing under water. But the forthcom-
ing explosion beneath Flood Rock does
not come under that category. Only II
part of tho latter rocky island is sub
merged. A large portion of its hard,
blcached turtle-back basks above the
boiling waters which lave Its sides, There
will be six or seven times us much dyna
mite and rcnd-rock powder exploded on
Saturday morning Us there was on the
memorable Sunday seven or eight years
since. 1t seems impossible to escape the
conclusion that the dry turtle back of the
rock will
LEAP INTO THE AIR
and take II look around the horizon to u
distance of thirty miles or so on every
side ut least before it begins its caprcious
and probably devastating descent There
are no means by which tho range of
these terrific fragments can be calculated.
No computation within the range of
mathematical dynamos can estimate
either the force or the direction of tho
fragments, or whether they will be large
in size, weighing tons, or whether small
in size, weighing pounds Anybody who
has seen an ordinary blast or had hun
dred weight or so Of stone come through
the walls OF his house in consequence OF
the careleSsness of quarrymen knows
how little confidence to put in the good
behavior of even an infant blast. There
will be many hundrcdwoightS of dyna-
mite and "rcndrock" used in Saturday
mornings blust. When this enormous
mass of the most powerful explosive ma
terial known to chemistry is flashed off,
people within mile or twO'S range will
be apttO
KEEP AN EYE ON THE SKIES
for the descent of possible fragments.
When the back of Flood Rock shoots
madiy into the air, IL fierce parOXysmal
spasm will shoot through the rock-ribbed
foundations of upper New York and
New Jersey. SO that the impending con-
vulson at Flood Rock is likely to resom-
bic II Vcsuvian eruption III one aspect
and IN ablc-bodied earthquake III the
other aspect While the sky-kissing
fragments are paying their respects TO
the roofs of houses along the New York
and Astoria shores, what will the radiate,
lateral, underground quiver be doing
with their foundations? The reply is,
that nobody knows-nobody can even APP
proXimately tell, We shall all have to
wait and see to wait and sce-to hope for
the best, but to take every precautOn for
safety. Lieutenant Derby, the Superin
tcndent of the mining operations ut
Flood Rock, said on Friday, according to
Il reporter:
"No injurious effects are expected, but
it is always well to be on the safe side 1t
would be much better for man to take
down his French pier glass and lay it on
the floor Il dozen times than TO have it
shaken down once"
Being asked il the report was not like
ly to be much louder than the explosion
OF Hallett's Reef, Lieut.. Derby is report
ed us saying:
yes, probably because part of tho
rock is out of water, while the other was
entirely submarine. The pieces will fly
also but not beyond thousand feet"
LIEUTENANT DERBY Is NOT ALARMIST,
but it is not so safe to ayow that he does
not err in the opposite extreme which is
the more dangerous of the two extremes.
1t is wiser and more humane to advise
measures of caution than to encourage Il
feeling of security which docs not exist
The fragments "will fly he admits, but
he knows no more that the child unborn
whether they will fly five hundred two
thousand or five thousand feet, whether
they will drop like II shower of Titanic
hailstoncs into the East river, or como
prone through the roofs or burst through
the sides Of dwelling houses in Astoria or
the adjoining New York shore. Nor can
he tell nor anybody else tell whether
pier glassess or walls or
WHOLE HOUSES WILL BE SHAKEN
down, or in what localities; whether the
shock will be principally confined to the
!a.@Gg Island side, or to the New York
side; whether IL viii extend TO Jersey, or
shoot mp into Westminster county. but
that the people of New York have good
reason TO expect some of the unpleasant
effects of the forthcoming explosion must
be sufficiently plain from the fact that
Flood Rock is merely one of the several
emergent protuberances of the gnciss
ridge of rocks which underneath the East
river connects Long Island with Man
haitian Island. Along this rocky ridge,
as sensation courses all along the human
vertcbre, the
TERRIBLE PULSATION WILL SHOOT,
and if some houses be topplcd down
along with the picr.gIasses which they
may happen to contain, nobody could be
greatly surprised Bear in mind, the
human Imagination has never heretofore
been called to wrestIe with more than
One-seventh of the same quantity of con
centrated energy, and we are utterly
without examples or formulas by which to
ESTIMATE ITS RESULTS.
A Mercury reporter yesterday crossed
the ferry from Ninety street, New
York, to Astoria, and took look at the
doomed island, known to nayigators as
Flood Rock. Above its Scared, polished
back, like some Vulcan finger of Fate
pointed the smoky shaft and its oily black
gearing, while as from II big wound in its
side, the dirty water, urged by tho un-
seen pumps below, ran a heavy stream
As the ferry boat painted and groaned
pa It the unpleasant looking place, the re-
porter noticed II tall, wiry, sunburnt man
leaning over the rail of The boat gazing
Oh, "A