Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-03-27
The POWER OF DYNAMITE.
p. =. Greatly Overestimated and Soon to b
superseded as an Explosive.

,.;. Greatly O~verestimated and Soon to Be
superseded as an Explosive.
Dynamite, in its simplest form,
o,oselv resembles moist brown sugar
and is nitro-glycerine absorbed in any
inert base. 1t is not yet twenty years
old, having been first offered for sale
~ lime. 1867. In the form in which it
"a licensed, dynamite must consist of
seyenty-tive per cent. of nitro-glycer-
inc and twenty-five per cent. of an in
~fnsorial earth known as kieselguhr.
OF dynamite properly so called there
are only two kinds, distinguished as
dvnamite No. l and No. 2. No. / is
composed of ~seventy-fve per cent. of
nitro-glycerine and twenty-five per
cent. Of the infusorial earth kieselguhr;
No. 9 of eighteen per cen of nitro
o)ycerine and e%ighty-two per cent. of .
pnlvcrized preparation composed of
nitrate OF potash, charcoal and paraf-
ine: a mixture introduced to replace
gunpowder in coal-working where
INNlnllCC lNOs L was wv POWCllul.
Nitro-glycerine in a very pale-yellow
oilv liqtiid, about half as heavy again
As water. 1t is simplya cold mixture
Of II part of nitric acid and three
narts OF sulphuric acid. 1t has no
smell, but a sweet aromatic taste, and,
though it is not in a strict sense poison
Gus, vet a single drop placed on the
tongue will almost Immediately pro-
duce q violent headache; even the
handling of it, before the dynamite cart
ridges were in 1870 wrapped in parch-
ment, would do the same. The .'dyna-
mite headache is a disorder very well
known in the trade.
The discovery of dynamite was due,
as has been generally supposed, to ac-
cideut, but to direct experiment. The
first made consisted Of charcoal and
nitr~o-glycerine, and, before the porous
silica known as kieselguhr was finally
adopted, numerous trials were made OF
various other absorbents, such as por-
Gus terra Gotta, sawdust and ordinary
and nitrated paper soaked in the liquid
explosive and rolled into cartridges.
During the siege of Paris, when the
Sieselquhr ran short, the French engin-
GERS lOuuu UlC DCSU SuOSOlCutCV ~ liz III
the ashes of Boghead coal, and next tc
that in pounded sugar.
The hours of the supremacy of dyna-
mite are numbered. The explosive of
the future is undoubtedly blasting gel
atinc, the latest invention of Mr.. Alfred
Nobel, of Edinburgh. Already on the
continent, the manufacture of this new
agent has assumed important dimen-
SONS. Many of the later operations of
the st. Gothard tunnel were carried out
with pure blasting gelatine, and in
Austria, the richest of all the European
countries in mines, except Great Brit
ain, the factories where dynamite was
formerly made are now given over to
its manufacture. It is simply dynamite
abase actit, containing ninety-three pc,
cent. of nitro-glycertne, with a base of
seven per cent. of collodion wool, that
is itself an explosive, in place of the
inert kiesclguhr. AS a blasting agentit
is more homogeneous than dynamite,
and on account of its elasticity, is less
sensible to outward impressions, while
in handling or cutting the cartridges
there is no loss of the material, as some
times occurs with dynamite. Its fur
Their advantages are that the gases after
explosion are lighter and thinner, and
leave no dust, developing at the same
time considerable more power. Taking
the power of dynamite at one thousand
and nitro-glycerine at one thousand
four hundred and eleven. blasting gela-
tine is represented by the figures one
thousand five hundred and tifty-tive, in
addition to which superiority it is capa-
bic, unlike dynamite, of retaining its
nitro-glycerine when brought in con
tact with water.
The destructive power of dynamite
which, contrary to the common opinion,
does not act downward, but equally in
all directions, and with the greatest
violence where there is the greatest re-
sistance, has been greatly exaggerated.
Although it has from five to seven
times the explosive power of gum
powder, it is comparative triiing in its
effects at even short distances. The
dynamiter, with all his daring and
cunning, has after all, succeeded in
doing us no more damage than gas has
often done before. 1t would be better
for him, if he desires to continue the
warfare, to return to his ancient ally
gunpowder, which above ground is a
much much more noisy and demoralizing
Dynamiters can not by any means
ut their disposal lay a whole city in
ruins-nor even a street. They may
:njure special buildings, and that is the
most they can do. The dynamite en-
ployed for these purposes is, in the ma
lority of cases, of the kind known as
ilgnin-dynamite, a wholly unlicensed
explosive, composed of sawdust and
nltro-glycerine, and in lis effects con-
siderable weaker than that in common
use.-CornhiU Magazine.
lifa in Chicago.