Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1885-04-08
THE POWER OF DYNAMITE.
1t Is Greatly Overestimated and Soon to be
Superseded rs an Explosive.

inC FoWEH OF OfNAMl KS
lt ts Greatly Overestimated and Soon to be
Superseded rs an Explosive.
Dynamite, in it's simplest form,
closely resembles moist brown sugar
and is nitro-glycerine absorbed in any
inert base. It's not yet twenty years
old, having been first offered for sale
in June, 1867. In the form in which it
is licensed dynamite must consist of
seventy-five per cent. of nitro-glycer-
inc and twenty-five per cent. of an in
fusorial earth known as kteselguhr.
Of dynamite properly SO called there
are only two kinds, distinguished as
dynamite No and No. 2. No. l is
composed of seventy-fve per cent. of
nitro-glycerine and twenty-five per
cent. of the infusorial earth bSeselguhr;
No. Of eighteen per cent. of nitro
glycerine and eighty-two per cent. of
pulverized preparation composed of
nitrate OF potash, charcoal and paraf-
fine; a mixture introduced to replace
gunpowder in cCal-working where
dynamite No. l was too powerful.
Nitrogl ycerine in very pale-yellow
oily liquid, about half as heavy again
as water 1t is simply cold mixture
of one part of nitric acid and three
parts of sulphuric acid. 1t has no
smell, but sweet aromatic taste, and,
though it is not in q strict sense poison
Gus, yet single drop placed on the
tongue will almost Immediately pro-
duce a 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-
cident, but to direct experiment. The
first made consisted of charcoal and
ntro-glycerine, and, before the porous
silica known as EieSetgMhr 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
kieselguhr ran short, the French engin-
eers found the best substitute to lie in
the ashes of Boghead coal, and next to
that in pounded sugar.
The hours of the supremacy of dyna-
mite are numbered. The explosive of
the future is undoubtedly blasting gel
atine, the latest invention of Mr.. Alfred
Nobel, of Edinburgh. Already on the
continent the manufacture of this new
agent has assumed important dimen-
&c tbo To- -
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 dynam te was
formerly made are now given over to
its manufacture. 1t is simply dynamite
base aCtit, containing ninety-three per
cent. of nitro-glycerine, w tn base of
seven per cent. of collodion WOOL that
is itself an explosive, in place of the
inert EieSeEgultr. AS blasting agentit
is more homogeneous than dynamite,
and on account of it's elast. city, is less
sensible to outward impress ons, while
in handling or cutting the cartridges
there is no loss of the material, as some
times occurs with dynam tie. Its fur
ther advantages are that the gases after
explosion are lighter and thinner, and
leave no dust, developing at the same
time cons derable more power. Taking
the power of dynamite at one thousand
and nitro-glycerne at one thousand
four hundred and eleven, blasting gela-
tine is represented by the figures one
thousand five hundred and fifty-ive, in
addition to which super ority it is capa-
BILE, unlike dynamite, of retaining its
nitro-glvcerine when brought in con-
tact with water.
The destructive power of dynamite
which, contrary to the coIamon 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 gun
powder, it is comparative trifing 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 q
much more noisy and demoralizing
agent.
Dynamiters can not by any means
at their disposal lay whole city in
ruins-nor even a street. They may
iniure special buildings and that is the
most they can do. The dynamite en-
ployed for these purposes is, in the ma
jority Of cases, of the kind known as
ignin-dynamite, wholly unlicensed
explosive, composed OF sawdust and
nitro-glycerine, and in its effects con-
siderable weaker than that in common
use Cor7abjI Magazine
TIRED AND LANGUID WOMEN. How
many women there are of whom these