Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1885-04-02
THE POWER OF DYNAMITE.
IL Is Greatly Overestimated and soon to
be Superseded as an Explosive.

be Superseded as an Explosive.
Dynamite in its simplest form closely
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 in
June, 1867. In the form in which it is
licensed, dynamite must consist Of IS
per cent of nitro-glycerine and % per
cent. of an infusorial earth known as
kieselguhr.
OF dynamite. properly so called,
there are only two kinds. distinguished
as dynamite No. and No. 2. No. [
IS composed of IS per cent. of nitro
glycerine and % per cent. of the in
fusorial earth kiesetguhr; No. 2 of Is
per cent. nitro-glycerine and 50 per
cent. of pulverized preparation COM
posed OF nitrate of potash, charcoal,
and parafiine; mixture introduced to
replace gun-powder 10 coal-working
where dynamite No. was too power
full.
Nitro-glycerine is a very pale-yell wv
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 iii strict sense poisonous, yet
single drop placed on the tongue will
almost immediately produce a violent
headache; even the handling it. before
the dynamite cartridges were in 1870
wrapped in parchment, would do the
same. The dynamite headache is
disorder very well known in the trade.
The discovery of dynamite was not
due, as has been generally supposed, to
accident. but to direct experiment.
The first made consisted of charcoal
and nitro-glycerine, and, before the
porous silica known as kieseiguhr was
finally adopted, numerous trials were
made of various other absorbents, such
as porous terra Gotta, sawdust, and or
binary and nitrated paper soaked in
the liquid explosive and rolled into
cartridges. During the siege of Paris,
when the kiesetgulv ran short. the
French engineers found the best substi-
tute to lie in the ashes of Boghesd
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 gelatine, the
latest invention of Mr.. Alfred Nobel.
of Edinburgh. Already on the CONT
nent the manufacture of this new agent
has assumed important dimensions.
Many of the later operations of the st.
Gothard were carried out with pure
blasting gelatine, and in Austria, the
richest of all the European countries
in mines except Great Britain, the fac
tories where dynamite was formerly
made are now given over to its manu-
facture. 1t is simply dynamite Ga base
actif) containing SO per cent. of nitro
glycerine, with a base of per cent. of
collodion wool, that is itself an explo-
sive In place of the inert kieselgahr. As
blasting agent 1t is more homogene-
GUS than dynamite, and on account of
its elasticity is less sensible to outward
impressions, while in handling or cut
ting the cartridges there is no loss of
the material, as sometimes occurs with
dynamite. Its further advantages are
that the gases after explosion are
lighter and thinner and leave no dust,
developing at the same time consider
able more power. Taking the power
of dynamite at 1000 and nitro-glyce-
rine at 1,41l, blasting gclatine is repre-
sented by the figures 1,555, in addition
to which superiority it is capable, I'M
like dynamite, of retaining its nitro
glycerine when brought into contact
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 gun
powder, it is comparatively trifiing 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 his
warfare, to return to his ancient ally
gunpowder, which above ground is a
much more noisy and dcmoralizing
agent.
Dynamiters can not by any means at
their disposal lay whole city in ruins
nor even street. They may injure
special buildings, and that is the most
they can do. The dynamite employed
for these purposes is, In the majority of
cases, of the kind known as lignin-
dynamite, wholly unlicensed explo-
sive, composed of sawdust and Miro
glycerine, and in its effects consider
ably weaker than that in common use.
-COrnhtU Md0uzine.