The Mineral argus. [volume] (Maiden, Mont.) 1883-1886, 1885-04-16
THE POWER OF DYNAMITE.
Il Is Greatly Overestimated and Soon To he
SuncrsetIel rs an Explosive.

ly resembles moist brown sugar ana Is
,.itro-. lycerine absorbed in any inert
base. Ii is not Yet twenty years old,
having been first offered for sale in
June. 1867. In the form in which 1t is
licensed, dynamite must consist OF 40
per cent. Of ntro-glycerine and % per
cent. of an infusorial earth known as
kieselyuhr.
OF dynamite, properly SO called.
there are only two kinds. distinguish
ed AS dynamite No. and No. 2. No.
| is composed of IS per cent. OF nitro
clycerine and % per cent. of the infu-
serial earth kieseiguhr: No. 2 of Is per
cent. nitro glyccrine and 80 per cent:
Of a pulv, rized preparation composed
IF nitrate of potash, charcoal, ana
parafliEe: mixture introduced to re-
place pun-powder in cOal-wOrking |
where d,n mite No. l was too power
full.
Nitro-Clyccrine is a very pale yell |
low 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 il is not in strict sense poison
Gus, vet a single drop placed on the
tongue will almost Immediately pro.
duce q violent headache; even the
hand ing it, before the dynamite cart
ridges were in 1870 wrapped in parch-
ment, would do the same. The 'dy-
Mantle headache" Is u 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 kiese'gahr was
finally adopted. numerous trials were
made Of various other absOrpents, such
rs 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 kieseigMhr ran short. the
French engineers found the best sub
stitutc to lie in the ashes of Boghead
coal, and mex, to that in pounded su'
gar.
The hours of the supremacy OF dyna.
mite are numbered. The explosive Of
the future is undoubtedly gclatine, the
latest invention of MIR. Alfred Nobel,
of Edinburg. Already on the continent
the manufacture of this new agent has
| assumed important dimensions. Many
} Of the later operations Of the st. Goth
j, ard tunnel were carried out with pure
e blasting gclatine, and in Austria, the
It 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-
70 70 facture. II is simply dynamite q
N base actif) containing % per cent o.
it nitro-glycerinc, with q base of pc
!. cent Of cOllOdiOn wool, that is itself al
~ explosive in place of the inert kicsul
E. guhr. As blasting agent it is NOR
he homogeneous than dynamite. and OF
Y account of its elasticity is less sensible
! to outward impressions, while in hand
in ling or cutting the cartridges there !
no loss of the material, as sometime
occurs with dynamite. Its further ad
" vantages are that the gases after ex
y" ~ plosion are lighter and thinner an
n leave no dust, developing at the sam
phi time considerable more power. TakinI
=. ne the power of dynamite at 1000 an
Oh nitro-glycerinc at 1,411, blasting gela
AS tine is repre-. entcd by the figures 100.
re in addition to which supeiiOrity 1t
al capable, unlike dynamite, Of retainin
80 It's nitro -g,ycerincc when brought int
of contact with water.
on The destructive power Of dynamit,
on which, contrary TO the common Opir
Ipps s ion, does not act downward. bl
in equally in all directions, and with tn
RS greatest violence where there Is til
m, greatest resistance, has been great
~ exaggerated. Although it has frol
I'd, five 10 seven times the explosive pOwe
by Of gunpowder, it is comparativel
he triflipg in its effects ut even short Iii,
ea' tances. The dynamitcr. with all hi
he daring and cunning, has, after nj
RS succeeded in doing us no more dan
AZ ngc than gas has often done before
' ar Ii would DE better for him, il he d.
nd sires to continue his warfare, to retur
he to his ancient ally. gunpow'lcr. whic
IN above ground is a much more noisy an
.,ss dcmoralizing agent.
~, Dynamiters can not by any means :
OIL their disposal lay whole city in ruin
n not even Il street. They may injul
RS special buildings, and that is the mo-
leo thoy can do. The dynamite employee
Of for these purposes is, in the maiOrit
of cases, Of the kind known as lignir
dynamite, wholly unlicensed cxpl'
VS. vs. sive, composed of sawdust and nitr'
n,, glycerinc, and in its effects consider
'bo Div weaker than that in common US
OIL -COrnhiN Magazine.