River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1885-04-09
THE POWER OF DYNAMITE.
Tt Is Greatly 0verestimated and Soon To Be
Superseded as an Explosive.

IL
Superseded as an Explosive.
Dynamite in its simplest form close
ly resembles moist brown sugar and is
nitro-s lycerine 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 rs
per cent of nitro-glycerine and % per
cent of an infusorial earth known as
bieSelguhr.
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
glycerine and Is per cent. of the infu-
serial earth kieSelguhr; No. 2 of Is per
cent. nitro-glycerine and 80 per cent.
of pulverized preparation composed
of nitrate of potash, charcoal, and
parafline; a mixture introduced to re-
place gun-powder in coal-working
where dynamite No. was too power
full.
Nitro-glycerine 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 a sweet aromatic taste, and,
though it is not in a strict sense poison
Gus, yet a single drop placed on the
tongue will almost Immediately pro-
duce a violent headache; even the
handling it, before the dynamite cart
ridges were in 1870 wrapped in parch-
ment, would do the same. The "dy-
Mantle headache is a 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 kieSelguhr was
finally adopted, numerous trials were
made of various other absorpents, 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 kieselguhr ran short, the
French engineers found the best sub
stitute to lie in the ashes of Boghead
coal, and next to that in pounded SUI
gar.
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 Edinburg. Already on the continent
| the manufacture of this new agent has
assumed important dimensions. Many
Of the later operations of the st. Goth
ard tunnel 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-
tacture. Ii 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
explosive in place of the inert kaeSsIt-
qabr. As blasting agent it is more
homogeneous than dynamite, and on
account of its elasticity is less sensible
to outward impressions, while in hand
ling or cutting the cartridges there is
no loss of the material, as sometimes
occurs with dynamite. Its further adj
vantages are that the gases after ex-
plosion are lighter and thinner and
leave no dust, developing at the same
time considerable more power. Taking
the power of dynamite at 1000 and
nitro glycerine at 1,411, blasting gela-
tine is represented by the figures 800,
in addition to which superiority it is
capable, unlike dynamite, of retaining
its nitro-glycerine when brought into
contact with water.
The destructive power of dynamite,
/ which, contrary to the common opin
ion, does not act downward, but
equally in all directions, and with the
greatest violence where there Is the
greatest resistance, has been greatly
exaggerated. Although it has from
five to seven times the explosive power
of 9unpowder, it is comparatively
tritling in its effects at even short dis
tances. The dynamiter, with all his
daring and cunning, has, after all,
succeeded in doing us no more dam
age than gas has often done before.
1t would DE better for him, if he de-
sires to continue his warfare, to return
to his ancient ally, gunpowder, which
above ground is much more noisy and
demoralizing agent.
Dynamiters can not by any means at
their disposal lay a whole city in ruins
not even a 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 nitro
glycerinc, and in its effects censidera-
bly, weaker than that in common use.
-COrnl5iU MGqazi7se.