Daily Honolulu press., 1886-03-05
DYNAMITE TESTS.
LIEUT.. zALlNsKps CURIOUS EXPERT
MeNTs AND EXPERIENCES.
Not one-Tenth as Many Lives Lost in
Using Dynamite as with the Old FASH
toned Powder Breaking Arn,or
Piate-PecuIisr Effects.
New York Times.l

Many people who read about dyna
mite explosions and the occasional dam.
age done to property by careless or
criminal use of the explosive have little
idea of the real commercial value of the
stu1," said manufacturer recently
To the public the word dynamite con.
lures up pictures of powdered rocks and
mangled limbs To those familiar with
explosives II savors only of that which is
safe and useful People hear at
once when disaster happens. but
Of course there is no reason why
they should keep track of the
thousands of times the stuff is used with
out disaster. Before dynamite was in.
vented gun.powder and rifle. powder were
used In blasting. Fuses were made that
would burn away gradually until the
charge was reached When bla~ts failed
to 60 off the miner or quarryman often
went to the hole in which the powder
was placed to see what was the matter,
and got his head blown !. Sometimes
the fuse burned 30 rapidly that workmen
were struck down by showers of flying
rock before they could reach place OF
safety. Now that has all been changed.
dynamite is not fired by fuse, but
by electricity A little copper cap filed
with illuminate is placed in the charge
From this cap the wires are run to place
of safety. After the workmen have al
retired the foreman connects the wires
with little battery. pulls lever or
presses button, and off goes the blast 1t
is safe TO say that not one.tenth as many
lives are lost in using dynamite us with
the oldlfashioned powder In fact. loss of
life or damage to property is now invari-
ably due to criminal careessness.
"The word dynamite covers half dozen
,.x.An t,, rsrIt
glycerine Is the explosive. The nitro
glycerine is usually mixed with some
sort of material that furnishes little gas
when the explosion takes place, but there
is one high explosive made of mixture,
3 per cent of gun cotton and per cent
of nitro oglycerine. This leaves no ash
A more powerful explosive than this com.
bination is not made, and yet 1t is singu
larly safe.
In the course of his experiments with
the dynamite throwing gun at Fort I.afs
yette. Lieut. Zaliuski has had some Gu
rious experiences The gelatine or gun
cotton mixture Is imported in little brown
rolls. that can be twisted and bent around
like rubber, or torn apart like tough jelly
Lieut. Zalinski has placed the rolls on
iron plates and dropped big stones on them
from height of twenty feet without ex.
ploding them. Held in the flame of c
lamp the roll took fire and burned brill
iantly, but only as hot grease might But
the most singular feature of this power
full explosive was the fact that there could
be local explosion In mass of II with
out setting of the whole lot Having fired
a rite ball into bag of it, there was
very distinct flash and explosion where the
ball entered it
aOn another occasion Lieut. Zalinski,
wishing to break big iron plate apart.
laid alternate cartridges of dynamite and
gelatine along the line of fracture aud ex
ploded them with a battery. The dyna
mite went off as usual, and SO did all but
two of the gelatine cartridges. These two
were each about one.half consumed. the
remaining portions being found black.
ened and charred, after the ex .,losion. 1t
was concluded that the gelatine must be
exploded by illuminate to get it to explode
q. all, and. to make sure of its full effect
1t must be first confined
When the attention of Lieut. 2alinski
was called to the fact that naval officers
had tested dynamite by hanging 100
pounds of it against big armor plate for
a ship and then exploding it, with the re
suit of a mere dent in the armor plate. he
proceeded to make similar experiment
An eight-ounce cartridge was hung
against three quarter inch iron plate and
exploded A slight depression in the
plate for the length of the cartridge was
the sole result Then an angle iron
weighing few pounds, the Inscribed
circle of which was considerably larger
than the circumference of the cartridge,
was hung over another cartridge placed
on another plate of iron. Behind this
plate second was placed Light as this
tamping was it enabled the dynamite to
blow big hole through both plates
In another experiment twenty pounds
OF dynamite placed in thin iron cylin.
der, which stood on end on pile of
boiler plates was tamped with few
inches of sand laid loosely on top. The
explosion drove hole through six inches
of solid iron and blew the small frag
ments of the cylinder through three-q quar-
tiers Of an inch of iron that was standing
near. do not intend to sim by hang
cartridge of dynamite on the side of an
tend to throw 1t against the ship with
great velocity. If the cartridge weighs
200 pounds and is forced against the side
OF the ship with We ocity sufficient 70
carry 1t far beyond the ship, there will be
tamping of certain number of foot
pouAds due to the inertia of the cartridge.
II tue naval officers will make further
experiments they will alter their opinion.
experiments were made in applying
the exploder to different ends of the long
cylinder of dynamite that forms the shell
OF the dynamite gun. When. in public
exhibition given over year ago shell
holding fifteen pounds of dynamite was
thrown to the Long Island shore of the
Narrows. and exploded at the forward
end. 1t made no impression on the sand
bank which 1t struck beyong moving the
grass for rod OF two around. Other
cartridges. however, threw up large ouan-
Titles of earth and broke open the rock
while one that fell in the water aud ex
ploded beneath the surface tore out
great crater In the bottom. After that
the shells were arranged to explode from
the rear end of the charge. The de.
structive effect In an open.eir explosion
was thereby increased from twenty to
twenty-five fold.
: i think this is due, said Lieut. Zalin
ski. to the fact that II takes time for the
dynamite 10 explode. When dynamite
around an exploder placed in the forward
end OF a long shell goes of, the gas for.
ward acts as cushion TO hold back the
force OF the gas that is formed from the
remainder Of the charge. II the exploder
Is placed at the rear OF the cylinder of
dynamite the gas from particles of dyna
mite Immediately around the exploder
serves only to drive the remainder of the
charge forward with so much more force
10 the greater destruction of the OBJ iect in
front of IL lts
When the charge Of dynamite Is ex
ploded under water il is found best Ia
IRE the charge from the forward end OF