St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1886-03-27
HIGH EXPLOSIVES.
The Mildness of Dynamite When Compared
With Nitro-Glycerine.

WIN
people have a greatly mistaken
idea of the explosiveness of dynamite, "
said a veteran explosive expert, as he
sat in the lobby of the Seventh Avenue
Hotel. 81 have handled explosives in
nearly every State of the Union for the
last twcnty-three years. The firm with
which | am connected furnishes a large
part of everything of an explosive ma
turc used in the oil fields and mines of
Pennsylvania. and have superintended
its tran sportation, and in many eases
the use of it, as | did nearly all the
work done in blasting through the tun-
nels of the South Penn railroad, and [
never saw but two or three accidents
from the premature explosion of dyn-
amite. One of these was on the
Rochester L. Pittsburgh railroad, about
two years ago. A blast had been put
in and failed to 90 off. Another was
put in about three feet away and
touched Off From the explosion
which followed it was thought that
both blasts had been fired, and the
foreman and his men all gathered at
the hole just rs the first blast went off.
l had furnished the material, but was
not experimenting the work.
These stories about dynamite being
exploded by the jolting of a wagon are
mistakes. People get it mixed up with
nitro-glycerine. No. dynamite is really
safer than black powder; that is, the
dynamite used in this country. 1t is
simply nitro-glycerine united with some
good absorbent. such as sawdust, some
sort of earth. or even corn meal. Heat
won't explode it: that is. no ordinary
degree of heat. such as would explode
gunpowder, and blow from ham-
mer can not generate heat enough to
explode it. Up in the anthracite coal
mines. last summer, l saw something
that illustrates this. A hole had been
drilled down about scventv-nine feet,
and prepared package of dynamite
stood at the top of it. A workman, by
Il misstep. kicked it over the edge, and
it dropped to the bottom. The dyna-
mite did not explode. Ifthat had been
nitro-glycerine, though, the hole
wouldn't even have been left. 1t has
to be exploded by cartridge of higher
explosives which generates heat enough
to fire it.
The reason nnitro-glycerine and dyn-
amite are used instead of gunpowder
is for the fact that the latter always
seeks the weakest point to find escape,
while the other two exert equal force
in every direction. 1t is this property
of gunpowder that makes it SO valuable
for use in firearms 1t has only been
for couple of years that any thing else
than gunpowder could be used. but
now they have inventions by which q
dynamite cartridge can be fired from q
big gun by compressed air. and even
by gunpowder. Should the cartridge
strike the armor of a vessel it explodes,
and no vessel can float armor plate
heavy enough to withstand the shock.
There was trial of compressed air
cannon near Brooklyn by a United
States navy officer, at which dynamite
cartridges were thrown upwards of two
miles, with good results.
..How is it that the dynamite bombs
used by the Russian Nihilists are so
dangerous?"
They are not made of what we term
dynamite at all, but of mixture of the
most highly explosive substance known
to science, such as illuminate of mer-
curry, chlorate of potassa and even
chloride of nitrogen, the most danger
Gus of all. These are chemicals which
even experts handle with dread, and
which do not come into the province of
the manufacturers of industrial ex-
plosives at all. .''-Pittsburgh Dispatch.