Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1886-10-01

! package supposed TO be an internal ma
chine is found and turned over to tht
! police, the first thing done with it owe
/ there Is to place it in a bath of water
+ where 1t Is allowed TO soak for an hour
! day, or week, according TO the lack o.
/ nerve of the policeman. Some rascally
/ anarchist will yet teach the policeman
/ better than to soak their internal machine
| IN the water by using decorator in the
/ machine that is set off by moisture. The
| big dynamite shells which Lieut.. Zaliski
| fires from his air-gun at Fort Layfayette
| are exploded by q minute electric battery
| no longer than the end of your finger
hat operates only after it is plunged into
water.
What worries the British public quite
as much as the Fenian threats Is the stu
pidity of the workmen who handle the
dynamite about the mines and quarries.
The workmen there have not the advan-
tage of an education, and so when thev
have lost the brute fear of the stuff. which
all feel when first brought into contract
with it, they become reckless to a terrify-
ing degree. 4 report furnished by Col.
Maj iendle says that one man with a box
holding fifty pounds of it got thirsty
while carrying 1t past public house, and
setting the box on the doorstep went in
side and got drunk. The account pub
hshed In local paper next day of the
reellng journey of that man after he left
the public house horriied the people of
three counties. One engineer tried to get
frozen cartridge into hole in a rock
that was so small as to make very snug
fit. When half way i'll the cartridge Jam
med. The engineer tried to drive il with
4 hammer, and thus made an awful ex-
ample of himself, for the cartridge ex-
ploded and blew him to fragments An
other miner went into public house and
drank pot of ale, leaving a cart con-
tanning fifteen hundred pounds of dyna-
mite and fifteen hundred detomators I'M
attended IN the street. The horse was
sober and sedate, else the town might
have suffered from local disturbances in
the air and earth that would have been
noteworthy in the history of dynamite in
Great Britain. Another miner got into a
thlrd-class car, well loaded with people.
carrying a tiyepound box of the explos-
i've with him To Il gossiping neighbor
sitting by he iucautiously told him what
was IN the box. The people in that car
viii remember the journey to the next
station as long as they live, for the miner
was the only one in the car who was used
to the stntf, and the rest held their breath
IN momentary expectation of an explO-
sion until the miner and his box were re-
moved by a constable.
Little matters like that have no effect
here, but in England they make great
stir. In 1881 there we're 81 deaths and 81
injuries i'll England caused by dynamite,
but in 1885 there were only 81 deaths and
Y ~
vised a new compound that could be
heated IL an oven to several hundred de
grees Fahrenheit without setting it off,
but when a small cartridge was laid away
In dry room for time it began to dis
lntegrate, and finally ignited and exploded
spOntaneouSly.
THE best English explosive is nitro
gtlatine, which is simply Il compound of
mira -glycerine and gun-cotton, both
hlgh-power and very dangerous explosives
United they become comparatively safe.
A cartridge can be burned in the hand
like torch. Lieut. Zalinski in his ex.
perimentS at Fort Lafayette fired pistol
balls into it, and even exploded one end
of Il cartridge, the other end remaining
uninjured. But when confined, or placed
around a core of dynamite and then ex-
plOded, it shakes the earth. 1t is too
violent for use in common blasting OPP
erations, but for warfare it is unequaled.
1t costs about s Il pOundIwhen imported
1t would be manufactured here if there
were enough demand for it."
"Do you expect it to be used in shells
from the big thirty-five foot rifed can
nOn?"
"Undoubtedly it will be. 1t is ques-
tion of time only. Some people expect
the submarine torpedo boat to rcvoIu-
tionize warfare, but what can such boats
do with their speed of two or three miles
an hour, except, of course, by accident,
against war ships that run eighteen or
nineteen knots an hour? 1t would be
impossible to injure the big ship when
in motion. But the big cannon can hurl
a projectile weighing ton accurately
distance of ten miles. Think of that of
such prOjectile, having perhaps half a
ton of such an explosive in it, landing in
city, in fort, or against the side of a
man Ofwar! But that is what will be
seen in the next war in which England or
America is engaged"