The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-02-14
POWDER CAN BE SAFELY HEATED.
Leadville Man Solves a Very Import
ant Problem for the Miners.

LedQN1Ile
A Leadville inventor has satisfactorily
solved problem for the mining men of this
and other districts throughout the West
The necessity for an appliance Tor the
warming of high explosives has long been
felt by miners All sorts of makeshifts
have been used, probably the most common
being the bootleg of the miner The writer
will never forget the frightfUl sensation he
experienced one night at the morgue. An
unfortunate miner had been killed by fail
of rock, and the body was removed to the
laid on the cooling board, one of the assist
ants started to pull off the mans boots.
The writer was standing beside the body,
when the boot was jerked on and two or
three sticks of giant powder dropped out.
For second his heart stopped beating, for
the fall of that warm nitroglycerin TO the
cement floor seemed to mean certain death.
But by good luck coat was lying on the
floor, and into this the powder dropped,
without doing any damage.
But this is only remotely connected with
the invention. The inventor is Mr.. Herman
Vulpius, an engineer at the Belgian. The
frightful explosion at that mine in the sum-
mer Of 1895 set him to thinking. There were
several points to be considered. The first,
of course to devise a powder heating
apparatus that would be perfectly safe and
second, one that would require little at
tention as possible, and which would be
harmless even under the most unfavorable
circumstances. Even carelessness could not
do any particular damage. Mr.. NulpluS
designed and constructed a model, which
has been in use at the Belgian fo- over
"A year. and its success was so marked that
he has patented the device so that his
rights will be protected.
The portable safety powder heater is a
copper water-jacketed box, two feet high.
ten inches wide and eighteen inches deep.
On one side is a small recess. fitted with
racks and capable of holding about twenty
five pounds of powder. The box holds ten
gallons of water. and is heated by a lamp
fitted beneath the box. The lamp is so fitted
inside that the water is constantly circu-
lating and slightly cooling as Ii gets TO its
greatest distance from the lamp, but by
properly regulating the lamp the water is
kept at blood heat all the time. The most
ingenious arrangement is the water-jack-
eted door to the powder receptacle. BY a
novel arrangement OF the hinges the water
passes into the jacketed door so that when
il is closed the powder is completely sur
rounded by jacket of warm water. and no
outside temperature can affect the heat
within. Mr.. Vulpius says a fire could be
kindled in front of the heater and the pow
der would not be affected in the slightest.
The heater can be carried 10 any part of
the mine and set in a drift, thus saving
much time in running after powder. The
lamp is designed to run twenty-four hours,
so that the heater does not require any
watching. The loss I'm water is less than
half pint in three months. A small water
gauge on the side indicates the loss in
water. Quite a number OF mining men
have examined the model which Mr.. Vul-
plus mas on exhibition at his house. and all
state that il has practically solved the
problem of heating powder i'm safety.