Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-06-10
DYNAMITE AND ITS WAYS
Some of the Oaprioious Habits of This
Powerful Agent.
An Old Blaster Says You Can Never
Tell What a Cartridge Will
Do Next.

"a SdFtfiUSS ot Ay rs plShNs
like woman-you can never tell what it
is going to do next, because it doesn't know
itself. said boss plaster. II have seen a
powder salesman throw a cartridge of dy
Mantle into the red-hot fire box of a TWEEN
ty-horse boiler and the stuff just burned
like lard. Next day saw q cart boy re-
peat the experiment with a blacksmiths
forge and pill of dynamite no larger than
pea-and there will be wholesome fear
and soft coal in that boy as long as he
lives. L have seen a case of 100 sticks of
dynamite fall 500 feet down shaft and
never wink and I've seen an Italian drop
half cartridge from his hand to his boot
and not a grease spot did the poor fellow
leave behind.
AT that the poor fellow deserved a better
fate, for he made desperate fight for it
before he scattered. He was loading a
block-hole at the time, and had just broken
cartridge in half, when he dropped one
of the pieces. Before it could touch The
ground he sort Of half caught it, and then
began desperate brief juggling act. Again
Then he missed it. He made one last eff
fort, and stuck out his foot to break the
fall against the hard ground, but it didn't
work There was bang, and ii was lucky
no one stood near him. Which shows the
dynamite Is like woman, because IN my
time L have dropped similarly hundreds of
cartridges of dynamite, ard still am here
and with a good digestion.
But it is in win ter when dynamite freezes
that it is most capricious. Then IL you
want 1t TO go off it simply refuses or burns
with dull roar. like boiler blowing off
steam. 1t is in thawing dynamite that
most OF the accidents happen about which
you read. There are two ways of thawing
dynamite-one. by placing the cartridges
on steam boiler within safe distance
or q flre; the other, by immersing them in
pals of hot water AS the latter method
draws out considerable of the nitro-gly-
cerlne from the cartridges and therefore
Weakens them, it is often discarded in IA
oor OF the more risky thawing by an open
lfe. l once saw an experienced powder
man thaW dozen cartridges by an omen
IRE, though, as the SEQUEL will show he
completely lost his head when suddenly
Sonir0nteo with an unusual emergency He
mad placed the cartridges within a foot of
an open wood fire and had seated himself
near by to await Developments when one
IL ~ tne carriages caught fire. Had he left
- ~ purn Itself out the chances are a
thousand to one that nothing very start
ing would have happened, for it is con-
cussion and not fire that explodes dyna-
mite, Instead, he rushed forward nic,ad
up the burning stick by one end and ~
ing II upward like a candle began to biow
ana dow until he was black in tho faca
ne never let go until the flame began to
MP MS fingers, and then in his eycifa,,ant
ne threw the cartridge 10 1he proIIn6 80
pesah 10 stamp and grind on it with his
$500. as II ne were killing a snake; and bv
49, a., no stamped out the burning cart
Lluse ana lived to tell about III The cart
po9s called him Angel after that becauss
os rights he ought to be an angel now
ING uay d professor from Stevens Insti-
Lu.e Oh Technology came to the ouarrv a,1d
asked me to perform a certain eynarirn "lrt
LOT MIN. We printed with dynamite dirent
from newspaper onto a. block of iron
~ ne professor said the experiment proved
IiLo9I interesting, as he had discoyered
among other things that dvnsrt+a uorl,s
DOWNWARD and not upward, like black pow
ueF. our way of proving that in oiarr,,
- 70 lay a stick of dynamite on top of a
nouNIef after the shot the boulder is
smashed to bits. But the Drofessor b.5
ms own notions. He carried three ronnd
blocks OF iron, six inches in diameter and
three inches thick. Then he took a news
paper from his pocket and spread one
sheet over the face of the block I nlacad
half stick of dynamite on top and covered
IL with a little heap of sand and touched
heI on You would hardly believe the re-
sun, nut you can see the block on eybihi
ton in a glass case in the Stevens Insti
tute library, and you can read on it dis
uilctly-of course, the type appears back
Maru-lne printing of that part of the
paper which covered the block at the time
OF the explosion. But the professor had
another wrinkle up his sleeve He picked
an ordinary oak leaf and spread 1t over
the face Of a second block I prepared q
charge similar to the first and this time
the ribs of the leaf and even its outlines
appeared distinctly pressed into the iron
surface. According to the professor the
ACTON of the dynamite was so quick that
the ribs of the leaf had not time to burst
apart before they were impressed on the
iron. In the case of the news paper the
printed letters were harder than the sur
rounding white of the paper, therefore the
impression.
The professors third block is not on
exhibition for the reason that we never
found a piece of 1t larger than a Glove
and that reminds me, what do you say?"
The reporter said Yes"