The San Francisco call., 1899-08-13
LIKE A WOMAN.
Blaster Says You Can't Tell What
DYNAMITE Will Do Next.

"A cartridge of dynamite is pretty
much like a Woman-you never can tell
does not know itself" said boss blaster.
Il have seen a powder salesman throw
a cartridge of dynamite into the red-hot
firebox of q twenty-horse boiler and the
stuff just burned like lard. Next day |
saw cart boy repeat the experiment
with a blacksmith's 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 cause of 100 sticks of dynamite fall 800
feet down a shaft and never wink, and
I've seen an Italian drop a haIf car
fridge from his hand to his boot and not
a grease spot did the poor fellow leave
behind
''At that the poor fellow deserved q
better fate, for he made a desperate fight
for it before he scattered. He was load
ing blockhole a the time. and had
just broken cartridge in half, when he
ERPeH could touch Se the ground s % he sort Of half
caught it, and then began a desperate
brief Juggling, act Again and again ne
missed it. He made one last effort, and
stuck out his boot to break the fall
against the hard ground but it didnt
work. There was a bang, and it was
lucky no one stood near him. Which
shows that dynamite is like woman,
because in my time l have dropped sim
ilarly hundreds of cartridges of dyna-
mite, and still am here and with good
digestion.
FBut it is in winter, when dynamite
freezes, that it is most capricious. Then
if you want it to go off 1t simply refuses,
or burns with dull roar, IKE 6oller
blowing off steam. 1t Is in thawing dyna-
mite that most of the accidents happen
about which you read. There are two
ways of thawing dynamfte-one, by plac-
ing the cartridge on a steam boiler or
within safe distance Of a fire; the other
by immersing them in pals OF hot water.
AS the latter method draws out consider
able of the nitro-glycerine from the car
tridges and therefore weakens them it is
often discarded in favor of the more risky
thawing by an open fire. once saw an
experienced powder man thaW a dozen
cartridges by an open fire, though, as the
sequel will show, he completely lost MS
head when suddenly confronted with an
cartridges within foot of an open wood
fire and had seated himself near py 10
await developments when one OF the car
tridges caught fire. Had he lett 1t TO purn
itself out the chances are a thousand 70
one that nothing very startling Would
have happened, for it is conclusion and
not fire that eXplodes dynamite. insteaa
he rushed forward, picked up the burning
stick by one end and holding 1t upward
like a candle began to blow and blow un-
til he was black in the face. lie never let
go until the flames began to nip at his nm
gers, and then in his excitement ne threw
the cartridge to the ground ana pegan 70
stamp and grind on it with mis- heeiS as
If he were killing a snake; and, by tnun-
der! he stamped out the burning cartridge
and lived to tell about it! The cart boys
called him Angel after that, because by
"One day professor from stevens In
stitute of Technology came to the quarry
and asked me to perform a certain eX-
pertinent for him. We printed with dyna-
mite direct from a newspaper onto block
of iron. The professor said the expert
ment proved most interesting, as he had
discovered among other things that dyna-
mite works downward and not upward,
like black powder. Our way OF proving
that in a quarry is to lay stick of dyna-
mite on top of a boulder. After the shot
the boulder is smashed to bits. But the
professor had his own notions. He car
ried three round blocks of iron, six inches
in diameter and three inches thick. Then
he took newspaper from his pocket and
spread one sheet over the face OF the
block. / placed half a stick OF dynamite
on top and covered it with little heap
of sand and touched her off. You would
hardly believe the result, but you can see
the block on exhibition in glass case IN
the Stevens Institute library, and you can
read on it distinctly-of course, the type
appears backward-the 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 second
block. | prepared a charge similar to
the first and this time the ribs of the
leaf and even its outlines appeared dis
tinctly pressed into the iron surface. Ac-
cording to the professor. the action of
the dynamite was so quick that the ribs
of the leaf had not time to burst apart