Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1899-09-04
DYNAMITE is TICKLE.
YOU CAN NEVER TELL WHAT A CAR
fridge WILL DO NEXT.
Some Interesting Stories of the
Cranky Nature of the STUFF, Which.
Boss EIaster Says. Is Contra
dictory ar Woman.

oictorS as u w ouah.
"a cartridge of dynamite is pretty
much like Il woman-you can never tell
what ii is going to do next, because 1t
doesn't know ITSELF" said n boss blast
er. Il have seen powder salesman
throw n cartridge of dynamite into the
redhot fire box of n 20 horse boiler,
and the stuff just burned like lard.
Next day | saw a cart boy repeat the
experiment with blacksmiths forge
and Il pill of dynamite no larger than
n pea-and there will be n wholesome
fear and soft coal in that boy as long
as he lives.
81 have seen a case of 100 sticks of
dynamite fall 500 feet down n shaft
and never wink. and I've seen an In
dian drop n 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 better
fate, for he made Il desperate fight for
it before he scattered.
''He was loading a block hole at the
time and had just broken n cartridge
in half when he dropped one OF the
pieces. Before it could touch the
ground he sort of half caught 1t, and
then began n desperate brief juggling
act. Again and again he half caught
the deadly thing. Then he missed it.
He made one last effort and stuck out
his foot to break the fall against the
hard ground, but it didn't work. There
was bang. and 1t was lucky no one
stood near him. Which shows that
dynamite is like woman, because in
my time 1 have dropped similarly hun
dreds of cartridges of dynamite, and
still 1 am here and with a good di-
gestion.
"But 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 n dull roar,
like 4 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 car
tridges on steam boiler or within safe
distance of a fire; the other by immers-
ing them in pals of hot water AS the
latter method draws out considerable
of the nitroglycerin from the car
tridges. and therefore weakens them,
it is often discarded in favor of the
Il once saw an experienced powder
man thaw a dozen cartridges by an
open fire. though. as the sequel will
show. he completely lost his head
when suddenly confronted with an un-
usual emergency. He had placed the
cartridges within n foot Of an open
wood fire and had seated himself near
by to await developments when one
of the cartridges caught fire.
Had he left it to burn itself out the
chances are thousand to one that
nothing very startling would have hap
pened, for it Is conclusion and not fire
that eXplodes dynamite. Instead, he
rushed forward. picked up the burning
stick by one end, and holding 1t up
ward like candle began to blow and
blow until he was black in the face.
He never let go until the flame began
to nip his fingers, and then in his ex-
element he threw the cartridge to the
ground and began to stamp and grind
on it with his heels as if he were kill
ing snake; and, by thunder! he
stamped out the burning cartridge and
lived to tell about it! The cart boys
called him Angel after that. because
by rights he ought to be an angel now.
"One day professor from Stevens
Institute of Technology came to the
quarry and asked me to perform
certain experiment for him. We
printed with dynamite direct from
on to n block Of iron. The
professor said the experiment proved
most interesting, as he had discovered
among other things that dynamite
works downward and not upward, like
black powder. Our way of proving
that in n quarry is to lay a stick of
dynamite on top of a bowlder. After
The shot the bowlder is smashed to
bits.
But the professor had his own no
tons. lie carried three round blocks
IF iron six inches in diameter and
three inches thick. Then he took a
newspaper from his pocket and spread
)ne sheet over the face of the block.
placed half n stick OF dynamite on
.op and covered 1t with a little heap
IF 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 dis
inctly-of course. the type appears
printing of that part of
he paper which covered the block at
he time of the explosion.
But the professor had another
wrinkle up his sleeve. He picked an
ordinary oak leaf and spread 1t over
he face Of n second block. | prepar-
d charge similar to the first, and
his time the ribs of the leaf and even
Is outlines appeared distinctly press
d into the iron surface. According
o the professor, the action Of the dy-
amite was so quick that the ribs OF
he leaf had not time to burst apart
efore they were impressed on the
ron. In the case Of the newspaper
he printed letters were harder than
he surrounding white of the paper,
herefOre the impression.