The Dickinson press., 1899-08-19
DYNAMITE is TICKLE.
you CAN NEVER TELL WHAT A CAR
FRIDGE WILL DO NEXT.

60mo Interesting stories OF the
Cranky Nature of the stun, Which.
n Boss Blastsr Says, 10 as Contra
Aictory ~ . Woman.
"a cartridge Of dynamite is pretty
much like a womRn-you can never tell
what 1t is going to do next, because it
doesn't know ITSELF" said a boss blast
er. II have seen a powder salesman
throw a cartridge Of dynamite into the
redhot fire box Of a 20 horse boiler,
and the stun just burned like lard.
Next day I saw q cart boy repeat the
experiment with a blacksmith's forge
and a pill of dynamite no larger than
a pea-and there will he n wholesome
fear and soft coal in that boy as long
as he lives.
II have seen q case Of 100 sticks Of
dynamite fall 800 feet down a shaft
and never wink, and I've seen an In
dian drop a half cartridge from his
did the poor fellow leave behind. At
that the poor fellow deserved a better
fate, for he made a desperate fight for
1t before he scattered.
HE was loading a block hole Mt the
time and had just broken a 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 a desperate brief Juggling
act. Again and again he half caught
the deadly thing. Then he missed it.
He made last effort and stuck out
his foot to break the fall against the
hard ground. but it didn't work. There
was q bang, and It was lucky no Il
stood near him. Which shows that
dynamite is like a woman, because in
my time I have dropped similarly hun
dreds of cartridges of dynamite, and
still I am here and with a good d.
gestion.
But 1t is In winter, when dynamite
freezes, that it is most c%apricious.
Then If you want it to go off it simply
refuses, or burns with a dull roar,
like a 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 a steam boiler or within safe
distance of a fire; the other by miners
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
more risky thawing by an open fire.
ST 0nro cow nm, ov~ror}onoo6 novvHor
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 I'M
usual emergency. He had placed the
cartridges within a 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 q 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 it up
ward like a candle>began to blow and
blow until he was black in the face.
he neve 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 q snake; and, by thunder! he
stamped out the burning cartridge and
lived to tell about 1T! The cart boys
called him Angel after that, because
by rights he ought to be an angel now.
Zone day a professor from Stevens
Institute Of Technology came to the
quarry and asked me to perform a
certain experiment for him. We
printed with dynamite direct from a
newspaper on to a block Of iron. The
professor said the experiment proved
most interesting, as he had discovered
among other things that dynamite
works downward aud not upward, like
black powder. Our way of proving
that in a 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.
lions. He carried three round blocks
OF iron six inches in diameter and
three inches thick. Then he took a
newspaper from his pocket and spread
one sheet ver the face Of the block.
I placed half q stick Of dynamite on
top and covered it with a little heap
Of sand and touched her off. You
would hardly believe the result, but
you can e the block on exhibition in
q glass cast in the Stevens institute
library, and you can read on it dis
tinctly-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 it over
the face Of a second block. l prepar-
cd a charge similar to the first, and
this time the ribs of the leaf and even
its outlines appeared distinctly press
ed into the iron surface. According
to the professor, the action of the dy-
Mantle 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 newspaper
the printed letters were harder than
the surrounding white Of the paper,
therefore the impression.
1.-THE professors third block is not on
exhibition for the a that we never
found a piece Of it larger than a Glove
and that reminds me, what do you
say?" The reporter said "Yes."-Chi-
cago Inter Ocean.
The careful reader Of a few good
newspapers a learn In q year
than most scholars do in their great
l1braries.-F. B. Sanborn.
Another View of the Matter.