The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-07-03
SAYS DYNAMITE IS cAPRlClous.
1t Is Like Woman, Because No One
Knows What 1t VIII Do Next.

"A cartridge of dynamite is pretty much
like a woman-you can never tell what it
is going to do next, because it doesn't
know itself" said boss blaster. 81 have
seen powder salesman throw a cartridge
of dynamite into a red-hot firebox of
2O-horse boiler and the stuff just burned
like lard. Next day l saw a cart boy re-
peat the experiment with a blaeksmith's
forge and a pill of dynamite no larger
than a pea--and there will be wholesome
fear and soft coal in that boy as long as
he lives. / have seen a case of 100 sticks
of dynamite fall down a shaft 800 fest and
never wink and I've seen an Italian drop
a 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 bet
ter fate, for he made desperate fight for
It before he was scattered. He was load
ing a block-hole at the time and had
just broken a cartridge in half, when he
dropped one of the pieces Before it touch
ed the ground he sort of half caught it,
and then began 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 a bang
and it was lucky one stood near him.
Which shows that dynamite is like a wo-
similarly hundreds of cartridges of dyna-
mite and still | am here with goou di-
gestion.
But it is in winter, when dynamite
freezes, that it is most capricious. Then If
you want it to go off it simply refuses, or
burns with dull roar like boiler blow
ing 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 or within a
safe distance of a fire; the other, by inn
mersing them in pals of hot water. AS
the latter method draws out considerable
of the nitro-glycerine from the cartridges,
and, therefore, weakens them, 1t is often
discarded in favor of the more risky
thawing by an open fire. / once saw an
inexperienced powder man thaw dozen
cartridges by an open fire, though as the
sequel will show, he completely lost his
head when suddenly confronted with an
unusual emergency. He had placed the
| cartridges within 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 cut the chances are thousand
to one that nnothing very startling would
have happened, for it is conclusion and
not fire that expodes dynamite. Instead,
he rushed forward, picked up the burning
stick by one end and, holding it upward
like a candle, began to blow and blow I'M
til he was black in the face. He never let
go until the fame began to nip his fin
gers and then in his excitement he threw
the cartridge to the ground and began to
stamp and grind on 1t with lis heels as
if he were killing a snake, and, by thun-
der! he stamped out the burning cartridge
and lived to tell about it! The cart boys
called him Angel after that because by
riehtg no. trer,t 70 N.an
"one day professor from Stevens In
stitute of Technology came to the quarry
and asked me to perform certain expert
nent for him. We printed with dynamite
direct from a newspaper onto a block of
iron. The professor said the experiment
proved most interesting as he had dis
covered among other things that dynamite
works downward and not upward, like
black powder. Our way of proving that in
quarry is to lay a stick of dynamite on
top of a boulder. After the shot the boul-
der is smashed to bits. But the professor
bad his own notions. He carried three
round blocks Of iron, six inches in dame
ter and three inches thick. Then he took
a 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 it over
the face of a second block, / prepared
charge similar to the first, and this time
tae ribs of the leaf. and even the outlines
appeared distinctly pressed into the iron
surface. According to the professor, the
| action 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 newspaper 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 Eyes. Chicago Chroni-
| Gle.