The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-06-04
DYNAMITE IS line WOMAN.
You Can Never Tell, Says n Blaster, What
Cartridge viii Do Next.


"A cartridge OF dynamite is pretty much like
a woman-you can never tell what 1t is going
to do next. because 1t doesn't know itself" said
a boss blaster. Il have seen powder sales
man throw cartridge OF dynamite into the
red-hot fire box OF twenty-horse boiler and
the stuff Just burned like lard Next day saw
cart boy repeat the experiment with a black
smiths forge and a pill Of dynamite no larger
than pea-and there will be wholesome fear
and soft coal in that boy as long az he lives
have seen a case Of 100 sticks Of dynamite fall
800 feet down a shaft and never wink and I've
seen an Italian drop half cartridge from his
hand to his boot and not 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
the time. and had Just broken n cartridge in
half. when he dropped one Of the pieces. Be.
fore It could touch the ground he sort of half
Juggling act, Again and again he half caught
the the deadly thing Then he missed it. He
break the tallIagainst the hard ground. but it
didn't work There was bang; and It was
that dynamite is like n woman. because in my
time | have dropped similarly hundreds Of
cartridges Of dynamite. and still am here and
with good digestion.
But it is in winter, when dynamite freezes
that II is most capricious. Then il you want
dull roar like boiler blowing off steam. 1t is
in thawing dynamite that most Of the acct
are two ways OF thawing dynamiteIone It by y
h ss TIE ssnss o hs d SGs 6g
As er method saws o nG' co %nSF
erob IaoS Of The ;slycerins from the
1t is often discarded in favor of the more
risky shawnS by an qpsn fire. saw
fire. though.
will show. he completely lost his head when
suddenly confronted with an unusual emer-
foot OF an omen wood fire and had seated him
ee nearby to await SSevsIopmsnsh When be-,
burn Itself out the chances are thousand to
that nothing very Startling would have
e Rst eKpdes
rushed forward. picked up, the. burning
ftek by ne end ~ aPh hodns it TGWard
was black in the face. He never let 60 until
the flame began to nip his fingers. and then in
VIII lis 8; i, he ' we're filH ttss snake al
cart Rd yed sboas The car
hoys called him Angel after that. because by
rights Gsa he ought TO- be an ,l angel now
OF Technology came to the quarry and asked
ne to perform q certain experiment for him.
theexperiment proved most Interesting, as he
ulscONeTtu among olneI tnlllRS InaI -uynt-
mite works downward and not upward. like
black powder Our way of proving that in a
quarry is to lay a stick OF dynamite on
top OF boulder. After the shot the boul-
had his own notions. He carried three round
and three inches thick. Then he took news.
oyer the face Of the block. placed half stick
Of dynamite on top and covered II with a little
hear, Of sand and touched her of. You would
hardly believe the result. but you can see the
block on exhibition in glass case in tho
Stevens Institute library, and you can read on
It distinctly-of course. the type appears back
ward, 1.-The printing Of that part OF the paper
explosion. But the professor had another
wrinkle up his sleeve. He picked an ordinary
o3k leaf and spread it over III? face OF second
block. | prepared a charge similar t. the first
and this time the ribs Of the leaf and even its
outlines appeared distinctly pressed into I he
iron surface. According to the professor. the
action Of the dynamite was so quick that tho
ribs OF the leaf had not time to burst apart be-
fore they were impressed on the iron. In the
case Of tho newspaper the printed letters were
harder than the, surrounding white OF the
paper. therefore the impression.
The professors third block Is not on ex-
hihtIon for he reason that we never found a
piece OF 1t larger than a coye-and that re-
minds me. what do you say?" The reporter
said Yes"