Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-10-12
w. r. Speare,
Undertaken s. Embalrmer,
$40 Street Northwest
Everything strictly hIst-class and on the most
reasonable terms. Telephone cnn $40. jn7-tr
Ton of Dynamite a Week is Used
in the Process.

| A Ton of Dynamite Week is Used
in the Process.
| From the New York SUM-
Up in the ravine half mile from Mon
| ocacy, Pa, is where they use a ton of dyna-
| mite every week in an armor plate grave
| yard. Steel armor plate that fails TO pass
| the government inspection is sent here TO
| be broken into fragments to be returned to
| the smelters at the mills The noise or the
| process may be heard fifteen miles away.
| Operations are directed by Caleb Bland.
| He has forty men at work. twenty who
| Grill holes in the armor plate by night and
| twenty who do nothing but explode dyna-
| mite by electricity during the day
AS many as forty holes are drilled In q
single steel plate These holes are filed
with dynamite, which is fired by wire one
shot after another reminding one Of the
roar of artillery or the thunder of battle
ships in action. This is kept up all day.
The sides Of the surrounding hills break. in
a measure, the terrific sound, yet the roar
is deafening and the earth shakes. They
use the finest diamond drills, and the men
engaged in the business have been doing
little else for a long time. 1t is remarkable
that not more people are hurt. The work
men use four tons of dynamite every month
and yet accidents are rare. They are now
blowing to pieces armor plate from the
Midvale steel works, under contract. The
plates are shipped by rail to the Monocacy
ravine over the Reading railroad and when
they are broken into bits are sent back
again. They also blast into fragments large
condemned cannons from various gun
works, forts and ships.
They are busy every day. The terrific
firing begins about o'clock every morning
and continues until well on in the after
noon. Frequently gunners or nut hunters
are alarmed by the fearful noise. not know
ing what is the cause They break up
thousands of pounds of chilled steel every
day. The drills run by steam. The
drilling is done by night, SO that they can
fire during the day and not keep any one
from sleep The only complaints they now
have are from some men the night
shift who cannot sleep in the day. Said one
of the bosses:
Our old men who work at night can
sleep in the day quite well. no matter how
much noise make. They are used to it,
Those men can sleep during the most ter
rifle explosions 1t is wonderful, yet they
do ii. The women folks for miles around
attend to their household work not at all
minding the roar of the exploding dyna-
mite. They are accustomed to ii. The chill
dren go to school and study their lessons,
but are not disturbed 1t is just as if they
were studying near the firing line of an
army every school day. They don't mind
it. Wonderful what we can get used to.
strangers coming along hold their ears and
leave in terror. If they'd stop awhile
they'd get used to it. No, we have no COM
plants from our men about injured ear
drums. Some wear cotton in their ears, but
not many. We can fire hundred shots by
electricity very fast. nearly one a second, II
1t is necessary. You can imagine it re
Quires good many shots to up ton
of dynamite in six working days We are
careful in handling the dynamite, and that's
why We have so few casualties. We have
the best of appliances to prevent the scat
tering OF fine iron steel in the air and to
avoid damages resulting from flying frag-
ments. We had man in our employ who
was blown up, losing his feet, hands and
both eyes. He still lives and is doing the
work of an evangelist