The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-07-05
SAYS DYNAMITE Is cArnIcIous.
II Is Like Woman, Because No One
Knows what 1t VIII DO Next.
rom the Chicago Chronicle.

From the Chicago Chronicle.
"A cartridge of dynamite is pretty much
like woman-you can never tell what II
is going to do next because it doesn't
known itself" said a boss blaster. Il have
seen powder salesman throw a cartridge
Of dynamite into a red-hot hre-box of a
twenty-horse boiler and the stuff @iust
burned like lard. Newt day | saw a cart
boy repeat the experiment with a black
smiths forge and a pill of dynamite no
larger than a pea-and there viii be
wholesome fear and soft coal in that boy
as long as he lives. | have seen a case of
100 sticks of dynamite fall 500 feet down
a shaft and never wink. and I've seen an
Italian drop 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
II before he scattered. He was loading a
blockhole at the time and had just broken
a cartridge in half. when he dropped one OF
the pieces. Before II touched the ground
he sort of half caught It and then began q
desperate brief juggling oct. Again end
again he half caught the deadly thing
Then he missed it, He made one last ef-
fort and stuck out his foot to break the
fan against the hard ground but il didn't
work There was a bang ana it was lucky
no one stood near him Which shows that
dynamite is like a woman because in my
time | have dropped similarly hundreds of
cartridges of dynamite ana still / am here
and with a good digestion.
But 1T Is in winter, when dynamite
freezes, that 1t is most capricious. Then
If you want it to go off II simply refuses,
or burns with a dun roar, like a boiler
blowing off steam. It is in thawng dy-
Mantle that most of the accidents hap
pen about which you read. There are
two ways of thawng dynamite-one by
placing the cartridges on a steam boiler
or within safe distance of a fire; the 9TH
er, by immersing them In pals of hot
water. As the latter method draws out
considerable OF the nitro-glycerin 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 a dozen cartridges by an open fire,
though as the sequel Will show, he COM
pletely lost his head when suddenly con-
fronted with an unusual emergency. He
had placed the cartridges within a foot
Of an open wood fire and had seated him
self nearby to await developments when
one of the cartridges caught fire. Had he
left il to burn itself out the chances are
a thousand to one that nothing very start
ling would have happened, for It Is con-
cussion and not fire that explodes dyna-
up the burning stick by one end and hold
ing it upward like a candle began to blow
and blow until he was black in the face.
He never let go until the flames began
to nip his fingers, and then in his excite
ment he threw the cartridge to the ground
and began to stamp and grind on ii with
his heels as if he were killing 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.
zone day a professor from Stevens In
stitute of Technology came to the quarry
and asked me TO perform a certain expert
ment for him. We printed with dyna-
mite direct from a newspaper onto block
of iron. The professor said the experiment
proved most interesting, as he had discov-
cred among other things that dynamite
works downward and not upward like
black powder. Our way OF proving that
in a quarry is to lay stick OF dynamite
on top Of a bowlder After the shot the
bowlder is smashed to bits. But the pro-
fessor had his own notions. He carried
three round blocks of iron, six inches i'm
diameter and three inches thick Then he
took a newspaper from his pocket and
spread one sheet over the face of the block.
l placed half a stick of dynamite on top
and covered il with little heap of sand
and touched her off. You would hardly
believe the result but you can see the
block on exhibition in a 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 pro-
fessor had another wrinkle up his sleeve
He picked an ordinary oak leaf and spread
Il over The fact of a second block. pre-
pared a charge similar to the first, and this
time the ribs Of the leaf and even its out
lines appeared distinctly pressed into the
iron surface. According to the professor.
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