The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-11-21

less, ana an elgnt-Quart can OF It weighs
| 2S pounds.
| Mrs. Afford says that If people are kind
| to nitro-glycereine they can live with il a
| long time. One day she saw one of her
| workmen tossing cans of the explosive
| ID another workman who was placing
| them in magazine. Both men were
! discharged on the spot
| Nitro-glycereine makers can earn from
| 800 to $50 a month. When an accident
ocurs there are always a dozen applicants
| for the jobs left by the humiliation of the
| old employees. 1t is an industry that has
| left red trail of blood on every page
| Of the history of the oil regions.
Making dynamite is not so dangerous
| as making nitro-glycereine. Dynamite is
| nitro-glycereine cushioned in absorbents
| so that it can be handled with less dan
| ger
In the absorbant stock-house there are
bags of nitrate of soda, bins filed with
wool pulp fine as bolted meal, sacks of
| heselguhr and mounds of peat moss. 1t
| resembles a country grist mill.
The absorbents are taken to the dyna-
mite house. in which there are numer-
Gus boxes and a long trough. The boxes
are dumped in to them and the nitro
| glycereine poured in. The compound af-
ter being stirred resembles common putty.
It is shove!led into hods and dumped in
to the trough, from which the filters force
| it into paper cartridges dipped in parafine
wax to render them waterproof. They
vary from an inch to tire inches in diam
eter and from eight to eighteen inches in
length.
Packed in boxes that hold fifty pounds
and marked Dangerous" the dynamite
is ready for shipment. All railroads car
ry dynamite at double first class rates,
but no railroad will transport nitro-glyc-
crime at any price. 1t is transported from
the magazine to the oil wells in wagons
fitted with special padded cell boxes in
which the cans fit snugly.
Mrs. Affords factory has a capacity Of
1000 pounds of nitro-glycereine and 5000
pounds of dynamite a day. The paper
cartridges are made on the premises by
a machine. Nitro glycerine sells for 81
a quart; twenty-five years ago ia brought
s12 a quart, but the profit is still fair.
Mrs Afford has furnished one firm in
the Wyoming salt district two car loads
of dynamite a month for several years.
The power canals at Niagara were blast
ed out with powder from her factory and
the Buffalo harbor improvements requir-
ed many tons OF her manufacture.
Mrs. Afford has studied explosives since
1883, when her husband through the re-
verses of a friend whom he aided finan-
cially, found himself bankrupt with only
one asset-a secret formula for the manu-
facture OF dynamite To realize on the
formula he began the manufacture of
dynamite For a time he purchased the
nitro glycereine necessary to use in the
manufacture of his explosive, but when
his business grew he built a factory and
manufactured his own nitro-glycerine
Mr.. Afford died a year ago, but had
been in poor health for a long time, and
for six years Mrs Afford has managed
the bushes.
One Of her friends told me story Of
her shrewdness that will bear repeating.
A bookkeeper employed by Mr.. Afford
was under suspicion. Unknown to him
she kept a duplicate set of books. One
day she went over the books at the office
When she found that several sales Of
nltro-glycereine were not recorded and
that the money had gone into the book
keepers jeans she became head book
keeper herself.
The most exciting experience Mrs. Al
ford ever had occurred shortly after Mr..
Afford engaged in the business.
Their factory was fifteen rods from the
house they occupied. A careless employee
in weighing dynamite one evening struck
a match to see the figures. The match
head dropped, ignited the powder dust
and set off several hundred pounds of
high explosives stored in the building.
The factory was blown to splinters, the
under the debris.
When Mrs. Afford, her husband and
daughter were dug out by neighbors none
Of them was seriously injured.
cit is an odd business for a woman to
be in," Mrs. Afford said. but I know no
reason why a woman who understands
it cannot manage it as well as man.
81 buy raw materials for spot cash,
take advantage of discounts and sell for
cash. I know every night just how many
pounds TO material, just how many pounds
Of nitro-glycereine and dynamite there
is on hand and just how much money in
the bank
''As no substitute for nitro-glycerine for
torpedoing oil wells has been discovered
1t is likely that there will always be a,
steady demand. Hundreds of thousands
of tons of dynamite are used every year.
and the demand is increasing. Unless I
should be unfortunate enough to be
blown I'D accidertly, which is not likely
don't expect to retire from the business