The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-12-25

ton, many of the writer's felt so cock
sure of their own conclusions that they
have not hesitated to mention in theil
communications that they were experts
ON the subject.
"As will be remembered. four So
called suspicious iron drums were dis
| covered in the ruins shortly after the
fire. The drums were of quarterback
iron, were two feet in diameter, were
four and one-half feet long, were pro
vided with stout iron chimes, upor
which they We're to be rolled, and were
of about one hundred gallons capacity
When found two of the drums showed
that their heads had been blown out
leaving n ragged hole about one foot in
diameter.
Now, there is probably not an expert
in existence who would be willing to
testify as to what those drums con-
! tanned unless he made a thorough ex-
/ animation. Let the ridiculous state
ment has been made that the drums
/ contained -glNcerine-in other
words, liquid dynamite / am no more
prepared than any other man who han
! dies explosives to say what really was
in the drums. But for several good
reasons l am willing to swear that nj
tro-glycerine was not the contents
ITO begin WITH nitro-glycerine Is
never packed in drums-the manufac-
turers have too much respect for the
compound. Five gallon cans is about
the extreme quantity in which this ex-
,.I,s 4 -.
no chimes or other rolling arrangements
about the cans There isnot place in
this land where nitro-glycerine is
drawn off from tanks through a spigot
and sold like beer Moreover, in the
heart of New York there is no more
sale for nitro glycerine than there is
for life RATS on Broadway. Again, no
matter how used a man has become to
handling explosives, he retains his es-
tenn for nitro-glycerine. Finally, had
nitro-glycerine been in those drums,
and had that quantity of that explosive
gone off, not a skyscraper within -four
blocks OF the scene would have re-
manned standing. The island would
have rocked. Not a house In the lower
part Of the city would have escaped UNI
damaged. The shock would have been
felt down on Fire Island, and instead of
heap of wreckage where the building
collapsed, there would be hole, blown
from twenty to thirty feet to rock, and
the rock would be burned and erum-
bled so that it could be scratched away
in chunks by ones finger nails.
ut may seem to a layman that the
men handling high explosives in quar-
ries and at mines become careless.
They may seem careless to one who
has not learned to look at the stuff
without expecting to soar heavenward
for his audacity, but the precautions
which these men have been trained to
exercise have become so much a second
nature to them that they are no longer
conscious of observing them. If by any
chance new man does not show in a
factory or on job that he Is properly
careful, his career as a powder man Is
cut very short.
"Some one once said, Dynamite is
like a woman--you never know what it
is going to do next. Without COM
on the woman part Of the
lchttlIltIl, NY vi
Is one of the most reliable as well as
the strongest friend man has Dyna-
mite, you must know, is nothing but
soaked up in sawdust or
In Indian meal This makes of the IL
luid explosive solid one, which can be |
handled to better advantage, which can |
be strengthened on a scale of percent
age, to contain more or less of the ex- |
plosive oil-accordng to the quantity |
Of nitro soaked up in given quantity |
If the sawdust-and which is more cas- |
ly handled, both as to safety and as a
natter Of storing the stuff in assures of |
'ocks and lodges, where a fluid would
'un out and away when used.
Dynamite is cast into sticks known
rs cartridges. These are cylindrical in
hape, and measure from an inch to an
nch and a half in diameter by about
tx inches in length. In color they re-
emble the yellow Of linseed oil, and
hey are only to the touch.
81 have seen some remarkable freaks
II the line of tricks of dynamite Elk
1losive as the stuff Is, 1 have seen a
ase of four hundred cartridges fall
welve hundred feet into a shaft, and
he case was simply smashed and the
ynamite landed in heap like so much
armless mush. On the other hand,
aw a man drop q cartridge from his
and to the ground, and there was not
nough left of him for a grease spot.
his popularity of dynamite, it's ten |
ency to explode under certain condi-
ions and its nop-nyu10eiVe trajt under |
lore aggravating circumstances, is
omething that is not explainable But
he fact remains that when properly |!
andled, dynamite is not dangerous.