New-York tribune., 1902-02-23
POINTS ON DYNAMITE.
DANGEROUS ONLY WHEN CARELESSLh
HANDLED - HOW THE EN-
PLOSIVE Is MADE.

Said a man who has been engaged in the manu-
facture of dynamite for more than a quarter of a
century:
Dynamite is an explosive. This is the first prop
osition. If 1t were not explosive, and powerful
explosive too 1t void not be manufactured. 1t
is dangerous however. only when it is mishandled
Ordinarily dynamite be kicked about the hoor'
dropped from a height, wrecked in railroad
train, set on fire and burned. all without danger.
But careless handling is certain to result in catas-
trophe, simply because dynamite is an explosive
The factor of danger In handling dynamite IN
creases with the increasing temperature of the
commodity. 1t freezes at "a degrees. In that con-
dition it Is absolutely safe and cannot be made to
explode; In other words, it becomes non-eXplo-
sive. At $40 degrees dynamite will explode spoh-
taneously. Between the freezing point, therefore.
and the exploding point the factor of danger IN
creases In proportion to the rise In the temperd-
ture by which the dynamite is Affected
There eight large dynamite factories In TINS
country three of which are on the Pacinc coast
about thirty miles from San Francisco, one in Mis-
souri,. one in Michigan and three in New-Jersey-
About thousand persons are engaged III the
work at the factories and about nifty million
pounds year turned out and shipped by ran
by boat and by wagon all over the country
Dynamite was invented by Alfred Nobel, of
Stockholm. Sweden. and he patented it in 1861
number OF explosions which occurred IN MS nitro
glvcerine factory caused a great deal OF damage
and the Swedish Government prohibited the erec-
ton OF new works for It's manufacture. Nobel was
willing TO risk his life, and so hlrcn Il oaI6
and anchored II In Lake Malaren, where he con-
tinued his experiments with nitr ro-glycerine- 10
facilitate the transportation of ntroglycerne No
bel tried mixing it with various substances so as
70 form an oily dough or paste. which should also
be plastic that II would accommodate ltseI ~
the drill hole This idea first occurred TO him
while he was mixing nitro-glycerine with oroi-
nary gunpowder He first selected charcoal as an
absorbent but ultimately preferred the lnIusorlai
earth known as kieseguhr, found In the horth
of Germany which was then used at his krummel
factory for packing tins of ntro-glycerine Sc
c,,reIv in wooden boxes. This mixture was the
ers+ dvnanite manufactured. 1t consisted OF %
nor cent of nitrogycerine and D cent OF kese-
euhr and proved of the highest value IL couiu
ot bo Aired nv means Of fuse, but required a
detonator. The full importance OF NooeiS us
coverv in 1864 that nitro-glycerine could be fired
nv dstonation instead of by flame Hash. was
considered the greatest invention since the dis-
,overv OF gunpowder and led TO Nobel being
called the father Of modern high explosives
That the discovery vas quickly appreciated was
shown by the rapid development Of the new IN
dustrv of manufacturing dynamite and by the
fact that in seven years from 1861 TO 1874. the
total amount manufactured increased from eleven
tons 10 2 100 tons and that 25.OGO tons are manu-
gactured in the United States alone annually
None Of the American product is shipped 10
Europe because the manufacturers here cannot
compete with the foreign industry.
The basis OF dynamite is nitro-gycerine. which
Is usually manufactured in the same plant as the
dynamite Nitro-glycerine Is made by mixing two
parts OF strong sulphuTic acid with one part OF
strong nitric acid. After the liquid has been thor
oughly mixed II s cooled by being placed in a
vessel around the sides OF which metal coils
OF pipe through which flows cool water or cold