The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-08-09

roDbed MIN OF the glory of his achieve
ment.
This is the story of Hathamite, the
latest marvel among explosives-the
GROWING work of George M. Hatha-
ways life-in a sentence.
Though fate's irony decreed that he
should have no hand in the triumph
of his own handiwork, the fruit of his
genius lives after him; for he left
the priceless secret he had given his
life to Wrest from the realms Of the
unknown, as legacy to his family.
His dying command to his son and
namesake was that his discovery
= should be put to the supreme test on
the day originally announced and in
the presence of a gathering of experts.
: In obedience to his fathers wish,
the son conducted the experiments
with the compound he had made from
his fathers formula.
The results We're astounding and in
honor of the dead inventor the new
force was christened "Hathamite."
Whlle the hills among which his body
was sleeping were reverberating with
the shock of its tremendous power
II was a fitting tribute to the genius
OF one of Pennsylvania most prolific
sons and a monument to his LIES
chiefest work.
Terrible but Safe.
Hathanlte seems destined to work
revolutions, for its properties are those
which governments have devoted mil
lions to find and inventors given pre-
cious years to discover.
1t is at once the most terrible de-
SUoyer and the most harmless sub
stance in the world
In an experts hands, with the aid
of the knowledge that releases its ter
rlhc power, its energy is Irresistible.
In an infants grasp it is as safe
as a rag doll baby in the family nur-
sery.
1t is because Hathamite has given
lndlsputable evidence of the possession
OF these contradictory qualities that
%he experts are at sea and the deepest
reasoning gives no satisfactory expla-
nation of the phenomenon.
outside of the small gathering who
watched the inventors work while he
was hVlng and who by his express de-
sire Witnessed the tests after he was
dead, there are few who will believe
the story of what Hathamite did and
what it permitted to be be done to it.
"A naval authority who is one of the
inspectors of ordnance at the great
Carnegie steel works in commenting
upon the operations after witnessing
them said:
The conclusions to be drawn are
pest shown by the confidence shown by
the handler of the tests. I thought at
nrst he showed criminal carelessness
but afterward admired his confidence"
The writer of this comment was
Lieut.. Commander j. T. Rohrbacher,
T. >. ~, one of the foremost experts
on explosives in The governments
service whose work in connectiCs, with
the ordnance made at the Carnegia
WORKS has won high praise for him
from department superiors
Qualities of Hathamite.
The qualities of Hathamite can he
MADE elearest to-tfle lay mind by say
ing mat it successfully resists every
atlempt-but One-tO release its tre-
mendous energy.
FIRST of all, it is composed of gran
uIar particles compressed into anv
form demanded by the uses to which it
is put. - -
1t can be pounded to fine powder
by sledge hammer.
Lighted matches can be thrown into
1t with impunity. --i'o
Shells can be exploded in it's inn,e-
date vicinity
1t can be thrown in any quantity
mo plazlng fire and a dense smoke
with scarcely any odor is the result
1t can be melted to a jelIy-like con-
sfstency and poured into any sort Of a
receptacle. g
"A mass Of 1t can be shot into by a
IIlIe pall-the most difficult known fest
" Wn!ch science may put the explosive
resisting power of any substance.
mis- ABOUT completes the list of the
@SSIdEated attempts that may be made
TO explode Hathamite and there are a
small coterie of experts who Witnessed
mem az who are willing to stake their
reputation for Veracity that the new
substance Withstood them all.
10 accomplish these properties &C
safety was the dream of the inventors
life. 49, ei1'oi .
No one knows how many thousand
o lines RSs Ia the course of the long years
OF research that George NJ. Hathaway
TOOK his life in his hand in putting the
1orce ne was preparing for the worlds
use TO the supreme safety tests.
II is matter Of local history in the
mountain town of Wellsboro, in Tioga
county, where the inventor lived and
oIed' that during the years he was
MoIhIIs 10 perfect Hathamite no man,
woman or child in the place was sure
that Welisboro wouIe be on the man
the next hour or the next day.
ana yet they loved the man who NV
reason OF over 500 inventions brought
1ane INTO the mountain hamlet and so
great was their confidence in Hatha.
way that the town council permitted
~ SoAluoCl his experiments within
the precincts of the town. privilege
they nave since removed from his
successor, his son, the poss essor of fbe
secret by which the explosive is nrol
While the safety of Hathamite is
PROBABLY its cardinal virtue-for Inv II
the problems of transportation. hand
ing, packing, manufacturing and tact-
ing al dIsappear-yet its energy is
enormous and the tests that proved tic
hafmlessness under the most trvino
circumstances also proved its mower
!hese tests were made at WelIshoro
and We're exhaustive
Given Full Test.
What they were and what thew did
was Told by an eye wittess one of the
experts IN the confidence of the in
Ventor ~
First very small quantity of Hath
ahllte was placed between tw huge
cakes of ice, out of the center of which
small mole had been dug to hold the
explosive. '-A0
Then the ice was frozen together
win salt, the Hathamite remaining he
tween the cakes for over an ho11r and
When thoroughly welded was exnloded
by means of battery and a PERCUSSION
cap. oii
All that remained after the energy
mad eXerted itself were small piles Of
driven snow. The ice had been in
stantly blown into particles of infinite
smallness.
The next experiment was the placine
of one and half ol1ncac of no +bo,oo;+ .