Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1905-06-13

glycerine is made by the interactlon o.
the nitro acid with the liquid glycerine
When pure, nitroglycerine is color
less, odorless, oily liquid, of slightly
sweet taste. It's disadvantages he
chiefly in that it is liquid; is liable tt
spontaneous combustion; is very sensl
tive to slight shocks; and will produce
headaches to those who deal with 1t
Its high specific gravity permits its use
with small drill holes, and in such eases
as Shooting oil wells; but being I'M
suitable to most forms of blasting
nitroglycerine is usually mixed with
some inert solid. Often this is sandy
earth found in Germany known as
Kieselguhr, and which will absorb
about three times its weight of the
i nitroglycerine. The solid thus pro-
duced is the well known dynamite. Its
strength and velocity of action. are
determined by the proportion of the
Kieselguhr. Unlike nitroglycerine,
dynamite possesses moderate sensibil-
| ity to blows, and little liability to
| spontaneous combustion; but like nitro
glycerine if ignited by flame when
unconfined, will burn without an ex-
plosion.
When the Kieselguhr is replaced by
! guncotton, a stiff jelly-like substance
| known as nitro-gelatine or blast
| ing gelatin is produced. Besides com
bining all the good qualities of its COM
ponents, this is the most powerful OF
all practical explosives. By adding a
small per cent of camphOr its sensibility
to shocks and high temperatures is
greatly reduced. If the proportion OF
camphor is raised to ten per cent and
the guncotton to fifty per cent, an ex-
plosive called ballistite is formed; which,
| when rolled into sheets and subdivlded
makes one of the BEST smokeless
powders known 1t gives excellent re-
suits in both small arms and cannon,
and has been officially adopted by
Italy. A great part of the smokeless
powders are nitrocompouuds, depend
ing on guncotton and nitroglycerine
for their bases.
For obvious reasons we will omit
demonstrations of dynamite or the
more powerful explosives; but in a
simple and harmless experiment we
may observe one difference between
nitro, or smOkeless, powders and gun
powder. Burn smokeless powder
The dense clouds of smoke ere absent
as the name indicates.
The third class of explosives is the
picrates, having as a foundation picric
acid or the pierate salts. Lyddite, the
chief powder used by the British in the
Boer war, and Melinite, an explosive
adopted by France for use in shells,
are Representative of this class.
The Eliminates give us a fourth divi-
sion, having the salts formed from full
mimic acid, for the explosive. Members
of this class have been known for a
long time in the chemical laboratory as
explosives; but their extraordinary vio-
lence of action greatly restricted their
use in guns. One of them-mercuric-
fulminate-is utilized in exceedingly
small amounts in percussion caps.
Minute quantities of illuminate of silver
are used in toy fire works, but for prac-
teal purposes the explosive is too SEN
sitive.
The last class which we shall take up
is the chlOrate mixtures. The use OF
these as commercial explosives, is not
very extensive on account of their sta
bility and violence of explosion. The
sunlight alone, or drop of sulphuric
acid, will ignite mixture of potassium
chlorate, sugar and sulphur. The most
important member of this group is
rack-a,rock, the explosive which con
stituted the bulk of the charge in the
destruction of Flood Rock in New York
harbOr.
Here we have common red phos-
phorous, and here, the powdered chlor-
ate of potash. In conclusion, we will
show the simplicity, instability and vio-
lence of the chlorate mixtures"
Following the salutatory Miss Louise
Neuman gave an essay on 1.-THE Fairies
in Midsummer Nights Dream" in
which she cleared up some of the great
mysteries regarding the elfs, fairies, etc,
in very convincing manner.
The commercial course was then dis
cussed by Joseph p Duskey in an
Grafton on value of a Commercial
Education" He showed that the
country needed better men to promote
the commerce of the country, which
would mean less failures and better
ment of the nation as a whole. The
class seemed to stand with Mr.. Duskey,
for eight out of twenty-four graduates
finished the commercial course
Sixteen little high school girls gave a
very pretty little exercise with wands
which was followed by music by the
orchestra.
whats Next" the class playa three
act comedy, was then rendered in a
most charming manner. The cast of
characters was as follows: