The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-05-15
NO HIS BED OF PAIN, inventor OF
DEADLY EXPLOSIVE keeps SECRET

lists of all the chemicals left standing
on the shelves.
ONE INGREDIENT MISSING.
Alfred Wurtenberger laughed as lie
recounted this visitation Of persons WHO
thought they might thus easily pur-
loin the secret so carefully guarded for
years, and said: MY brother is i
very wise man. He has always realiz-
ed that an accident might happen some
day, and the one ingredient-the one
which makes the explosive so many
times stronger than dynamite-was not
in that room at all"
He did not say where il was. That
is part of the secret.
The compromising of parts of the ex-
plosive has taken place many times
before. There are a dozen or more
people who know just how to make
the mixture up to the last step. When
this stage is reached the inventor
turns everybody out and adds the mag
ic element.
No one can analyze the compound,
for a sufficient quantity Of the explo-
| siye necessary to find the final chemical
element would kill a thousand people
| in the attempt, beause it defies analy-
SIS Without e1plOuIuS-
The only clew to the single myster-
iouselement which creates out Of a mild
" explosive combination one a score of
San Francisco. This letter appen-
times more terrific in it's action was
given by the inventors brother in a
recent interview, when he remarked
that the inventor had made many dis
coveries of a novel character in his
| business of tanning leather. He ad-
| mitted that the unknown quantity vas
! a chemical used in tanning and that it
| had been discovered. by accident. It
seems that in compromising tanning
materials an explosion took place which
set Wurtenberger on the track of the
new explosive.
NO GUN COULD WITHSTAND SHOCh
1t is said that the new explosive is so
! powerful and that its rending power
is given off SO suddenly that no gun
or piece of artillery so far made by
man will be able to withstand the
shock.
However, this fact is considered of
no consequence, in view of the fact
that our great twelve-jnch guns can
shoot halfton missiles a distance Of
ten miles.
The great future of this high explo-
| sive lies in another direction which
| it is impressive to contemplate. It does
lot explode by conclusion. Oxe can
hammer on it all day long or drop q
trip-hammer upon 1t without danger.
| Here, then, We have the ideal explo-
| sive for charging artillery, piercing
shells, and loading the heads of tor
| pedoes.
The dynamite gun, the most terrible,
theoretically, Of any death-hurling de-
vice, was practically a failure because
Of the fearful danger of premature
explosions. Behind the now compound
the highest forms of explosives which
can be used in modern artillery may
be safely fired, and thee shells, laden
with Interchangeable, will only do
their awful work of destruction upon
striking the iptended target, when a
flash of fire is communicated to the
interior charge.
WILL SMASH IN A WARSHIP.
For torpedoes and mines it is said
to be ideal. With its frightful explo-
sive qualities, it is expected that mere
contact with h sides of a battle ship
will mean the complete disruption OF
the heaviest armor plate. For mines
it has the advantage that noncombatat
shipping may safely enter Or sail out
Of any harbor, humping carelessly over
the mined field. An explosion will oc-
cur only when the charges are fired
designedly by a human hand operating
an electrical key from the shore.
Wurtenberger does not want to die.
Even in the keenest agony, when death
would be a glad surGease from frightful
suffering, he has, in gaspS, expressed
himself en- the futility and %trayesty
of life if just at the moment he is ABOUT
! to realize fame and material success,
the mentel spark be snufed> out.
His fritnds know that he deserves
| life and it's reward, for his years from
| humble youth in Germany have been
| spent toiling in a tanners shop, and
| delving between times into the nys-
] teries of dangerous and deadly COM
| pounds.
He has always had superb faith that
| some day he would discover an explo-
sive so fearful and frightful in effects
| that the world, aghast, must stand for
| peace, lest nations, which if properly
| harnessed and used in industrial pur-
| suits, would make for the substantial
| progress of civilized man.
The secret is saved to the world now,
| whether Wurtenberger lives OF dies, but
Z there were Nhours on April Is, 1906,
| when it seemed that the mystery of the
| greatest explosive ever invented would
| pass out with the life of the brave in
| yentor who conceived it.
|
Women Who Can Talk Politics.
Speaker Reed once remarked that
| +horo u-oc hrt pno woJnan in Washing