Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1906-03-20

THE REPORT AWOkE COUNTY AND MADE
 A GREAT HOLE IN THE SCENERY.
 activity, and the pungent aroma from the chemicals may make ones head ache to the splitting point, but not withstanding this there is q sort of un- usual risk that appeals to tbe tender foot-that is, after he has figured it out with mathematical precision that the chances are about one in million that the plant will be thrown out of opera ton in hurry during his stay. There is a throb of gratitude to the powers that be ill the heart of the tenderfoot when he gets out of the danger belt with his body intact
 A new plant here is one of the latest in the country. The new compressed air appliances used in mixing the acids and then mixing the acids with the glycerin reduce the spectacular features of the work. The acids are kept in iron tanks similar to those used by the Standard Oil company in storage yards. The acids are forced from one tank into another and are mixed by the ap- plication of air pressure. Then this mixed acid, which throws off a cloud of angry looking smoke through safety vents, is forced through long pipe line to a small, tower-like building. This is the nitroglycerin house itself.
 In this building are mixing vats, which are kept at uniform tempera ture of 50 degrees by the circulation of brine forced from refrigerating plant, which passes in lead pipes around and through the tanks. The acid and glycerin are fed in with pre- cision and mixed by gently moving automatic paddles. Care Is exercised by the men experimenting this proc ess, but that care Is not so painstaking as the onlooker would expect to find.
 When mixed. the liquid, which looks like moderately thick molasses of whitish brown color Is drained off into storage tanks, and from the tanks Is drained into ten quart tin cans.
 The liquid strikes the bottom of these cans with a thud that makes ones flesh creep, until one realizes that 1t Is not such fall as this, but peculiar jar or friction, that causes trouble. As the can fills the liquid makes gur gling sound that Is not reassuring. Not drop of the explosive is permit ted to land outside the cans, and these cans before being used are inspected and tested with water for leaks, A leaky can. especially after it Is load ed into wagon for transportation, means a loud report that awakes a county, makes great hole In the seen cry and wipes everything around out of existence. A drop of nitroglycerin on the floor would mean the same thing when the friction of foot was applied to it.
 The capacity of the Hartford City plant is about 9.0OO quarts of the ex plosive a day. Nine thousand quarts of nitroglycerin are moving power. An idea of what 1t will do may be gained from the fact that the safe crackers who use it carry their supply in vials and use only few drops in blasting their way into safe. Tn, nitroglycerin clinging to the sides of an empty can, if touched of, is suff cient to jar whole community Therefore as much care has to be used with the empty cans as with the filled ones.
 Although the railroads deliver the acids and glycerin to the factory In carboys and tanks, they do not handle the dangerous commodity which their J mixture produces.
 The process by which the factory's product reaches the consumer is more