The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-18
WHERE DEATH LIES IN WAIT.
SMOKELESS POWDER MILLS MOST
DANGEROUS OF BUILDINGS.


ana Tnkes minnie precautions 10
Avoid BeIns BlOwn Into smIIhereens.
Working in a smokeless powder mill is
like sitting on the lid Of Vesuvius, only
more dangerous.
Tho volcano Erumbles and rumbles and
uuakes, giving ample warning before
belohing forth its torrents of fire and lava.
But the powder mill is like a gigantic bomb
filed with human creatures, loaded with
tons EXON IONS Of n~itroglycerine and gun
ooskon. prfmed and ready to explode from
a score OF known and unknown reasons.
Sometimes when a danger house blows
up, tearing men within to atoms, rending
the building into matchsticks and gouging
a gaping hole thirty feet across into rocks
and gravel il is impossible to tell even
what caused the accident.
Other times the disaster is traceable to
tho carelessness or disobedience OF an
employee. Occasionally says Appieton's
Magazine, catastrophe is due to ar I'M
avoidable accident like the mere stumbling
OF a toe.
Whatever the cause, when the crash
comes it is the most inconceivably frightful
ordeal to which the human nervous system
q be subjected.
How human creatures can be induced
to take the risks Of working in such an
earthly inferno. ready to burst on the in
slant In all its horror, may seem past under
standing; still thousands upon thousands Of
men work In these mills scattered through
out the United States.
The guncotton drying house, where the
washed nitrated cotton must be dried alb
solutely, shares with the nitroglycerine
building the reputation Of being the most
hazardous on the face OF the earth.
The %guncotton drying house, containing
o. much IA five tons Of the frightful ex-
p~losive, a half teaspoonful Of which would
be enough 10 blow you into smithereens,
stands isolated on pillars above a marsh
zoo yards from the nearest building.
Nothing except the portentous word
Danger painted in big black letters over
the entrance distinguishes this house from
the other structures, yet as you gaze at its
very isolation you approach with deep
respect
Only one person is permitted in this
house, an Italian; a medium sized, chunky
man he Ia, dark and swarthy, with black
eyes and a blacker mustache. He Is a man
OF years Of experience, SO trained to cau-
ton that II has become O habit exercised
like second nature.
The man in charge will not permit you
inside this house no matter how favored a
visitor you may be. The most ne will do
IL to open the door Of one Of the drying
rooms to give you a peep within.
He IL married and has five children No,
he isn't afraid. If he were he would not
work where he is working.
He knows, OF course, that il he violates
any Of certain rules he and his house are
going to leave together, but he has no in
tention OF violating precautions. He never
has been blown up yet and he does not
intend to be. Even his family has ceased
worrying about him.
You notice he is wearing rubber soled
tennis shoes wherein he walks silent and
ghostlike. As he opens the door Of one Of
the drying rooms, heated to q temperature
of 10 degrees, a breath OF hot air from
within strikes you.
You see what appear to be chunks m
slabs and wads OF a dirty white blotting
paper heaped in metal pans two by three
feet and set in a series OF spacious racks
like so many big ~pigeonholes.
Even now there Is nothing in the appear
ance Of the stuff to prevent you from throw
ing it out OF our way as II IL were an old
piece OF paper, and you wonder afterward
whether after all this seeming rubbish
can be the dreaded explosive a mere fifty
pounds of which could send an $4,000 ton
D~readnought 10 the bottom.
Yet the slightest sudden jar against even
O pinch OF this Insignificant appearing
substance and there would be a flash and
a crash that would shake the earth for
miles around, and nothing but a pail Of
smoke drifting skyward would remain OF
house or man. The slightest grain OF sand
underfoot to cause friction against dust
invisible to the naked eye, or a mere spark.
knocked perhaps from the head OF a carpet
tack, and the house and man would be
annihilated.
A spark OF static electricity OF the sort
with which you can light a gas jet by a
spark leaping from the knuckle of a finger
after sliding your feet across a carpet.
AA1 49,. -u1..I1 hawA vanished - oalaaal.
blown into atoms too small to find with a
microscope.
Owing to this deadly constituencies, every
precaution for safety Is taken by the man
in this building. The noors are covered
with rubber sheets fastened by brass-headed
tacks to prevent danger Of sparks. Dust
pans and utensils are OF brass OF copper.
When the panfuls of cotton are trans
ported in or out Of the place the floors are
covered with sheets OF canvas to be re-
moved and shaken clear OF possible dust
outside the building. Twice a day the floors
are scrupulously brushed. In short, every
conceivable precaution Is taken to pre-
vent catastrophe.
modern high explosive which has super
seeded the old style black powder, even as
electricity has superseded gas, and which
IL used not only in the field Tor sporting
purposes, but IL used exclusively Tor the
shoulder arms OF the army n the navy
as well as for the machine guns, the rapid
fire guns and the huge rifles on the decks
OF our battleships and within the works OF
our Notifications.
Practically 1t is nothing but a mixture of
guncottOn and alcohol and ether, or acetone,
or else acetone with gun cotton and nitro
g~lycerine-the two strongest explosives
knovn-and, blended into q new compound
which is at least double as strong as the
common black powder, explodes without
giving OF smoke, and, once finished, not
merely loses the dangerous characteristics
Of its dreaded ingredients, but 10 50 safe
that you might give a hatful Of the powder
Intended for the sixteen inch Sandy Hook
gun TO O baby to play with.
he might pound It with a hammer 70
his hearts content, or 20 yourself might
place 1t on IN anvil and bring a forty pound
sledge down on il. IL would merely squash
like so much soap or putty.
So conclusion proof Ia this powder that
YOU might drop a house on a heap OF fifty
tons Of il and il would not explode. So
proof is it against explosion by fire that
you might place a stick Of cannon powder
on a saucer in your bedroom, light Il with
n match, and go TO bed by a Pickering, ,
sizzling light. as burning fat.
In short, you simply cannot explode this ,
powder unless you go to the trouble OF con-
iininR il, and even then you can explode
IL only by using a illuminate of mercury