The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1907-08-02
SMOKELESS
POWDER.
How It's Made and What It's
Like.
From AppletOn's Magazine.

mill is like sitting on the ~ OF FSs~'
Vius, only mere dangerous.
The volcano grumbles and rumbles
and quakes giving ample warning pc
fore belching forth its torrents OF hre
and lava But the powder mill is IKE
a gigantic bomb filled with human
creatures, loaded with tons upon tons
Of nitroglycerin and gun cotton, primed
and ready 10 explode from a score OF
known and unknown reasons.
Sometimes when a danger house
blows up tearing men within to atoms
rendering the building into match
sticks and gouging a gaping hole W
feet across into rocks and gravel, II
is impossible to tell even what caused
crash comes it is the most inconceiy-
the accident
Whatever the cause, when the
ably frightful ordeal to which human
nervous system can be subjected.
How human creatures can be in
duced to take the risks of working in
such an earthly inferno, ready to burst
on the instant in all its horror, may
seem past understanding; still thou
sands upon thousands of men work
in these mills scattered throughout
the United States.
The gun cotton drying-house, where
the washed nitrated cotton must be
dried absolutely, shares with the nitro
glycerin building the reputation of be-
inc the most hazardous on the face of
the earth
The gun cotton drying-house, CON
tanning as much as five tons Of the
frightful explosive, half-teaspoon-
full of which would be enough to blow
you into smithereens, stands isolated
on pillars above a marsh, AGO yards
from the nearest building.
Nothing except the portentous word
"DangeE' painted in big black let
ters 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 is dark and swarthy,
with black eyes and blacker nous
tache. He is man of years of ex-
perience, so trained to caution that it
has become a 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 he will do is to open the door
OF one of the drying-rooms to give you
a peep within.
he is 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 If he
violates any of certain rules he and
his house are going to leave together,
he has no intention Of violating pre-
cautions. He never had 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 ghestlike. AS he opens tho
door of one of the dryingrooms, heat.
ed to q temperature of 10 degrees, a
breath of hot air from within strikes
you.
You see. what appear to be chunks
and slabs and wads of dirty white
blotting paper heaped in metal pans
two or three feet and set in a series
of spacious racks like so many big
pigeon holes.
Even now there is nothing in the
appearance of the stuff to prevent you
from throwing it out of your way as
if it 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 would send an $4,000 ton
Dreadnough to the bottom.
Yet the slightest sudden jar against
even a pinch of this insignificant APP
pearing substance and there would be
a fash and crash that would shake
the earth for miles around, and moth
ing but a pail Of smoke drifting sky
ward would remain of house or man.
The slightest friction against dust in
visible to the naked eye, or a mere
spark. knocked perhaps from the head
OF 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. and you would have
vanished uacelessly, blown into atoms
too small to find with a microscope,
Owing to this deadly sensitiveness,
every precaution for safety is taken
by the man in this building. The
hnore are cnverad with rnhhar shaats