The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1907-10-15
SMOKELESS
POWDER.
How It's Made and What It's
Like.
From Appleton's Magazine.

The volcano grumbles and rumbles
and quakes, giving ample warning be-
fore belching forth its torrents of fire
and lava. But the powder mill is like
a gigantic bomb filled with human
creatures, loaded with tons upon tons
OF nitroglycerln and gun cotton. primed
and ready to explode from score OF
known and unknown reasons.
Sometimes when danger house
blows up, tearing men within to atoms,
rendering the building into match
sticks and gouging a gaping hole 80
| feet across into rocks and gravel, IL
Is impossible to tell even what caused
crash comes II is the most inconceiv-
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 It's 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-
Ing 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, 400 yards
from the nearest building.
Nothing except the portentous word
Danger" painted in big black let
tiers 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 a blacker nous
tache. He is man of years of ex-
perbence, SO trained to caution that 1t
has become a habit exercised like
second nature.
Ihs man In charge will not permit
you inside this house, no matter
how favored visitor you may be. The
most he will do is to open the door
OF one OF the drying-rooms to give you
peep within.
He is married and has five children.
No he isn't afraid. II 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,
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 drying-rooms, heat
ed to a 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
plotting paper heaped I'm 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 1t out of your way as
II 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 far against
even a pinch of this insignificant ap-
pearing substance and there would be
a flash and a crash that would shake
the earth for miles around, and moth
ing but 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 annihllated.
A spark of static electricity OF the
sort with which you can light n gas
Jet by spark leaplng from the knuckle
OF finger after sliding your feet
across carpet, and you would have
vanished tracelessly, blown into atoms
too small TO end with microscope.
Owing to this deadly sensitlveness.
every precaution for safety is taken
by the man in this building. The
floors are covered with rubber sheets
fastened by brassheaded tacks to
prevent danger of sparks. Dust pans
and utensils are of brass or copper.
When the panfuls of cotton are
transported In or out OF the place the
floors are covered with sheets OF can.
vas to be removed 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 prevent catas-
trophe.
What Is this smokeless powder? r.
Is the modern high explosive which
has superseded the old style black
powder, even as electricity has super.
seeded gas, and which IS used not only
in the field for sporting purposes. but
is used exclusively for the shoulder
arms Of the army and the navy as for
the machine guns. the rapid fire guns
and the huge rifles on the decks OF
our battleshlps and within the works
OF our Notifications
DrootfraIIv IL te ,,otbf,o, t.,t - -