The morning journal-courier., 1908-02-24


 washed clean of any uncombined acid.
 The dirty white hunks of gun cot ton are moved to the drying house Having gone through all this washing in water. it must be now dried out ah- Isoutely before it can be combined with nitr0glycerin for smokeless powder To make nitroglycerin you simply mix a combination of nitric and sulpburic acids with the sweet glycerin that YOU use on your lips when they are chan ped Near the house are two tanks one filled with the sweet glycerin and the other with the combined acids.
 To prepare charge usually about 5000 pounds of the acid mixture is run into a small tank set on scales outside the house. About 7S0 pounds of glycern is run into another tank on scales. This mix ture of acid runs through declin- ing pipes into big tank within the building. This is set within a still ! larger tank, and currents of cold wa ter are kept moving around the in ner vessel.
 When the 5000 pounds of acid has been run into this inner tank the 7S0 pounds of glycerin is allowed to ooze slowly into the acid. Paddles work ing inside the tank gradually mix the acid and the sweet glycerin. As they combine, enormous heat is generated It is dangerous for the heat to rise to so degrees Fahrenheit, and the oper- ator who has charge of the glycerln spgot keeps his eye on the thermom- eter which tells what heat Is being developed within the tank.
 If the thermometer shows so or a little more he cuts down the flow of glycerin and makes the paddles work faster, This should reduce the heat. It rarely happens that these precau- tions do not effect the desired reduc- ton. If for any reason the tempera- 1 ture continues to rise the man at the spigot jerks open a valve, which spouts the rest of the glycerln charge into drowning tank below the house. Then he runs. If the heat should rise a great deal above so degrees the whole charge of nitrogly a spoonful of which tears up a house, would explode, destroying everything near.
 This chemical process is called n- trating the glycerln The completed product is nitroglycerin, about which many people hear great deal, not knowing even approximately what it is. The oily substance drawn off the top of the tank is explosive. The acid that has not been combined remains at the bottom of the tank and is of no further use. Indeed. the nitroglycer- in that is drawn off the tank is wash ed four or five times to cleanse it of free acid, just as the guncotton had to be cleaned
 After the nitroglycerin has been satisfactorily washed it is drawn into gallon measures These have very wide bottoms to help mako sure that they are not overturned
 To lessen the danger of the nitro glycerin exploding because of shock, 1t Is mixed with acetone before being sent over to the house where il and the gun cotton are finally brought to- gether. A bunk of the dreadful gun cotton is put into big bowl. looking for all the world like a big bread mixing bowl. A man with wooden rake hollows out the center a little. A man stands hy with a big pot of ni- tro glycerin in his hand, and this he pours upon the gun cotton
 In this house there is only one bowl only one set of two men to work over It. Each of them handles enongh deadly stuff every five minutes to blow either into eternity. If the man with the rake should handle the dry gun cotton too roughly, or if the man with the pot should set 1t down too hard well, there would he just another pair of imaginary interments
 When the cotton and the nitrogly- cerin have been mixed just a little by hand the mess Is sent to another house to he thoroughly kneaded into k-colored dough. And in this next mixing house death is again wait ing around all the time. The hand mixed dough is put into cylinders nearly three feet in diameter. These are provided with knives inside.
 When the operator in this house has filled the cylinders he hangs out a danger flag. retreats behind barri- cade of earth, stones and iron and then starts the mixers to revolving i If after five minutes the two suh- stances mix amicably as they always do if the previous processes have been carried out faithfully the operator knows that the danger is all over. i Within little while he can take that same dough-like mixture bang it with | hammer and nothing will hapnen l And vet all that has been done is to mix the gun cotton and nitroglyeerin.
 This completed dough is smokeless powder except for the shaping. It is pushed through molds which run if out in rods of varying sizes according to the size of the gun it is to be used in. X rod that is to he cut up for t2- inch cannon grains is about the size of a candle A rod that is to be chipped up for small arms is about the size of spaghetti. The rods are always per forated with little holes so that it will burn the quicker
 When these small and large cylind- CTS have been dried they are smoke | less powder completed.
 Ordinary dynamite is simply nitro glycerin the making of which has just been described carried by an absorb ent such as infusorial earth-used bv Alfred Nobel the inventor of dynamite and wood fiber, saltpeter and other things
 Nitroglycerin is made of : per cent of gun cotton and 93 per cent. of ni- troglvcerin This product is mixed with some sort of carrying absorbent such as saltpeter This completed product is called plastic dynamite.