The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-09
SAFE HANDLING
 OF EXPLOSIVES House Committee Takes Up the Question at Length METHODS ARE ANTlQUATED Bill Is Offered By Bureau For Safe Transportation of Explosives Which
 Proposes To Change Present
 Present Methods Radically.
METHODS ARE ANTlQUATED

Washington. February s.-Dynamite, l nitroglycerine and the fulminatesr rheld i the attention of the House committee on interstate and foreign commerce to- day. new law to safeguard their transportation was the subject dis cussed, and in the course of the hear ing impromptu lecture on high ex- l plosives was delivered by Dr. Charles B. Dudley of Altoona, Pa, president of 1 the Bureau for the Safe Transporta- tion of Explosives, comprising repre- i sentatives of ga railroads owning and operating TO per cent of the steam ] road trackage of the United States. l pr. Dudley appeared in support of the sherman bill, the object ofNwhich is to promote the safe transportation in interstate commerce of explosives and other dangerous articles
 This bill was largely drawn by the explosives bureau. It prohibits the commercial transportation of dynamite gunpowder or other explosives except ling small arms ammunition except un- der strict regulations. In discussing existing laws. pr. Dudley cited the fact that they required the transportation of such sensitive explosives as nitro glycerine, illuminate of mercury (the chief agency of perccusslon caps) and illuminate of silver in iron cases.
 This provision" he said. "contem- plates an iron lid to, the case. That gives us contact of two metallic bodies. Suppose, as I am convinced has often been true in cases of ex- plosions in transit, the movements of travel so disarranged a packed ful- minate that little of the dry powder escapes the package, and a grain of it gets lodged between the iron case and it's lid. Then the train, we will say. is stopped with stiff jar. Up goes every thing in a roar and flash. Dry full minate is so sensitive that if I should lay grain on the edge of this table and strike it with my thumb nail, I am quite sure the result would inter- est you.
 Change Is Needed.
 The idea of carrying such an article in | metallic cases, as required in the presenE law. patently was originated at a time when the intimate relations between ex
 
 stood than they are now. Three years ago. as a result of the Harrisburg ex- plosion-a wreck which cost the Penn sylvania Railroad company upward of $l,- dO0.000-the president of that company, MT. McRea, drew a bill for the safeguarding of explosives in transit and it was in- troduced. It was good as far as it went, but it failed of passage. Last year Rep resentative Sherman introduced a bill which also was very good, but did not go far enough. It passed the House and ] failed in the Senate. The present bill before you represents the best efforts of ] the bureau for the safe transportation of explosives. an organization which aside from it's inclusion of the highest skill i along these lines must commend itself to you as sincere because of the fact that i -itDfs made up of railroad men and the railroads stand to lose heavily by explo- i sions in transit"
 l Not In the Trust.
 Representative Mann of Illinois said it had been asserted to him that the eX- | plosives bureau is allied with the so- ! called powder trust and that the trans | portation restrictions favored by the bu- 1 reau would operate seriously against the 1 independent manufacturers, for instance I the provision that explosives shall not be transported in passenger carrying vessels. l "I understand" said MT. Mann, 'tha: on the great lakes the DuPont people have their own powder boats and that 1 the independents have none"
 | Then, suggested another member Of the commerce, doubtless the independents could place themselves on an equal foot ing by getting boats'
 "Oh, quite SOL answered MT. Mann. eff I had an automobile could get to 1 my home as quickly as the other fel- i lows, but I have not one"
 ''rhe restriction you refer to-" said Mir | Gwinnell of Wilmington, Del, lis part or the existing law. The bureau has merely