Los Angeles herald., 1909-05-09


hundred thousand pounds to the square inch, which
will expand with great rapidty and violence in all
directions. The expansion in downward direction,
being strongly resisted by the hard EARTH Is soon
brought to a halt and we have a crater filed with in
candescent gas under high pressure, but which can
now expand only in upward direction. In the
meantime the expansion which has already taken
place in an upward direction, being unimpeded, has
proceeded rapidly
The expansion on horizontal plane, while It has
at first proceeded freely for few feet, that is to
say distance equal to the depth of the crater formed
in the earth, is at that point detected by the
bounding body of gas from the crater, which is moved
upward with great violence and defects the gases
moving in horizontal direction and caused them to
move upward, well rapidly outward, with the
result that the total volume of gases in expanding
from the point of detonaton is thrown upward in
the form of inverted cone, with the result that
partial vacuum is formed and the air rushes in from
all directions around the ascending column of fire
This causes the windows to be blown out in the
direction of the explosion, indicated, while on the
higher floors the windows are blown in the opposite
direction, where struck by the ascending and RAPIDLY
widening base of the inverted cone.
If a rubber ball be thrown straight down upon
the earth with great force, it rebounds high in a
vertical line coincidng with the line of descent
Now then, suppose that at the instant of the com
hal
were to be converted into a ball of gases 1t is
evident that the rebound upward would take place
just the same, but while the ball were rebounding
1t would simultaneously expand while it rose from
the earth. In other words, it would rebound from
the earth in the form of an inverted cone This ia
exactly like the cone of dynamite.
Let us now take another half ton of dynamite
and place it as before in the centre of the omen
space surrounded by circle of buildings but in
stead of exploding 1t perfectly smooth level sur
face let build stone ten feet high fifteen Foot
thick and fifteen feet long, of heavy bowlders with
earth and clay and small stones packed between them
and wet the whole mass down and let it SET and
harden. Let us place thousand pounds of dvno
mite at the base of this wall in the angle of the wall
and the earth and explode it, The ball of expanding
gases will rebound equally from the earth and tbe
face of the wall that instead of ascending verti
cally in the form of an inverted the ascent will
be at an angle of about forty-ve degrees with the
result that the buildings in the direction taken nv tb
gases will be badly wrecked while the buildings on tb
opposite side of the wall will not be affected unless
the character of the earth be such might favor tb
transmission of the earth shock If this exnIosion
to take place in the streets of large CITY where
the houses are of modern steel construction the build
ngs would not be blown down. neither would their
front walls be blown in, but the windows only
would be smashed
Why Windows Blow Out.
1t is well known phenomenon that buildings adj
jacent to a dynamite explosion have their windows
blown out in the direction of the explosion This ac
ton is Enthusiastically experience and is not mere
matter of theory
Anarchists and black hand operators, by throw
ing dynamite bombs into windows and by exploding
dynamite under buildings frequently succeed in
damaging the buildings considerably and in killing
of the occupants But such bombs generally
have a metallic casing and charged with frag-
ments of metal well with dynamite. Ten
pounds of dynamite, for example, placed under the
front steps under of the front windows of a
dwelling will frequently blow in the windows and
knock hole in the front wall, but the damage will
be by no means extensive would generally be
supposed and nothing at all comparable with the ter
ror produced by the explosion.
To give a further idea of the limitations of the
force of high explosives let refer to the results OF
the Cathmann gun tests which took place at Sandy
Hook on November 10, -901. Large aerial bombs,
carving five hundred pounds Of guncotton, were
thrown against the face of twelveinch Krupp armor
plate at high velocity from eighteen-inch gun and
exploded against the plate, with the result that the