The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-08-08
A Human Bomb.

The nrst human bomb on record, in the shape of living. walking and apparently harmless person. is now causing the greater part of the police force, and a considerable part of the summer population, all sorts of appre- hension, since he is liable to explode at any moment with just as fatal re- suits to bystanders, and incidentally himself as though he were composed of dynamite or nitro-glycerine. Never before has such politeness been ex- hibited on street cars and sidewalks. the ordinary desire to push and shove having given way to an almost uni versal habit of deference. All this is due to the fact that the human bomb, as yet unlocated. would ex- plode at the slightest jostle, and as there is nothing peculiar about his appearance to indicate his death -deal- ing possibilities. everyone is taking all sorts of precaution. It should not be understood that Ryan. for that is the name of the human bomb, is a voluntary menace to the residents of the city, for such is not the case. He <s an entirely innocent victim of mis- guidtA zeal. and, incidentally, just as dangerous to himself as to anyone else, since in the event of his being ex- ploded he naturally would be the one to suffer most. A few days ago Ryan hurt his arm and went to the hospital to have it dressed. The doctors ap- piled pioric acid which afforded im- mediate relief and then wrapped 1t In absorbent cotton. Before leaving. Ryan, wishing to insure himself against further pain,. saturated the cotton with picric acid. Then he went a doctors discovered what had happened and im- mediately raised an alarm. since dried picric acid and absorbent cotton form one of the highest explosives known. A mere jostling Of Ryan's arm, so long as he keeps the dressing on it. will be sufficient to explode him, and for that reason there is a desperate search going on to locate this unique bomb. Meantime the city is not at all enthusiastic over its distinction and would gladly renounce its position In this matter, since 1t Is estimated that unless found Ryan may continue to be explosive for another week or ten days.
 = Hell Gate, the famous and trouble some stretch of water in the East River where it sweeps by Blackwelfs Island between Manhattan and Long Island, in an eight-mile an hour tor rent, is at last to be tanned. bridled and put. to commercial use. The number of vessels large and small which have come to grief in this dangerous stretch of rapids runs far into the thousands, with an appalling annual loss of life. Hardly a day goes by indeed that some marine disaster IS not recorded at this point, and as a great part of the citys water traffic has to pass there 1t is not surprising that millions of dollars have been expended in various efforts to climi- nate the danger of this famous stretch of water. True, Hell Gate Is not the greatly feared by navigators as 1t was before the historic blast when forty tons of dynamite were exploded to re- move one of its dangerous rock reefs
 But that it still Is and will probably continue to be an extremely danger ous bit of water cannot be denied since even the new plan does not propose to eliminate it's dangers. What Is proposed, however, is to harness the swift current and by means of speci- ally designed machinery to use 1t in generating electrical power. Secret ex- periments have been under way for some time now. and engineers who have investigated the problem assert that sufficient power to furnish light for the whole city will be gathered from the waters that sweep through the gate. If such proves to be the case the city will soon begin to make the river pay back the heavy toll
 which it has taken for years in tht
 shape of human lives and ships.