The Ogden standard. [volume] (Ogden City, Utah) 1902-1910, 1910-06-25

. HilNG around the flank OF New Jersey. n few
miles south OF Philadelphia the Delaware
River makes Il westward detour If fearing a
kick from the greatest dynamite mills in the
world Other spots on the historic river are
more inviting, but are more interesting and
strangely fascinating provided the visitor be not bur
dened with representative nerves. Daily at Rcpaunc
seven hundred lives depend more or less upon a ther
mometer
Among the dynamite mills two opposite forces are
supreme, nitroslycerin and the mercury OF the two
is danger mnsGnG in the most deceptive ina gin
able Gulse aud in the other alone safety
So thoroughly deceptive. fact is dynamite In the
making that you apt be disappointed on viewing
The surface of things You can readily fancy
thunderboits leaDing and crashing from tender blue
skies than that the fearful forces in creation
hidden under such peaceful exterior.
Nitro glyccriD a cupful of which would distribute
you over square miles of landscape, is diligently mix
Ing around you 10 hundreds and thousands of gal
Ions 1t making Itself in big retors cnscadlns
down leaden cutters and merrIly tumbling In minute
NiagarNs into immense vats where the deliquescent
yellow peril pursues its journey powderward Out of
receptacle it fares furiously through special lead
coils. driven only by cooling blasts OF air. and Is
drawn of like draught ale and piped to the next
perfectng stage.
Gaze with the nitrogycern expert into one OF
these big cadrons. The Interior Is brilliantly illu-
mined by electricity, the only Illuminating agency
permitted in or about the danger houses
At the bottom is q molten sullen Guid. GIanclng
cautiously at the thermometer the guide tells you
that the quvcring Is niro.glycerin 1t is being
fused with nitric and suphuric acids, and YOU are
casually informed, as the expert sends cooling
through the surrounding pipes. that it is very
necessary to keep the temperature below eighty de-
Srecs.
Once above the eighty degree dead line. 10 say,
the treacherous liquid might Instantly voice itself
such deafenlng explosion as those In close proy-
Unity may hear bur once. Let the composition
he quiesccnt for seconds, and It's stiffness sud
denly becomes that of death in consequence of
which extreme vigilance Is practised in keeping it
constantly ngitatcd well properly tcmperatured
Around you other houses at uniform distances
apart and connected by a series of narrow gauge
tracks whcrcon workmen raroading nitroglycerln
from here and pulp cotton from there to be com
pounded into dynamite and blasting gelatne. Great
est care Is taken in rolling the product from house TO
house As n loaded cart is ready to pass out
of the nitro glycerin house. for instance semuphore
signals from adjoining station to which the consgn-
is carefully hurried. Around You iong store
houses packed with pulp In tons of innocent white
ness Presently this pulp VIII assume tan color
undor the nitratnG and then suddenly become
blasting ce'atinc. in which more natural forces are
condensed 10 le cubic inch than exist anywhere else
IN creation Death cuCbed and sleeping, encircles you
in gallons and ions AnnIhlntion threstens at every
trg in the form Of potential puIyeFizns forces But
the aud hc mercury are there also alert respon'
siye reliuie