The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1911-02-09
SIMS EXPLAINS
DYNAMITE Peril
Communipaw Disaster Probably
Due to Freezing,
EXPLOSIVE IS VERY PECULIAR,

Cushion For Railway Tubes, but Air
Did Not Prevent Broken Windows.
W. Scott Sims, one of the most dis.
tnguished experts in high explosives
in the world, inventor Of the Sims dy-
Mantle gun, the Sims wireless torpedo,
the Sims-Edison dirigible torpedo and
many other methods of putting high
explosives to use, believes the recent
$1.O00,O00 explosion at Communipaw,
on the New Jersey shore opposite New
York city, in which thity-four were
killed and hundreds injured, occurred
because some of the dynamite on the
pier was possibly frozen. In this con.
dition it is most dangerous, he claims,
explaining it by saying:
Under ordinary conditions you can
break a stick Of dynamite in two or
drop it on any surface from even a
great height and nothing will happen.
Fresh dynamite is as safe as safe can
be-except," added the inventor, with
a smile, when it isn't. Once in awhile
it will go off even under the best con-
ditions from some little shock which
ordinarily wouldn't bulge it, but usual
~ new dynamite at a temperature
above freezing is absolutely safe to
handle in every way. Why, I've car
r1ed it around in my pocket, and 80
have all Of us who live with explosives.
l have even seen men touch a match
to the end of silver Of the stuff and
light cigar with it as it burns"
Freezing Causes Danger.
Mr.. Sims explains, however, that
freezing makes dynamite most unsta-
BILE. The best grades, called gelatin,
are composed of about so per cent nj
troglycerin, per cent guncotton and
3 per cent camphor. The dynamite
on the Communipaw dock, thought
Mr.. Sims, was probably of a more
common grade, usually employed for
blasting
my idea Of the explosion is that the
men who were shifting the boxes from
the car to the lighter grew bit care
less perhaps, as those of us who han
die explosives always seem to do. Sew
eral Of the boxes of dynamite may
have been frozen, and if that is SO a
good jar in sliding one of them down
to the lighter might have set it off.
II the men had already knocked off
work for the noon hour it might have
been some other thing-a boiler explo-
sion on one of the boats perhaps, but
with the frozen dynamite getting the
Of hn oh
have BEEN"
"How about the other car of the ex-
plosive on the pier that didn't blow
up?' he was asked. isn't that pecul-
iar?"
mot at ALL" was the inventors an
swer. 1T is entirely normal and nat
ural. It is very possible that only
few sticks of the stuff that did ex-
plode were frozen. The other carload,
however, was probably at a normal
temperature, and therefore even the
force of ten or fifteen tons of it going
up at even little distance away didn't
disturb it,
"How about the force Of a big ex-
plosion?" the inventor was asked.
"Why did the blast break windows all
over Manhattan and still not disturb
any building foundations or even
shake the tubes under the Hudson.
Explosives Force Is Great.
"Let me explain" he answered.
"The force of any explosion is in the
direction Of least resistance. An ex-
plosion on the surface Of the ground
therefore exerts it's greatest force up
into the air, not down. Most people
think the force goes down because
What they cannot see is the far, far
greater hole in the air
"One can realize what this force is
by remembering that the pressure of
q seventy-fve mile an hour wind is
only about two pounds to the inch.
After this air wave comes a practical
vacuum, racing behind it through
space. This is what gets the windows,
and this vacuum explains why glass
falls out instead of in. The windows
can stand the first onslaught-in Man.
haitian it might have amounted to five
pounds extra to the square inch-but
what they cannot stand is the sudden
backward snap as the low pressure
follows the first force Of the blow.
1.-THE tunnels under the Hudson did
not feel the explosion primarily be-
cause it's chief force was exerted up
and out into the surrounding air; Sec
Ondarily, because water itself in great
masses is a good cushion, and, third
ly, because the tubes must lie under
some fifteen or twenty feet of mud
and slime on the river bottom, which
is the best sort of a cushion in ITSELF"
Cat Raising His Own Food.
Bunk. cat owned by Dorothy
butcher, four years old, of Winsted,
Conn.,, not content with sleeping with