The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1913-09-27
new EXPLOSIVE
SAFE, But DEADLY
Stronger Than Dynamite, Yet
Less Dangerous.
TROTOL THE NAME or IT.

Only One Way to Explode II, az Shown
BY Remarkable Tests Made by Gov
eminent and Du Ponts-lnvented by
New York National ~Guardsman In
the Postal Service.
What has been pronounced by some
military men the safest high power
explosive the world has yet seen, an
explosive equal 10 80 per cent dyna-
mite. the strongest dynamite made,
has been produced by Il lieutenant OF
the New York national guard after
three years work. He will give II TO
the United States government. al
though Il Is said that "A half dozen ma
tons would pay from $500.OOO up for
the formula.
Lieutenant Harold Chase Woodward
OF the Twenty-second engineers, na-
tIonal guard, New York, is the in
yentor OF trotol. the new explosive.
He Is employed In the New York post
office at "A branch station. Three years
ago a brother came across an old vol
ume that had been presented 10 Ger
man officials AT the time OF the Franco
Prusslan war. In the book were 1000
formulas FOR high explosives. mainly
anonymous. The Germans had sim
ply shelved the book, perhaps dlscour
aged by the number OF recipes and
the impossibility OF testing them all.
Hit Upon II by Chance.
Woodward tried five formulas at
random and found them all either
worthless or inferior 20 explosives now
I'm use. He tried n sixth at random
and found IL extraordinarily safe and
good, but rather weak ms compared
with the best dynamite. But from 1t
he developed trotol.
Trotol can be exploded only by full
inmate OF mercury. the substance
used TO explode dynamite, IL cannot
be set OF by any shock. however
great. In "A test at Fort Wadsworth
trotol was packed into a twelve inch
shell, aud the shell was fired at armor
plate 1000 yards away. The she'll
struck the armor plate while going at
a rate OF $3.50 feet n second. but the
trotol inside remained uneXploded In
spite OF the terrific conclusion.
Six ounces of trotol, IL IL said. will
do the explosive work OF twelve
ounces OF dynamite. Dynamite de
teriorates I'm water or on the water
and under certain atmospheric condi-
tions. Trotol can be soaked I'm water
for years and be as good as ever. IL
looks like wet brown sugar and IL
made up in sticks Ike dynamite.
Trotol can be- carried wet or dry. and
the illuminate OF mercury, which must
be kept yards away from dynamite
lest Il premature explosion result, may
come as close as six inches To trotoi
without danger. Like dynamite, trotol
cannot be exploded by ignition.
The Governments Experiments.
Trotol has n longer name. II * de
rived from a coal tar byproduct which
has been subjected To step up mira
tlon-that IS. reduced to dregs. After
Mr.. Woodward had worked over IL for
n year the United States government
began experiments which lasted for
Two years blu NHl'h ANi'ihhNh ~
Peekskill. y. Y, a short time ago. No
possible tests remain Co be made or
the new explosive II there are fur
Their ones they will have 10 be espe-
cially invented for II.
Tests were conducted M Fort Wads-
worth and Peekskill. and the Du Pont
de Nemours Powder company has eN-
hausted its tests on tr0t0l without md
ing a flaw I'm II. The secret formula
IL possessed ia it's entirety only by
Lieutenant Woodward. Government
engineers have parts Of the secret, ana
the Du Pont people have parts.
Lieutenant Woodward declares that
ne Will give the fun secret OF trotol
only TO Uncle sam and Will take no
money for Il.