Norwich bulletin., 1913-03-15
WHY DYNAMITE
IS DANGEROUS.

ana OnknoWn Elements m Character
 WHY DYNAMITE
 t IS DANGEROUS t A Shake or Shock will Cause it to y Explode. CareIessness is PeriIous Destruction Wrought when it Breaks
 Loose.
 This is the Age of Dynamite. Wher- 7 ever civilization penetrates today there echo the wonderful blasts. The Prince y or the Lemons of Fire has become the slave slave of man Chained by the chem
 lsts cunning, he flames forth. roaring at the beck of his master, to hurl from the path the most massive barriers, as , a child might scatter chaff. The en-
 g1neer now guides his railway whither-
 soever he will, undismayed before the
 m1ght1est obstacles opposed by nature,
 for the jim of dynamite waits to Vanqutsh them at 8 word. Throughout l the world, the patient and indomitable
 explosive is busy in 8 myriad of en- l terprlses, destructive yet constructive l deftly tearing down granite ridges
 swiftly clearing away soil for founda- ! in the mountains
 Dynamite is sterilized nitrogIycerin.
 N1rroglyce~1n is. of course, a high ex-
 plosive, one of the very liveliest, all l though at certain temperatures and in l small quantities it is capable of burn l ing without detonation.- When deto | mated. the volume of gases and the
 neat developed are such that the pro- ducts of the combust ton occupy I space 10,009 times that required by the l original body of the liquid, and this ! change of bulk occurs in a single in ! stant. It is this irresistible demand for vastly multiplied room that gives l to nitroglycerin it's enormous explos4 l i've force. l For the sake of precision in consid- 1 ering the manner in which the explos- I i've bodies fS differentiated from explosion. Deto- l nation is descriptive of the action in high explosives when the explosive wave passes through the body with the | exereme of velocity. But in the case | of combustive explosives the body is l burned on it's exposed surface as is ] fire in the grate, only with much more | rapidity, and this action is technically | termed explosion. The heat at the l surface converts the body under the | flames into gases; so that, fast as the solid Is dissipated into gas, the | oxygen carried in the material com pines with the combustible elements, thus envolvjny still more heat, which maintains the action until the body is entirely consumed
 How 1t is Made.
 Ultimately, as the nature of this ac- ton became understood after 1uch ex- perimenting, chemists were ble to rem der nftroglycerins a bit more docile, al- though even yet 1t is far from being l
 
 the compound has been secured at last, | and some measure of stability.
 In the present method of manufac- i ture,- a charge of 7,500 pounds of mixed nitric and sulphuric, is run into 3 steel tank, which is provided with a vertical rotating shaft, armed with paddles for rapid stirring of the acids when glyce- r1n is admitted. The tank is equipped ] with coils, through which cold water is . circulated for the purpose of maintain ing low temperature. In order to keep down the heat developed by reaction, : the temperature must be held between l F 20 and 25 degrees Centigrade (6S and f v degrees Fahrenheit.) This is regu- lated by the amount of glycerin inject ed into the mixed acids, and by the effi- cacy of the cooling device. The gIyce- E rfn is allowed to run into the acids in 3 continuous stream. while the acids are agitated, very gently. The \ quantity of glycerin should be 14 1-2 per cent. of the total weight of acids \ used. When all the g1ycerin has been run in, the charge Is drawn off into a tank where the nitroglyce- rin rises to the top, while the acids are irawn off to be recovered and the nit 'oglycerin is conducted into the drown ng and washing tanks. One pound of sweet g1ycer1n should yield nearly two md quarter pounds of nitroglycerin
 Despite the advances in the art of manufacture, however, nftrog1ycertn | = laS steadfastly retained its unsayory 1 n 'eputation a freak invention, too for safe employment.
 Nobel to Rescue. It was Nobel who at last came to the escue He discovered that, by ab- -bsorbing the treacherous liquid in in anne greatly reduced. He offered this mixture to the world in 1S66 under the lame of dynamite That mac mon ter, nftroglycerin, was in chains' Several years later Nobel, discovered \ hat form of nitroglycerfn, or gun otton, could be made which would dis H olve in warm nitroglyeerin. establish \ ng a thick jelly, and that this jelly E itrogelatin, could be rendered very in ensitive as the per centage of nitro I ellulose dissolved in it was increased sa Today the use of infusora1 earth in = he manufacture of dynamite has been | enerally abandoned. but the principle G 1volved has survived to splendid eh1ct- ncy of achievement, for 1t is that mich underiies the production of all and in 1t found safety, conomy and supreme energy. At ne present time the absorbent for nit is composed of mixture ~ ontaining wood meal and pulvertzed Eth itrate of soda or nitrate Of ammonia, fl ften with the addition of a small per ro entage of sulphur, resin charcoal. " requently. to nitroglycerin is thick ned with about per cent. of gelain- before being mixed with ab- ,rbent materials. This is known as (f elatin dynamite. sa Both common dynamite and gelatin SC ynarnite classed according to the ne of nitrogfycerfn contained F F then1.r The favorite is the 10 per an mt: the others used oftenest are the 2 . the6o and the 70 per cent. But the A, 1nan1ite form Is preserved to as low Do per cent. in a bank blasting DOW Ie sr; while 1t may run as high as s4 per soo iiI- III s piao.ins SeAddne. Inc cotn- an OneSt, that RnOWn as 4O per cent, ro ntafns 3s S-10 per cent. of pure nit rnt glycerin, and along with this are ra 1-16 per cent. of sodium nitrate, EI -F -1 nc roondIe ana o-Io or moisture. ha
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