Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1913-02-27
WORK WITH DEATH
PeriIous CaIiings Where Life Is
Always In Danger.

human nature becomes callous to
the daily association with peril But
now and then something tears away
the callous spot and leaves the raw.
naked nerve exposed.
Structural steelworkers run many
chances OF losing their nerve drop
ping their goats" they call IT. Only
the other day one OF them who had
never known fear was standing on the
outer edge Of lofty steel framework
and CHANGED to IoOb down into the
street. He saw a trolley car run over
a newsboy. Instantly his mind was
swamped with thoughts OF death. he
stretched himself fat on the beam and
era wed to an island OF planking.
When Il man once does that on top OF
Il sKysCraper be has finished his high
work
They never come back" said an old
foreman. It's d pity. too. for they
can never get quarter the pay at an
other job that they did at this before
they looked down and saw death"
Much Of the worlds work is done by
men who have TO keep their nerve in
the face OF peril. Sometimes a man
will not so to pieces until after a long
/ run OF danger. Primarily the cause
may he fatigue or bad liver or bad
nerves. but when it is oil over he de
cides he has had enough and seeks an
other vocation.
In the places where high explosives
. 70 la f,ia
/ ed to a constant nervous strain. They
get used to IT, like everything else
but when an accident comes there Is
sure to be some one among the sur
/ vivors who drops out Of the ranks Of
the workers.
In a plant where more dynamite.
nitroglycerin, guncOtton and other
pentup destruction are made than any
where else in the world nearly a thou
thermometer.
In one step in the manufacture Of
niuOgiycerin It is a Quivering. sullen
fluid In q big caldron brilliantly lighted
by electricity. Glycerln is continually
sprayed on the tons of heated acids
within. AS 1t mixes the glycerin
seizes the available nitrogen from the
acids. and the mass becomes nitro
glycerin. Round the caldron a man
moves swiftly, nOiselessly, dividing his
attention between the contents and a
thermometer that extends down into
the hot acids. The temperature Of the
mass must not rise above so degrees.
Glycerin has many vagaries that
have been never been explained. II,
through one OF them. the temperature
rises toward the danger point the first
thing the man on watch does is to
send more cool solution through the
pipes that coil snakewise round the
giant caldron. If the mercury in the
tube continues TO rise he shuts of the
inflow OF glycerin. II this does not
have the desired effect he turns on
compressed air. so as to throw the
mass into violent agitation. II this
fails he has only one more card 10 play.
he opens a valve and empties the
charge into the drowning tank" Then
he makes dash for safety
Only few men who have ever been
Immediately exposed to explosions
have lived to tell about them after
ward. Those who have escaped and
have continued in their hazardous EN-
plOyment are thereafter known only
by their first names There are Only
few of these. The other survivors
have sought other work where the
risks are less. Said one Of them:
You can't trust the stun any more
than you could a sleeping cobra.
was at work one day around the mix
Ing tank and things were going as
usual when suddenly noticed that the
Mercury III the thermometer WAS creep
in= NJ toward 81. Quick as dash
saw that something had gone wrong
and one after another. turned on the