The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-04-15
Careful Attention Will Pre-
vent Many Misfires
in Blasting.
FIRING BY ELECTRICITY
This Method Recommended
cs Being Best Way to
Avoid Danger.

Careful attention to keeping fuse dry
unkinked and unbroken will prevent a
great many misfires, together with the
more dangerous hangfires. but the dan
ger and Inconvenience can be elimi-
mated wholly only by discarding the
fuse and cap method of firing alto
gether. In its place the modern, eff
'ficient electric method of firing charges
should be substituted for most farm
blasting. It is now practical on any
farm. owing to the recent perfection Of
cheap electric blasting machines.
The electric method does away at
one stroke with all danger due to i'm
perfect firing. Should an electric
blasting cap fail to explode when the
= machine Is worked. the charges are as
dead as before, the second the wires
are disconnected at the machine. The
plaster always has the situation under
his control. He can fire a blast or
mold 1t, just as man can fire at will
with a gun.
When fuse Is used, it is possible, IL
everything goes right, to guess the
length of time the spark will require
to travel down to the cap. Frequently
plaster is exposed to danger when
attempting to light several fuses OF
Charges located close together. owing
to one burning faster than the rest.
And should one burn very slow all
work in the vicinity must stop till
the charge explodes, or for many
hours, If safety Is to be preserved.
Other advantages to electric firing
are as striking as the safety feature
For instance, sthmps can be blown
out without throwing out much dirt
and leaving very big holes. In fact.
a plaster who studied loading and used
20 per cent ammonia powder by this
method can take stumps out and leave
smaller holes than are left by stump
pu'lers. The result appears much like
the hole left by burned stump after
the hollows and edges of the main hole
are caved in. The Importance Of this
feature will appeal to those land clear
ers who have spent much time and
money leveling up newly cleared land
The reason 10 that the electric firing
permits simultaneous explosion of sew
eral charges. Instead of loading an
extra heavy charge under the center
of the stump. light charges can be
placed close to the main points of re-
sistance under the big roots. The
stump Is thrown out in pieces, though
none Of them, with proper loading,
ho Il
thrown up. and much of what is
thrown falls directly back into the
hole. 1t is all a matter of balancing
the force against the resistance, and
OF hitching the pull short to the load
by means of several charges fixed to-
gether.
The electric method is the modern
way of blasting out stumps. 1t gets
the work done more completely, per-
mits the use Of powder. and in gen.
cral enables a man to get more work.
The details of loading. as well as de-
scription of the interesting little box
that does the trick. can be studied
better in the handbook of the powder
maker than in short article
Inc demand for the greatest pos
sible cultivated acreage this and next
year will. on account of war prices
comes just at time when farm labor
Is scarcer than ever before and farm
wages at an unprecedented level. But
the land can be cleared, and drained,
II those on the job will make use of
speedy. easy methods rather than those
that require big crews or ~weeks and
months Of time for few acres. The
farmer who gets his clearing over with
and puts his land to work without en-
ployinG much extra help will be able
to cash in on the exceptionally high
wages that conditions have made pos
sible for him. as strikes have made
for other workers.
FLAVOR 0E CARLO