The Morning Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Okla.) 1919-1927, 1922-12-31

| from magazine, or fGCtprY. to thl
we'll; ten-quart cans Of explosive III
snug'y in pigeou-holed compart.
ments behind driver. inner right-
are leaky cans or tremeSioua bump.
due to had roads or to obstruction
unseen by the driver. Explosions al
. magazines or factories, occur when
! tho mixture Is allowed to become too
| hot or when n drop or nitroglyccrir
! finds point OF friction in the
/ machinery
There are few freak eases OF
| fatalities caused by this explosive.
Not long ago, a small boy. armed
with n new 20 rille, shot at close
range into harmless. appearing old
can which apparently had been
thrown iato n clump OF uShnrbrush.
How II got there has never been re-
veaied. II may have been the rem
nant OF shooters cargo as he re-
turned to town after administering
shot. The boy was Instantly killed
his body having been unrecognlza- :
bly, ma ngled.
In his Sketches In Crude OH"
published In 1895. John J. McLaurin
relates the story OF n Pennsylvania
housewife who, while out picking
berries. discovered q can partially
lard oil. Her husband. ignorant OF
tho nature of its contents, used a
small quantity TO grease some ma
chinery, In a twlnkling this house
wife became n widow.
With few exceptions. every city
and town in the oil field regioua has
passed stringent ordinances barring
nitroglycerin wagons from travcrs-
ing their streets unless firat emptIed
Of all contents, including supposedly
empty cans on whose walls a table,
spoonful might stlll cling. some
municipalities adopted such drastic
measures after costly experience
with an explosion, Others pTofited
by their misfortunes and lost no
time In following suit
Tho little town OF Bigheart. Okla,
was barely awake early one morning
IN 1918, when terrific explosion
occurred, shaking brick business
buildings from their foundations,
knocking sleepy-eycd pedestrians TO
the sidewalk, shattering thousands
af window panes and causing house
waves at their breakfast duties TO
Singer against weila or furniture.
There were two casualties, A
score OF persons were injured. Wal
ter English. a shooter for the East
ern Torpedo company, LEFT a widow
and two children. Beside him on tho
car at the time of the explosion was
driller who worked on the lease
whore English had started 10 shoot
a well. A small crater was made in
the middle OF Bigheart's main street.
The firm which employed English
spent more than fifty thousand dol
lars settling damage suits that fol-
lowed this blast.
Grant Mears left Bartlesville.
Okla. the afternoon of october 10,
1917. dr. wing a truck with a 60O,-
quart load of nltroglycerip, His
bulldog, Pete, which also was his
mascot. sat beside his master. Five
miles out OF Bartlesyillo the car
struck an S-inch gas line that had
Just been laid across the road and
which would have been buried an
hour later. Evidently Mcars failed
to see II, No trace Of the dog was
ever found. Several small frag-
ments of MeRrs' body were picked
up by spectators some OF whom con-
duotod their search Il quarter OF a
mile from where the explosion oc-
CURED
Charles Vandel went 70 his com
pnnS's magazine near Healdton
Okla, IN January, 1922, to load his
car with enough nitrog 'ycerin to
shoot three wells that were on the
days program, He never was seen
again. Shortly after he entered, the
magazine was blown TO spllnters.
william Lindsey, shooter. wac sta
TONED at Mineral Wells. Texas in
1913. Loading his car with 500
quarts OF explosive, he started ON a
5O-mile trip through tho on folds.
His cargo exploded on a bridge,
which was changed 20 a few spln-