NITRO GLYCERINE; OR, GLONOINE.

Southland Times, Volume VII, Issue 531, 1 August 1866, Page 3

NITRO GLYCERINE; OR, GLONOINE.

(From the " Evnning Bulletin.") In the preparation of this article the utmost care is requsite to guard against explosion. The acids are added to the glycerine alternately, and in small quantities ; the whole apparatus being surrounded by ice during the operation, in order to secure a constantly low temperature. Either warmth or an excess of acid would induce more rapid chemical astion, and thereby increase the danger. Chemical action is both combination and decomposition. One cannot occur without the other. When two liquids which are susceptible of chemical combination are brought in contact, each is decomposed, or resolved into its elements ; these interchanged their relationships with each other, both of the original substances cease to exist, and a new one, the resulting compound, is formed. The decomposition of this compound may be instantaneous. This is explosion. The compound is at once resolved into its original elements, in the form of gases, which occupy many thousand times the space that sufficed them in their condensed state. The conditions under which nitro-glycerine explodes do not seem to be yet thoroughly understood, even by the manufactures. Unlike gunpowder, it cannot be ignited by a spark. At 360 degrees Fahrenheit it will explode. "When placed on an anvil and struck with a hammer, it detonates like the fulminating powder used in percussion caps ; but its patentee claims that the effect is confined to the space covered by the hammer, and that if a number of drops are placed near each other upon the anvil, only the one which is struck will be exploded. It is possible that it may, under certaie circumstances, undergo some changes, which make it, after a time, incapable of bearing, without explosion, the degree of violence to which it might safely at first be subjected; so that, though no such consequence might result from the concussion caused by the nailing down the lid of ita pack-ing-box, the removal of that lid six*months after, with half as much force, might be sufficient to cause the explosion. Whether such changes take place, and if so, under what conditions, the question that should be investigated, with the utmost care, before an article which has caused such fearful loss of life — under such circumstances as were at any time likely to occur, and which involve no imputation of carelessness — should be placed within the reach of the general 1 public. Until the article is more fully I understood, and is pronounced by the most reliable chemists to be, at least, as safe as gunpowder, the most stringent laws should guard its management. In addition to the laws which in the most cautious communities regulate the sale of gunpowder, it would seem to be well to prohibit its sale except in packages not larger than one pound. This would at least lessen the extent of damage in case of explosion, while it would be sufficiently large for convenient blasting use. Moreover, small, strong bottles if properly packed, are lesslikely to bebroken in handling than large carboys. It is a suggestive coincidence, that both in the frightful case of Monday land and the one which occurred at the Wyoming Hotel, New York, in October last, leakage was discovered a short time before the explosion. This suggests the query ; Did not the presence of even a small quantity to j theoutside of the vessel, in aposition where | I it was likely to be struck with a hard substance, increase the danger ? As we have said an explosion is an instanteous decomposition. Its immediate cause is heat. This heat may be produced by I increased chemical action, or by outside warmth. But it may also be produced by a sudden condensation of the particles ! by a smart blow ; thus setting free its " latent heat," or the heat which existed between those particles, and which forms a component , part of every substance, I whether solid or liquid. Nitro-glycerine has been experimented uponwithreference to its employment as a medicine. It has, however, b6en found uncertain and sometimea violent in its effects. In one recorded case, one forty-fifth of a drop caused " loss of conciousness, and other alarming symptoms of narcotic poisoning." In another case, the accidental inhaling of the vapor caused "intense headache, intolerance Qf light, and general distress, with a feeling of faintness and exhaustion." These objectionable peculiarities, and ita liability to explosion, will probably prevent its use as a remedy to any considerable extent.