A NEW EXPLOSIVE.
The Melbourne Age, of the 10th Oct., says : —A public trial of a new and very powerful explosive, called 1 blasting gelatine,’ took place yesterday by the desire of the importers, Messrs M'Lean Bros, and R'gg. at the Harbor Trust Work?, where the removal of the reef in the Yarra, at the foot of King street, is now in progress. Nobel’s dynamite is now being used there ordinarily, but powerful as this agent is known to be, compared with it the new compound quite surprised all who witnessed its effects—the whole body of water, twenty feet above ifkc reef, being thrown many yards into the air Six holes had been bored, seven or eight feet deep, and charged with blasting gelatine. After having been fired, a diver went down, and On Iris return reported that the quantity of rock removed was enormous, and was much <reater than could have been displaced by any explosive hitherto known. This is the more surprising when- the weight of the water above the reef is taken into consideration, Nobel’s Explosives Company
(Limited), of Glasgow, are the inventors, patentees, and S"!e manufacturers of blasUng gelatine in the United Kingdom, and are a'sn the patentees in this and other British colonies. The disruptive force of this powerful explosive must be something enormous, being at least fifty per cent greater than that of dynamite. In appearance it somewhat resembles a thick jelly of a brownish color. It forms a thick plastic mass, having a specific gravity of 1.6. Its plasticity makes it very convenient for charging bore-holes, as, hj' squeezing the cartridge with a rod, they can be made to fill a bore-hole completely. There are two very valuable features in this compound which will surely commend themselves to the mining community. First, it is entirely free from all noxious fumes ; and secondly, it Is safer than dynamite. Blasting gelatine, further, is not spoiled by immersion in water. It may be lying under water for months, and then he used effectually.
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Temuka Leader, Issue 608, 19 November 1881, Page 3
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337A NEW EXPLOSIVE. Temuka Leader, Issue 608, 19 November 1881, Page 3
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