Page 4 Advertisements Column 1

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4550, 4 August 1883, Page 4

THE POWEB OF DYNAMITE. The technical manager of; Nobel's Explosive Company —Mr G. M. Eoberts, F.C.S., —has, remarks an English exchange, done good service in endeavoring to allay public excitement as to the horrors of dynamite. He points out the exaggerated ideas regarding the power of that explosive, which recent events have tended to ventilate and multiply. He tells us that the power exerted by an explosion on surround r ing objects is in the inverse ratio of the cube of the distance from the point of explosion. If, therefore, an explosion exert a certain force at a distance of one foot, at 100 feeffthe effect will be reduced one million times. In other words, these terrible explosives are intensely local in their power for harm, and although many windows may be smashed at some distance away by the concussion of the air, no serious harm can be wrought except close to the point of explosion. As an instance of this localised action Mr Roberts says :—" I have often, by way of experiment, exploded a pound of dynamite suspended from the end of a fishing; rod by a string about six feetlong, holding the rod in my hand the while. As there was no solid matter to project I received no injury, and the end of the fishing rod was not even scratched. About three feet of the string at the end of the rod was always left uninjured." A curious phe» pomenon with regard to these explosives is seen in the circumstance that their is greatly dependent .upon the way in which they are ignited. If a flame be applied, they respond' by burning away, net explosively, but as a flame. If, on the other hand, a detonator be used to prime them, they explode with fearful violence. It was probably due to the use of some fuse which did cot detonate that the recent attempt on the Times office happily failed.

The man who courted an infestigation says it isn't half as good as courting an affectionate girl. An honeßt man is the noblest pursuit of women,