THE MANUFACTURE OF DYNAMITE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2516, 25 August 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE MANUFACTURE OF DYNAMITE.

A Perilous Occupation. A coRBKsroxDENT lias written as follows about a visit to Nobel's dynamite factory : The factory lies in the heart of a great expanse of sandy plain on the coast of Ayrshire. On apgroacliing it a visitor is hailed by the mounted guard patrolling the environment of the factory ; ami he will have to show very satisfactory credentials before he i.s allowed to go farther. On the way to the manager's house a village is passed where live the whole of the operatives employed in tin; manufactory of nitro-glyeerine. It is merely a street of small tenements standing on the threshold of the palisades which inclose M. Nobel's houses. Some distance from the manager's house is the shed where the pratioal proccss of making nitro-glycerine is seen at a glance. Before the visitor gets there, however, he is divested of his watch, chain, money, keys, and every pirticle of metal he may have about him. This seemingly excessive precaution is perfectly necessary, for the fall of even a penny on a floor containing a grain of the explosive might be attended with disaster. Felt shoes have to be worn. In the first shed reached there is a large tank in which are two parts of oil of vitriol and one part of fulling nitric acid. A cistern above the tank contains glycerine ; and when this is introduced into the acid the compound known as nitro-glycerine is at once formed, A DELICATE OPERATION. The operation is, hnvever, an extremely delicate one. The tank is in charge of a workman, upon whom the sole responsibilty of an explosion rests. If too much glycerine is introduced into the aeids at one time the temperature of the mixture may rise above 77deg Fall. ; and a spontaneous explosion will' at once follow ; so that the operative's eye is never off the thermometer—his own hope of safety lies in keeping down the temperature of the mixture to some 7deg or Bdeg below its explosive heat. He is aided somewhat by the ice and eold water which are outside the vat. But the compound is occasionally erratic, and will gain heat notwithstanding all precautions. For such a case the only alternative is to move a lever, which lowers one side of the tank, and allows the whole of the contents to run through a sluice into a pond, when it is about an

even chance whether it will explode ere it leaves the shed, or wait until it reaches the open. The second step is to wash the newly-formed chemical combination in water, which very slightly absorbs it. It is then put into " Winchester quarts " and conveyed with the utmost care into wooden huts or dug-outs. A TEEKIIiLB DEATH.

As an instance of the extreme susceptibleness of nitro-glycerine to concussion, it is related that a man was once seen to slip in the act of depositing a bottle in a hut. He tripped, in the ordinary sense of the word, but there was an instant explosion. And hardly a fragment of the poor fellow was gathered for decant burial. Passing through other sheds, we see the mixture of nitroglycerine with a peculiar foramiuifurous earth ; the new substance being dynamite. This is then carried to a long shed, where it is pressed into cartridges by machinery ; the operatives being .voting women. Not the least curious of the many curiosities at these works are the ponds into which ihe washing water is run. Tradition lias it that the detonative property of the water was not discovered until an angler one day rtf.tftmnfprl frrt mpHiipp t.lin wif-h a Mttir.

fly. At his fir.it cast, however, tho pond blew up ; and he found himself several hundreds of yards away, happily unhurt. BLOWING-UP POND. To obviate a similnr danger now, Saturday is reserved exclusively for cleaning the works in every department, and among other things for deliberately blowing up the ponds. After congratulating himself on a safe journey through tho various houses, the stranger in apt to hurry from tho factory, and only t» breathe freely when he his again at the station. He will not have failed, however, to notice the miny precautions taken to insure safety for those who daiiy risk their lives in these very hazardous operations. Each section of tho operatives is distingui n hed by a peculiar canvas suit with a coloured marking. No one may on any pretence leave his own department. The women work in felt shoes and bathing-dresses ; and every single workman and workwoman is stripped and re-clothed before going to work. Tho explosives, too, are handled in the smallest possible quantities, save in tho first room of manufacture, where enuugh is made at one timo to blow up a city. The nitro-tflyeei ine itself is a transparent, colourless, oily fluid, slightly soluble in water, but readily so iu spirit, other, or fat. One favourite way of destroying it is by boilint; it in potash, which it decomposes; glycerine and nitre being formed. Perhaps the most curious use to which it has sver been put is tho searching investigations of its medicinal properties by Dr. William Murrell, who found it almost a specific for .angina pectoris neuralgia, and many developments of heart disease.