Explosive Mixtures.
The laws of nature are immutable. To-day, to-morrow, forever—unchanged,
unchangeable, as the great Creator himself, who established them, and
it is only from scientific research, starting with the conviction
that these laws are God’s laws, and therefore immutable, that results
of general utility can be obtained. Believing that everything which,
in common parlance, is termed “an accident,” is simply a violation
of these laws through carelessness or ignorance, it is the duty of
the scientific chemist to investigate the causes and effects of the
adherence to or violation of these laws in regard to the science of
which he is a student. As a chemist I have accordingly applied myself
to a close examination of the phenomena attending the preparation and
use of Nitro-Glycerin, and consequently to the investigation of the
mixtures purporting to be substitutes for Nitro-Glycerin and gunpowder,
of which Nitro-Glycerin is the active base.
And this brings before me, in all their glaring defects, the anomalies
of the patent system of our country, especially in regard to chemical
compounds. For the past hundred years, the greatest chemists the
world has ever known, have given the results of their researches
free, and untrammelled by any patents, though they might, indeed,
have justly taken toll of the world at large for their discoveries.
I need only instance Berzelius, who threw open to the world the
numerous discoveries of his long and valuable life, and Pelouze, the
celebrated French chemist, who devoted fifteen years of his life to
the investigation of the constituents of fatty matters and their
decomposition into stearic, margaric, oleic acids and glycerin. Let
the reader picture to himself, for a moment, what would have been the
state of affairs in the manufacturing world, had all the chemists of
the last fifty years patented every discovery they made, every mode of
preparation they suggested; how dark, gloomy and uncertain would the
path of our manufactures have been; they must almost have stood still
until these patents, and perhaps their renewals also, had expired.
By such a course, the bleaching and printing of cottons, and all the
numerous processes dependent on applied chemistry, would have been
deferred half a century; for it is only by the quick, free application
of the discoveries of the unselfish chemist, that the progress that has
been made was possible. What a contrast to the self-aggrandizement of
the present race of patent-seeking chemists! An individual, with the
labors of the grand army of scientific chemists for the past hundred
years before him, selects one, two or three chemical compounds, mixes
them, modifies to a certain extent some property of either of them,
applies for, and obtains, a patent. Then for seventeen years this
“ghoul” sits over his mixture, and, with the assistance of a lawyer,
proceeds to black-mail any one, who, in attaining certain results,
is led by the properties of the several compounds to avail himself
of a similar mixture. The discovery of a Sobrero is attempted to be
appropriated by a Nobel and his assignees, and, with the confidence
inspired by the weakness of a patent examiner, who chuckles at the
delusion of the patentee, they absolutely infer that, because they
have a patent, they can appropriate the result of the chemist’s
labors obtained 20 years before. The patent office secures $35.00,
the examiner his salary, and the ceilings of the noble building at
Washington are ultra-marined, until the visitor’s eyes are dazzled
with the brilliant color. Finally comes a suit in chancery, in which
thousands of dollars are expended, and in which these stealers of other
mens’ brains, count less on their claim than on the hope that they
may so interfere with their opponent’s occupation, and so deplete his
pocket with law-costs, that he will submit to accept a free license, at
least, and thus enable them to terrify others into payment.
The above remarks are somewhat of a digression from the subject of
this chapter, but, I think most of my readers will admit that they
are by no means uncalled for. I have been told, and the newspapers
teem with assertions, that these patented explosive compounds, with
high sounding names, will bear “tamping” as hard as gunpowder, are
safer, more powerful and cheaper than Nitro-Glycerin. We are a people,
Barnum says, who like to be humbugged; I am afraid we are not the
only people who like to be humbugged—it is a weakness of humanity—but
this I do believe; the man who is addicted to humbug, had better give
Nitro-Glycerin a wide berth, that is, if he hopes to end his days on a
feather bed.
Let us briefly examine these patents—the Lord deliver us from all
such—for explosive mixtures, and see the amount of invention required.
For a mixture of Nitro-Glycerin with rotten-stone, a patent was
granted, and (the name being the only real invention) it was called
“dynamite.”[9]
Make a mixture of Nitro-Glycerin and sponge, and patent it, and
forthwith “Porifera nitroleum” is presented to an admiring public.[10]
Add plaster of Paris to Nitro-Glycerin, patent it, and you have in all
its explosive power, “Selenitic Powder.”[11]
Try red lead and Nitro-Glycerin together, and when patented, “Metalline
Nitroleum” is the last new sensation to astonish the weak nerves of
contractors.[12]
[9] “Dynamite”—Patent No. 78,317, dated May 26, 1868, granted to
Alfred Nobel, of Hamburg, Germany, assignor to Julius Bandmann, of San
Francisco, California. The following is the substance of the claim: “My
invention consists in combining with Nitro-Glycerin a substance which
possesses a very great absorbent capacity, and which at the same time,
is free from any quality which will decompose, destroy, or injure the
Nitro-Glycerin, or its explosiveness. The substance which most fully
meets the requirements above mentioned, so far as I know, is a certain
kind of silicious earth, known under the various names of silicious
marl, tripoli, rotten-stone, etc.”
[10] “Porifera Nitroleum”—Patent No. 93,753, dated Aug. 17, 1869,
granted to Taliaferro P. Shaffner, of Louisville, Kentucky. The
claim is as follows: “I claim a compound composed of a mixture of
Nitro-Glycerin with sponge or other vegetable fibre.”
[11] “Selenitic Powder”—Patent No. 93,752, dated Aug. 17, 1869, granted
to Taliaferro P. Shaffner, of Louisville, Kentucky. The claim is as
follows: “I claim the combining of nitroleum or Nitro-Glycerin with
plaster of Paris, or equivalent substances, in such manner as will make
an explosive compound.”
[12] “Metalline Nitroleum”—Patent No. 93,754, dated Aug. 17, 1869,
granted to Taliaferro P. Shaffner, of Louisville, Kentucky. Claim as
follows: “I claim a compound composed of a mixture of Nitro-Glycerin
with metallic powder or atoms, however formed or produced.”
Take some gunpowder in a fine state of division, and moisten it with
Nitro-Glycerin until it becomes “the color of mud and about the
consistency of putty”; assure the editor of the Barnumtown Inquirer,
that it has five times the explosive power of Nitro-Glycerin, and
forthwith a flaming article appears, upon the new explosive agent,
“Lithofracteur.”[13]
Make a compound of sawdust and Nitro-Glycerin, and let your patent
prove that you are unacquainted with the commonest properties of
sulphuric acid and charcoal, that, on the face of it, your preparation
cannot possibly be made as you describe (that is not the business of
the examiner, or if it be, he is so bothered by Prussian officers
that these facts escape his notice), on payment of $35.00, a patent
will issue, give it a name, say, “Dualin”, boldly assert that its
properties are unequalled; let a governor of a state, whose experience
is confined to fire-crackers, witness an explosion (it is not material
what substance you explode before him), hire a steamer, give a splendid
collation, invite all the reporters within reach, make any statements
you please to them (they will be swallowed along with the collation,
especially if washed down with plenty of Heidsick), and there is no
telling where this halo of a patent may not carry the unscrupulous
patentee.[14]
[13] “Lithofracteur”—For a wonder this has not been patented.
[14] “Dualin”—Patent No. 98,854, dated January 18, 1870, granted to
Carl Dittmar, of Charlottenberg, Prussia. Claim as follows: “I claim
a compound consisting of cellulose, nitro-cellulose, nitro-starch,
nitro-mannite and Nitro-Glycerin, mixed in different combinations,
depending on the degree of strength which it is desired the powder
should possess in adapting its use to various purposes.”
But these assertions involve loss of life, as, for instance, when
Joseph Butloe was killed at the Hoosac Tunnel. He was attempting to
introduce a dualin cartridge into a drill hole, and as it did not
reach the bottom of the hole he endeavored to push it in further with
a “tamping stick,” a method which the inventor of dualin advocated,
and regarded as perfectly safe. Unfortunately, however, in the present
case it was not so, the explosion following the first “tamp” instantly
killing the operator, and exploding the mis-statements of the patentee.
Truly, these gentlemen are wonderful mathematicians; they have
discovered that a part is greater than the whole, that various mixtures
of inert matter with Nitro-Glycerin, have greater explosive power than
Nitro-Glycerin per se.
As Dualin is the only one of these compounds that has been attempted
to be brought in any way into competition with Nitro-Glycerin, in the
Eastern States, a synopsis of the results may possess interest. Some
six different parcels of dualin in all, have been experimented with
at the Hoosac Tunnel, and of these the first shipment, being useless
at the West End, was forwarded to the Central Shaft, and there again
tried, but the effects, as compared with the Nitro-Glycerin supplied by
the writer, were not such as to justify the contractors in continuing
its use, consequently it was thrown out. Another parcel, intended to be
stronger, shipped in the hot summer of 1870, exploded in the cars in
transit at Worcester, proving, what had been suspected from a perusal
of the dualin patents, that the inventor was really ignorant of the
properties of the materials of which his combination was composed.
From evidence adduced at Worcester, given by the compounder of dualin,
and also by a manufacturer of exploders, some of whose wares were in
the same car, it appeared that the Nitro-Glycerin exuding from the
mixture of sawdust (40 per cent.) and Nitro-Glycerin (60 per cent.)
of which the dualin, made at that time by Mr. Dittmar, was composed,
flowed in a pool on the floor of the car, and, when the cars were set
in motion, a series of sharp detonations ensued, probably from this
pool of Nitro-Glycerin running on to the wheels and being compressed or
hammered during the revolution of the car wheels on the rails, firing
the pool, which in turn fired the whole shipment of dualin, together
with the exploders.
After some months further shipments were made, and in all cases the
trials made with these were superintended by the introducer of dualin,
and, in every case but one, were reported failures, and rejected.
In the case in which a success was reported, a small parcel only
was brought along, and exploded side by side with Nitro-Glycerin;
that is, four holes were charged with dualin, and four other holes
nearly parallel with them were charged with Nitro-Glycerin. The
enlargement was brought down, but whether the work was principally
done with Nitro-Glycerin, and only partially by the dualin, was
left to conjecture. The foreman of the drillers asserted that the
side charged with dualin was seamy, whilst the side containing the
Nitro-Glycerin was solid, and without any seam. However, it was claimed
by the inventor that dualin was now a success, and a further trial,
viz.: the sixth, was undertaken, and 1,500 lbs. of dualin brought on
the ground, about the 26th of November, 1870. On Tuesday, the 28th,
the experiments under the supervision of Mr. Dittmar commenced, and
were continued on the 29th and 30th, but they demonstrated beyond
cavil, there being no Nitro-Glycerin fired at the same time to assist
them, that dualin was of “no account,” not one single hole having been
“bottomed,” and, again, the dualin left over from this experiment,
1,300 lbs., was thrown out, as utterly unable to effect the blasting
results obtained by the Nitro-Glycerin it was brought to supersede.
Four hundred pounds of this was ordered to the Central shaft, but
the results at the East End being so conclusive, it was consigned,
like all the previous shipments, to the tomb of the Capulets, and was
subsequently used up for trimming, in lieu of powder.
In a previous chapter, I gave a full account of the experiments made
at Hallett’s Point, New York. On that occasion, General Newton, of
the United States Engineers, reported to me that he considered that
Nitro-Glycerin, in point of economy and power, had the advantage over
both dualin and powder even when supplemented by fulminating fuse.
The advantages claimed (only by the inventor) for dualin, are, that
it is cheaper, safer, and more powerful than Nitro-Glycerin, and some
experiments made in Prussia, are adduced in proof. I have to observe,
on this point, that the Nitro-Glycerin made by the Nobel process,
probably used in Prussia, is very inferior to the Tri-Nitro-Glycerin
made by my process, both in stability and in explosive force, and it
is much more readily exploded, fifteen grains of fulminate of mercury
being necessary to ensure explosion of this latter, without chance of
failure. Nobel’s Nitro-Glycerin is said to expand when solid, in which
state the slightest friction is said to explode it, while Mowbray’s
Tri-Nitro-Glycerin actually contracts about one-tenth in bulk when
solidifying, and cannot be exploded when in the solid state, except
by a heavy charge of fluid Nitro-Glycerin fired with it. Nobel’s
preparation is yellow, and gives off nitrous fumes, and is claimed by
the patentee to solidify at 50°F, while Mowbray’s is colorless as water
and solidifies at 45°F.
It may be possible, but not probable, therefore, that Nobel’s
Nitro-Glycerin is inferior to Dittmar’s dualin, as used in Prussia;
the latter then said to have been a preparation of nitrate of ammonia,
sawdust immersed in sulpho-nitric acid and Nitro-Glycerin: but that
40 per cent. of washed sawdust (not treated with sulpho-nitric acid),
moistened with 60 per cent. of a dark colored and evidently impure
Nitro-Glycerin, and such was Dittmar’s dualin analysed by me, should
surpass, in blasting, a chemically pure Nitro-Glycerin, is to expect 60
cents of currency to have more value than 100 cents of gold, or that a
part is greater than the whole.
As I have above referred to my analysis of Mr. Dittmar’s dualin, I will
give in full the process and result of the same, for the benefit of the
reader.
Twenty (20) grammes of dualin were allowed to digest in a glass tube
for several days, covered with washed sulphuric ether. The ether was
then drawn off, and the residue in the glass tube washed with ether
until the cessation of the peculiar persistent taste of Nitro-Glycerin,
causing the “Glycerin headache,” proved the Nitro-Glycerin was
exhausted. The residual woody fibre was now dried thoroughly, and
weighed eight grammes. A portion of it thrown on a red hot plate did
not deflagrate; this indicated it had not been treated with nitric
acid, and had not been converted into nitro-cellulose. Washed in
distilled water, and the washings evaporated, no saline or crystalline
salt was obtained. The residue, dried and thrown on a red hot plate,
charred and burnt like any other sawdust. Now, I assert positively, the
dualin I analysed, furnished by Mr. Dittmar himself for blasting in
the Tunnel, was simply a compound of washed sawdust and Nitro-Glycerin
(actually yellow fuming Nitro-Glycerin.)
I have deemed it due to myself to extend these observations further
than I intended, but, in the interest of truth, I could not permit the
friendly notices of the press, which have been industriously secured,
nor the biased views, of men employed in exploding, (to whom payment of
ten dollars was promised, for every case of dualin used, to exaggerate
results), to mislead mining contractors, and I stand prepared to prove
that 100 parts dualin are only equal to 50 parts pure Nitro-Glycerin,
for practical blasting purposes. Dualin is a mixture varying according
to the humor of the compounder, but never exceeding one-half the
strength of Tri-Nitro-Glycerin; it has all the danger of the Nobel
Nitro-Glycerin, with the additional tendency to decomposition, sworn
to by Mr. Dittmar himself at the Worcester investigation, owing to
its being an admixture of organic matter with Nitro-Glycerin, and
its inventor, (as evidenced by his patent, where he proposes to
concentrate sulphuric acid, and free it from nitrogen, by boiling it
with charcoal!), does not understand the properties of the commonest
commercial compounds he undertakes to handle. These facts determine, I
submit, the superior advantage of a uniform chemical product produced
under invariable conditions, especially since it is more difficult to
explode it, and it is proportionately safer, and, above all, has double
the effective force.
Mr. Dittmar’s promises have failed, and his representations have been
disproved by the results at the Hoosac Tunnel. Up to October, 1870, he
had six trials, of which he only claims one as a success, though he
did succeed in inducing the employees to misrepresent the facts to the
contractors, and thereby obtained a testimonial; but over two thousand
pounds of his dualin was buried in the Berkshire mountains—a stern
pecuniary lesson, verifying the truth of the old Roman apothegm, so
much neglected in modern times—“Magna est veritas et prevalebit.”