CHAPTER VI.
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 theinvestigation 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 thischapter, 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]
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]
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 theEastern 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 experimentsunder 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 impureNitro-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 withcharcoal!), 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.”