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 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.