In 1869, Mr. Stowell was standing in the office, on Sudbury street, Boston, whilst Mr. H. Julius Smith was packing 200 exploders in a rubber bag, in which an ebonite electric machine had been placed. Mr. Stowell remarked, “Is it safe to crowd them into a bag like that?” “Oh yes, perfectly safe,” was the reply, when instantly 170 out of the 200 exploded, severely burning and injuring both Smith and Stowell, the latter being confined to his bed for five weeks in consequence.
A similar explosion occurred to Mr. Smith on another occasion, the copper caps penetrating the fleshy part of the thigh, in almost the same parts as Mr. Stowell had been wounded, and burning the eyelashes, eyebrows and face severely; by this accident Mr. Smith was confined to his room for a considerable time.
Mr. Smith’s partner, in touching some of this priming, whilst moist, in a wooden bowl, was also severely burnt by its detonation, the face, eyebrows and eyelashes being injured, and himself confined to his room for four days.
On Thanksgiving day, 1869, Charles A. Brown was handling some of this priming, incautiously touching it on a piece of glass with a steel knife; it exploded, and the consequence has been deprivation of sight.
One Hogan, in the Fall of 1871, working in Charles A. Brown’s exploder factory, lost the sight of one eye, the other being severely injured, by imprudently omitting his helmet (usually worn whilst handling this material), and proceeding to move some of the primers whilst drying the same.
The superintendent, foreman of machine shop, foreman carpenter and blaster, engaged in connecting the wires, at the enlargement of the East End, were killed April 21, 1871, by a premature explosion, caused by the lightning striking the iron rails, whence the induced and ambient electricity, radiating to the leading wire, fired the over-sensitive exploders which were inserted in the charges of Nitro-Glycerin.
At the Burleigh Mine, Georgetown, two men were killed from similar causes producing similar effects.
An exploder, from one of the above manufacturers, placed in a cartridge that was being lowered with forty pounds of Nitro-Glycerin from the Government scow, at Dimon’s reef, to the diver below, exploded by reason of the friction of the insulating wire as it passed through the hands of Superintendent Pierce; now, as there were 300 pounds of Nitro-Glycerin on the scow, had it exploded, it must have destroyed the scow and every soul (about 40) on board. Fortunately, the fulminating charge was as imperfect as the priming was over-sensitive, confirming remarks on [page 42].
These casualties, the comments of the press, together with the constant explosions in the factories of those who prepare “over-sensitive” exploders, are beginning to influence both principals and employees, and it is hoped exploder makers will eventually succeed in either resorting to the Abel priming, or discover, in the records of the Patent office, some formula that they can imitate, not so sensitive as that of Mr. Jacob Dowse, and whose proprietor is equally indifferent, or not “over-sensitive” to infringement. It is too much to expect they will surprise their friends, as Sheridan is reported to have astonished his, when, after repeated failures to guess how he became possessed of a new pair of boots, he coolly announced, “he had actually bought and paid for them.”
Meanwhile, the manufacturer of Nitro-Glycerin, if he would avoid the additional risk of exploder accidents, which are invariably laid to Nitro-Glycerin, must make his own exploders, and try to construct the necessary electric apparatus to fire them, until further developments have stimulated those who have entered into these trades to perfect their wares.