E.
ACCIDENTS AT THE HOOSAC TUNNEL.
Until within the last two years there has been no complete record kept in the State Engineer’s office of the casualties among the miners at work on this great undertaking; but a careful examination of the existing records, and of the superintendents at different portions of the work, has enabled us to present the following analysis of the accidents, causing death or injuries to miners, which have occurred within the past three years, and to this we append the accidents by gun-cotton, Erhardt’s powder and fire, which, although of an earlier date, from their peculiar nature have had special memoranda made in regard to them.
| ANALYSIS. | ||
|---|---|---|
| Killed. | Injured. | |
| Killed and injured by falling rocks, tumbling down | ||
| Shaft, and the usual casualties of miners other than | ||
| those mentioned below, | 14 | 12 |
| Fire—Burning Central Shaft, | 13 | |
| Over-sensitive Exploders, | 7 | a number. |
| Dualin (about 600 lbs. actually used), | 1 | 3 |
| Erhardt’s Powder (less than 500 lbs. used), | 3 | 10 |
| Gun-Cotton (about 250 lbs. used), | 1 | 4 |
| Nitro-Glycerin (about 150,000 lbs. used), | 5 | 5 |
| Gun-Powder (most of the accidents from powder, | ||
| occurred at an earlier date than our record, | ||
| which in this respect is necessarily incomplete), | 2 | 3 |
| 46 | 37 | |
| 8 | ||
| 45 | ||
This analysis shows 46 killed, and 45 (allowing 8 as the “number” vaguely mentioned in the records) injured by the various sources of accidents referred to, and as the relation of Nitro-Glycerin to other explosives is what especially interests our readers, the following comparative analysis of the deaths in proportion to the number of pounds of each explosive used at the Hoosac Tunnel, will enable them to form some idea as to the comparative safety of those mentioned.
| ANALYSIS. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Killed. | Amount | Proportion | |
| used. | of deaths | ||
| lbs. | per 100 lbs. | ||
| Erhardt’s Powder, | 3 | 500 | .6 |
| Gun-Cotton, | 1 | 250 | .4 |
| Dualin, | 1 | 600 | .16 |
| Nitro-Glycerin, | 5 | 150,000 | .0003 |
As Nitro-Glycerin has 13 times the explosive power of gunpowder, our readers, who are accustomed to use the latter for blasting, can easily ascertain the percentage of accidents in proportion to the amount used, and so judge for themselves as to the comparative safety of these explosives.
Really, whilst using, only two lives have been lost; one man rashly advancing to the charge, although advised to desist, whilst his fuse was burning; the other, on change of shift, after a blast, a cartridge having failed to explode, and the blaster neglecting to examine whether his cartridge had exploded, allowed the new shift to proceed drilling in the same rock, and within one inch of the same spot previously drilled, and where a charged cartridge was contained, when after a few inches of drilling progress, they came on to the concealed cartridge—explosion followed. In the magazine where three were killed, in order to hurry up, after a previous night’s spree, it had become the practice, notwithstanding peremptory warnings, to remove the cover of the stove, and expose the naked can of Nitro-Glycerin to the naked fire, of course, explosion must, as it did, follow this reprehensible folly, and disobedience to orders, resulting in killing three men.
I have established Tri-Nitro-Glycerin Factories
At North Adams, Massachusetts,
Alfred Wallace, Foreman;