TABLE 5.—Manufacture of Explosives in the United States, 1909.
Kind of explosives.Number of
factories.		Maximum Capacity, inPounds.
Daily.Annual.
Black powder491,220,150366,135,000
High explosives371,203,935361,180,500
Smokeless powders 575,68622,705,800

The first problem presented by this phenomenal increase relates to the safe transportation of this material from the factories to points of consumption. A package of explosives may make many journeys through densely populated centers, and rest temporarily in many widely separated storehouses before it reaches its final destination. A comprehensive view of the entire railway mileage of the United States would show at any instant about 5,000 cars partially or completely loaded with explosives. More than 1,200 storage magazines are listed by the Bureau of Explosives as sources of shipments of explosives by rail.

The increase in the demand for explosives has not been due entirely to the increase in mining operations. The civil engineer has been expanding his use of them until now carloads of dynamite, used on the Isthmus of Panama in a single blast, bring to the steam shovels as much as 75,000 cu. yd. of material, the dislodgment of which by manual labor would have required days of time and hundreds of men. Without the assistance of explosives, the construction of subways and the driving of tunnels would be impracticable. Even the farmer has awakened to the value of this concentrated source of power, and he uses it for the cheap and effective uprooting of large stumps over extended areas in Oregon, while an entire acre of subsoil in South Carolina, too refractory for the plow, is broken up and made available for successful cultivation by one explosion of a series of well-placed charges of dynamite. It has also been found by experience that a few cents’ worth of explosive will be as effective as a dollar’s worth of manual labor in preparing holes for transplanting trees.

The use of explosives in war and in preparation for war is now almost a negligible quantity when compared with the general demand from peaceful industries. With the completion of the Panama Canal, it is estimated that the Government will have used in that work alone more explosives than have been expended in all the battles of history.

Until a few years ago little interest was manifested by the public in safeguarding the manufacture, transportation, storage, and use of explosives. Anyone possessing the necessary degree of ignorance, or rashness, was free to engage in their manufacture with incomplete equipment; they were transported by many railroads without any special precautions; the location of magazines in the immediate vicinity of dwellings, railways, and public highways, was criticized only after some disastrous explosion; and the often inexperienced consumer was without access to a competent and disinterested source of information such as he now has in the testing plant at Pittsburg so well described by Mr. Wilson.

The first general move to improve these conditions is believed to have been made by the American Railway Association in April, 1905. It resulted in the organization of a Bureau of Explosives which, through its inspectors, now exercises supervision over the transportation of all kinds of dangerous articles on 223,630 of the 245,000 miles of railways in the United States and Canada. A general idea of the kind and volume of inspection work is shown by the following extracts from the Annual Report of the Chief Inspector, dated February, 1910:

1909.1908.
“Total number of railway lines members of Bureau December 31st 172158
Total mileage of Bureau lines December 31st 209,984202,186
Total number of inspections of stations for explosives 6,9535,603
Number of stations receiving two or more inspections for explosives 1,8391,309
Total number of inspections of stations for inflammables 6,9501,098
Number of stations receiving two or more inspections for inflammables 1,886....
Total number of inspections of factories 278270
Number of factories receiving two or more inspections 7569
Total number of inspections of magazines 1,2931,540
Number of magazines receiving two or more inspections 349361
Total number of boxes of high explosives condemned as unsafe for transportation 10,0294,852
Total number of kegs of black powder condemned as unsafe for transportation 1,468531
Total number of cars in transit containing explosives inspected 475448
Total number of cars in transit showing serious violations of the regulations 168197
Total number of inspections of steamship companies’ piers (inflammable, 75; explosive, 63) 138....
Total number of inspections made by Bureau 16,0878,959
Total number of lectures to railway officials and employes and meetings addressed on the subject of safe transportation of explosives and other dangerous articles 215171
1909.1908.1907.
“Total number of accidents resulting in explosions or fires in transportation of explosives by rail 122279
Total known property loss account explosions or accidents in transporting explosives by rail $2,673$114,629$496,820
Total number of persons injured by explosions in transit 75380
Total number of persons killed by explosions in transit 62652

“During the same period reports have been rendered to the Chief Inspector by the Chemical Laboratory of the Bureau on 734 samples, as follows: