452 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



I'lRINO ON lliUN Disk, J!EST- 



ING ON Lead Disk, in 



TESTING THE EkFICIENCV 



OF GcN Cotton. 



the system of large blasts has even become common in hard-rock 

 excavations, such as quarries and railroad cuttings, while in the 

 blast at the blowing up of Flood Kock, in New York Harbor, Octo- 

 ber 10, 1885, over one hundred and forty- 

 one tons of rack-a-rock, dynamite, and mer- 

 cury fulminate were used in a single shot. 



Nor have I alluded to the use of explo- 

 sives by the anarchists in their dastardly 

 outrages, througli which the safety of the 

 old and young, feeble and strong, the inno- 

 cent and the offending, are alike endan- 

 gered; but I will touch briefly upon the 

 iipplications of these powerful agents in the 

 too-much cultivated industry of safe-rob- 

 liing, since I was called upon some years 

 ago to demonstrate, before a Government 

 commission, how safes might be successfully 

 attacked either in a burglarious way or by 

 a mob with explosives, meaning by the bur- 

 glarious operation that the safe should be 

 made accessible within twenty-four hours with means such as a 

 party of men could smuggle into a bank and which might be used 

 without attracting attention or doing material damage to the 

 1)uilding, and l)y " mob violence," meaning that the vaults are 

 supposed to be in the hands of a mob which has ample time and 

 quantities of explosives at command, and does not care how much 

 noise is made or destruction is wrought, provided the treasure is 

 secured. 



In the experiments made in a burglarious way, among others, 

 a three-thousand-dollar square safe of the most approved construc- 

 tion was attacked by inserting in the crevice about the locked door 

 four and eight tenths ounces of ni- 

 troglycerin, and in eight minutes 

 after the operation of loading was 

 begun the charge was fired, with 

 the result that the whole of the 

 jamb below the door was blown 

 out and a hole made in the door 

 of sufRcient size to admit the hand 

 and arm, while the doors and divi- 

 sions of the interior compartments 

 were completely shattered. On r('i)oatiiig the operation with four 

 ounces and a quarter of forcito dynamite the door was completely 

 torn off. 



(iiN-<'oTTi)N Disk. With .ntleuted inscrip- 

 tion, and iron plate upon which the in- 

 dcnteil inscription has lioen icproduccd. 



