6.— NITRO-GLYCERINE EXPLOSIVES : THEIR INFLU- 

 ENCE ON INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT. 



By \Vm. Cullex. 



The field of explosives, at least to those who are actively con- 

 cerned in their manufacture, is a very wide one, and for this reason^ 

 anong others, I have limited myself to some remarks on the nitro- 

 glyceritie class of explosives. In one sense only is it a limitation, 

 as all the important developments in the explosives world have been 

 intimately concerned wiih nitro-glycerine. Perhaps the most im- 

 portant reason of all for the limitation referred to is the fact that 

 here in South Africa we hardly ever hear of anything else, and there 

 is nowhere in the whole world where such an industrial transforma- 

 tion has been effected, indirectly, through explosives ; but without 

 them, all the same, there could have been no such development. 



In the remarks which are to follow, I intend, in the first 

 instance, to say a little about the historical part of the subject^ 

 pointing out the principal steps which have led up to the develop- 

 ment of the explosives, as we know them now. Next, I shall briefly 

 outline the manufacture, illustrating it by a few magic-lantem views, 

 and lastly, but only briefly, I shall deal with the industrial aspect of 

 the question, with special reference to South Africa. 



Nitro-glvcerine has only been known for a comparatively short 

 time, a young Italian, named Sobrero. having discovered it in 1846.- 

 Some time elapsed before we hear of it in any other application- 

 than that of medicine, and even to this day it is prescribed for a cer- 

 tain heart affection. Indeed, no advantage was taken of its explo- 

 sive properties till the Swedish Chemist. Alfred Nobel, commenced' 

 his investigations in the year 1863, and he was not long in discover- 

 ing its tremendous potentialities. In a few years, we hear of 

 factories being established all over Europe and America, and, as \n 

 the case of every new invention, the appliances used at first were- 

 extrerriely primitive. Some of these primitive appliances survived' 

 until comparatively recent times, and it will suffice for our present 

 purpose if I say that, for the most part, the manufacture, if manu- 

 facture it could be called, was carried on in much the same manner 

 as we would carry it on nowadays in the Laboratory. In the days 

 of which I speak people were content to convert one or two pounds 

 of glycerine into nitro-glycerine ; nowadays, we start with half a ton 

 of glycerine, and from it produce over a ton of nitro-glycerine. 



It seemed that there was a great future for nitro-glycerine, for 

 it was universally used for blasting, as liquid nitro-glycerine, all over 

 Europe and America, but in a very short time there came a rude 

 awakening. Nowadays, one is frequently surprised at the careless 

 manner in which explosives of all kinds are handled by people who> 



