90 Kepori' S.A.A. Advancement or Science. 



■ought to know belter, and even with regulations of the very strictest 

 order governing both manufacture and use, serious accidents are not 

 infrequent. Forty years ago these regulations were practically a 

 dead letter, and people were ignorant of what nitro-glycerine was 

 capable of doing. As I have just said, there came a rude awaken- 

 ing, and a series of most disastrous accidents followed one another 

 in rapid succession. I cannot do belter ihan quote from " Chemistry. 

 as Applied to the Arts and Manufactures," Div. VI., pp. 435-6 : — 



" The highly-favourable reports on the explosive value of 

 nitro-glycerine were soon followed b\ statements of its being one 

 of the most dangerous of known blasting agents. In 1 866. a 

 West India Mail Packet was blown up. a wharf torn down, a 

 number of adjacent ships were injured, and many lives lost at 

 Colon through an explosion of nitro-glycerine. Not long after 

 that, a fearful accident happened at San Francisco, by the 

 dropping of a box containing the same material. Later on. 

 a Newcastle Magistrate and .several other persons fell victims 

 to an accident with this same explosive body. In 1 868. a 

 factory at Stockholm, where nitro-glycerine is manufactured, 

 was blown up, and a number of men killed, and not long after 

 that an explosion, attended with fearful loss of life, occurred in 

 Belgium. This last-named accident led to the authorities 

 altogether prohibiting the use of this explosive compound in 

 that kingdom.'' 



In view of all these disasters, it appeared that nitro-glycerine 

 was doomed as an explosive, and in 1874 a Select Committee, which 

 had been appointed to investigate the matter, issued its report, and 

 the conclusion at which it arrived was very pithily put by Sir 

 Frederick Abel, in a letter addressed to Sir John Hay, who, if I 

 am not mistaken, was Chairman of the Commission. He writes : — 

 " In reply to \our enquiries respecting nitro-glycerine. the pro- 

 duction and properties of which have been made the sul)ject of care- 

 ful study and extensive experiments by me, I have to express mv 

 firm conviction that such appalling accidents as that which occurred 

 recently in Wales cannot be guarded against by the enforcement 

 of any means short of an absolute prohibition of the importation, 

 transport and storage of nitro-glycerine. or of any prejoaration of 

 that material. The explosion near Carnarvon was but a repelilion 

 of catastrophes of a similar nature which have occurred within the 

 last few years in other countries, and are ascribable to the readiness 

 with which nitro-glycerine explodes, when subjected to concussion 

 or friction, especially if it is undergoing s[)ontaneous change, to which 

 it is ver}' prone, however perfect the system of manufacture.'" 



The recommendation made by Sir Frederick was drastic enough 

 in all conscience, but it was the only possible one. and it was 

 adopted, so the transportation, storage and use of nitro-glycerine. 

 as such, were entirely prohibited in the United Kingdom. 



I may say that it had been the custom to send it about in 

 ordinar}- tins, which, of course, could not stand much knocking 

 about, and many of the accidents occurred through the breakage 



