1868. | ats Claims as a New Industrial Agent. 159 
glycerine should be stored in one place within the city; but the 
workmen declared, one and all, that they would resign rather than 
work again with gunpowder for the same pay. For a few cays the 
royal order remained in force, but it was then cancelled by dint of 
necessity, and the work of the tunnel proceeded to completion—the 
greatest underground work executed by the new blasting agent. 
Mr. Eric Unge, the chief engineer and managing director, speaks 
very highly of the advantages of using nitro-glycerine, including 
amongst them the saving of 23 per cent. on the cost of blasting, 
and 87 per cent. greater speed than with the use of gunpowder. 
In the largest slate quarries of North Wales—some of them of 
immense extent—a larger amount of money is spent yearly on 
nitro-glycerine than on gunpowder for blasting purposes; and in 
many cases the men make their bargains dependent on the quarry 
proprietors undertaking to guarantee a supply of nitro-glycerine. 
Tons of this substance are used annually in the Welsh slate quarries, 
and yet accidents from its use, or rather its abuse, are almost never 
heard of. At the Penrhyn and Dinorwic quarries one quarter of a 
ton per month is used. Mr. Parry, the manager of the Dinorwic 
quarries, was recently asked about the danger of using nitro-glycerine 
as a blasting agent. He said they had never had an accident with 
it, while the accidents from gunpowder were so numerous during the 
past year, that he really could not tell how many there had been. 
These are only samples of scores of facts which might be quoted 
in respect of the safety, the remarkable properties, and extensive 
use now attained by nitro-glycerine. In concluding, we may use 
the language of one of our correspondents who favours us with his 
experience as a practical man. He says:—‘ Miners may have 
dreamed of a blasting material ten times as strong as gunpowder, 
exploding with such velocity as to need no tamping, unaffected by 
water, blasting seamy as well as the hardest and most solid rock, 
and leaving no smoke; but surely in this substance the very pro- 
perties most needed are realized to such an extent as to appear 
utopian or extravagant to all those who have not tried it for them- 
selves. Whatever its drawbacks may be, nitro-glycerine certainly 
deserves a fair and liberal investigation. Nature and science have 
placed at our command one of the most powerful agents ever sent 
forth from their united laboratory; neighbouring nations have 
learned to tame its somewhat rebellious nature, and why should not 
we follow the example which they have set us?” 
