Cautions J ^c. respecting Fulminating Powders. 1C9 



strewed throygh a glass tube of three-fourths of an inch in 

 diameter, and exploded by a coal of fire or hot iron, the tube 

 may be held in the naked hand, and the powder only flashes 

 without breaking the tube, and merely coats it over inside, 

 and that very prettily, with the revived quicksilver. 



Fulminating Silver. 



Chemists are too well acquainted with the tremendous 

 energy of this preparation, to make any comment upon its 

 powers necessary. Unhappily, however, it is now made a 

 subject of amusement ; it is prepared for sale by those who 

 know nothing of it, except as a nostrum, and it is bought by 

 others who have not even this degree of knowledge. It is 

 true it is put up in small quantities, in the little toys called 

 torpedoes, and, if exploded one by one, they will ordinarily 

 do no harm ; but as they fall into the hands of children, we 

 can never be secure that they will be discreetly used. 



A very severe accident, from the unexpected explosion of 

 this substance, occurred some years since in the laboratory of 

 Yale College. (See Bruce's Journal, Vol. I. p. 163.) And, 

 notwithstanding that this occurrence was well known in New- 

 Haven, the same accident, only under a severer form, has 

 again occurred in that town. 



A man who had bought the secret of making fulminating 

 silver, had prepared as much as resulted from the solution of 

 one ounce and a half Apparently, in a great measure, unaware 

 of the nature of the preparation, he had placed it, unmixed 

 with any thing, on an earthen plate, which stood on a table ; 

 his wife and children being around, he sat down to distribute 

 the powder upon several papers which he had prepared for 

 the purpose ; sand and shot are mixed with the powder in the 

 papers for the purpose of giving momentum, and of producing 

 attrition when the torpedo is thrown, in order to ensure its 

 explosion. Probably also the sand, looking not very unlike 

 the powder, may be intended to screen it from view, and thus 

 to preserve the secret, should the papers be opened. The 

 unhappy man no sooner touched the fulminating silver with a 



Vol. I. ...No. 2. 15 



