Nitro- Glycerine. 



93 



render distasteful my usual work, to turn to some chemical 

 investigation, with a resolution not to leave the subject 

 until the unknown point is made clear, the cause of some 

 peculiarity or striking effect is found out, and whilst the 

 mind becomes intent in this pursuit, the worldly trouble 

 diminishes to a speck, and from an apparently overwhelm- 

 ing disaster we come to regard our difficulties, first calmly, 

 then philosophically, and finally with amusement. When 

 the oil excitement of 1865 collapsed, and .the excessive 

 values that had been demanded for land sunk to zero, I 

 drifted into that frame of mind I have referred to, and 

 determined to investigate the properties of nitro-glycerine. 



In 1864, a box containing some bottles of this explo- 

 sive had been brought from Hamburgh by a German 

 who had been a guest at the "Wyoming Hotel, and who, 

 disappointed in his first expectations of success in this 

 country, had run out of funds, and left this baggage as 

 security for pay. It was under the counter of the hotel, 

 and was often pulled out to rest the foot upon, whilst the 

 clerk or his friends would give an extra polish to their 

 boots. One Sunday morning, as this practice was re- 

 peated, it was noticed that red fumes were issuing from 

 the crevices of the box. This alarmed the parties present, 

 and the clerk taking it in his hand, threw it out of the 

 hotel upon the sidewalk. A terrible explosion followed ; 

 the hotel windows were smashed, the pavement torn up, 

 and the houses opposite had their windows shattered to 

 atoms. An investigation followed, and it was found that 

 this was glonoin oil — blasting oil. 



Shortly afterwards came the news from Panama, that 

 the steamship European, W. L mail packet, having a cargo 

 worth §250,000, had been blown to pieces, and forty-seven 

 lives lost. Then followed the explosion in Wells & Fargo's 

 express office, in San Francisco. A case, marked glonoin 

 oil, was found to be giving off vapors. A medical man, Dr. 



