THE LITHOFRACTEUR. 
15 
following illustration of this class of work is from the account 
in the “ Eerggeist ” of an experiment made in the Iron Foundry 
of Herr Holtinghausen, of Achenbach. A piece of cast metal 
9 ft. long, 6 ft. wide, and 17 in. thick was broken into three large 
and many small pieces ; and a second, 120 centners in weight, was 
shattered into four pieces. Over each block fifteen rails were 
laid, in order to protect the neighbouring houses. “ These 
rails were hurled about 300 ft. up into the air, in many little 
pieces, affording a diverting spectacle.” The charge is not 
recorded ; but at the Essen experiment a block of cast iron, 
53 in. long, 29 in. broad, and 19 in. thick, was split through at 
a single discharge by about 6 lbs. of lithofracteur, simply laid 
on the smooth surface and tamped with a few handfuls of 
loam. 
Independent of the merely commercial triads in this country 
last year — which were the most extensive and important 
private experiments ever performed with any of the nitro- 
glycerine compounds — official investigations were made in Fe- 
bruary last, at the Nantmaur Quarries, by a committee of mili- 
tary and naval officers, with certain civilian members, under 
instructions from the Home Office, with a view to the Secretary 
of State granting a license for the manufacture of this fine 
explosive in England. On that occasion the celebrated waggon 
experiment of the former trials was repeated, and all the others 
requested by the committee carried out with incontrovertible 
success. The waggon experiment alluded to had reference to a 
most important subject, namely, the safety or propriety with 
which this explosive could be carried on the railways. Its safe 
condition, when merely set fire to, whether open or enclosed in 
wooden boxes, has in both series amply and easily been demon- 
strated ; but the question of what might occur in the case of 
railway collisions was of that vital nature that only a crucial 
test could satisfy. As there is a long incline of some 700 yds.,. 
with a fall of 1 in 8, at the JNantmaur Quarries, and as Mr. 
France had some old stone trucks of no great value, he very 
properly obtained, by practical proof, a true verdict on this 
exceedingly important subject. A truck was scotched on the 
line at 500 yds., and another, with cartridges of lithofracteur, 
attached to its wooden buffers, was started free from the top of 
the incline. The pace it attained at the moment of contact 
was fearful, and the concussion tremendous. The trucks were 
smashed up and thrown off the rails ; but there was no explo- 
sion of the lithofracteur. It was simply squeezed out. 
Another truck was scotched on the line, and another one 
started against it in like manner, the running truck this time 
having the buffers, to which the cartridges were attached, 
plated with iron. Again a smash, but no explosion. Before 
