316  NITRO-GLYCERXNE. 
regular  explosion  in  blasting  is  caused  by  a  patent  fuse  and 
patent  cap. 
I  have  tried  to  give  you  a  condensed  report  of  all  the  informa- 
tion concerning  this  compound  which  I  could  obtain  from  the 
periodicals  I  have  access  to.  It  is  entirely  insufficient  as  regards 
the  explanation  of  the  three  terrible  explosions  at  New  York, 
Aspinwall  and  San  Francisco,  for  even  thus  far  we  cannot  find 
anything  which  would  permit  us  even  to  guess  at  the  causes  of 
the  spontaneous  combustion.  We  must  expect,  however,  that 
chemists  will  now  feel  an  interest  in  the  matter,  and  study 
this  compound  in  regard  to  its  decompositions,  and  find  out  the 
means  of  avoiding  the  repetition  of  such  unfortunate  catastro- 
phes.— Medical  Reporter,  St.  Louis,  May  15,  1866. 
EXPLOSION  OF  NITRO  GLYCERINE. 
The  terribly  explosive  properties  of  this  dangerous  substance 
have  been  illustrated  by  a  painful  coincidence  of  events  in  San 
Francisco  and  Aspinwall,  by  which  many  lives  and  much  pro- 
perty have  been  destroyed.  It  is  strange  that  similar  accidents 
have  not  previously  occurred  in  the  mining  districts  of  the  Pacific 
coast.  Nitro-glycerine,  or  glonoine,  as  it  is  sometimes  called  in 
medicine,  is  prepared  by  allowing  glycerine  to  fall  drop  by  drop 
into  a  mixture  of  equal  parts  of  nitric  acid  and  oil  of  vitrol,  care 
being  taken  to  prevent  the  temperature  from  rising  too  high.  A 
heavy,  oily-looking  liquid  collects  at  the  bottom  of  the  vessel, 
which  has  a  sweetish  aromatic  taste,  and  is  a  dangerous  poison. 
A  single  drop  placed  upon  the  tongue  produces  a  severe  pain  in 
the  head  for  hours.  Its  formula  is  CG  H6  2(NOJ06,  or  for  two 
equivalents  of  hydrogen  in  the  glycerine  two  of  peroxide  of  ni- 
trogen are  substituted.  A  drop  placed  upon  paper  and  struck  on 
an  anvil  produces  a  powerful  concussion.  Under  circumstances 
little  understood  the  friction  of  its  particles  among  themselves 
even  when  frozen,  or  contact  with  some  foreign  substance,  is  suf- 
ficient to  produce  such  effects  as  those  below  given.  Its  manu- 
facture or  storage  in  some  parts  of  Europe  is  forbidden,  and  the 
Mayor  of  New  York  has  acted  wisely  in  causing  the  removal  of 
all  found  in  that  city. 
The  following  facts  are  from  the  Panama  Star  and  Herald : 
