The Power of Nitroglycerine,

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXVII, Issue 1373, 20 August 1895, Page 3

The Power of Nitroglycerine,

A TERRIBLE EXPLOSION.

An explosion took place recently near the city of Bluifton in the United States, which showed in a striking manner the terrific explosive power of nitro-glycerine. It appears that a twohorse waggon containing 720 quarts, about 1200 pounds, of nitro-glycerine, was being driven to an oil well fourteen miles distant when the wagon struck the root of a tree and upset. The load immediately exploded 1 with terrific results. The wagon, driver, and horses, were blown to atoms, and when the people in the neighborhood arrived at the place where the explosion occurred not a trace of any of them could be discovered. All that was found of the driver, a young man of eighteen, was a part of his clothing, and this was nearly a mile away from the spot where he met his death. Pieces of the horses were also found at about the same distance away, as were parts of the wagon. Several huge trees in the vicinity were torn up by the roots and carried many feet away, and window glass in the houses for two miles around was broken by the force of the explosion. Cattle in the fields around were kS|led by the shock, and and many cases of runaway horses took place in the town of Bluffton, two miles away. The earth under the cart was J tom up, a hole 15ft deep and 60ft across being excavated. The force of/

the explosion, it is said, was plainly felt twenty-five miles away, by the rattle of windows in the houses, and many persons thought it was due to an earthquake shock. More striking proof of the immense destructive power of nitro-glycerine could not be given. If anything can be deemed satisfactory in connection with such a dreadful affair, it is that it did not occur in a town, where the damage would have been enormous and the loss of life very great.