SAVED BY GOOD LUCK

Evening Star, Issue 21711, 4 May 1934, Page 6

SAVED BY GOOD LUCK

‘ FINGERING WITH DEATH . Norwich recently narrowly escaped % serious explosion, and the British Museum officials, the police, and mill# tary authorities were afterwards sigh* ing with relief. Twelve pounds of T.N.T.—sufficient to blow up half a street—has been experimented with _by all _ manner of people in the belief that it was soma rare mineral. Some of it has actually, been sent by ordinary parcel post to London. Some, Lowestoft fishermen dragged up in their nets something they thought might be of value. It looked like a lump of some rare and valuable metal. Remembering that a short time ago some of their colleagues were paid a princely sum for a prehistoric relic, they took great care of their find. The mate of the trawler dried th« find by the cabin, fire, and on arrival at port the stuff was sent by parcel post to Norwich Castle Museum, an ancient building built by Prince Rupert. Tha caretaker, Mr F. Leney, and his assist* ant. Miss Barnard, examined it, but could not determine what it was. Some of the stuff was then sent to students of the Norwich Technical College. They experimented with it and found it burned with _ a blue flame.Hundreds of them might have been blown to smithereens had it been compressed, but luck was with them. Then a sample of the mysterious mat* ter was sent to the British Museum,Subsequently a letter was received from Dr L. J. Spencer, keeper of minerals. He declared the material to ;-a T.N.T., adding: “ The chemical laboratories are still intact, and I am glad your museum has survived.” The T.N.T. was also sent to police and military authorities. It is thought that it is the remains of some mine or bomb which was dropped in the North Sea during the war. '