THE NEW EXPLOSIVE.

Mataura Ensign, 19 January 1910, Page 2

THE NEW EXPLOSIVE.

+ A BRITISH INVENTION

t Vice-Consul-General Claude E. Guye ant, of Panama, reports to the Uniteu s States Government that a British m- ■. 'veator has been giving tests on the a, isthmus of a new explosive which led 1 the Canal Commission to order i! 0 ton' e of it for trial. Mr Guyant writes conl corning the product: t This explosive is claimed to ba absot iutely safe. The inventor has factories $ operating in Norway and England and j one is being built in Alaska. It j. l stated that inasmuch as this substance > is in itself not an explosive it is carried - at ordinary freight rates by the transi portation companies in England and r Norway I his new product is composed ol perchlorate of ammonia, nitrate of • soda dimtrotoluol and several minor ini gradients such as paraffin for water- : proofing, etc. It is claimed that it is 50 > per cent, stronger than the 66 per cent s grade of dynamite and that the cost of s manufacturing will be over 20 dollars per ton cheaper. ' The inventor's exhaustive tests be--1 fore members of the Isthmian Canal Commission and officials of the Republic 1 of Panama showed that it is absolutely ; impossible to explode it by ordinary ; methods. It was hammered with a 1 sledge, shot into with a rifle, burned, and ordinary dynamite detonators were 1 exploded in it both by fuse and electricity, and the compound was inert. Not until a special detonator was inserted could the substance bo exploded; but then in the few charges that we're set off it showed itself more powerful than dynamite. Jt can only be set off by"ieating a small platinum wire just inside the open end, by an electric spark or fuse. It will not explode by concussion. So confident is the inventor that he will secure the contract to furnish all the explosives to be used on the canal Inext year, that he has organised a ; 100,000dol. local company here and ' will at once erect a factory about a ' half-mile from the city with a capacity 1 of between 6000 and 7000 tons per an- I num. It is expected that most of the output will be used by the Canal Com- ' mission, but if a demand for the ex- < plosive aris« from other sources in the ' vicinity, especially along the west coast ' of South America, the factorv will be enlarged to meet the demand. " « The inventor has gone to England to < purchase the necessary machinery and i: arrange for the delivery of the raw s mnterial needed. Work on the factory s will be started at once, and it is expected that it will be in oneration in January, employing about 350 people, mostly * women.