275 Tons T.N.T.. Explode.

Manawatu Times, Volume XL, Issue 13523, 6 October 1916, Page 3

275 Tons T.N.T.. Explode.

350-FOOT CRATER PORMED. EFFECT ON PLATE-GLASS WINDOWS. It is a strange anomaly that what is probably the greatest explosion connected with the European war should have taken place in the port of New York. It is doubtful if anywhere upon the battlefield of Europe it has happened either by accident, or intent that 275 tons of high explosive has beeen detonated at once.

New York is the principal point of shipment for the vast amount of munitions, amounting in value already to between £60,000,000 and £80,000,000, which is being manufactured in the United States for the Allies, and shipped to Europe as fast as it is complpeted. Some of the material had been loaded into barges,, which were moored alongside the pier; the rest was still in the cars awaiting transfer. Near the end of the pier, on tracks laid upon solid ground, were 11 cars loaded with 275 tons of Trinitrotolue (commonly known as T.N.T.), one of the latest and most powerful of the military high explosives. It is used as a filler for high-explosive shells, mines and torpedoes. Some time after midnight a fire started, either on a loaded barge or one of the loaded munition cars, and before it could be brought under control it reached some cars filled with loaded high-explosive shells, fulminate of mercury, fuses, etc., and detonation took place. There was a terrific explosion. The wrecked cars and the barges burned fiercely, and the heat was sufficent to ignite the black powder in the base of the shrapnel shells, bursting the cases and blowing out the fuses. Much of the 3-in ammunition was "fixed"; that is to say, the shells were attached to their cases containing the smokeless powder propelling charge. In this case there was a double explosion—of the powder and the shell. The shells and the powder were packed in wooden cases, and a large number of the latter blown into the bay, were carried far and wide by the tide, and many cases were found floating several miles away from the scene of the disaster.

SALT-WATER LAKE CREATED. Thirty-five minutes after the first explosion, the interval being filled in with the continuous -booming of the bursting shells, a'more than usually severe shock proved sufficient to set off the 11 cars of T.N.T. The downward blow of this frightful detonation formed a huge crater 350 ft long, ,80ft wide, and from 10ft to 15ft deep. Where the ears stood is now a saltwater lake. Of the steel cars not a vestige is to, be seen—the fragments have scattered or have been driven deep into the earth. The adjacent cars, mostly of steel, are wrecked and twisted into fantastic shapes. The surrounding shods and warehouses were thrown down in utter ruin. The vast atmospheric wave created by the sudden generation of its enormous volume of gases swept over Jorsy City, Manhattan and Brooklyn with terrifying effects upon the sleeping citizens, and with disastrous results to the plate-glass windows, which were first bent inwards by the pressure of the air wave, and then, rebounding, were sucked out • of their frames by the following vacuum and thrown into the streets. The first effect noticed by those wno were awake was the severe earth shock which travelled through the surrounding cities. This was followed a few seconds later by the boom of the explosion.