NORTON'S PERCUSSION CARTRIDGE FOR BLASTING.

New Zealander, Volume 10, Issue 820, 22 February 1854, Page 3

NORTON'S PERCUSSION CARTRIDGE FOR BLASTING.

[We invite attention to the following, which has been forwarded to us for insertion by a long tried and valuable friend of New Zealand, to whom it was sent by Captain Norton himself.—]

(From the " Cork Southern Reporter”)

“ Captain Norton practically demonstrates the powerful effects of his blasting cartridge in a field belonging to Mr. O’Brien, just beyond the new gaol, on the root end of large trees, which it was found impossible to blast by the present mode of a fuse and tamping. The modus operandi is as follows : A triangle is made of three tall larch spais placed over the root to be blasted, a hole being bored by an auger an inch and a quarter in diameter into the most ‘ gnarled and unwedgeable’ part of the root; a gouge rimer is good to use after the auger, as it clears away the rough interior, and admits the cartridge freely. About three inches deeper than the centre, a plug* of iron of the same diameter of. the auger, and an inch and a half long, or u small round stone, is

forced into the bottom of the hole, so os to prove | a solid foundation. The cartridge with a percussion cap on each end of its steel pillar, is then dropped in and rests on the iron foundation ; a rammer of iron of nearly the same diameter as the auger, and about four inches longer than the depth of the hole, so as to project about four inches, is then inserted, and may* or may not rest on the head of the cartridge. A block of wood I about 60 pounds weight suspended by a strong | cord vertciully over the projecting head of the rammer is then allowed to fall on it, when by the momentum or blow, the explosion takes place, and in no one instance out of more than a hundred trials has the rammer been blown out, or, as military engineers term it, ‘ gunning* occurred. In one instance the cartridge was made of tin, so as to be water proof, and when it was inserted and the rammer placed over it, - water was poured in, the explosion was perfect; this was to demonstrate the blasting of rocks under water lying in the way of navigation. The charge of powder in these cartridges is about an ounce of Hall’s powder; it is probable that the fourth part of the powder used in the present manner of blasting will be found by this method to be sufficient. Professors of the lloyal Queen’s College, and many of the students were present.—Captain Noi ton’s ambition is the removing of the forests on the banks of the Amazon, Orinoco, and their tributaries, thus destroying the prolific wet nurse of all malaria; also the forests of Canada, the United States, New Holland, New Zealand, and thus removing the great obstructions to the cultivation of land in all countries; the rousting out of snakes and nuggets in New Holland and California ,* and for removing large blocks of wood found in bogs, which on account of their great weight, and the soft nature of the bog, neither cart or car can be used for removing, but which, when shattered by the cartridge, can be taken away by men, or boys in small pieces; and the removing of blocks of ice impeding the navi gallon of the Arctic seas.”

<• Forest Tree Blasting. —ln our number of the 30th April, we gave an account of Captain Norton’s experiments with his percussion cartridge for blasting. Those experiments were performed by the suspended block falling vertically. In his late experiment the object was to remove by one blast the largest forest tree while standing in a growing state, where timber is so thick and dense, as not only to be valueless and pestiferous, but a great obstruction to the cultivation of the land, as in America and New Holland. Mr. O’Brien of Castle White, near the Queen’s College, having kindly given Captain Norton permission to operate on a large old poplar tree, three feet in diameter near the root, a hole was bored horizontally within two feet of the ground, and the cartridge and iron bolt (which bolt does the duty of the most perfect tamping) being inserted, a heavy block of wood suspended from a large iron nail, struck into the trunk of the tree, was drawn by a long cord attached to it, about a foot from the projecting head of the bolt, and then let go, so as lo strike it like a pendulum or the knocker of a hall door, when the instant explosion rent the trunk of the tree, and caused it to fall by the pull in the direction chalked out for it by a rope attached to an upper branch ot the tree. The effect of this percussion cartridge is like that of the rifle percussion shell, the iron bolt acting like the breeching of the shell.— Landed proprietors and others interested would do well to walk into Mr. O’Brien’s field at Castle White, and read in uumistakeable characters the powerful effects of this percuss'on cartridge in shattering the blocks of large trees, particularly that giant one near the wall at the upper part of the field:” “ Effects of Gunpowder. —Some of the effects of ignited gunpowder are truly wonderful When gunpowder is heaped up in the open air aud inflamed, there is no report, and but a little effect produced. A small quantity open and ignited in a room, forces the air outwards, so as to blow out the windows. But the same quantity confined in a bomb within the same room, and ignited, tears in piecee and sets on fire the whole house. Count Rumford loaded a mortar with one-twentieth of an ounce of powder, and placed upon it a 24 pound cannon, weighing 1,081 pounds: he then closed up every opening as completely as possible, and fired the charge, which burst the mortar with a tremendous explosion, and lifted up this enormous weight. In another experiment. Count Rumford confined 28 grains of powdar is a cylindrical space, which it just filled ; and, upon being fired, it tore asunder a piece of iron which would have resisted a strain of 400,000 pounds.” The above extract from the Cork Southern Reporter of the 12th April, is as descriptive of the effects of this cartridge, as if expressly written for it. The cartridge being like that of the rifle percussion shell, and submarine percussion petard, on the highest pressure, no safety valve, steamboiler exploding principle.

• The plug-of iron, and steel pillar are almost always found at the bottom of the riven block. .

•The water makes the wood swell and binds closely the iron rammer, thus preventing loss of power by windage.