EXPLOSIVE IN COAL SCUTTLE

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 61, 9 October 1930, Page 5

EXPLOSIVE IN COAL SCUTTLE

CLERK 3 FORTUNATE DISCOVERY. CHRISTCHURCH, Oct. 2. A stick of Samsonite, a form of gelignite, was found in a coal scuttle in the map room of the Lands and Survey Department in the old Government Buildings this morning by a clerk, who was in the act of throwing a shovelful of coal on the fire. Mr. S. W. Richardson, who found the explosive, had had some experience of mining in South Africa, and recognised it instantly; otherwise it might easily have been thrown in the fire as a piece of fat or candle, which Samsonite closely resembled in appearance. Contact with fire, explained Mr, Richardson, would not necessarily cause an explosion, as the Samsonite is fired by percussion. The coal which contained the explosive had, however, passed through many hands, and must have been considerably knocked about. A theory as to how the explosive got into the coal, which came from the West Coast, was advanced by Mr. Richardson. Several sticks of the gelignite, he said, are placed in a wall of coal, the outer one having in it a detonator by which the charge is fired. Sometimes, however, dirt or some other obstruction separates one of the sticks from the other, and there is then the possibility that it will not be fired. Some such thing may have happened in the present case.