THE EFFECTS OF NITROGLYCERINE.

Inangahua Times, Volume X, Issue 1517, 4 March 1885, Page 2

THE EFFECTS OF NITROGLYCERINE.

1 The Financial and Mining News ' (New York) contains an accountof the extraordinary effect of au explosion of a large quantity of nitro glycerine in what appeared to l>e a;i extinct oil-well in the LVnusylvanian oil fields. A careful examination of the soil iv the i shaft failed to reveal any trace of oil : or gas, and at length as a lastresou.ee i it was decided to try the effect of an j explosion of a shell containing fifty ' quartz of nitro-glycorine. Fiißt a i column of water rose fight or t*<n foet ! and then fell buck ; a few moments | later the burnt glyoorine. mud, and sand rnsh-'d nn th" ri-vvicU v.i a black , slream, thfl blmkuess gtadually changing to Vfllo'.v. Then, with a roar, the gas hurst forth in a cloud, which for a moment, hid the derrick from sight,

and as it cleared away, revealed a solid column half a foot in diameter, shooting from the. derrick door eighty feet through the air, till it broke into

fragments on the crown pulley and

f«-ll m showers of golden rain for many v anls aroiind. Tins column of oil

continued •. foi an hour rushing in a

torrent into the air. The liratiches of the trees around were huge yellow plumes, and a large stream of oil ran down the hill to a road, where it nearly tilled tho s<>u*e beneath a small bridge. In two hours the neighboring Hats were covered witli a flood of oil, and the hiiiside looked as if a freshet had passed over it while heavy clouds of fias hung low over the woods. I>nms Were built across the strain in order that the production might \>c j cahrulutevl, htrt. were borne nxviy almost as soon as erected. The people lixing near t l ie flats fled to the lulls ; fit'-s had to l>e extinguished m th»' i district to prevent a I'oiitlanrarion. The outflow was estimated at 8000 barrels in twenty tour hours. Ultimately t' c «!'^iii wtp divfi-ti'd i; *o

«e!ls in the ueighbonihood declined as soon as the ou-flow here mentioned (•oinmeiiced the guagesin some of them allowing at the end of three days a fail of half their previous depth.