Читать книгу Tri-nitro-glycerine, as Applied in the Hoosac Tunnel, Submarine Blasting, etc., etc., etc онлайн

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“The reasons that led to this arrangement were, that as the rock found in excavating the Tunnel was exceedingly tough, any increased progress or lineal advance per month without any increased expenditure; in other words, diminished cost per lineal foot and quickened advance, seemed possible only by the use of a more effective explosive agent than gunpowder; that in Nitro-Glycerin this greater power existed, and therefore its use was desirable; the problem being convenience of supply, guarding against the possibility of accident, by planning carefully every detail in its use, rigidly enforcing every precaution, a failure in any of these points involving pecuniary loss in outlay for the works by the party undertaking its supply and superintending its use in the Tunnel.

“Agreeing with you in the propriety of these views, I commenced operations on the 30th of October. During the past two months a convenient two-story factory has been erected, and the necessary apparatus set up therein, about 1000 feet south of the west shaft; within twenty feet of this factory, a small dwelling for myself and an experienced assistant, and about 500 feet further south on the extreme line of land owned by the State, a magazine for storing Nitro-Glycerin has been constructed. Inclement weather somewhat retarded these operations, nevertheless, the crude articles used in the manufacture and every appliance to render the labor of making a “chemically pure” Nitro-Glycerin, without danger to those engaged in its manufacture, were completed and in good working order on the 31st of December, 1867.