Regulation of the Use of Explosives; Hearings Before the Committee on Mines and Mining of the House of Representatives (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1917 Excerpt: ... Mr. Denison. What chemical or explosive is it, in your observation, that is used with the greatest destructive effect by evil-minded persons for that purpose? Mr. Coyne. Nitroglycerin. I think. Mr. Patterson, of the chemical department of the Du Pont Powder Co., can answer that question better than I can. Mr. Denison. My question is, What chemical or explosive is it, in your opinion, that in the past has been used with the greatest deadly effect in unlawful explosions by evil-minded persons? STATEMENT OF MR. C. A. PATTERSON, CHEMIST, DU PONT POWDER CO. Mr. Patterson. If a man knows the chemical business, he could make explosives out of quite a number of things that he could buy in drug stores or grocery stores. If you are referring particularly to the safe blower--if that is what you intend to cover--the safe blower nine times out of ten steals dynamite. He will take that dynamite from the little outlying stores around mines or quarries or railroad-construction work or road-building work. He will steal a case or so of that dynamite and possibly extract the nitroglycerin from the dynamite. He can do that in a number of ways by using a solvent: often by soaking it out with water. He can take the nitroglycerin out from the dynamite, and he will separate that nitroglycerin and put it in a bottle, so that he can utilize it. I will say. without any fear of contradiction, that from 90 to 100 per cent of' the safe blowers in this country get their explosives in that way. I have known of safe blowers who have endeavored to get it. from powder concerns, but they have been discovered at it, because they acted in a suspicious way, and the authorities were notified, and the delay was taken advantage of, and the individuals applying for it were told that the company did ...