NEVER park vehicles contain­ MUSINGS OF A SAFETY PHILOSOPHER - ing explosive materials close to people or congested areas. RELATING TO BLASTING SAFETY NEVER leave a vehicle con­ by ta.ini.ng explo~ive material unat­ Ralph Dawson . tended. NOTE. - The Department of "ALWAYS AND NEVERS"­ Transportation, Office of STORING EXPLOSIVES MATERIALS Hazardous Material Operations (DOT) regulates the transporta~ tion of explosives. Blasters should LOCATION OF MAGAZINES the explosive material. be familiar with Code 49 CFR, ALWAYS separate magazines ALWAYS keep the inside of the Parts 107 and 171 through 178. from other magazines, inhabited magazine clean, dry, cool and More and more dties are desigQat­ buildings, highways, and passen­ well ventilated. ing spedfic routes for the trans­ ger railways. See IME Safety ALWAYS post clearly visible portation of explosives through Library Publication No. 2. "EXPLOSIVES -- -- KEEP OFF" them. The manufacturer's and dis­ '1\merican Table of Distances". signs outside of the magazine. tributor's know these routes but Probably the greatest chal­ Locate signs so that a bullet pass­ the contractor who may have lenge in the inaust1-y is the ing directly through them cannot occasion to transport explosives location of a magazine on con­ hit the magazine. between nearby projects must struction sites; it takes special also observe them. attention to get the ~Y pical'tiay CONTENTS OF MAGAZINES These guidelines for storing box" as isolated as possible._ ALWAYS dean up spills and transpor".ation are but a high- NEVER allow combustible promptly. Follow manufacturer's light of the most important rules. material to accumulate. within 25 directions. As the industry evolved toward feet of the magazine. ALWAYS store only explosives new technology which provided NEVER allow any lighters, materials in a magazine. less sensitivity to the potential for matches, open flame or other ALWAYS rotate stock so the detonation of the most popular sources of ignition within 50 feet oldest material in the magazine is product8, there has been an unfor- of the magazine. This states the the first out. tunate relaxing of observing the obvious-every explosive NEVER store detonators with basic rules. · p1·oduct will burn-ana, in other explosive materials. IT HAS PROVEN TO BE A confinement, reach a tempe1·ac NEVER use explosives materi- CHALLENGE TO TEACH THAT ture of detonation. There have als which seem deterioni.ted··· ·':ALTHOUGH THE PRODUCTS been numerous tragedies from before consulting your supervi- ARE SAFER TO STORE, TRANs- firemen jighting" fi1•es when sor or the manufacturer. PORT, AND USE, THEY ARE the only known product was NEVER exceed recommended STILL DESIGNED TO EXPLODE, ANFO, ana · a detonation storage time and temperature for AND MUST DEMAND THE occU1'rea. explosives. Check with your SAME RESPECT AS THOUGH IT The rule is simple NEVER supervisor or the manufacturer. WAS 100% NITROGLYCERIN. "fight" a fire containing ANY prod­ NOTE: The Department of the >]BE< uct used for blasting .. Fire extin­ Treasury, Bureau of Alcohol, guishers are carried on a vehicle Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF) for the purpose of extinguisbing a regulates the industry in the area of fire in the engine area in the early storage. Blasters should be familiar moments and IF THE FIRE IS with Code Z7 CFR, Part 181. BROUGHT UNDER CONTROL PROMPTLY - BEFORE IT TRANSPORTING SPREADS TO THE CARGO AREA. EXPLOSIVE MATERIALS ALWAYS keep matches, CONSTRUCTION lighteDs, open flame and other OF MAGAZINES sources of ignition at least 50 feet ALWAYS be sure magazines are away from parked vehicles carry­ solidly built and securely locked, ing explosive materials. in accordance with federal regu­ ALWAYS follow federal, state, lations, to protect from weather, and local laws and regulations fire~ and theft. Protect from pen­ concerning transportation. etration by bullets and missiles, as ALWAYS load and unload required by the classification of explosive materials carefulJ)( 11 EXPLOSIVES 100 YEARS AGO more or less by Robert B. Hopler As much as possible, items are reproduced exactly as originally printed: misspellings, and usages of terminologies now considered archaic have been retained. Scientific American New York May 20, 1871 :REMOVAL OF T:HB :HELL GATE ROCKS-VIEW OF THE DIAMOND Dl:ULLUiG MAC:HINE. RBH Note: the diamond drill, now utilized primarily for prospecting and sampling, began its indus­ trial life as both a machine for those uses and to drill blastholes in mines and civil projects. Historicall)\ it fits the ruche between the steam drill and the modern pneumatic drill. 12 ,•. ,. , .... ~ - - . Nature In the Roth ig~ter, a small glass bulb filled with sul­ October 15, 1896 phuric acid and a pill composed essentially of a mixture BLOWN-OUT shots are responsible for a large pro­ of sugar and chlorate o{potassium are enclosed in a metal portion of the explosions in coal mines. By a blown-out capsule closed at one end. When the glass bulb is broken, shot is meant a blast which has failed to effect a rupture the action of the acid on the pill produces a tolerably of the coal owing to the hole for it having been drilled in sharp flash of flame, which ignites the powder-core of the a wrong position, or owing to the coal not having been fuze. It is essential that this igniter shall be very carefully properly prepared by holeing or under-cutting. The nipped on to the fuie and completely enclose it, other­ gaseous products produced by the combustion of the wise the flame of the igniter is apt to escape between the powder are driven violently into the roadways, mixed cap and the fuze, and may cause ignition of the fire- damp. with the gas distilled from the coal; and this, with the The employment of these methods of ignition has, clouds of dust raised at the same time, provides all the however, been found dangerous in several respects. conditions for a disastrous explosion. The Commission In seven known cases, in which 1 miner was killed and appointed to inquire into the cause of the explosion at the 8 others more Of'· less severely injured, the shot exploded Brunner Coal Mine, New Zealand, in March last, have, at the very moment that the igniter was fued or a few sec­ after full consideration of the evidence, concluded that onds afterwards. Investigation of all these accidents the primary cause was a blown-out shot flred, contrary to showed that there had been no negligence on the part of the rules of the mine, in a part of the mine where no the workmen. In every case, tarred safety-fuzes, 40 to 50 work should have been in progress. The coal gas evolved inches in length, were used, and they were fired in six from the surrounding coal is held to have been ignited as cases by Norres, and in one case by Roth igniters accord­ the result of the shot, and the flame then spread through­ ing to the printed instructions. The cause of these ignitions out the dry portions of the mine. The disaster was accen­ can, according to all appearances, only be that the fuze tuated by the explosion of the coal dust raised by the con­ suddenly burnt through its entire length. The assumption cussion along the main road and working-places, which that such burning through could be caused by absence or . explosion appears, in some cases to have been locally deficiency of the core of the fuze is not admissible owing intensilled by small quantities of, fire-damp. No direct evi­ to the method of manufacture that'is employed. After a dence was obtained by the Commissioners that the explo­ series of investigations initiated by the owners of the sion was commenced by an accumulation of flre- damp, or Consolidation pits, near Schalke, and continued in the that its extreme violence was due to the combustion of experimental drift of the Westphalian Miners' Association, ·. ... flre- damp mixed with coal-dust. the following phenomena must rather be regarded as indi­ cating the cause of these accidents. North of Et;J.gland Institute If a piece of the black tarred safety-fuze with double of Mining and Mechanical cotton covering (manufactured by Messrs. Bruckner and Engineers-Transactions Zschetsche, Minden) be_ignited and then nipped at any December, 1896 place with a pair of pliers and 'h inch wide and provided with grooves, the pressure being maintained until the core THE DANGER OF EMPLOYING SAFETIFUZES FOR has burnt past the nipped portion, the fuze almost invari­ BLASTING IN FIERY MINES.* ably bursts open below the nipped spot with a loud report and with the projection of sparks. At times a longer BY BERGASSESSOR E WINKAUS. t or shorter piece of the fuze is thus exploded and then it For the past eighteen months, so called ·:safety-fuzes" continues to burn quietly. Not unfrequentl}\ it would be and "safety-igniters" have been employed in the mining observed t11at the explosion involved the whole of t11e yet district of Westphalia, in order to ensure greater security in unburnt end of the fuze, about 40 inches long, when a vio­ blasting in flery and dusty mines. The object of this safety­ lent detonation would be accompanied by sparks flying fuze is to prevent the fuze from burning through sideways out along the whole length of the fuze, as also from its end, and throwing out sparks, as happens with ordinary so that the flame had suddenly traversed the entire length Bickford and guttapercha fuzes: this object is attained by of 40 inches of fuze. The same phenomenon can be pro­ covering the core of powder, not with jute or india-rub­ duced by pressing the burning fuze against the floor witl1 ber, but with several layers of cotton thread, and after­ the foot.