By the time he finished talking, we reached the shaft and were carried up to the surface. Suddenly, a boom and a dull roar told us that the powder had done its job down there deep in the rock. We were anxious to see what the shot had accomplished, but we were not permitted to go in again.
“Don’t you know that the fumes of ‘shooting’ are poisonous?” asked the superintendent,
“But how about the men?” I asked. “Won’t it Kill them, too?
“We pump air in there to blow the fumes out. In about five minutes, they can go back and charge the ‘relief’ holes. But if you went in there, it would give you an awful headache. The men get used to it, but in time even they are liable to be overcome. By the way, you ought to see
A CONCRETE BULKHEAD IN THE TUNNEL 1100 FEET UNDER THE HUDSON RIVER. how they stare dynamite in New York. It is interesting. The Bureau of Combustibles will not let any one keep a large quantity of explosives in the city, particularly in congested parts, but at each shaft they use from seven to eight hundred pounds of powder per day, so they have underground magazines hewn out of solid rock. When you get back to town, call un my friend Douglas, at Shaft 13, and he will show you one of the magazines and how it is constructed,”
Chapter XI
CAGING DYNAMITE
“Did you ever smell dynamite?” said Mr. Donglas, picking up a stick and holding it under my nose, I jumped back in alarm. “Oh, it won’t hurt you!” he said reassuringly; “but if you smell of that sickish stuff awhile, it will give you a headache. Now if this powder should go off—" Mr. Douglas paused.
“Yes?” I said nervously.
“Oh, we do not expect such a thing ever to happen, but you never can quite tell about dynamite, If it is n’t perfectly fresh, it might go off if you sneezed upon it, You know dynamite is made of nitroglycerin and gelatin. When it is exposed to extremes of heat or cold and moisture, the glycerin separates from the gelatin, and col-