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Tales from the Bureau of Explosives. 19-2430 ..... July 2, 1913. SPECIAL FIREWORKS (Toy Caps). --In violation of the I.C.C. Regulations, a case of special fireworks (toy caps) was transported in the caboose of a local freight train. It was not unloaded on the evening of its arrival at the proper station. After the train had started the following morning (July 2nd), the conductor found that the case has not been unloaded and threw it out on the crossing, The contents of the case were immediately ignited and before the fire could be extinguished, both the case and contents were practically destroyed. Loss $15.75. The conductor was severely disciplined by the carrier for his improper hand ling of the shipment. 19-2974 ..... June 29, 1914. FIREWORKS. -- While transferring a mail sack from one train to another, some of the contents exploded, causing fire and destruction of the sack and con tents. Examination showed that the mail sack contained fireworks. Fortunately, there was no damage to equipment, neither was there any personal injury caused by this accident. Investigation failed to develop the name of the sender. The matter has been placed in the hands of the postal authorities for further investigation, but it is doubtful whether the name of the sender will ever be learned. 19-3582 ..... June 7, 1916. SPECIAL FIREWORKS (TOY TORPEDOES). -- A stevedore was placing a box containing "Mammoth Thunderbolt" brand of toy torpedoes on the floor of a car, and as he turned the box over and lowered it a distance of about one foot, the contents exploded. His arm was shocked by the explosion, but as it was not of a violent character he was not injured. Loss, $1.20. 19-2221 ..... January 24, 1913. RAILWAY TORPEDO. -- While a team was driving up to the freight platform to discharge some freight, a railway torpedo, lying on the frozen ground, was exploded either by the wagon wheel running over it or by the horses stamping on it. A piece of the torpedo struck one of the horses in the left shank, pro ducing a serious injury, which resulted in blood poisoning, followed by the death of the animal a few days later. Loss $300. Railway torpedoes contained a mixture of potassium chlorate, sulphur, sand, binder and a neutralizer. (Ellern #155). They were placed on the track behind parked trains and such. The weight of a following train crossing over a torpedo would cause it to detonate warning the engineer to stop. I can say from personal experience during my misspent youth with both the real thing and one-was-enough home made device, they function well. Just remember one thing if you are planning on replicating one of these devices; I have replaced the luck of my youth with knowledge and experience plus not a few gray hairs. Fireworks should be fun. Loss of your vision or sundry body parts from using compositions/devices such as these is not fun with fireworks. n'est-ce pas? 19-1739 ..... October 12, 1911. FIREWORKS. -- While a baggageman and his assistant were unloading from a bag gage truck a trunk, it exploded just as it struck the platform. The ticket offices and ladies' waiting room were extinguished. The baggageman was fatally injured dying shortly after an operation to amputate a leg. His assistant was severely injured. Investigation showed that the truck belonging to two travel ing photographers and it was said to contain Powdered Magnesium, Potassium Chlorate and other photographic materials. The owners of the trunk were prose cuted, but were found "not guilty" of causing the death of the baggageman. Damage $1250. TOY CAPS Report of laboratory incestigation: April 15, 1937. Two large samples of toy caps in the original shipping containers were received. No. 31197 Mammoth Caps -- consist of paper sheets 2 3/8 x 9 1/2 inches divided by perforations into 100 squares, each containing 1 cap. This sheet is folded once and placed in a paper envelope. A gross of these envelopes is packed in a pasteboard carton. Twenty-five of these cartons are packed in a corrugated fiber case. The gross weight of this package as received here was 45 pounds. The explosive mixture in these caps is a mixture of antimony sulphide and potassium chlorate, The average weight of explosive mixture in each cap is 0.24 grain. A number 6 electric blasting cap was placed in the center of the interior car tons of the caps. Explosion of the cap detonated practically all of the caps. The test was repeated, placing two of the cartons end to end and having a blasting cap in the center of one carton, The explosion detonated both car tons. The test was repeated, using four cartons end to end with the blasting cap in the center of one of the end cartons. All four cartons detonated com pletely. 19-7377 ..... June, 1927 SPECIAL FIREWORKS When is a package not a package? The answer to that must depend on circum stances, of course, but we believe we have run into a set of circumstances wherein the question was answered, In a city where the Safe and Sane Fourth Idea is not as yet hitting on all twelve cylinders, a certain individual came to an express office with a pack age not marked except for the address and similar ordinary hieroglyphics. Said package was addressed to another city, quite a few parasangs [parasang = 3+2/5th miles] distant. "What is it"? sez [sic] the clerk, to which question the shipper playfully replied, "clothing," of something of the sort. It wasn't much of a looking package, consisting of an old carton previously containing paper goods, but it looked as though it might hold together. Anyway, it went through and its description appeared on the official documents as "Package." When this particular shipment arrived at the other city, and was placed in one of the express stations there, it was observed smoking, a form of indulgence which might profitably be de trop (Frog for contrary to the best interests of others present) at all express stations at least in the place where the ship ments live. Under the circumstances it was considered highly advisable to investigate, and the results of the investigation were of more than casual interest, as the "package" was found to contain four dozen toy torpedoes, half of these of the "Son-of-a-gun" variety, and also divers other fireworks. Now, the particular Senegambian [Black] in the timber-sack was that the destination city was one in which the Safe and Sane Fourth notion was rampant, and the powers-that-were happened to be a great deal more particular about keeping out fireworks than, for instance, firewater; so you can readily imagine that the consignee found himself in a kind of hot water that bore no resemblance to firewater. 19-7119 ..... June 17, 1926 RAILWAY TORPEDOES [Photo of a railway coach in sorry shape; windows blown out &c..] See - the - car. Was - the - car - in - a - del-rail-ment? It -was - not; try -again, - child-ren. Could - it - have- been - an - ex-plos-i-on? You're -right - it - could! All this is by the way of being sure that the situation is fully understood, even by those immediately responsible for the not-so-good practice that pro duced the results shown in the picture. The day-coach illustrated was not being used as a carrier of forbidden material packed in an unauthorized man ner. On the contrary, it was as we know, empty and just standing on a yard track minding its own business. As the matter of fact, this car had nothing to do with what happened, except in-so-far as it was on the receiving end of the excitement, along with other cars and the windows of houses for some distance around. In one end of a box car there were loaded 36,000 railway torpedoes and a col lection of fusees, properly packed, and carefully braced in the car. This care, however, did not extend to putting "INFLAMMABLE" placards on the car, as required by I.C.C. Regulations, nor did it prevent the loading in the other end of the same car, of a collection of heavy castings, forgings, iron pipe, brake shoes, and other trifling hardware, which, as is customary for that class of material, was loaded in bulk and unbraced. The whole outfit, in sort, was company supplies. Well, then, this car, with others, was spotted on a track near the storehouse. In the meantime, a switcher went after some more cars of material, to go in on the same track. The switcher proceeded to kick the string consisting of two cars, in along the stores track where the original car was. There happened to be a low place in the track near the torpedo car, and that car, persuaded by gravity, began to roll gently in the direction of the oncoming string. The foremost of the two approaching cars was a steel gondola loaded with switch material. What with the liberal weight of iron present, the gondola and the torpedo car came together with something less then perfect gentleness. An ump teenth of a second later there arose a large, a very loud noise, and pieces of this and that began sailing through the air thereabouts like a flock of pigeons. The steel end of the gondola was neatly removed from its proper place, and flew two hundred feet before it returned to earth. The passenger car in the picture was 120 feet away from the meeting place, but that didn't help much, as the picture demonstrates. As already indicated, the echo of the blast was punctuated by the tinkering of broken glass, as most of the windows in the vicinity bowed gracefully to the inevitable. We need not explain why we show no picture of the torpedo car after the bump. It would seem that the cars didn't strike hard enough to explode the properly packed torpedoes, but some of the not-exactly-feather-dusters loaded in the far end of the torpedo car must have trespassed on forbidden territory as a result of the bump. Railway torpedoes are made to explode; they aren't good for anything else. The torpedoes in the shipment were not unduly sensitive; but the worm will turn, and even properly packed torpedoes cannot be expected to regard with indifference the impact of a few hundred pounds of iron in one chunk. Be that as it may, these didn't! Aside form the mess that followed this fact, two men were hit by flying pieces, one man being pretty badly hurt. This was, as usual, NOT the man who loaded the iron works into the car with the torpedoes! Another upload from The WiZ. Call The Works BBS - 1600+ Textfiles! - [914]/238-8195 - 300/1200 - Always Open