Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 April 1893 — Dynamite and Gunpowder. [ARTICLE]

Dynamite and Gunpowder.

Dynamite is vastly more powerful than gunpowder. With the latter the volume of gas is 300 times as great as the grains used. With dynamite the volume of gas is 900 times, or three times as much. With gunpowder the gas is set freo gradually; with dynamite instaneously. Air presses with enormous weight on every surface. When an explosion takes place all the air must he pushed aside to make loom for the gas. With dynamite it is less work to split the rock on which it is laid than to raise the column of air. With gunpowder there is leas gas, and the gas being generated gradually, the air is moved gradually, and this less work than splitting the rock. If gunpowder is used to split a rock extra pressure in the shape of tamping is necessary. —[New York Dispatch.