Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 218, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 September 1915 — HOW NOBEL MADE DISCOVERY [ARTICLE]

HOW NOBEL MADE DISCOVERY

Cut Finger Caused Him to Find a Way _ Of Handling Nitroglycerin With Safety. When that very dangerous explosive, nitroglycerin, was first Invented extraordinary precautions had to be taken to prevent accidents while the substance was being handled, but, notwithstanding this, so many disasters occurred that there seemed to be strong probabilities that its manufacture and use would have to be prohibited, says an English paper. After several governments had actually interdicted its use, however, means were discovered by which this powerful explosive could be used with a minimum of danger to those who handled it. One of the methods employed was to convert the nitroglycerin into dyna- _ mite by its absorption in the infusorial earth known as kieselguhr. This process, however, involved a reduction of the explosive power of the nitroglycerin and explosives chemists persisted in their researches to find some substance which, when added to nitroglycerin, would render it safe for handling without diminishing its explosive force.

One of these chemists was Nobel. It is on record that one day while Nobel was at work in his- laboratory he cut his finger, and in order to stop the bleeding he painted some collodion (a liquid preparation akin to guncotton) over the cut to form a protective artificial skin. Having done this, he poured some of the collodion, by way of an experiment, into a vessel containing nitroglycerin, when he noticed that the two substances mixed and formed a jellylike mass. He at once set to work to investigate this substance, and the outcome of these experiments was blastings gelatin, a mixture containing 90 per cent of nitroglycerin and 10 per cent of soluble guncotton. Thus, as a result of a very trivial occurrence, that violent explosive, blasting gelatin, waa discovered.