Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 November 1889 — EXPERIMENTS WITH EXTRALITE. [ARTICLE]

EXPERIMENTS WITH EXTRALITE.

The New Explosive Said to Possess Greater Power Than Dynamite. Anew explosive recently patented by Rudolf Ericson, a young Swede, was tested in New York before a few newspaper representatives. The now compound is culled “extralite” and it is cialined to be of great power, but also to be absolutely harmless when not confined in an air-tight and rigid receptacle. Theextralitc is an innocentlooking, granulated substance of about the color and general appearance of -Coarse corn-meal, made up of a coin--bound of ammoniacal salt, a hydro carbon, and chlorate of potash. "The first experiment was to demonstrate its safety while burning in the open air. Mr. Ericson built a little fire and carelessly broke open four of the packages of extralite and scattered it on the flames. There ~was no explosion, the 1 extralite burning rapidly, with a hissingiound and a yellow flame. Next a percussion cap and fuse were attached io one of the extralite cartridges and the fuse .was lighted. The cap went I off, but the cartridge remained intact. ! Then the inventor of the explosive poured some out on a rock and pounded it violently With a stone. Then borings in the solid rock were loaded with the i extralite. One hole was eighteen inches deep, and eight ounces of the explosive was rammed into it. The others were twelve and eighteen inches respectively, and four ounces more ; were put into them. All these charges were fired in unison by means of per-_cussion-caps and a live electric wire. Although the position was not such as to show the power of the extralite to its best advantage the explosion was terrific. It split off two tons of ,- ock from the face of the ledge and shattered the m in position of the ledge into layers. Though the drills had been well i covered the fr gments of ’rock rose to ' a height of 100 feet or more. The inventor of the extralite said that the lilting power is greater than that of dynamite.