Is there a stock of nitro-glycerine in London or not?
Reasoning a priori, we have no more doubt that there is than that there is a stock of sugar ; and if there is, this great capital may, at any moment, be blown to atoms. On Wednesday four tons of
this terrible compound were landed at Carnarvon from Ham- burg, and sent in some carts to Llanberis for blasting. Two of these carts probably " collided " en route, and in an instant the men and horses were blown to atoms, bits of flesh and bone alone remaining. Five other men were killed or wounded along the road. A wheel was found 300 yards off, bits of flesh and bone covered a radius of 50 yards, the window frames of a station and a house were blown in, and every window for two miles round felt the explosion, which was heard ten miles off. The most extra- ordinary evidence of the power of the substance, however, is its action downwards, a deep, perfectly circular hole, shaped like an inverted cone, 7 ft. 6 in. diameter and 7 ft. deep, being found ander each cart. Any concussion, even a tumble off a table, as in Paris, explodes nitro-glycerine, and it is quite clear that its use ought to be prohibited. No precautions are sufficient, and no laws not prohibitory will prevent its being landed under some other name in any port. Custom-House officers are not chemists.
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