The Journal of Explosives Engineering - March/April 2013 - 26

100 YEARS AGO
Mr. Rood picked up on that and he
used it and said “there are two cases
that show that it is not dangerous.”
Mr. Bacchus of Hercules then made
the following statement:
“It seems to me Mr. President, the
duty of the explosive business itself to
the general public, is that any risks we
can obviate we should obviate. I think
we will all grant that blasting caps are
very much more sensitive than dynamite, and that blasting caps might explode dynamite, hence, when you haul
blasting caps with dynamite, you have
made that load much more sensitive to
shock and explosion then if you were
hauling dynamite alone. Hence that
kind of an explosion should be made
as unlikely as possible. Now an explosion of dynamite from shock or a collision is an unlikely thing, because we
can point out in innumerable instances where there has been collisions on
railroads without the explosion of the
dynamite, but we could not be so sure
that there would not have been an explosion if your shipment had been a

mixed shipment of dynamite and blasting caps. The inference is that there
would be an explosion; there would
be a disaster. Now when you undertake to haul the two together you are
simply inviting trouble, and I don’t
believe we ought to go on record as
favoring it. It may be an unfortunate
thing that it has been brought up, but
I would be very glad indeed to advocate laws in every state prohibiting
the practice and I believe that as dynamite manufacturers that we ought to
take that stand, and that where we can
remove a risk we should do it for the
protection of the public.”
RBH Note: Interesting in these minutes is the statement about “congested
traffic and the automobile.” Little did
the person who made that statement
know what congested traffic would be
in the future! Note that the accidents
cited involved wagons and horses, not
automobiles - auto and truck accidents
were a little bit in the future, but not
too far. In 1913 the railroads were

dominant in transportation, and the
rules and regulations they imposed
were well thought out and reasonable.
By separating dynamite and cap shipments, many disasters were probably
avoided, since there were frequent
train wrecks, regardless of their safety
programs. Because accidents involving
dynamite and caps were rare or nonexistent with wagons and horses, it is
understandable that companies would
resist applying the railroad’s rules to
wagon transportation.
Mr. Bacchus of Hercules was thinking very clearly about the potential
of accidents with caps and dynamite
being shipped together, and his recommendation that such a practice be
prohibited in every state was clearly
in line with the stated purpose of
the IME to promote safe practices. It
should be apparent to the reader that
these discussions eventually resulted
in the development of the IME 22 box,
which made mixed shipments allowable and safe.

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26

The Journal of Explosives Engineers

March/April 2013

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The Journal of Explosives Engineering - March/April 2013

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