The Golden Age/for October/1st/1919/pages-15-16/
Dynamiting The Earth Into A Paradise!
The use of Electricity and dynamite in the Great War has developed methods for dealing with rocks, stumps and water courses which will alter the face of the earth. In digging ditches the holes are drilled two feet apart and two feet deep, the number of rows depending upon the width desired for the bed of the stream. As soon as about 10 holes are drilled and loaded they are exploded by electricity. The blast lifts the soil 200 feet in the air and scatters it out over the adjoining land for a distance of 150 feet, leaving a clean ditch. If a deeper bed is desired the first bed of streams can be blasted out by an-other layer of holes, or a third.
One of the principle uses of dynamite in clearing up large areas is that of blasting out stumps. Three holes are drilled on opposite sides of the stump, all slanting in toward the center, and reaching down to the subsoil beneath the stump. Crow-bars are generally used for making the holes, but portable electric and compressed air drills are also used.
Another great use of dynamite is in clearing land of boulders. This is done by three methods, mudcapping, which consists in removing the dynamite from the shell and packing it in a compact conical heap on the boulder, and then covering it with several inches of thick heavy mud; blockholing, which consists of drilling a hole into the boulder and charging it with a small amount of dynamite; and snake-holing, which consists in rolling the boulder out of its bed by placing a hole under it similar to one of the holes used to remove a stump. If a sufficient charge of dynamite is used the boulder will be broken into fragments. Boulders should always be snakeholed before attempts at mudcapping or block-holing are made. The mud used for mudcapping must be free from stones. If stones are present in the mud they will be thrown like bullets. Block-holing requires more labor but is the simplest method for breaking very hard boulders, and the only method for breaking very hard boulders over 3 feet in diameter. It requires much less dynamite than either snakeholing or mudcapping.
Who should have supposed when the Prophet said, "The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose" (Isaiah 35:1), that one of the INSTRUMENTS THE LORD WILL USE IS A FORCE (DYNAMITE), WHICH HAS BEEN LARGELY USED BY MAN FOR THE SLAUGHTER OF MEN?
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Golden Age/October/1st/1919/pages-15-16/.