BLASTING

is the method of loosening or shattering ma es of solid matter, which can be fractured, by means of explosive compound. It is more to do with disintegrating rock in the sinking of shafts, or cutting of tunnels, than with quarrying. The explosives used are generally gunpowder, preparations of nitroglycerine, nitro-cotton, or gun-cotton. The first is only used in the free condition under exceptional circumstances, owing to the risk of accidental explosion. There are three kinds of blasting—(1) The small-shot blasts. The system removal; (a) of the Flood mine Island system in Long; (3) surface Island Sound, New York, was the greatest blast the world has yet seen.