David Bradshaw Photos Volume XVIII

[ericp]

David,
I'll go check out the blasting caps this weekend and let you know what the tin says on it (no pictures allowed in the archives). Most of the folks around here that really knew blasting are dead, dying, or long since moved away; it'd be interesting to hear what you have to say about them.


Eric

[bradshaw]

Eric.... As my late friend Master Blaster Don Matthieu used to say, "You don't know too many old blasters." Nitroglycerine is a VASODILATOR. It dilates blood vessels. That is why a tiny dose can stop a heart attack. And it explains the "powder headache," as expanded blood vessels in the brain bring on the headache. I love the smell of nitro, but I learned early that the side affect overrides the pleasure----unlike the sweet scent of a fresh fired shotgun shell. Nitro migrates through skin as readily as it is inhaled, Working with it in a confined space in a hot climate is the worst. A powder monkey who has handled dynamite for years does not have a heart attack while handling it. He catches a heart attack when he is away from it for a few days. Blood vessels have become addicted to artificial dilation. The vessels close down in anticipation of the nitro. When the nitro doesn't arrive, the veins stay shut.

I read a government report on the handling hazards of nitroglycerine dynamite, then re-read it. To my shock there was no mention of the glycol put in stick dynamite as antifreeze. Glycol antifreeze causes kidneys to crystalize----acute irreversible kidney failure. Fatal toxemia. If Dr. Lee Martin reads this, he may straighten me out on a few details, but I consider the nitro as opening the pores to glycol entering the body, which may be more deadly than nitro. A friend lost his dog after it wandered through the woods to the shop of a guy does radiator work. Dog lapped from a pan of antifreeze. Dog returned home, went down the bank to a brook, where my friend found it in agony. Vet said to put it down, as to keep her alive was torture. Nothing could be done. Acute kidney failure causing uric acid build up in blood. Unable to pee. When I asked the vet if only dogs were attracted to the sweet smell of antifreeze, she said, "Oh no. Horses and cows will drink antifreeze, and it'll kill them just as dead. All animals are attracted to the sweet smell. And cats are super sensitive. One lick of antifreeze can shut down a cat's kidneys."

Powder monkeys like their coffee, as caffeine is a vasoconstrictor. As soda pop goes, Mountain Dew, with high caffeine content, was a favorite. I tend to coffee, as I don't care for soda pop.
David Bradshaw

[ericp]

David,
The display has been moved so I was unable to check out those blasting caps. I'll let you know when I figure out where they have been taken, if they have been moved to the historic park in Calumet photos may be a possibility.


Eric

[dmize]

License plate on an F350 in the shop the other day is by far my favorite.
I am a Powder Monkey,if you see me running you best be following.

[bradshaw]

dmize.... as the late great master blaster Don Matthieu would say, "You got that right." If you don't know where to stand, get behind the powder monkey. Open blasting is a heads-up game. First, you want to see anything coming at you, anything floating out of the sky. That is why it cannot be done at night. Once dynamited a barn. Real waste of powder. The boys had sawed through structural beams, figuring they then could pull it over with a dozer. Didn't happen. Naturally, by the time they got me, the landscape had turned into a picnic, folks sitting down. Couldn't get rid of 'em, so I moved 'em back. Everyone stand and look at the shot. Can't be sitting down if you have to dance. I drilled holes in posts and strung the charges with det cord for an instant shot. No delays. Did not like being inside the weakened barn; wind could do what the dozer had not.

"Stand by. Ready. Fire in the hole!" KA-BLOOM! Sure enough, there was dancing to be done as beams took flight.

Whitworth, in the Balkans... dealing with unexploded ordnance is a totally opposite caper. First, you're dealing with mean people bent on committing harm. Second, a diabolical, whole other shrapnel factor.
David Bradshaw

[Seasons44]

www.nydailynews.com/new-york/authorities-rush-assess-damage-ave-subway-blast-article-1.1141228


I don't know if anybody remembers this, but this was an interesting day in the city, I know allot of the guys on the job and the cause was improper matting,they were lucky nobody got killed

[bradshaw]

seasons44.... just read the link you posted. I expect New York sandhogs are some of the best blasters in tunneling. Looks like the shot "rifled," blew straight up. Bad as it is, that is good for confining "fly"----fly rock----to a small radius. The streets of NYC are porous, full of voids for sewer, electric, ducts, etc. They may have been too close to a void, or what in the trade is called "rotten rock." It is the job of engineers to supply all construction and infrastructure dope. It is also possible in shooting a shaft that the shot rifled from improper "stemming," the material used to plug drill holes and contain pressure. Probably, to prevent a "propagation hazard," very shock-resistant powder was used. Propagation is the sympathetic detonation of powder out of sequence, resulting in an "instant." You can bet that every punkass attorney in the region is swarming the site like ants at a picnic.

If, as you say, insufficient matting allowed the shot to take off, the most likely culprits are incompetence and penny-pinching, either or both. When a supervisor or manager can order shortcuts, we have a problem. I would not work where the blaster could be overruled on taking precautions. Sand and more sand plus mats costs time and money, but has the advantage of grinding the target rock finer, holding vibration down, and making for an easier dig.

Don't make the same mistake once.
David Bradshaw

[Seasons44]

Without going into the BS that went on, there were tons of rumors going on, it was a combination of not double stacking the rubber mats and they decided not to weld the road plate,This particular shot was a bench shot so had quite a bit of upward thrust


A few years back there was a foreman who thought it was a good idea to park a compressor onto the road plate for "added" weight well let just say that brand new shiny compressor was nothing more than scrap. The sandhogs ore some great blasters and I have be fortunate to be able to work with some of the best,but like they say thing happen.

[bradshaw]

seasons44.... what the hell is the weight of a compressor to a little powder? Some years back a farmer got me to blast a trench through a huge whalebone rock running under the footing for a new barn. The barn was 150 feet long, with roof up. However, the pour was still green. Why wasn't I called BEFORE construction? A huge manure pump, with pipe running under the footing, was to be installed. The earth contractor had failed to do a test dig. Any baboon could tell you that mountain slopes in New England are usually made of rock. With farmer and contractor gathered round, I asked the farmer, "Do you want the foundation stood up like a drawbridge? Or, do you want a trench under it, with no cracks in the concrete?"

Rhetorical question. It should be hard to imagine a foreman thinking of equipment as matting.
Glad no one was hurt on that shot. Thanks for the dope.
David Bradshaw

[ericp]

Here is a photo of the caps that my neighbor had for those that are interested. The label is pasted on the sheet metal and the box is roughly 3 inches wide. Due to it being behind glass I was unable to include anything for scale.

Eric

[bradshaw]

Eric.... That tin Atlas blasting cap box looks to go back to the days we bought dynamite at the hardware store. Caps indicated are non-electric, designed to have Safety Fuse inserted in the end and the collar crimped on the fuse. Also called underwater fuse. I dis some rock blasting for a highway department years ago. During lunch the foreman says to a truck driver, "Tell David how you lost that finger." The driver, no doubt repeating the story for the hundredth time, says he found some caps at a construction site. He was twelve. Got the bright idea to see what happens when you hold a match to a blasting cap. Took off his finger. So I asked the foreman, "See you're missing a finger, too. What happened?"

"Jumped off a truck on the roll," he says. "Caught my ring on a tarpaulin hook."

In his tome, Hatcher's Notebook, Gen. Julian Hatcher tells of a woman shoveling coal into her basement furnace. Hatcher was called in to make sense of what happened next. Evidently, there was an unexploded cap in the coal. Cap detonated, the end metal piercing her heart. Hatcher goes on to state that the disk end of the cap blows off at 4,000 feet per second. Time has passed since I read that passage; suspect cap detonated as it hit the hot coals.
David Bradshaw

[ericp]

Mr. Bradshaw, you mentioned that you used fuse that burned around 40 seconds per foot. Are there (or were there) other burn rates available or is it something that varied by manufacturer?

On another note
I used to spend a lot of time in a boat yard when I lived downstate and the owner's wife lost her finger when she fell down the companionway of their boat in rough seas. Her wedding ring got caught on the track that the hatch moves fore and aft on as she fell. Pulled the tendons clean out her forearm according to the owner. Yikes.



Eric

[woody]

This post is getting interesting. I didn't know the side effects from the nitroglycerine to blasters. Also maybe I missed it but Dave is that what you did for a living?

[cmh]

Yeah Id say this post got very interesting. My Grandfather was a blaster back in the 30's......... would of asked him about it but didnt know of it until after he had passed on.........

[bradshaw]

My guess is that all underwater fuse would burn about the same. I was in the habit of testing a length from each roll for burn time. No one with half the brains God promised cockroaches would trust fuse cut too short. You work with a time cushion with safety fuse. You cannot approach a misfire nearly as soon as you move in to check an EBC misfire. With safety fuse, the commands "Stand By.... Ready... Fire in the hole," are followed by waiting. Not so with electric or "non-el"----shock tube.

The single greatest hazard in blasting is when the blaster does not have complete situational control. Control is first and foremost about TIME. When you are straining to control all movement within the area for sixty seconds, two minutes is an eternity. Safety fuse does not provide real time control to the instant. It is analogous to lighting a cannon by fuse----a long fuse----versus pulling a trigger. Once the blaster lights the fuse and backs off, no spotter can throw up his hands and shout "Cease fire!"

Two major advancements of the electric blasting cap were (1) situational control, and (2) development of delay EBC's for sequential blasting.
David Bradshaw