US45774A - Improved blasting-fuse - Google Patents

Description

T. H. WALTON.

Blasting-Fuse.

N. PETERS, FHOTO-LITHOGRAPHER, WASHINGTON, D O.

Patented Jan. 3. 1865.

IIZVBIZZOZ" THOMAS H. WVALTON, OF ASHLAND, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVED BLAS TlNG-FUSE.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 15,77d, dated January 3, 1865.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, THOMAS H. WALTON, of Ashland, in the county of Schuylkill and State of Pennsylvania, have invented new and useful Improvementsin Safety Blasting-Fuses; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which Will enable others skilled in the art to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which Figure l is a piece of blasting-fuse constructed after my invention, and ready for use Fig. 2 is a transverse section Of thG same.

Similar letters of reference indicate like parts.

My fuse is intended for use by miners and others in blasting coal, rock, ore, and in other similar uses, and is intended as a substitute for the metal-barrel fuse, the flexible fuse, and other kinds. I make it by plowing a narrow groove,.B, in a strip of wood, A, which may be round, or of any other forin, and of any desirable length and dimensions. The groove may be of any suitable. shape. I place a train of powder, commonfuse, or any of their substitutes at the botqom of the groove, and cover and'protect it by laying over it in the groove any water-proof material, such as oakum, tarred cord, pitch, or any other suit able material, or any combination of such materials. One end, 0, of the fuse is to be inserted in or otherwise connected to the cartridge, and the other end is to be supplied with a slow-match, D, which is secured in the groove B, as shown in Fig. 1. The slowmatch D projects from the fuse a sufficient distance for safe operation.

When a blast is to be fired in any wet situation, my fuse is to be inserted in a waterproof cartridge in such a manner as to make the joint water-tight. The cartridge and fuse are then placed in the drilled hole and tamped in the usual manner. The fuse is to be of such a length as to leave one end outside of the hole-to wit, the end provided with the slow-match D. The slow-match should be of the kind used in fire-works, which will hold fire and burn through any strangled position, for the match will be, as pyrotechnists term it, strangled, in the interior of the fuse. A fuse constructed in this way may be used with safety and certainty up to the length of, say, fifteen feet, more or less. It will be much cheaper than the safety-fuse made of flexible materials, the use of which is almost abandoned in this country, on account of its liability to cut and nip or strangle while the hole is being tamped, and thereby made useless for blasting in coal, and in similar sitnations. blastingbarrel now much used in coal-mines, which costs vastly more than my fuse. My fuse will not be liable to ignite the charge prematurely, as an iron needle does; and while it is water-proof, it will still not be liable to be cut or to collapse orstrangle where the least care is used in tamping. The fuse may furthermore be coated with any water and weather proof substance over its whole surface, in addition to the covering of the powder in its groove.

The fuse thus constructed may be properly called a safety blasting-squib.

Having thus described my invention in the construction of safety-fuse for blasting, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The safety blasting-fuse, constructed substantially as above set forth.

THOMAS H. WALTON. l/Vitnesses:

. HENRY S. BONER,

A. N. RAUB.

It will also be cheaper than the iron

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