Idaho Men make Florida Men look almost normal

[jmowreader]

My paper employs a man named Dave Oliveira who writes a Local History column for our Sunday edition. How he works is to read through our early archives - we've been in business since 1892 so they're extensive - for interesting stories, then interviews the descendants of the subjects of these stories.

This week's column was about three men who had perished in what the paper described as the largest explosion in Kootenai County's history.

What happened is these three maniacs were thawing dynamite in the oven and it went off.

[Silent Type]

1. Wish they did that here. Love stories like this.

[Enter stage left]

2. And they were 3 of the smart ones in Idaho!

[Norrrm]

3. Any date of when it happened?

[58Sunliner]

4. I didn't know dynamite could freeze!!

[Old Crank]

8. In case you are interested....

Pure nitro glycerin, what is used for dynamite, is neutralized at between 7-13 C. Why you make it in an ice bath...

How desensitized it gets when in the clay or other material depends on a lot of other factors.

[58Sunliner]

13. From a historical mining site-

Freezing dynamite made the nitroglycerine more stable and safer, so it was, for example, often shipped packed in ice. Dynamite’s freezing temperature is only 11 degrees Celsius, so freezing it was not difficult. However, its low freezing temperature also meant that dynamite could become frozen unintentionally in cooler weather, especially in the simple buildings and shacks in which historical miners often stored it. Dynamite had to be thawed before using, but careless thawing methods caused many historical accidents. There are/were special thawing containers, but some people improvised.

[Hassler]

5. Thanks, Darwin!

[NBachers]

6. So, they had descendants?

[dchill]

10. Possibly descendants of their acquaintances.

(Good question!)

[Mopar151]

7. Fools and High Explosives

Have an often fatal attraction.

[Aussie105]

9. Reminds me of the guy reportedly washing some very dirty and oily work clothes.

Washed it in a washing machine, but used petrol instead of water.
Didn't go well.
A Darwin Award was given.

That story may, or may not be true.

[littlemissmartypants]

11. Snort.

[Tetrachloride]

12. better than cancer