Transport: Doctor’s Dynamite

To blast a reservoir on his farm at Stanfordville, N. Y., Dr. Edgar Ernst needed 50 Ib. of dynamite, ordered it sent by freight from the du Pont factory in Wilmington, Del. Last week, in a special car pulled by a special engine. Dr. Ernst’s dynamite arrived. Confronted with the difficulty of transporting a package no bigger than a soap box which was nonetheless capable of blowing up a complete train, du Pont had hired a whole boxcar, nailed the crate to the floor in the middle, sealed the doors, plastered the outside with placards screaming EXPLOSIVES! The car was then coupled to a regular freight train, rolled north to Poughkeepsie. No freight train was available to carry the car on to Stanfordville, so it was coupled to an engine which made a special trip 15 miles up a little used line to Stanfordville. Obliging du Pont charged Dr. Ernst $1 for delivery.