Black Tom Island exploded on July 30, 1916 when 2000 tons of explosives blew up, where they had been stored on the way to Europe for World War One. The link is to today's AP story about it, 90 years later. Here's a link to the Wikipedia map of it's location. Here's the Google Earth forum link to it on a map.
In the same period, there was a fire in the chemical processing plant in Solvay, NY next to Syracuse, NY. It's said much of the dynamite used in World War One was made there. The water system failed and the fire continued. It fortunately did not jump Canada Creek, where the small "barrels" of dynamite were stored. If it had, it has been argued, it would have flattened Syracuse, some say, contested by Albert Einstein, with the force of a small atomic bomb. Solvay is an important industrial process invented by a "Belgian chemist who developed the Solvay process and built factories exploiting it (1838-1922). An industrial process for producing sodium carbonate from sodium chloride and ammonia and carbon dioxide". "A sodium salt of carbonic acid; used in making soap powders and glass and paper" replacing tallow for soap for example, for washing. I thought I saw him listed somewhere as a French sociologist (in English).
Around the time of the explosion of the 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland I went to evaluate the site for archaeological potential with Will Roberts the "Principal Investigator, P.I." archaeologist (on a "Register of Professional Archaeologists" formerly a "Society of Professional Archaeologists" like the one for journalists, SOPJ) at Greenhouse Consultants on 40 Exchange Place (the building is featured in the recent film "Werewolves of Wall Street" with Eric Roberts, Julia Roberts' brother, the landlady in the film, is Louise Lasser once Woody Allen's wife and star of "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman"). NY State DOT (Dept. of Transportation) ran a signs factory there. We met a Vietnam Vet who was trying to get some attention for the historic significance of it. It was an important funicular system, cables carried buckets between large towers, looking like modern electric power lines, from the mine site over a mile away to the processing plant, an important industrial site. I think it was recorded by HABS/HAER, "The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) are programs of the National Park Service established for the purpose of documenting historic places. Records consists of measured drawings, archival photographs, and written reports." Wikipedia
The Black Tom Island Story by James Ottavio Castagnera (added 9/1/06)
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