“The Safest and Strongest”

Tucson merchants sold competing blasting powders as ordinary mining supplies. The newspapers carrying their advertisements also recorded what happened when those powders exploded too soon.

Powder for a Mining Territory

On January 4, 1882, Tucson businessman James H. Toole placed a large advertisement in the Arizona Daily Star for the Giant Powder Company. It was directed at the territory’s miners, railroad men and engineers – people whose work depended upon breaking rock.

The advertisement presented Giant Powder as the original American nitroglycerine powder manufactured under Alfred Nobel’s patents. It called the product the safest and strongest high explosive on the market. It also warned buyers that Hercules, Vulcan, Vigor and other competing compounds were imitations or adulterations of the original.

Those were the company’s claims, not findings made by the newspaper. Rival manufacturers made claims of their own.

A California Vigorite Powder Company advertisement cited an October 12, 1880, decision by the United States Supreme Court and insisted that Vigorite did not infringe Giant’s patents. The advertisement went further, declaring Vigorite safer to transport and handle, free from harmful fumes and less affected by heat, cold or moisture. Its headline promised that the risks of accidents would be greatly lessened.

The rival advertisements reveal a business in which the word safe required qualification. Every seller wanted miners to believe that its powder was more dependable than the others. None could remove the consequences of a premature explosion.

Competing Agents in Tucson

Toole’s appearance in the Giant advertisement gave the product a prominent territorial representative. He was a Tucson merchant, banker and former mayor. Toole Avenue was later named for him. His involvement shows that the explosives trade was not confined to mining camps or handled only by specialized powder men. It was part of Tucson’s established commercial network.

Toole was not the only merchant supplying that market. On March 7, 1882, Marcus Katz advertised groceries, hardware and mining supplies from his store at Congress and Meyer streets. Among those supplies was powder from the California Powder Works.

By July 29, the competition was even more visible. William A. Scott Jr., at 13 Meyer Street, advertised Hercules blasting and sporting powders, caps and fuse. On the same newspaper page, C. B. Sessions announced that he kept a large assortment of Giant and Judson powders, together with Giant caps and fuse. Sessions identified himself as general agent for Arizona and New Mexico.

Another notice that day reported that D. H. Birdsall, general traveling agent for the Giant Powder Company, was in Tucson. The advertisements and Birdsall’s visit show an active effort to sell explosives in the territory. They also show that Toole’s January advertisement should not be read as evidence that he remained Giant’s only Arizona representative throughout the year.

The Danger Reached Arizona’s Mines

The advertisements usually spoke of strength, reliability and safety. Brief mining reports showed the other side of the trade.

On March 17, 1882, the Arizona Daily Star reported that a miner named Gilmartin had been severely injured by a premature blast at the Ingersoll Mine. According to the short notice, the force of the explosion struck him about the head. The report did not identify the powder brand or explain what caused the blast.

A more severe accident appeared in the Tombstone Epitaph on July 15. Two days earlier, an unnamed Native American man had been attempting to prime a giant-powder cartridge when the cartridge exploded. Both hands were blown off, and Dr. Spence amputated his arms. The paper provided neither the man’s name nor the place where the accident occurred.

The account is direct evidence that giant powder was being handled in the Tombstone area. It does not establish that the cartridge was manufactured by the Giant Powder Company. By this period, newspapers sometimes used giant powder as a general description for dynamite or a nitroglycerine blasting compound. Brand and generic usage cannot always be separated from a short report.

Factories and Quarries

Arizona readers also received regular reports of explosions outside the territory. These accounts appeared beside the local advertisements and mining news.

On February 10, 1882, the Star carried a dispatch from Newburg, New York, reporting that an explosion at a giant-powder works had killed two men and injured others. On March 7, the newspaper reported that the packing works of the Superior Powder Company near Marquette, Michigan, had blown up, killing four men.

Later that month, the Star described an explosion at the Vulcan Powder Works near Berkeley, California. A fire began in a room communicating almost immediately with stored powder. The blast tore the building apart, and the flying wreckage killed or wounded the men working there.

On July 29, the paper reported another explosion of giant powder at a stone quarry near Chicago. The concussion was felt blocks away, unroofed some buildings and broke windows. No deaths were reported, but a number of people were injured.

A September report described the destruction of a small California Powder Company mill near Santa Cruz. The only occupant, identified as R. Tufts, was killed. The newspaper stated that 800 pounds of giant powder exploded, throwing timbers into the air and breaking windows in the neighborhood. Because the plant belonged to the California Powder Company, the wording probably described a type of explosive rather than a product made by the rival Giant Powder Company.

Safe Only When Carefully Handled

On February 3, 1883, the Arizona Daily Star addressed the frequency of powder-mill explosions. The newspaper rejected the common explanation that carelessness alone accounted for them. It argued that dynamite was often described as being as safe to handle as cordwood when ordinary precautions were observed, yet its sensitivity to a spark or flash encouraged workers to become careless.

The editorial included a disparaging racial comparison involving Chinese powder workers. That statement reflected the prejudice of the writer and provides no reliable evidence about the relative conduct or ability of different workers. The relevant point is the newspaper’s recognition that repeated explosions did not agree comfortably with the industry’s safety claims.

Blasting powder was indispensable to territorial mining and construction. Tucson merchants stocked it with caps, fuse, hardware and other supplies. Company agents crossed the territory seeking customers. Miners carried the cartridges underground and prepared them at the working face.

The advertisements promised controlled power. The accident reports documented the limit of that promise. In territorial Arizona, dynamite was both an ordinary article of commerce and a material that could take a man’s hands before the charge ever reached the rock.

Research Notes and Documentation

Editorial note: The newspaper advertisements document what manufacturers and agents claimed. They do not independently prove that one powder was safer, stronger or chemically superior to another.

Date and source	Item	Use and limitation
Jan. 4, 1882 Arizona Daily Star	Giant Powder Company advertisement naming Jas. H. Toole general agent for Arizona.	Primary advertisement. Product superiority and safety language treated only as company claims.
Mar. 7, 1882 Arizona Daily Star	Marcus Katz advertisement for California Powder Works; Superior Powder Company packing-works explosion near Marquette, Michigan.	Documents Tucson competition and a separately reported fatal factory accident.
Mar. 17, 1882 Arizona Daily Star	Mr. Gilmartin injured about the head by a premature blast at the Ingersoll Mine.	Arizona accident. Powder type, exact cause and outcome not stated.
Mar. 28, 1882 Arizona Daily Star	Vulcan Powder Company granulating-house explosion near Berkeley, California.	Contemporary report of fire reaching stored powder; casualties not individually named in the clipping.
July 15, 1882 Tombstone Epitaph	Unnamed Native American man lost both hands while priming a giant-powder cartridge; arms amputated by Dr. Spence.	Strongest local incident. Victim, mine and manufacturer not identified.
July 29, 1882 Arizona Daily Star	Ads for Hercules powder through Wm. A. Scott Jr. and Giant and Judson powders through C. B. Sessions; D. H. Birdsall in Tucson; Chicago quarry explosion.	Documents competing Tucson agencies, a visiting Giant representative and another reported accident.
Sept. 20, 1882 Arizona Daily Star	California Powder Company mill near Santa Cruz destroyed; R. Tufts killed; 800 pounds of giant powder reportedly exploded.	The phrase giant powder may be generic here; it should not be attributed automatically to Giant Powder Company.
Feb. 3, 1883 Arizona Daily Star	Editorial discussing frequent powder-mill explosions and careless handling.	Used for contemporary opinion. Its racial characterization is explicitly rejected as unsupported prejudice.

Unresolved Points

• The available clipping does not provide the full location or later condition of Mr. Gilmartin after the Ingersoll Mine accident.
• The man injured near Tombstone on or about July 13, 1882, is unnamed. His identity and the mine or worksite have not been established.
• The advertisements show Toole, Sessions, Scott and Katz selling or representing competing products, but they do not by themselves establish the contractual dates or hierarchy of those agencies.
• No large Arizona powder-mill or magazine disaster from 1882 was located. The article therefore makes no claim that one occurred.
• A later claim that William Alexander was killed by a premature blast near Tombstone has not been included because a contemporary report has not been located.

Context Source

Pima County Public Library, “Toole Avenue – Origin of Name.” Used to confirm James H. Toole’s Tucson business and civic prominence and the naming of Toole Avenue.