BIOS:  Tom W. Mendenhall, Wichita Fall, TX

   Selected and converted.American Memory, Library of Congress.
   
   Washington, 1994.
   
   Preceding element provides place and date of transcription only.
   
   This transcription intended to be 99.95% accurate.
   
   For more information about this text and this American Memory
   collection, refer to accompanying matter.
   
   U.S. Work Projects Administration, Federal Writers' Project (Folklore
   Project, Life Histories, 1936-39); Manuscript Division, Library of
   Congress.Copyright status not determined.
   
   00011
   
   Major, Lettie, PW; Wichita Falls, Texas
   
   Words 350
   
   Page 1 ADVENTURE OF A DYNAMITER
   
   "I wouldn't be afraid in the least to take a pint of nitroglycerine
   place it [DEL: [?] :DEL] in a glass bottle, and thow it down on the
   side walk from the top of the city national bank building[md]and I'm
   not planning on dying soon either.
   
   The above startling statement was made by a veteran dynamiter of
   Wichita Falls, Tom W. [Mendenhall?] (affectionately called "Old Tommy
   by oil field workers)
   
   Notice thatold Tommy specifies a glass bottle. "If I took a pint of
   nitro and put it in tin containers following the same procedure I'd
   soon be knocking at the pearly gates."
   
   Mr. [Mendenhall?] has been in the business forty-five years, having
   formed his first dynamite company in 1895. He was driving those days,
   a pair of pure bred horses from Kentucky, of which he is more proud,
   he declares, than he is in 1938, of his modern steam line equipment.
   
   One day while driving to a well, the tin containers in which he was
   carring nitroglycerine sprung a leak. Arriving at his destination, he
   discovered that he had lost 20 quarts of the fluid-enough to blow up
   the down section of Wichita Falls. It is friction that causes nitro to
   explode. That is why it is dangerous to carry it in tin containers,
   says Mr. [Mendenhall?]. The old belief that a jar or bump makes nitro
   explode is all foolishness. If that were so, we couldn't haul it from
   place to place.
   
   I can remember as well as if it were yesterday, one time in Carol,
   West Virginia. I had about 15 quarts of nitro in the end of the wagon
   in tin containers, but fixed very securely in wooden boxes. The horses
   ran over a steep cliff about 400 feet deep. As soon as he went over
   the edge of the road, I jumped from the wagon. 00022"About half way
   down the cliff, I stopped rolling, but the horses and wagon and
   explosive were still going. I crawled to the edge of the cliff and
   looked over. The horses were dead and the wagon demolished. I put my
   hands over my ears, but no explosion followed.
   
   "It was a different matter when I set off thenitro cans in Wichita
   Falls. I had someold empties that I thought were dangerous to leave
   around. So I placed them up on the hill and set a slow match. I
   hurried down the hill to a safe place, but as I looked back I saw an
   old sow and a bunch of pigs approaching the cans. I hollowed at them
   and threw rocks but they wouldn't go away. They kept rooting
   aroundtill the cans exploded--Boy! I never saw such a rain of pork. I
   had sausage and pork steak for weeks.

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