ND TRANSPORTATION OF CHEMICALS

THE real necessity for regulations to govern the transportation of hazardous articles first came to the attention of Congress after some very serious explosions occurred during the manufacture and transportation of dynamite. In one case a boxcar load of dynamite exploded almost opposite an occupied pullman passenger car and, as there were no regulations affecting the manufacture of dynamite in existence at that time, the cause of the functioning of the dynamite was never determined. Twenty lives were lost and the financial loss exceeded $600,000 The rules regarding transportation of hazardous articles at that time were written by individual railroads with no uniformity, each railroad enforcing what it belived to be some control over the transportation of dangerous articles. After several serious explosions in rail transportation the carriers petitioned Congress for some regulations or governmental act authorizing such regulations so that there would be some over-all uniform supervision of the commodities ...