New Mexico Mineral Symposium — Abstracts

This talk will outline the history of the electric blasting machine, why it was developed, and the evolution of the hardware up to the 1950s. There are many brands of blasting machines, but all work on the same principle. Early 1880s versions were bulky and heavy with little firing power making electric-fired blasting less attractive for the small-time miner until well into the 1920s when motorcar access to most mines was made possible and their usage “exploded.” The same basic plunger design was used into the 1950s and1960s but fell into relic status as mines became bigger along with blasting requirements. Blasting machines are a well-recognized and quintessential icon of both serious mining and Roadrunner cartoons. They are wonderful to collect and display with minerals as a testament to the hard and dangerous work of mineral extraction.