Very well, now this is the truth without any frills of exaggeration or any belittlement: Dynamite MAY go off by being thrown so that it lands with a jar, but it is not likely to be so hasty as all that.

Whole boxes of it have been dropped off wagons traveling over rough trails, with no worse effect than a nervous chill down the spine of the driver of the wagon.

It is true that old stuff, after lying around for months and months through varying degrees of temperature, may perform erratically, exploding when it shouldn't and refusing to explode when it should.

The average miner refuses to take a chance with stale "giant" if he can get hold of fresh.
One stick the size of an ordinary candle, and from that to a maximum amount of four sticks, may be used to "load" a hole eighteen to twenty-four inches long, drilled into living rock.

The amount of dynamite used depends upon the quality of rock to be broken and the skill and good judgment of the miner.