Explosives, a term used of gunpowder, gun-cotton, dynamite, nitro-glycerine, cordite, melinite, &c., treated under their several heads (see also BLASTING, FIRE-ARMS, INFERNAL MACHINES, BULLET, GENEVA; and Guttmann, The Manufacture of Explosives, 1895).
Whoever introduces explosives into a building is responsible for any damage they may cause. The tenant of a house is answerable for the damage caused by an explosion of gas on the premises, if gas escapes through the negligence of himself or his servants in attending to the stopecks by which the supply of gas is regulated. Under the
Explosives Act, 1875, any person throwing, casting, or firing any fireworks in or into any highway, street, thoroughfare, or public place, is liable to a penalty of £5. Any person unlawfully and maliciously causing, or attempting or conspiring to cause, an explosion likely to endanger life or seriously to injure property is guilty of felony. It is also felony to make, keep, or have in one's possession any such explosive substance, except under the regulations of the statutes concerning this matter. The chief enactments are the Explosives Act (which regulates the manufacture, storage, keeping, selling, and conveyance of nitro-glycerine, dynamite, gun-cotton, and other explosives), the Petroleum Acts, 1871 and 1875, and the Petroleum (Hawkers) Act, 1881. All factories and stores of gunpowder and other explosives must be licensed, and all places where explosives are kept must be registered. The sale of gunpowder to any child apparently under thirteen is prohibited. Government inspectors, officers of local authorities, and constables may search for and seize explosives unlawfully kept, in ordinary cases with a warrant, and in cases of emergency with a written order from a superintendent of police. The master of every ship which enters a British harbour must, if the ship carry petroleum, give notice of the fact to the harbour authority, which, under confirmation of the Board of Trade, makes bylaws regulating the landing of petroleum. Petroleum to the amount only of three gallons may be kept for private use or sale without a license, if it is kept in separate glass, metal, or earthen vessels, securely stopped, and each containing not more than a pint.