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I liked this typo: “A sample is taken of each lot of nitroglycerin when mad.


Maybe that’s where the erroneous “e” in “Ayreshire” was meant to be (note: should be Ayrshire)


A bit random, my Grandma went to school in Ayrshire, Iowa [1], which I have to imagine was named after Ayrshire, Scotland.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayrshire,_Iowa


I imagine it was!


I assumed the "mad" part was just some archaic term.

Curious whether it does actually mean something or if it is just a typo.


It's just a typo. The original has "made". I was expecting the text to be a bit more corrupt, but it looks clean and is probably not an OCR type, but a normal human one.


It’s listed as a form of made in the OED but without any examples close to the 19th century. Webster has this spelling.


I'm suspecting a meaning of "marked by uncontrolled excitement". Given deliberate language of the article otherwise.

Suggesting freshly-brewed, not-yet settled nitroglycerine.



Thanks. That settles it.


I think that “when made” would make more sense in context.





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