The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-03-24 00:00:00

EXPLOSIVE COMPOUNDS.

In the theatre of the Royal United Service Institu-
tion, Whitehall-yard, London, on Friday in last week,
Professor T. A. Abel, (the government chemist) of
Woolwich delivered a lecture, illustrated with numer-
ous diagrams and:experiments, on the subject of "The
most recent progress in the production and application
of explosive compounds." •
The Chairman (Mr. W. Spottiswoode), in intro-
ducing the lecturer, said that recent events would
undoubtedly give the subject an additional interest to
the assembly. Apart, however, from any adventitious
interest caused by the explosion in London of Thursday
night, he felt sure that the subject itself, as exempli-
fying the forces of Nature, and the manner in which
the subject would be handled by the lecturer, would
ensure a profitable hour,
Professor Abel said it had unfortunately been his
duty to have been engaged in the investigation of the
disaster which took place on the previous night at the
Government offices in Whitehall. He hoped, there-
fore, he should be excused if his lecture were a little
disjointed. He did not intend to talk much about
gunpowder, but rather to show the progress made by
other explosives. _ _

Having illustrated the vast progress made in artil-
lery during the last few years, the lecturer said that
it had for the last thirty years been a desideratum
that there should be a more violent explosive for shell
purposes than gunpowder. Alluding to the progress
made in the use of wet and dry gun-cotton, he said
that perhaps he might be considered bold in saying that
we had hitherto lacked the moral courage to make the
advances to prove that wet gun-cotton could be used
as an explosive agent in shells.

The lecturer then proceeded to illustrate the sub-
stitutes for powder for small arms, some of which, he
thought, might act destructively upon the firearm
itself. With regard to other explosives, he said that
within the last ten years marvellous strides had been
made in developing explosive agents for mining,
blasting, as well as for military purposes, and there
was, as he illustrated by numerous experiments, a re-
markable difference in the rapidity between the
burning of fulminated mercury and fine grain powder.
To prove this, the professor placed a sprinkling of
powder upon some gun-cotton, and, having rolled it
up, he applied a hot iron to the gun-cotton, which
ignited so rapidly that the powder remained un-
scathed, and was only ignited upon a second applica
tion of the iron. There was no strict line of demarca-
tion, he said, between explosion and detonation, for
it was merely a question of degree. For a long
time there were objections to nitro-glycerine, because
of the great difficulties in the detonation in its
liquid form, but it had been found that the nitro-
glycerine had become one of the most important
explosives.
.It was in that form that it was presented
as dynamite, and it was one of the most formidable as
well as one of the most valuable explosive agents with
which we were acquainted. In one form, with nitro-
glycerine mixed with a kind of earth to be found on
the Continent, and also near Aberdeen, in the neigh-
bourhood of the dynamite works, the dynamite resem-
bled dry putty. In the open air the dynamite burned
harmlessly, and there then appeared very little of the
mischievous energy about the burning of the dry
dynamite. The method of applying nitro-glycerine
with earth assumed a variety of forms, and were given
many fanciful names.
In conclusion, Professor Abel said that a mar-
vellous amount of progress had been effected within
the last ten years in regard to explosive agents in
their application to important industrial purposes,
as well as for naval and military uses. Important
tunnelling and mining operations, which it took ages
to perform, could be carried on now in a very short
space of time, such, for instance, as the removal of
Hell's Gate, near New York, by many thousands of
pounds of these explosive agents. They were most
useful for military purposes, for rapid demolition of
buildings, for the destruction of rails, for the dis-
mantling of guns, and icr breaking up of gun carriages
rapidly. In regard to other uses he could give many
amusing and important illustrations of the value of
' the materials. But, unfortunately, associated with
their value there was always the great drawback—
the facility with which they could be applied, and the
comparatively slight knowledge requisite to apply the
scientific results of the experiments. Already great
mischief had, unfortunately, been done in many direc-
tions which were productive of the most disastrous and
deplorable results.

Referring to the destruction of the gasholder near

Glesg., said that evidently a small charge of
dynamite had been u6el at a little diAance from the
gasholder. It had the effect of blowing in the stout
metal of which the holder was constructed, and
igniting the gas. The plates were perforated and
pitted. In the case of the explosion at West-
minster they would observe that in parts the Port.
land stone of the building was pitted in the same
way.