The record-union., 1898-04-12
HIGH EXPLOSIVES.
HOW THEY ARE MADE AND
DANGER IN CoMPoUNDING.

| Virtues OF Blasing Gelatiue and
Gun Cotton-Elements That Go
to Make Dynamite-Constitu
Parts of Nitro-G1ycerine.
| One hears a great deal Of talk these
days about high explosives nitro
glycerine, dynamite, gun cotton, blast
ing gelatine and the like. They are
words of awful import to most of US.
They are synonyms of everything that
is deadly and destructive. Here is a
popular description Of each of these
terrible agents, their composition and
comparative utility in warfare and 9TH
erwise:
There are two kinds of explosives
low and high. Lieutenant Edward
Simpson, u. S. N, who is an authority
writes that the term explosive is one
applied to those substances. solid or
liquid, which upon the application of
heat or shock are converted either by
combustion or decomposition into gases
having many times the volume of the
original substance. A low explosive,
like gunpowder, is one which can be
exploded by ignition. Further, the rate
of this combustion can be regulated
by mechanical treatment. Thus, black
Igunpowder goes off quickly. like a fash
| whereas brown gunpowder is a me-
chanical mixture, as are all low explo-
sives; but high explosives, with which
this article has to deal, are chemical
compounds.
GunpoWder is the best known repre-
sentative of the former, nitro-glycerine
of the latter. High explosives are used
where shattering and rending effects
are to be produced and they can be
made to explode only by what is called
detonation - that is by so suddenly
shocking or heating the surrounding
high explosive that the mass is in
stantly chemically changed into gases
many times greater than the original
volume of the explosive, and this gas
in it's efforts to escape rips. tears, de-
stroys, annihilates anything and every
thing around or about it. The havoc
1t can work is terrific and is irresisti-
BILE.
NITRO-GLYCERINE
A great many kinds Of high explo-
sives have been compounded; in all
those used for commercial purposes
nitro -glycerine furnished the active
principle. Nitro -glycerine is formed by
the action of concentrated nitric acid
upon glycerine. 1t is a colorless. oily
liquid having a pungent aromatic taste.
1t produces a violent temporary head
ache if taken into the human system,
either by placing a drop upon the
tongue or on the skin, but when per-
sons habitually handle it they lose
their susceptibility to this action.
AT temperature of 40 degrees
Fahrenheit nitro -glycerine freezes to
a white crystalline mass. and it is usu-
ally kept in this condition until ready
to be used; it can be thus transported
easily and safely. In it's liquid form it
is dangerous to handle in any way
To bring it from it's frozen state into
the liquid form, the cans containing it
are placed in hot water of a tempera-
ture of 100 degrees. The point of firing
is 3o6 degrees
Nitro -glycerine is the most powerful
explosive agent in use; it can be fired
by fuse charged with illuminate of
mercury. However, nitro -g1ycerine in
its pure state is rarely used for ex-
plosives, principally because of it's
dangerous nature Three essentials are
required in a high explosive, strength
or disruptive power safety in handling,
and keeping qualities, and in their eff
forts to secure these many scientists
have brought out different explosives.
DYNAMITE
Dynamite, perhaps, is the name most
familiar to people; it has become to a
great extent generic, and means a high
explosive without consideration of the
ingredients of which the compound
may be manufactured Dynamite. the
genuine article to which the name was
first given and by which in the army
and navy it is still called. is a prepara-
ton made by mixing nitro o-glycerine
with natural silicious earth called
kieselguhr, or rotten stone from which
the water and organic substances have
been driven out. The proportion of the
mixture is 70 per cent. of nitro glycer-
inc and % Of rotten stone. The re-
sulting compound is soft, of a pale
brown color in general appearance and
consistency not unlike damp brown su-
gar
The rotten stone in dynamite proper
is replaced in other high explosives by
some other substance which inventors
claim adds certain specific qualities to
the resultant. This absorbent is called
a dope 1t is this employment of this
dope that renders dynamite safer to
handle and less liable to explosion
from shock than is the case with pure
nitro glycerine. Dynamite freezes at
forty degrees. 1t is always frozen for
transportation; it explodes at $50 de-
grees. To thaw it is dangerous. unless
done with the greatest care Ninety
five per cent of the accidents in mines
due to explosions of dynamite have
been owing to the carelessness of thaw-
ing. In blasting dynamite is very ex-
tensively used, though generally it
goes under the name of powder. For
submarine mines, planted in a channel,
to obstruct the fairway, dynamite is
extensively used. It is put up in cop
per spheres or cylinders, which are an
chored so as to float ten or twelve feet
below the surface, or still lower. to
these are connected electric fuses, oper-
ated by an electric circuit from the
shore. Pressing a key will cause the
fuse to detonate the dynamite and the
explosion follows.
GUN COTTON.
Gun cotton, however, is more extern
sively used for military purposes than
any other form of high explosive 1t is
produced by the action of concentrated
nitric acid on cotton or cellulose. After
compression the white cakes resulting
look very much like ordinary hard
pressed cotton, white and hard. Gun
cotton is unaffected by water. This is
one Of it's most valuable properties.
and one which makes gun cotton so
| on orl chi