Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1904-04-19
OF HIGH EXPLOSIVES.
Some of tho Most Powerful Discovered
by Accident.

W StSCtoouS
The days Of the past week have gone
off with a bang which has startled
the whole world. We had not much
acquaintance ere this with the power
and possibilities of modern explosives
in a sea fight. We knew enough OF
them to horrify those who are OF the
peace-loving disposition, but IN real
practice, when the monsters OF the
deep are as playthings at the mercy OF
the explosives and the lives of men
are at stake, we knew little of their
work. With the story Of the week,
thrilling and sanguinary, all are now
familiar, with the general principles
underlying the composition Of torpe-
does and the powerful ordnance OF the
day there Is also some acquaintance,
but there is an underlying mystery
which has an interest Of its own just
now-the mystery Of high explosives.
1t is a romantic story, and the ro-
nance is allied to q paradox.
Some time ago I was standing IN
naval laboratory watching an elemen-
tary demonstration Of the principles
Of torpedo practice and submarine
mining. To my horror my companion
took up a piece of something which
he had deliberately assured me mo-
ment before was guncotton, and ap-
piled a light to it. 1t flared away
fiercely while I waited for the worst
but the practical joker onlv watched
1t with a smile. Perfectly harmless,
he said, when 1t had burnt out; the
safest thing IL you know what 1t Will
and will not do. You can light a cigar
or blow up a battleship with It. L
subsequently saw 200 pounds of 1t
which had been sunk in a creek ex-
ploded, and the water was thrown up
in a column 80 feet high, blackened
here and there by the fragments OF
what had been a whaleboat moment
before. 1t is that knowledge Of the
peculiarities Of an explosive, OF Its
likes and dislikes, of its natural hab-
it's, so to speak, which has been sought
by chemists who pursue these strange
forms of research. and the constant
aim in latter times has been to find
an explosive at once powerful and re-
| liable.
The old common black powder was
deemed an invention Of the Evil One
when 1t was invented, but those were
warlike days, and being simply made
of inter, sulphur and charcoal, 1t held
it's own for many years. Then came
the desire for more powerful explo-
| sives, and the development In pow
der and ordnance has gone on stimuli
taneously. A good smokeless powder
was particularly desired, and guncot-
| ton was used as the basis. When the
Maxim gun first came into use the old
powders soon produced an enormous
pail Of smoke which rendered the gun
useless. Experiments were conducted
necessarily in the hope Of hitting on a
good smokeless powder. The govern
ment would not look at powder
which was based on that unstable
stuff nitroglycerin, but the chemists
| went on. and at last Sir Hiram Maxim,
then without his knighthood, patented
new smokeless powder compound OF
nitroglycerin, guncotton and oil. The
similarity between this composition
| and that of Sir Frederick Abel and
Prof. Dewar led to a legal action and a
great controversy, but 1t is generally
recognized that we owe the base OF
smokeless powder to the famous in
| ventor Of the machine gun.
| Then, however, inventors were sent
off on new track. A warehouse fire
took place at Manchester where picric
acid was stored in proximity to some
high explosives. The result was an
explosion Of great violence, and the
investigation showed what had not
then been suspected, that picric acid
| was in certain circumstances the most
| deadly explosive known. Till that
time picric acid, which was obtained
by nitrating indigo, had been used as
a dyestuff only, because instead of be-
ing blue, like it's parent, it was bril-
liant yellow. But the hint Of its ex-
plosive powers thus given led the
chemists to experiment with modern
picric acid. which Is not made from
indigo, but from nitrated coal-tar pro-
ducts, and is chemically known as tri-
nitro -phenol. The French led the way,
and melinite was introduced, and the
precedence obtained by France fired
the zeal Of our own authorities.
Finding that large quantities of car
bolic acid or phenol had been bought
in this country for France, they sus-
pected that picric acid was at the base
Of the new marvel. Their surlnlse was
correct. Picric acid Is a deadly but
eccentric explosive. If placed on an
anvil and struck with a hammer 1t
| will go off; If heated in pan over a
fire it will simply evaporate. but If
dropped into a receptacle at the same
temperature it will explode. The ex-
periments which were undertaken led
to the introduction of lyddite, which Is
simply picric acid made less sensitive
| by the admiXture Of di-nitro-benzol
and vaseline. OF course. the chief OBJ
ject was to devise an explosive which,
when loaded into q shell. would not
explode until the shell had pierced the
armor plate against which it was dis
charged. The explosive within the
hull would be we'll nigh disastrous In
most cases. The plcric acid explosive,
such as lyddite. Is a deadly paradox.
In many circumstances which seem
likely to stir II into wrath 1t Is quite