The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1915-03-31
POWDER AND BALL
The Deadly Successors to Mans
First Crude Weapons.
FROM JAvELlh TO coRDIrE.

Nature Of Chemical catapults--The
introduction Of Explosives and the
Principles. Governing Them. s4aa
When the first man in the old stone
age thousands Of years ago threw his
first javelin against a hairy mammoth
he put his foot over the threshold Of
tile problem Of explosives. For it
seemed to him-and our feelings today
are with hin-that It would be more
pleasurabie il one could hurt and kill
ones enemy without the gratuitous
thrill of having to sit on the massive
tusk on the verge OF a cRvernous
mouth or Of having 10 approach with
in few PAGES Of the huge legs which
might the next moment descend Upon
him. II would be more convenient to
stand at the cave entrance on a dizzy
ledge of rock and hurl weapon at the
distant enemy.
so man was driven to invent the
catapuit, and gun is merely n cbemi
cal cataprlt. The trigger Is pulled
back like the leather Of the catapult,
and the sudden and extraordinary ex-
pansiQn OF the explosive corresponds
to the elasticity OF the rubber or
spring, the essential feature of both
instruments being the employment OF
some source OF more than human pow
er which can be made to yield up its
energy at a given moment in the re
quired way.
Explosives are, therefore, tabloid en-
ergy or power, and it is !. just reminder
Of the fact that some substances are
explosive generally. whereas quite Il
number Of common things may be
made explosive by some particular
kind OF treatment When water boils
ON the fire there is no explosion as 1t Is
changed into steam. but il the spout
We're scaled and the whole OF the wa
ter could he changed into steam In q
second there would be an explosion.
And the instance is good because it is
really Kitchen model Of n volcano.
Moreover. steam guns were used In
America in the sixties.
The essential idea OF an explosive IL
then the violent release Of some pent-
up thing; just the opposite, from this
standpoint. OF the catapult. which
works by allowing Il distended thing
the elasfic-to contract suddenly,
whereas all explosives release a com
pressed thing. The release gives rise
TO an air wave. and this, Of course. is
experienced as sound. IL Is the
sound which is popularity called an ex-
plosion.
Now, It has been said that an explo-
sive is tabloid force, power, energy.
How is it made available? 1t is easy
to follow the mechanism of an explo-
sive further. Explosives, as common
ly used. are solid substances which. by
burning. produced almost instantane-
otisly an extraordinary large volume of
gases. The heat and pressure of a
blow cause the burning to start, and
the burning also produces heat which.
acting upon the gases, increases the
volume still further. 1t may be s,ig-
gested that there Is no obvious reason
why even Il sudden and enormous ex-
pansion should cause the damage OF
an explosion. And the suggestion is
quite just.
1t is only when they are confned
thst explosives are really dangerous.
Gunpowder burned in the open merely
causes noise like ''pouf" and burns
quickly. Guncotton may be burned on
tho hnnd-it is not TO be recommended
as a fashionable hobby-without any
serious Inconvenience. Indeed. gun
| powder was first used us On incendiary
composition, But n 6rework or gun
charged with gunpowder will explode
with loud report and may cause IA
| tai wounds.
| Gunpowser is the best known OK
plosiye mixture. II is made from the
cornnonest' ngredients-~carbon, sui
| phur and saltpeter There are several
notifications OF gunpowtier. other
nitrates being substituted for the salt
peter--potassium nitrates. The nitrates
give the oxygen TO the mixture. with
out which it would not burn at all,
other explosive mixtures containing
CELEBRATES which have the same amount
of,oxygen as saltpeter and the nitrates.
The different powders are used in DIFF
! ferent circumstances where more
| violent or slower or a safe explosive
Is required. for it is not always the
same effect which one asks from an
explosive. Velocity may at times DO
sacrificed. say. in favor of a higher
weight oil common she'll. Gunpowder
isl ''low" explosive. It's explosion Is
slow, and its effect is less violently
disruptive
Dynamite is probably the best known
"high' explosive. and the name does
not stnnd for one particular substance,
but for d large class. whrchihre, in eff.
feet, diluted nitroglycerin and which
are generally used for blnsting. Il
Guncotton may be described as a
nitrate OF cotton wool (which the
4 Chemist would call eeIIuIose,. Both
f1itroglycerin and guncotton are less
useful as explosives themselves than
tlfeir derivatives. although Russia and
The United States use compressed wet
suncotton IN their high explosive