Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-11-07
ION EXPLOSIONS AND EXPLOSIVES

Arabs from China. The first fusil
or musket was created by the Arabs:
it was made to prope1 arrows. There
is. therefore. no merit in attributing
the invention of powder to Roger Ba-
con. to Schwartz-Severinus or Tibseles;
In the thirteenth century cannon and
"bombards" existed, but the inventors
name is a myth. Powder (black) was
used since the fourteenth century. 1t
consists: rs saltpeter or azotate OF po-
tasse to 12.5 charcoal and 12.5 sulphur:
Brown powder is made of calcinated
charcoal at 800 degrees only. in place
of 400 for black powder.
Its role as an explosive is limited
Smokeless powder is more powerful.
Until recent years black powder served
to charge musket and cannon. 1t keeps
well. But black powder has the
fault of being too crushing. II acts
too quick; burns too promptly: 1t fs
detestable for fusil cannon, and
projectile for it cannot be given
good range except at the risk of smash
ing the gun.
Since the revolution attempts have
been made to render black powder more
progressive by assuring slow combus
ton. In Germany in 1881 chocolate
powder was invented (77 saltpeter, 20
charcoal, sulphur.
Black powder still plays role In ar
balls or shrapnel.
Is powder an instrument OF civiliza-
ton, as asserted? Its advocates claim
that 1t was powder
Powder and that held the barbara
o.,. ans in check. 1t has
OlVlAlZdtlon. aided civilization GER
tainly in an Industrial way, opening
galleries in mines and in perforating
mountains.
In 1885 Berthelot. French chemist,
having discovered chlorate OF potash,
thought he might substitute 1T for salt
peter in black powder. 1T was possible
and rational, but dangerous. At the
powder mills of Essonnes both Berthe
lot and Lavoisier, who accompanied
him, narrowly escaped destruction in
the experiments made. In itself chlor-
ete ri potash is not dangerous. but as
ISOLATED with sulphur it becomes ex-
cessively sensitive and redoubtabl
Berthelot powder contained rs of
chlorate, 10 sulphur, Is charcoal. In
Augendre powder of 1S49, chlorate was
mixed with prussiate of potash and
sugar; in 1850 Melville powder was
made of chlorate with sulphur of
arsenic and sulphate of potassium:
Davay, in 1852, mixed chlorate, nitrate
and prussiate. French. Russians, Eng
in attempting the utilization of chlor-
ate. In 1882 a elaborated powder dn-
dustriaD made its appearance under the
name of asphaline. Then followed. In
turn, the prometheus, rack-a-rock.
cheddite, permonite, polarite. ajax,
dynobel.
In 1899 Howard. an Englishman. OBJ
tanned the illuminate of mercury. Very
sensitive, it was employed in capsules
to explode explosives. illuminate Of
mercury is still a mystery when en-
ployed alone, but very useful when
mixed with moderating substances in
inmate of mercury is employed in the
howitzer shell of the French rs and in
some other arms.
In 1882 a new type of explosive was
created at Nancy by the chemist Bra
counot by treating
Developments starch. wood fibers
of the Thirties. stances sna o'n Mitn s soo-
centrated azotic acid. This was the de-
but of nitro-celluloses. of which gun
cotton Is component.
In 1888 Pelouze repeated the expert
ments of Bracounot and extended them.
He proved that all celluloses plunged
into aZotic acid, then washed and dried,
furnished a most inflammable and util-
liable product in pyrotechnics. In 1S45
Dumas nitrfhed paper-a cellulose-
and used it as "nitramidine" in the
making of artillery cartridges or gar
gousses." In 1886 Swiss, Schoenbein.
discovered ozone, perfected the inven
ton of Dumas by treating cellulose by
mixtures of nitric and sulphuric acids
and not by nitric acid alone. Schoen-
bein then obtained more active body
and by the employment of cotton his
cellulose remains the best known.
Austria purchased Schoenbein's cellu-
lose and Won Lenk introduced some
changes. employing guncotton, but
with deplorable results. for guncotton
burst the cannon. Abel. the English
chemist. succeeded in employing gW-
cotton reduced to pulp, washed it al
then compressed it, This guncotton
was still variable and of little value
for artillery But Abel had an as
sistant named Brown, who found two
most important facts-the action of
illuminate on compressed cotton dried
and that little dried cotton causes
the explosion of wet cotton. Thus wet
cotton can be stored and is much less
sensitive and it is this humid cotton
which is now employed in torpedoes
Guncotton did not become a war ex-
plosive until completed by Louis Men
ard, Flores Domonte and NJ. Vieille.
In 1916, in a note to the Academy of
Sciences, Menard and Domonte showed
that guncotton is soluble in a mixture
VI dlCoHol anu etner, thuS QlSSOlNed
it becomes the well known collodion
utilized in surgery and in photog-
raphy- Thus was discovered the CELIA
limitation of guncotton and smokeless
powder. 1t is no longer the crushing
and dangerous explosive of the COM
mencement, but progressive and 'ra-
tionalized' powder, the prototype of
such as the English cordite and of
nobel or balistite.
Cotton is essential in artillery Smoke
less powder serves in bombs and balls
and for mortars. Its in
cotton Is stability was suspected in
E.sa,+;,I the Schnaeble incident In
1906. 'PJena" was blown
up at Toulon; in 1911 La Liberte" met
the same fate, disasters that were at
tributed to ''poudre B." These accidents,
it may be remarked. occurred on ship
board, where were united the precipitat-
ing conditions of heat and humidity
Stabilizants were sought and found by
Capt. Lepidi du Bouchet in the diphe-
nylamine, which multiplied by five the
length of life Of smokeless powder
The detailed story of the discoveries
that have followed is too long to recite
here. An Italian chemist, Sobrero found
nitroglycerin in 1886. The Swede, Nobel,
a IT,,