Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-08-28
NATIONAL DEFENSE
PROBLEMS.
WI.-Lessons of the War.
Explosives.
By Frederic J. Haskin.


struction and new machines for hurry
ing the death-deaiing monsters from one
place to another, it has also provided a
vast experimental plain for the motive
forces which lie behind the projectiles-
the new explosives.
Uncle Sam himself maintains q num-
Der Of proving grounds for new kinds
Of powder, where the efficiency Of each
new explosive designed by the govern
ment chemists is demonstrated. but since
August 1 last he has been depending
in large part upon the greatest proving
ground" ever provided-the battlefelds
of the European war. Ever since the
conflict commenced the United States
government has been closely watching,
through the medium Of military experts
and chemists well versed in the compo-
sition of detonants, the different kinds
of explosives used abroad. with a view
to adopting the best Of them for use in
this country. In the event OF war the
United States will not be ignorant OF
the latest words in gunpowder ana us
modern derivatives.
One of the most important OF these
improvements on the invention credit.
ed to the Chinese is a compound OF
comparatively recent invention, known
to the British military experts as I;
N. T." and to the Germans as "trotyl.
To chemists this substance mas
querades under the name of "trinitro-
toluene." title which is almost as
deadly to the person who tries to pro-
nounce 1t as would be small quah-
tity of the compound. The precise COM
this explosive diner slightly in dit
ferent countries, but the resultant SUD
stance is practically the same, A con-
siderable quantity of trotyl has already
been manufactured In the United
States. and the Var Department rs Is
discover whether 1t is sufficiently su-
perior to the explosives formerly IN
use on this side of the Atlantic to
warrant its adoption.
explosive yet designed for use In war.
fare, according to foreign experts, 1t
must not be inferred that 1t is more
powerful than any other explosive
hitherto known. In point OF fact, there
are substances known to the chemist
than is manifested by any compound
used in construction of military ex-
plosives or propellants.
The power Of an explosive depends
upon its capacity to produce q large
volume
Salt Of Hydrazoic Acid Of gas
Most Powerful Explosive. eom-
paratiyely small amount of original
solid matter. Judged by this standard,
the most powerful explosive known is
probably a salt of hydrazoic acid, the
ammonia compound Of which produces.
according to the French chemist
Berthelot. 1.1ts cubic centimeters of
gases for one gram weight Of sub
stance. No other known substance
gives a corresponding change Of vol
ume in passing from the solid to the
GASEOUS state. but there are chemical
reasons why it is unwise to try to use
this substance In lieu OF gunpowder
or in place of dynamite.
In the first place, these compounds
of hydrazoic acid explode with ex-
IRENE violence il heated to a tempera-
ture only slightly above the normal
boiling point of water. They are, there
fore, far too sensitive to be used for
the practical purposes to which mill
tary explosives are put.
Moreover, their extreme violence of
action would be. to some extent. dis
advantage. 1t would prevent their use
as propellants, since they would burst
the gun barrels and, II placed in tor
peddss or mines, they would shatter
their inclosing cases almost to the con-
dition of powder on being discharged
and on the whole would thus have a
less destructive effect than would be
produced by an explosive that burst
the shell into relatively large pieces,
and. by relatively slow combustion, ex-
tended the area of its destructive in
fiuence.
Such tendency to overrapid explosion
is a fault of picric acid and its deriva-
tives, lyddite