Elko independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1915-current, 1916-02-02
IH|GH EXPLOSIVES
IN THE WAR


in the war zone? What is picric acid,
lyddite, melenite. benzol and toluol?
The Engineering Record presents an
answer whicn is wen worth preserv-
ing, as follows:
I'm the good old times the use OF
firearms depended on a plentiful sup
ply of 'villainous saltpeter.' But inter /
now is almost non-essential. because
the engineer can rob the atmosphere
10 procure the nitric acid which is
the fundamental requisite for all mod
ern Z. explosives, Gharacteristically
enough the center OF the nitrogen-flaN-
alton industry in Germany and Scandi-
navia. so that If natural resources
should run short artificial ones will
still be at hand. Plants of this kind
were several years ago turning out
nitric acid at the rate of as high as
three-quarters of ton per kilowatt'
year, and II is well understood that
this yield has now been considerably
increased, so that peace by exhaustion
OF the nitric.acid supply is hopeless
dream.
Turning now to the other materials
for which the world is calling in the
war, practically all military explosives
are obtained by the nitration or the
treatment by nitric acid of one of
three groups of materials; cellulose,
the essential constituent of PLAINTIFF
ers; glycerin, and the group of hydro
carbons best known by its two IA
miliar members-benzol and toluol-
both obtained from coal-tar. With the
first two Of these group-roducts the
| United States is peculiarly well pro-
vided-in its enormous cotton crop
and ample supply of hog-fat. More
over, there is extreme activity in OBJ
tanning from gas works and coke fur
naces the coal tar which is the basis
of the third. Germany is peculiarly
rich, as everybody knows, in coal tar
resources, but is little short OF the
other things necessary, hence the fer
vent calls for cotton supply.
."The nitroglycerin compounds are
/ not used as propellants save in a
limited way. and they are too sensitive
to be fired in ordinary shells, although
they doubtless might be eXcellenuy.
utilized by aircraft. The extensive
quest for glycerin material in this
country must therefore be charged to
the use of the nitro-compound as ac
celerator in smokeless powders. In
fact, such accelerated powders have
been standard In several foreign ser
vices. notably the British. So long as
the supply of fats holds out there will
be no lack of glycerin, which is large
constituent of all of them, and can be
freed by eas ymeans. In Germany, re-
ports say, fats are not so plentiful as
in the early stages of the war
"As to the third class of high eX-
plosives, derived from benzol and al
lied substances, the case is altogether
different A plentiful supply of raw
material demands almost the building
up of a new industry, the importance
of which turns on the fact that all the
enormous Quantities of high explosive
shells, used literally by the million,
are charged with this particular class
of explosives which can not be re-
placed by anything yet discovered.
Their unique advantages lies, first, In
the fact that they are stable enough
TO endure the shock of firinG in shells,
and secondly, that they, sn 10 speak,
pack we'll in the shell. thereby in
creasing the quantity which can be
charged and. necessarily, the Violence
of the explosion. Every one temem'
bers the somewhat futile attempts 10
develop dynamite throwing guns fit'
. teen or twenty years ago Dynamite
; Is far too tender ror throwing over
! long ranges at high velocity The two
! explosives now practically in universal
, use are the much talked OF picric acid
! and trinitro-toluol, the first of which
}, lis widely used under the names oil
'melenjte' In the French service and
: 'lyddite, in the British. Plcric acid is
, nothing but nitrated carbolic acid
( the latter substance being a very
r simple deriyative of benzol and coal
, tar as source, while trinitrotoluo
] results from the nitration of toluol, 9
s very close analog of benzol and from
+ lthe same source. About per cent
each of benzol and toluol can be .aker
out Of coal tar by careful treatment
I and II is on this meager product O.
2 the distillation Of coal that the higl
i. explosive campaign turns. 1t Is M
s wonder that the price of carbollc acit
I. shot up with the very beginning o