El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1917-06-30

Various processes are used in the
/ manufacture of smokeless powder
Ours-the kind employed by our army
/ and navy-is made by saturating thai
I innocent substance cotton with nitric
acid, and then soaking the product in
ether and alcohol On drying. the ma
| terlal assumes a horny appearance
lit is nothing more nor less than an
/ explosive celluloid
smOkeless Powder Burns slowly.
A popularity of smokeless powder
is that it burns slowly. One may
French variety OF the stuff-in the
hand, and light one end Of it. It will
burn In a leisurely way. with bright
flame On account of its sloWness of
burning. guns nowadays are made
much longer than formerly. in order
that the gas may have time to develop
fully before the projectile leaves the
muzzle.
What can be more innocent than
the air we breathe2 And yet il is
from the atmosphere that the Ger
mans. and our European allies also.
obtain the most important ingredient
of their high explosives-nitric acid.
Teh air is four-fifths nitrogen and
one-ufth oxygen, mixed together as
one might mix water and alcohol.
When the two are combined chemical
". they make nitric acid. This is ac-
description Of which is not here ap-
propriate-
Nitric acid is indispensable in the
manufacture Of all kinds of high ex-
plosives. Thus, for example, the high
explosive used BY our army and navy
called "dunnite,@ is made by treating
carbolic acid with nitric acid. By
the same process are produced the
British "lyddite." the French ''melin-
lite" and the Japanese "shimose."
A familiar type OF high explosive is
guncotton, which is made by soaking
ordinary cotton in a mixture of nitric
acid and sulphuric acid. Common
glycerine-a harmless. sweet. color
less liquid-when mixed with nitric
acid becomes the frightful explosive
known as nitro-glycerine-
DemOlIshes Everything.
A high explosive is a very differ
ent thing from an ordinary explosive
like gunpowder The latter is a me
chanical mixture in which the fire
produced by ignition is communicated
with relative slowness from grain
to grain. But in high ex-
both the thing that burns and
the oxygen that supports the
burning. Accordingly. when il is set
off" there is no delay; the whole
mass is instantly converted into gas
Even the surrounding air has no time
to get out OF the way. and everything
in the immediate neighborhood is de-
molished.
But the high explosive is not neces-
sarily a sensitive explosive. on the
contrary, the II y. T" and other
employed for loading the
big gun shells in the present war are
of the "Eeluctant" kind: they do not
go off easily. II is for this very rea-
son that they can be safely used for
the bursting charges of projectiles-
being provided with fuses to release
their destructive energies when they
have reached the target To handle {as
has often been said, they are no more
than So much cornmeal
The incendiary bombs that do such
dreadful work usually contain a mix
ture of oxide Of iron and powdered
aluminium that Is not properly speak
ing an explosive. 1t is not meant. in
deed, for that purpose. The mixture in
question, when ignited by a fuse.
makes a liquid fire that nothing will
quench. Shells containing It are
among the most frightful of the in
struments of destruction used in the |
present war