Detonation

“ As the pressure increases, the hot gases are forced more and more deeply into the grains, and combustion, consequently, proceeds more and more rapidly.
Detonation. —By detonation is meant the simultaneous breaking up of all the molecules of which the explosive substance is composed. Properly the term is applicable to the chemical compounds only. But it is applied to gunpowder to denote the simultaneous ignition of all the grains. The mode of firing by detonation is obviously very favourable to the rending effect required of blasting powder, since it reduces to a minimum the time of explosion. ”

“ If one of these agents be detonated, the detonation is immediately carried through the mass, whatever its size, and the whole at once turns into gas. Gunpowder, on the other hand, as far as is known at present, cannot be detonated, but simply evolves its gas by burning in layers from the outside to the inside. ”

“ The action of a detonation in determining the violent explosion of gun-cotton, Nitro-Glycerin, etc., cannot be ascribed to the direct operation of the heat developed by the chemical changes of the charge of detonating compound used as the exploding agent. ”

“ By the employment of a detonator, the defect due to the porous character of sand is not removed, but its influence is greatly diminished. When detonation is produced in an explosive compound, the full force of the elastic gases is developed instantaneously; and it has already been shown that, under such conditions, the resistance occasioned by the presence of any substance in the bore-hole, even the air alone, in the case of nitro-glycerine, is sufficient to throw the chief portion of the force upon the sides of the hole. ”

“ However much compressed by mechanical means it is still a porous mass, and when it is confined as in a gun the flame and hot gases from the portion first ignited permeate the remainder, generally causing it actually to detonate, or to burn so rapidly that its action approaches detonation. ”

“ If a small quantity of powdered charcoal and hyper-oxymuriate of potash be rubbed together in a mortar, an explosion will be produced, and the charcoal inflamed. Three parts of this salt, and one of sulphur, rubbed together in a mortar, produce a violent detonation. If struck with a hammer on an anvil, there is an explosion like the report of a pistol. ”

“ Perhaps a high altitude nuclear detonation that blacks out virtually all electronic and electrical equipment better describes the intended effect regardless of likelihood of use. Depriving the enemy, in specific areas, of the ability to communicate, observe, and to interact is a more reasonable and perhaps more achievable variant. ”

“ He had learned a useful lesson: that a small quantity of compressed dry guncotton can be very well depended upon to burn quietly away without detonating, but, when a large mass of it is ignited, the greater heat of combustion and the greater pressure generated in expelling the larger quantity of the products of combustion, is almost sure to produce detonation.
The fact that a small quantity of an explosive material will burn away quietly with [78] out exploding has often led persons to think that a large quantity would burn in the same manner. ”

“ Types of Explosives.—Explosives which fill some or all these requirements can be divided into two classes, deflagrating and detonating. A deflagration is an explosion transmitted progressively from grain to grain. A detonation is a sudden disruption caused by synchronous vibrations of a wave-like character. The deflagrating explosives are represented by gun-powders and contractors’ powders. They must be carefully tamped in the hole to develop their full power and they must be ignited by a fuse or flame. They are valueless in water or moist holes. ”

“ As a general thing—for explosions of greater or less violence are not infrequent—a single dull, heavy detonation is heard, and it is almost unnoticed by those residing in the neighborhood. If slight, it may readily be taken for the noise of a blast in the quarries near by. As, in certain stages of the manufacture, the machinery is set in motion, and the workman leaves the room when the danger is most imminent, life is not necessarily lost by the accident. ”

“ The detonations became more frequent, the trembling of the earth at the surface more violent, and the heat more oppressive around the mouth of the orifice. A few minutes before 4 o'clock a subterranean crash was heard, louder than Alpine thunder, and immediately afterward a furious cloud of ashes, smoke and gaseous exhalation shot high up into the still darkened atmosphere of night. ”

“ Here went on the daily work of murder, helped by the batteries, and at propitious moments intensified into the uttermost diabolism by the whine, scream, and tear of shells, the detonations of shrapnel, and the thudding din of cannon, the whipping, ping-pong hiss of bullets. And following that splenetic outburst the sudden bolt forward of regiments of men might follow ”

“ Albert told us—this explosion must be greater even than the Black Tom. We must see that each bomb accomplishes more than its object—it must be placed in such a way that it will either start fires following the explosion or cause other detonations as a result of its own. ”

“ All human happiness counts. In France, if the physical effects of their detonation were poor, the moral reverberations which followed were lively. A bombing sergeant, sent down the line for a rest and instructing new drafts in a hollow among the sand dunes at Etaples well out of authority's hearing, would start his lecture by holding one of them up and saying: "This 'ere, men, is a damn bad grenade. But it's all that the bloody tailors give you to work with. ”

“ Flaming bullets were rising by the thousand.
Notwithstanding the terrific defense of the French batteries the German bombs continued to fall. Their appalling detonations seemed fairly to shake the ground.
It was a situation wherein the tragic and the terrible held full sway. No man alive could have stood it without fear and trembling; for, at any instant, one of the bombs might have fallen into their very midst. ”

“ The shouts, the blaze and smoke of fire-arms, the terrible detonations, the sight of plunging horses and their riders, with the sudden fury of the onset, paralyzed with terror the multitude of unarmed attendants, who fell the victims of a horrible massacre. ”

“ All the while the detonations, like continuous thunder and lightning, increased the panic. Women were on their knees in mental agony, each supplicating the particular saint of the part of the country from which she came to save her from death. ”

“ Thinking and hoping that some of the men might still be alive, he ordered cannon and guns to be fired, that the noise of these formidable detonations echoing amongst the mountains and along the coasts might serve as a signal of his arrival to any of our men who might be hidden among the islanders or among wild beasts. ”

“ Thus we progressed until we were within eighty yards of the guns. Just as I was about to order a bayonet charge, sure of capturing the battery, four detonations rang out afresh and I was thrown to the ground. I must have fainted, though not for long—a quarter of an hour, perhaps—for when I came to I saw my men retiring. They were quite right in doing that, all the officers, with the exception of a few corporals, having fallen.... Whilst I was examining my wound, I heard the sound of marching behind me. It was the German infantry, and as it swept by a soldier stopped and bent over me. ”

“ Detonations frequently accompany combustion. There are many interesting experiments on this subject, some of which we will notice in this place, viz.
Experiment 1. If a small portion of fulminating powder be placed on a fire-shovel over a hot fire, it will become brown, then melt, and swell up, and finally explode. See Fulminating powder.
Experiment 2. Iron filings and sulphur, made into a paste with water, and buried in the ground for a few hours, will unite, decompose the water, and inflame; throwing up the earth with violence and noise. See Artificial Volcano. ”

“ On the earth, torn up by a recent explosion, were lying, here and there, broken beams, crushed bodies of Russians and French, heavy cast-iron cannon overturned into the ditch by a terrible force, half buried in the ground and forever dumb, bomb-shells, balls, splinters of beams, ditches, bomb-proofs, and more corpses, in blue or in gray overcoats, which seemed to have been shaken by supreme convulsions, and which were lighted up now every instant by the red fire of the explosions which resounded in the air. ”

“ He enters the schoolroom; the chemical elements are seething in riot, books are being torn and thrown, ink spilt, etcetera. Before opening the door, the good man is a quiet piece of plastic dynamite, but the instant his eye is touched, the electric circuit is, as it were, completed; the mysterious current flashes through the brain, and fires his detonating heart. Instantly the gleaming flame shoots with lightning-speed to temples and toes. The entire man becomes a detonator, and he explodes in a violent hurricane of kicks, cuffs, and invective! ”

“ It was not the imminent menace of death from above [105] in the form of shell or bomb, or from the trenches in front in the shape of machine-gun bullet. But the secrecy and furtiveness of every movement, the ghastliness of the abomination of desolation all around, the sickening sights and smells, the saturation of the whole terrain with gas to such an extent that men often preferred to lie out in the open under fire rather than risk suffocation in dug-outs—these combined to awaken a vague, inarticulate protest against the cruelty and futility of war. ”

“ Detonating caps are therefore made of this, and one such cap put into the middle of that cartridge of dynamite and set fire to, by any means, would convert the cartridge itself into a detonator, and explode it with a shattering effect.
“A human being,” I continued, “sometimes illustrates this principle figuratively—I mean the violent explosion of a large cartridge by means of a small detonator. Take, for example, a schoolmaster, and suppose him to be a dynamite cartridge. His heart is a detonating cap. The schoolroom and boys form a galvanic battery. ”

“ The black smoke, interfulgent with tortuous tongues of lurid fire, rolled in immense volumes over her!—the red flames darted up her masts, along the spars and rigging, and gushed in swirling sheets from her ports and bulwarks, while in their fierce gleams, the billows that ramped and raved about her, glowed like a huge seething cauldron of molten iron, and the gloomy clouds that lowered above were tinged in their ragged borders, as with blood. Occasionally the jarring thunder of her cannon, as they became heated to explosion, announced to us the progress of the insidious destroyer. ”

“ I heard the descent of a bomb. I trembled and tried to shrink to nothing. There was a deafening thunder-clap and the ground shook. A quantity of loose earth came down upon us. Another bomb descended—every muscle in my body tightened and I stopped breathing altogether. But the explosion that followed was fainter than the last. Then there was another, still further off. All my muscles gradually relaxed and a delicious feeling of relief pervaded my whole being. The buzzing noise became more and more feeble. I got up and walked back to the marquee, trembling and weak at the knees. ”

“ An explosion, you see, is the sudden liberation at one time of the gases which result when the powder is burned. If the gases are given off gradually, and in the open, no harm is done. But put a stick like this in, say, a steel box, all closed up, save a hole for the fuse, and what do you have? An explosion. That's the principle of all guns and cannon. ”

“ Detestā′tion, extreme hatred. [Fr.,—L. detestāri—de, inten., and testāri, to call to witness, execrate—testis, a witness.]
Dethrone, de-thrōn′, v.t. to remove from a throne.—ns. Dethrone′ment; Dethronisā′tion.
Detonate, det′o-nāt, v.i. to explode.—v.t. to cause to explode.—ns. Detonā′tion, an explosion with report; Det′onator, a detonating substance: an apparatus for the explosion of a detonating substance, as a percussion-cap.—Detonating powder, powder, such as the fulminates, which explodes easily by impact or heating, and which may be used to cause other substances to explode. ”

“ Then comes the ignition of the gas in one scathing burning blast, the herald of death to the offender and to those nearest the explosion, while for those who are farther away, and who are warned by the thunderous roar, there is the race for life as they tear for the pit’s mouth, to be too often overtaken by the deadly choke-damp, whose poisonous strangling fumes follow the firing of the gas. ”

“ Then the interrogatory dealt at great length with the composition and manufacture of the bomb. The judge, rightly enough, pointed out that this was the only obscure point of the affair. “And so,” he remarked, “you persist in saying that dynamite was the explosive you employed? Well, you will presently hear the experts, who, it is true, differ on certain points, but are all of opinion that you employed some other explosive, though they cannot say precisely what it was. Why not speak out on the point, as you glory in saying everything?” ”

“ There, Gracious Lord, is the genuine day of judgment! Bomb is falling after bomb; pieces of shells are whistling, like devils, around the ear; the earth is dug out into ditches; it is impossible to speak from smoke. ”