High explosive

“ The bomb, not being pointed, does not sink into the ground, and hence upon exploding exerts the full force of high explosive upon the surroundings, whether bombs, pill boxes, barbed wire or trenches, to say nothing of personnel. ”

“ Neither blasting gelatine, dynamite nor gun-cotton fulfills all these conditions; but they satisfy many of them and are more powerful than other substances. For the destruction of walls, trees, rails, bridges, etc., it is simply necessary to attach to them small bags of explosive, which are ignited by means of blasters' fuse and a cap of fulminate of mercury, or by an electric fuse.
We now come to the application of high explosives to warfare in the shape of bursting charges for shells. ”

“ Dynamite is used mostly for commercial blasting purposes, such as blasting rock in the construction of railways, and so forth. [2] Military high explosives are mostly employed for submarine mines, warheads for torpedoes, and as bursting charges for high explosive projectiles.
A high explosive is consumed almost instantly by what is called a detonative wave ”

“ The writer was the first to dispel this folly, through the invention of Maximite, a high explosive which will stand not only the shock of being fired from heavy guns at high velocities, but which will also, without exploding, stand the far greater shock of penetrating the heaviest armorplate—armorplate as heavy as the projectile will stand to pass through without breaking up. ”

“ Any explosive whose detonation is very rapid is a high explosive, but the term has chiefly been applied to the nitro-explosives.
The effectiveness of an explosive depends upon the volume and temperature of the gases formed, and upon the rapidity of the explosion. In the high explosives the chemical transformation is very rapid, hence they exert a crushing of shattering effect. Gunpowder, on the other hand, is a low explosive, and produces a propelling or heaving effect. ”

“ Gas-shells are mixed in with shrapnel and high explosives, and when thus employed are often very deadly. Fired alone, they are distinguishable because of their peculiar explosive sound; but, when they are sent over in a general bombardment, the only way to be sure of escaping them is to use the mask continuously. ”

“ These containers may be special cylinders for cloud gas attacks, special bombs for Livens’ projectors and mortars, or artillery shell, and even aviation bombs. Some of the liquids which have a very low boiling point volatilize quickly upon exposure to air, and hence require only enough explosive to open the shell and allow the liquid to escape. Practically all solids have to be pulverized by a large amount of high explosive, or driven off as smoke by some heating mixture. ”

“ The contained explosive naturally ignited, and the plunger was blown out like a shot from a cannon. The cylinder itself was blown downward, demolishing the forge, passing through the [179] plank floor, and burying itself in the ground, while the plunger whizzed upward through the roof, and disappeared in the direction of Scotland.
[180]
THE WRONG TAP
The worker among high explosive materials must never relax his ceaseless vigilance. Not only his own life, but also the lives of those working at his side, hang upon the thread of infinite care. ”

“ A 'low' explosive explodes by the application of heat, and burns more or less uniformly and slowly, and projects neighbouring objects to a distance. A 'high' explosive explodes under a blow, and the whole of the substance is instantly transformed, and instantly exerts its maximum pressure, creating a violent disturbance in a limited area without necessarily projecting substances to any great distance. Service explosives, for naval and military purposes, are divided into propellants and high explosives. Sporting powders are specially modified propellant powders. ”

“ Many igniting compositions are examples of the last type, consisting of a high explosive diluted with a neutral substance, and frequently containing in addition a composition which is inflamed by the explosion of the diluted high explosive, the flame in turn igniting the actual propellant. ”

“ Several of the high explosives congeal at a temperature above the freezing-point of water, and in this state are less sensitive to shock, and explode with difficulty if closely packed in cartridges as usually delivered from the factories. They explode more readily when in the form of a powder. When using them in cold weather, therefore, each fuse should be put in a cartridge loosely filled with the powdered explosive, or with some high explosive not affected by cold. ”

“ For breaking up hard rock, blowing up strong masonry, and especially in demolitions where tamping is usually defective, this ratio does not hold; but the relative effect of the high explosive increases continually with the lack of tamping and the intensity of the local blow desired, until a point is reached at which the effect of gunpowder is almost imperceptible, while the high explosive does efficient work. This property of the high explosives renders them extremely valuable for 133 use in hasty demolitions, such as blowing up palisades or barriers, destroying guns, etc., etc. ”

“ This has given rise to the popular error that nitro-glycerine and other high explosives act downwards; as a matter of fact they act with equal force in all directions. It is evident, therefore, that the violence of an explosion depends upon three things, namely, the time occupied completing the reaction of the explosive body; the temperature produced by the reaction, upon which directly depends the expansive forces of the resultant gases ”

“ As a matter of fact, airships are capable of working comparatively small damage by dropping bombs, unless the bombs can be made to hit and penetrate the object struck before exploding, for the reason that, unless confined, explosives have but little effect.
When a mass of high explosive is detonated upon a firm, resisting body, like the earth, or the deck of a battleship, or armor-plate, the effect is to rebound from the resisting body with small result. ”

“ The shell struck one of our ammunition dumps containing about 50,000 rounds of shells and other explosives, such as rifle grenades, Mills bombs, French mortar bombs, aerial torpedoes, high explosive shells, shrapnel shells, star and gas shells. The disaster resulting from this one single shell was almost inconceivable. It started a fire that gathered strength each second, for all the world like a prairie fire, and the scenic effect was that of a titanic fireworks exhibition. ”

“ As the time required for the projectile to [6] be thrown from a twelve-inch cannon is only about the sixtieth of a second, sixty of these huge guns could be placed side by side and fired by electricity one after the other, while grandfather’s clock is making but one tick.
Our ideas of duration are but relative. We have seen that the combustion in a cannon, though very rapid to our senses, is actually very slow indeed as compared with the much more rapid combustion of a high explosive ”

“ THE FORGOTTEN BIT OF FULMINATE
In experimenting with high explosives and in their manufacture, a little absent-mindedness, a very slight lack of exact caution, a seemingly insignificant inadvertence for a moment, may cost one a limb or his life. The incident that cost me my left hand is a case in point.
On the day preceding that accident, I had had a gold cap put on a tooth. In consequence, the tooth ached and kept me awake the greater part of the night. Next morning I rose early and went down to my factory at Maxim, New Jersey. ”

“ Bombs are well behaved if you treat them right. It’s all in being thoughtful and considerate of them!” Meanwhile, he was jerking at some kind of a patent fuse set in a shell of high explosive. “This is a poor kind, sir. ”

“ As I rode I could hear the long whistling and heavy crump of high explosives that the enemy were dropping into (p. 175) a village about a mile to the left, and could see the flame and smoke of the explosion. Our own guns soon began to chime in. It was quite a cheerful little show, what with the long-drawn whining of approaching Boche shells, the crash of explosions, the thud of our guns replying, and the weird, fluttering noise of our shells going over. Presently the gun duel became more and more violent. ”

“ LOMAX [lecturing to the company generally] You know, these high explosives don't go off like gunpowder, except when they're in a gun. When they're spread loose, you can put a match to them without the least risk: they just burn quietly like a bit of paper. ”

“ Flashes of fire, the metallic crack of high explosives, the awful explosions that dug holes fifteen and twenty feet in diameter, the utter and complete pandemonium and the stench of hell, your friends blown to bits, the pieces dropping near—even striking you. ”

“ Detonation, or explosion of the first order, is distinguished from ordinary explosion, or explosion of the second order, by the different way in which the explosion is propagated. Ordinary explosion proceeds by inflammation, being nothing more than a rapid combustion. Detonation is propagated by vibration. A detonating agent is a substance used to produce the initial vibration, or “impulse of explosion.” The exploder, or cap, used for this purpose is usually primed with fulminate of mercury, a substance having a wide range in bringing about detonation in the high explosives. ”

“ The high explosives, on the other hand, are exploded by detonation, through the agency of a fuze and fulminating cap, exerting a quick, shattering, rather than a rending force. Dynamites and flameless explosives are made in a variety of strengths, and are packed in waterproofed cartridges of different sizes. ”

“ For this reason equal weights of high explosives and of gunpowder enclosed 26 in strong shells will not produce the same relative effects in forming craters, &c., that they would if contained in paper cases. The effect of the high explosive is relatively much greater when contained in a strong shell. ”

“ Most useful high explosives, like ammonium nitrate, are enormously violent ... once they're triggered. But they will remain seemingly inert when beaten, burned, variously punished—until the particular shock required comes along.... ”

“ The low and high explosives are differentiated, and the sensitiveness of fulminate of mercury and other detonators is clearly pointed out. The various explosives, such as gunpowder, black blasting powder, potassium chlorate powders, nitro-glycerine powders, etc., are described, and their peculiarities and suitability for different purposes are set forth. The character and method of using the different explosives, both in opening up work and in enclosed work in coal mines, follow, with information as to the proper method of handling, transporting, storing, and thawing the same. ”

“ But it is probable that in all cases in which an attack is made upon buildings of permanent character, such as in the destruction of an arms or ammunition factory, or of a dockyard, the petrol bomb will be used to complete the job by firing the wreckage remaining after high explosives have done their work. ”

“ American Inventor of High Explosives and Other Materials of War
(Photo by White.)
The New York Times on July 11 printed an interview with Hudson Maxim, the inventor of explosives, in which Mr. Maxim said:
Modern war is a warfare of explosives. The highly developed methods of defense, designed especially against explosives, are practically proof against everything but them.
Attacking forces must disemburrow the defending forces; they must be blasted out of the ground. ”

“ The high explosives are specially liable to be wasted, probably through lack of appreciation of their power as compared with that of black powder. Among the indications of excessive charges are the production of much finely broken rock or of crushed and splintered rock around the bottom of the hole, and excessive displacement or projection of the rock broken by the blast. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It will be observed, from a consideration of the foregoing facts, that a very large proportion of the force developed by an explosion is due to the heat liberated by the chemical reactions which take place. And hence it will plainly appear that, in the practical application of explosive agents to rock blasting, care should be taken to avoid a loss of the heat upon which the effects of the explosion manifestly so largely depend. ”

“ Never before in the history of warfare had there been a continuing explosive; indeed, up to the middle of the twentieth century the only explosives known were combustibles whose explosiveness was due entirely to their instantaneousness; and these atomic bombs which science burst upon the world that night were strange even to the men who used them. Those used by the Allies were lumps of pure Carolinum, painted on the outside with unoxidised cydonator inducive enclosed hermetically in a case of membranium. ”

“ The effect of these combinations will produce an explosive especially suitable for certain blast­ing purposes—for example, in crevice rock—and greatly superior either to gunpowder or gun-cotton in explosive force, and quite readily exploded, so that it may be fired and exploded by means of a match or electric spark in like manner as gunpowder or gun-cotton alone. ”