MUNROE-HOWELL— PRODUCTS OF DETONATION OF TNT. 197 



industrial purposes may be loaded directly into the bore holes yet 

 experience has shown that convenience, economy and safety are 

 promoted by using them in cartridge form. However, it has been 

 demonstrated at the Bureau of Mines Experiment Station that the 

 materials of the cartridge wrapper and the amounts used must be 

 carefully considered since when combustible, as in industrial prac- 

 tice they usually are, they play a part in the reactions taking place 

 on explosion and modify the kind and quantity of the gaseous 

 products. Careful attention is now given to this matter of the 

 wrapper in the preparation of explosives to pass the tests of Per- 

 missible Explosives since, by the nature of the tests they must pass, 

 the quantity of inflammable and combustible, and, by regulation, 

 that of the poisonous gases in the product must not exceed a fixed 

 limit, nor may those of the explosive when in use in coal mines if 

 it is desired that the explosive shall keep its place on the list of 

 Permissibles. 



Investigations of the products of explosion or detonation of 

 TNT have been made by several observers. The earliest record 

 noted is by C. E. Bichel^ in his " Table III., 1904," where, in a list 

 of data for a considerable number of explosives, under " Trinitro- 

 toluol" the following products in per cents by weight .are given: 



Per Cent. 



Carbon monoxide 70-5 



Carbon dioxide Z-7 



Hydrogen 1-7 



Nitrogen 19-9 



Carbon 4-2 



100.00 



G. Carlton Smith, on page 90 of his book* cites the above anal- 

 ysis stating that the products analyzed were " from the complete 

 explosion of the material under atmospheric pressure." Michele 

 Giua^ cites the same data from Bichel and states " sotto I'azione di 

 un detonatora di fulminato di mercurio (gr. 1.5 di detonatore)'* 



3 " New Methods of Testing Explosives," C. E. Bichel. Translated and 

 edited by Axel Larsen. London, 1905. 



4 << 'pj^'p^ Trinitrotoluenes and Mono- and Dinitrotoluenes ; their Manu- 

 facture and Properties." New York, 1918, D. Van Nostrand Co. 



5 " Chimica delle sostanze esplosive." Milan, 1919, Ulrico Hoepli. 



PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC, VOL. LIX, M, JULY 23, I92O. 



