; 'J0 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



\> gi st 1. 1915. 





India Rubber in the Making of Explosives. 



Till-', wholi modern wai is the science of explosives, 



onlj is .ill Europe engaged in the manufacture of 

 losive material, but tin- powder plants in the United 

 States are working night and day to supply these essentials to 

 the belligerents, ["here is no explosive that is made from rubber, 



Copyright 1915, R. G. Skerrett. 



Wringer in the Nitrating House. 



but it is safe to say that without the assistance of rubber no 

 explosive couH he manufactured. 



Somewhere on the Atlantic coast, hack in 1898 — the censor 

 might object if we mentioned the port — the military authorities 

 decided to mine the harbor approaches lest the Spanish cruisers 

 dash in and lay the city under tribute. Accordingly, the soldier; 

 of the regular army at the post were set busy charging the sub- 

 marine mines with dynamite. It was not very long before these 

 men were too sick to discharge their duties, and the preparation 

 of the underwater defense of that port came to a standstill. Now 

 the trouble was that the dynamite — which is made up of an in- 

 fusorial earth saturated with nitroglycerine — was old and had. 

 in t" exude its explosive content. It was hot weather, the 

 work was toilsome, and the men perspired freely, and they also 

 labored with hare hands. Nitroglycerine is both a poison and a 

 powerful tonic. \> the soldiers worked they wiped their reeking 

 brows and faces with their hands, and thus into their systems 

 entered the stimulating and then the toxic exudation from the 

 explosive. It was not until some volunteers, forming part of a 

 hastily organizi f military engineers, were assigned to 



the planting of the mines that the cause of the trouble was 

 disclosed. These men were familiar with dynamite through 

 blasting operations. When they tackled the job — and they did 

 so quickly and understandingly — every one of them put on ru 

 -. .uid there was no more trouble. 



If you could look inside a plant where nitroglycerine and dyna- 

 mite are made you would see how careful the operatives are to 

 wear ruhher gloves, reaching well to the elbow, and also rubber 

 5, in order that the toxic explosive glycerine shall not work 

 ay into the body through the hands and feet. There are 

 thousands of men now engaged in the preparation of these 

 military agents, and rubber is indispensable as a physical safe- 

 guard. The same need applies in the manufacture of smokeless 

 der; and as this department of ordnance supplies is probably- 

 one of the most interesting, we shall describe how this most 

 modern of propellents is made at the naval powder factory a: 



Indian Head, Maryland. We purposely chi si this establishment 

 because it typifies the highest state of the art ami is intimately 

 identified with the nation's foremost line of defense. 



The base oi our smokeless powder is cotton waste. The cottoi 

 filament is really a tiny tubular structure compi sed i f an inde- 

 structible substance railed cellulose, which, when sufficiently satu- 

 rated with nitric acid, undergoes a chemical metamorphosis; in 

 short, it then becomes an explosive, and is technically called nitro- 

 cellulose or guncotton. Nitrogen has the notable property of 

 carrying a very large measure of oxygen as well as possessing in- 

 herent molecular energy of a pronounced order. The oxygen 

 makes for more perfect combustion, hence contributes to smoke- 

 lessness, while the resultant heat and energj i f inflammation 

 give us the desired properties to be found in the high explosives 

 now employed both in military and industrial \\<irk of a variety 

 of sorts. 



Down at Indian Head, the cotton waste is run through a strip- 

 ping machine that combs it out; and then it i- washed i" remove 

 all traces of grease. For this purpose, the cotton is cleansed in 

 an alkaline bath, and here we see the workmen busy at their 

 task in ruhher boots. With this operation finished, the cotton 

 is then subjected to a drying process and is stored in chambers 

 heated to a temperature of 212 degrees, Fahrenheit. 



In the drying rooms, after a sufficient exposure, the cotton is 

 packed in metal cylinders made airtight by having their covers 

 seat down upon gaskets of rubber. This is to prevent the stuff 

 from reabsorbing moisture from the free atmosphere. Packed in 

 this fashion, the cotton is ready to lie carried to the nitrating 

 house, where it is transformed from a harmless material into a 

 high explosive. The primary purpose of the drying is to stimu- 



tyright 1915, R. G. Skerrett. 

 Mechanical Kneader bv Which Ether-Alcohoi S lvent 

 ts Worked Into Guncotton. 



late the absorption of the metamorphosing acid, and it is during 

 this permeating process that we realize that the cotton has not 

 been freed of all of its moisture by its previous heating. 



The effect of the nitric acid is to liberate the stubborn moisture, 



