PROJECTILES CONTAINING EXPLOSIVES.^ 



By COMMANDAiS'T A. R. 



Translated from Revue generate des Sciences pures et appliquees, volume 21, 

 pages 213-221, April 15, 1916, by Charles E. Munroe. 



The idea of employing powerful explosives as interior charges for 

 projectiles dates from the discovery of guncotton by Sclionbein. On 

 the appearance of this substance its explosive power and its insolu- 

 bility in water immediately attracted the attention of the military 

 services of the different countries to it. Up to then black powder only 

 furnished the interior charges for shells and bombs. 



In France the pyroxylin commission, presided over by the Duke de 

 Montpensier, carried out numerous tests for the purpose of determin- 

 ing the practicability of this material, but repeated explosions, in the 

 bore, of projectiles charged with guncotton caused the abandonment 

 of the researches. 



It was not until 1886, following the work of Turpin on the priming 

 of picric acid, that the question of charging projectiles with high ex- 

 plosives was taken up again in France, and this led to definite results. 



I. STATE OF THE QUESTION. 



The number of explosive substances which have been prepared up 

 to the present time is very considerable. However, in spite of the fact 

 that many of them are employed in the industries, only a very small 

 number of them can be utilized in charging projectiles. Such use is 

 subject to imperative conditions which markedly limit the domain 

 from which one may select an explosive for artillery. 



A projectile exerts destructive effects on an obstacle either because 

 of the kinetic energy which it possesses at the moment it strikes upon 

 it or because of the energy liberated by the detonation of the interior 

 charge of explosive which it carries. Finally, and if the obstacle is 

 very resistant (such for example as plates of armor protecting the sides 

 of ships), experience shows that the effect produced by the detonation 

 of a charge exploded in contact is, in general, insufficient to cause the 



1 Reprinted by permission from the United States Naval Institute Proceedings, Vol. 43. 

 No. 4, Whole No. 170, April, 1917. 



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