7IO 



NATURE 



[August 5, 1920 



The Research Department, Woolwich. 



By Sir Robert Robertson, K.B.E., F.R.S. 



Explosives Section. 



THE Research Department at Woolwich has 

 been in existence under various titles since 

 1900. Prior to 1914 the staff was small; thus 

 for the seven years preceding the war the chem- 

 ical branch had a staff of eleven chemists only, 

 and the metallurgical branch of four. 



The subjects occupying the chemical staff before 

 the war were connected with the stability of ex- 

 plosives, the investigation of new explosives (such 

 as tetryl, for which a manufacturing process was 

 worked out and issued to a Government factory), 

 and research on the properties of explosives and 

 on the means of initiating them in Service com- 

 ponents. These researches proved 

 to have a double importance, in 

 that they not only enabled im- 

 mediate answers to be given to 

 many questions that arose early 

 in the war, when there was no 

 time for prolonged research, but 

 also afforded the staff the train- 

 ing necessary to meet the de- 

 mands which became urgent on 

 the outbreak of hostilities. 



After the beginning of the war 

 the increase in work imperatively 

 demanded a larger staff, and 

 more chemists were appointed, 

 until at the beginning of 1917, 

 the home supply having failed, 

 permission was obtained to with- 

 draw from France members of 

 the Special Brigade, R.E., of 

 whom more than thirty were 

 transferred to the Department. 

 Finally, the chemical staff num- 

 bered 107 chemists and physi- 

 cists distributed in an organisa- 

 tion which had been gradually evolved, comprising 

 sections for dealing with the different classes of 

 work, such as organic chemistry, physical chem- 

 istry, analytical and general chemistry, physical 

 investigation, calorimetry, stability, pyrotechny, 

 applications of high explosives, fuse design, and 

 records. 



With increasing work and staff, new buildings 

 for explosives investigation became necessary, and 

 new laboratories were erected, including a well- 

 appointed building (Fig. i) for physico-chemical 

 research, embodying many of the ideas of Prof. 

 Donnan, and a new range of factory buildings and 

 houses for a variety of specialised work. Climatic 

 huts for storage trials under dry and moist con- 

 ditions, which have always been an important 

 feature of the Department, were increased in 

 number. In the explosives section the laboratories 

 occupy a space of 64,272 sq. ft., and the buildings 

 NO. 2649, VOL. 105] 



for experimental work on a larger scale 38,170 

 sq. ft. The Department's facilities for testing 

 processes evolved in the laboratory on the semi- 

 manufacturing scale have proved of the utmost 

 value, affording confidence as to the practicability 

 of processes on the full scale. 



The Research Department acted as a central 

 bureau for explosives research required by the 

 Navy, Army, the Air Service, and the Ministry 

 of Munitions. Many subjects were referred to it 

 by the Ordnance Committee. Its work is em- 

 bodied in official minutes and in collected re- 

 searches termed R.D. Reports. 



Trinitrotoluene. — One of the first subjects 

 undertaken after the outbreak of war was the 

 provision of an efficient and rapid process for the 



Fig. I. — A physico-chemical laboratory. 



manufacture of T.N.T. , especially without the use 

 of oleum. From the results of a large series of 

 nitrations in the laboratory, a process was 

 evolved characterised by several novel features, 

 and this was put to the proof on the semi-indus- 

 . trial scale, a plant being designed and erected in 

 the Department (Fig. 2) for the nitration on the 

 quarter-ton scale, with appropriate arrangements 

 for the mixing and concentration of acids. This 

 small plant substantiated in a remarkable manner 

 the process evolved from the laboratory work, 

 and from the start turned out T.N.T. of good 

 quality. The scheme of temperature-rise, the 

 composition of the acid mixture, the nitration in 

 cycles, the process of "detoluation," and other 

 features of the process found immediate applica- 

 tion in the large Government factories that were 

 designed and erected by Mr. Quinan, and also 

 in numerous private works built at this time. 



