NA TURE 



[21 



THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 1917. 



HISTORY AND MANUFACTURE OF 

 EXPLOSIVES. 



Explosives. By Arthur Marshall. Second 

 edition. Vol. i., History and Manufacture. 

 Pp. XV + 407. (London: J. and A. Churchill, 

 1917.) Price 2 vols. 3L 35. net. 



SELDOM has a book on a technical subject 

 been so fortunate in catching- the flo<?d-tide 

 of demand. a& the first edition of this treatise on 

 explosives. The general excellence of the work, 

 combined with the enormous development in the 

 production of explosives, accounts for the issue 

 of a second edition within two years of its first 

 appearance. As Mr. Marshall points out in his 

 preface, "the war has not caused the introduc- 

 tion of any very novel explosives, despite sensa- 

 tional statements of some journalists." 



Although by far the best book written and the 

 most comprehensive in the language, the first 

 edition suffered from some important deficiencies, 

 notably in the small amount of space devoted to 

 nitro-aromatic explosives, and, in the section on 

 materials, to the production of nitric acid and 

 nitrates from the atmosphere, and synthetically. 

 Mr. Marshall makes some apology in his new 

 preface, as follows : " Picric acid, trinitrotoluol, 

 and other nitro-aromatic compounds were 

 formerly merely by-products of the dye industry-, 

 and consequently their manufacture seemed only 

 to call for a brief notice in a work on explosives." 

 It is difficult to reconcile this with the information 

 in the text that picric acid was adopted by the 

 Germans in 1888 for filling shell, and about the 

 same time by England. It was used by us for 

 the first time in war at the battle of Omdurman. 

 Or, again, in the case of trinitrotoluol, w-hich we 

 read was adopted by the Germans in 1902 for 

 shell filling, and by Italy in 1907 and by Russia 

 -hortly afterwards. 



With reference to nitric acid, we find it stated 

 that "before the war nitric acid made from the 

 air could hardly anywhere compete with that 

 manufactured from sodium nitrate, but the 

 i blockade of Germany has altered all this." Cer- 

 tainly before the war Germany had not neglected 

 to obtain extensive interests in processes for the 

 ! production of nitrates and to develop processes 

 I for the synthetic manufacture, so as to be in a 

 I position of independence of foreign supplies when 

 ' the foreseen, or planned, developments should 

 arise. On the question of cost, according to 

 such a high authority as Prof. Thomas H. 

 Norton, nitric acid by the Birkeland and Eyde 

 nrocess of fixation of atmospheric nitrogen was 

 but little more, than half the cost of the acid from 

 Chile saltpetre at 1914 prices, and by the 

 Ostwald process, from ammonia obtained from 

 ' yanamide in the first place, even less than half. 



However, in the new edition, the nitro- 

 aromatic explosives are now comprehensively 

 dealt with and form ? valuable section of the 

 I NO. 2486, VOL. 99] 



work. The first- ch,apter of the section , deals. with , 

 the by-products of coal distillation, including out- 

 lines of benzol and toluol recovery, and the two 

 succeeding chapters with the nitro-derivatives of 

 aromatic hydrocarbons and other nitro-aromajtic 

 bodies. 



This increased matter, together with an outline 

 of the various processes for the direct production, 

 of nitrates and nitric acid, a section on colloids, 

 and other minor additions, have made it neces- 

 sary to issue the treatise in two volumes. The 

 first of these deals with the production of military 

 explosives and the principal explosives of the 

 chlorate, perchlorate, and ammonium nitrate 

 classes, most of the explosives of the latter 

 classes constituting those of special importance 

 in mining. 



One of the most important matters in con- 

 nection with aromatic hydrocarbons, and 

 especially their nitro-derivatives, is that of toxic 

 effect. Mr. Marshall devotes little more than a 

 page to this; an inadequate space, and, in addition, 

 the information is by no means up to date, the 

 principal references being to a report of a French 

 Commission (191 2) and the curative measures 

 adopted in Germany, qnoted from a work by • 

 Escales'and a journal of 1908. Workers in this 

 country have unfortunately experienced the toxic 

 effects of some of the nitro-products, and deaths 

 from trinitrotoluene poisoning have been recorded 

 in the public Press. Excellent preventive 

 measures are now enforced by regulation, and 

 this section would have been of greater value 

 had some detailed reference to these measures 

 been included. We do not find any reference 

 even to the beneficial results frorn milk as a 

 beverage. Of course Mr. Marshall is engaged 

 so far from this country that it is not easy for 

 him to keep informed on many of these current 

 problems. 



In the section on smokeless powders there is, 

 considerable extension of the information relating 

 to French powders. One is particularly struck- 

 with the systematic nomenclature employed. 

 Instability of the simple nitro-cellulose powders? 

 has often been marked. In France the process 

 of "radoubage," which consisted in soaking old, 

 {K)wders of impaired stability in a mixture of 

 ethyl and amyl alcohols, was given up after the. 

 lena disaster, and " remalaxage, " where the. 

 powder was reworked with ether-alcohol contain- 

 ing amyl alcohol, introduced, but this also has 

 been abolished for some years. It is recognised, 

 that diphenylamine has great advantages as a 

 stabilise!* over amyl alcohol, the primary function 

 of such addition being the absorption of oxides 

 of nitrogen, which catalytically accelerate decom- 

 position when once formed. 



This second edition is dedicated to Mr. Lloyd 

 George, and an excellent portrait of' the Prime 

 Minister appears as a frontispiece. Everyone " 

 realises under what a debt of gratitude the 

 country is to Mr.' Lloyd George, and in no oflRce 

 more so than as Minister of Munitions, but reallv 

 one cannot see that the value of a manual on a 



