46 DURATION OF EXPLOSIVE EEACTIONS. 



consequences which theory has pointed to as possible, and the 

 accidental realisation of which has been proved by terrible 

 catastrophes. 



Thus, for instance, the experiments made by the Birmingham 

 Chamber of Commerce on the transport and storage of amorces 

 have shown that capsules each containing 0'015 grms. of 

 fulminate, do not explode en masse either under the influence 

 of a shock, or when crushed by the wheels of a locomotive, or 

 when placed in an incandescent muffle, or in the centre of a 

 burning furnace. 



Yet this is not so if the charge of fulminate contained in the 

 capsules be considerably increased. The feeling of security 

 created by these first experiments no longer exists even in 

 England, in consequence of the explosion of a vessel loaded 

 with amorces in the Thames. 



Experience has in fact shown that the explosion of one single 

 strong fulminating capsule is sufficient to cause the explosion 

 of all the capsules placed in the same case. If the case itself 

 explodes, all the adjoining cases will also explode. 



It is on account of analogous phenomena that the small 

 fulminating caps (amorces), used as children's playthings, have 

 only too often given rise to serious accidents. 



At Yanves, near Paris, a child was amusing itself by letting 

 off one of these amorces between the blades of a pair of scissors, 

 when two packets of six hundred amorces that were lying on 

 the table exploded at the same moment. The child was killed, 

 the chair shattered, and the flooring staved in. 



The explosion which occurred in Paris, in the Rue Beranger, 

 on May 14, 1878, may also be mentioned, in a store con- 

 taining amorces intended for children's toys. These amorces 

 were composed as follows : One kind, called single, of a 

 mixture of potassium chlorate (12 parts), amorphous phosphorus 

 (6 parts), lead oxide (12 parts), and resin (I part) ; the others, 

 called double, consisted of a mixture of potassium chlorate 

 (9 parts), amorphous phosphorus (1 part), antimony sulphide 

 (1 part), flowers of sulphur (0'25 part), and nitre (0*25 part). 

 The latter, more sensitive to friction, averaged O'Ol grm. in 

 weight. From six to eight millions of these amorces pasted 

 on paper slips, in lots of five each, were piled up in the ware- 

 house in boxes. A few of these having become ignited by an 

 accident, - the origin of which was never clearly ascertained, 

 caused the whole to explode. One building suddenly gave 

 way, the fapade being blown out, and the stonework hurled 

 some distance. One stone, measuring a cubic metre, was thrown 

 to a distance of fifty-two metres. A great part of the adjoining 

 building was also destroyed, fourteen persons were killed on the 

 spot, and sixteen received injuries. 



These terrible effects are explained when we consider that 



