74 DURATION OF EXPLOSIVE REACTIONS. 



certain stratum of the gaseous molecules, to which it communi- 

 cates an enormous energy. Under this shock the molecular 

 edifice loses its relative stability, for which it was indebted to 

 a special structure. Its interior connections having become 

 broken, it crumbles, and the initial force becomes immediately 

 strengthened by everything which answers to the heat of the 

 decomposition of the gas. Hence a fresh shock, caused by the 

 adjacent stratum, which also causes its decomposition, the 

 actions co-ordinate themselves, reproduce and propagate one 

 another, step by step, with similar characteristics, and in an 

 extremely short interval of time, after the manner of the 

 explosive wave, until the total destruction of the system is 

 complete. 



These are the phenomena which bring to light the direct 

 thermo-dynamic relations existing between chemical and 

 mechanical actions. 



