278 



SCIENCE 



[Vol, IV., No, 85. 



EISSLER 1 S MODERN HIGH EXPLOSIVES. 



The modern high explosives, nitroglycerine and dyna- 

 mite : their manufacture, their use, and their appli- 

 cation to mining and military engineering. By 

 Manuel Eissler. New York, Wiley, 1884. 

 11 + 395 p., illustr. 8°. 



In this work the author has sought to ac- 

 quaint the engineer, the contractor, and the 

 chemist with the composition and character- 

 istics of the high explosives, and with their 

 adaptation to certain purposes. He has been 

 led to do this from " the lack of authentic 

 information on the subject, and the great in- 

 crease in the use of these explosives ;" yet we 

 find the book to be largely a compilation from 

 such well-known works as those of Abbot, 

 Drinker, Mowbray, and Berthelot, together 

 with others not so well known, and from 

 various chemical books. 



Such a compilation, if properly selected, 

 digested, and arranged, would be highly credit- 

 able, and, in the present state of the art, very 

 useful ; but unfortunately, while the fundamen- 

 tal plan of Eissler's book is most excellent, it 

 is badly carried out in detail, since subjects 

 most closely connected are treated of in widely 

 separated places, with a consequent loss of 

 distinctness and consecutiveness, and the intro- 

 duction of an annoying repetition and some- 

 times of conflicting statements. Besides, from 

 his custom of copying many of his authorities 

 verbatim et literatim, he has introduced exam- 

 ples of most of the many s}'stems of nomen- 

 clature known to chemistiy. Add to this an 

 obscure style, and the use of words and 

 phrases such as ' chlor-metals,' ' protoxide of 

 azote,' ' resting acids,' ' parchemined paper,' 

 and the like, and we have a confusion which 

 is most puzzling to the reader, even if he be a 

 skilled chemist ; while, if he be not, the use 

 of a ' trituration of soda for the determina- 

 tion of nitric acid,' of chloride of lime for 

 use in a drying-tube, of ammonium as a test 

 for the solubilit} 7 of silver chloride, and the 

 method described for the transmutation of a 

 gas into a burette, may well seem unintelligi- 

 ble. 



Throughout the work, the author has sought 

 to give due credit to the various investigators 

 whom he quotes ; yet we observe that in some 

 instances he errs, as when he states that the 

 experiments on explosive gelatine, which he 

 describes, were made in France, when, in fact, 

 they were made in Austria by Capt. Hess, the 

 French account of them being simply a trans- 

 lation of Hess's paper by Paul Barbe. On 

 the other hand, he erroneously credits Hess 



with the application of the various methods 

 described for the quantitative analysis of nitro- 

 glycerine mixtures. 



Many positive statements are made which 

 may be questioned. Thus Eissler states that 

 the explosions of the fulminates " are very 

 sharp from the extreme rapidity of their 

 decomposition, but, from the small amount 

 of gas given off, the force exercised is not 

 very great ; " while Berthelot says, " Calcula- 

 tion will show that no other explosive known 

 will give in contact an instantaneous pressure at 

 all comparable to that of mercuric fulminate." 

 Again : Eissler asserts that " nitro-compounds 

 of cellulose with more than 41.89 % of N0 2 

 contain nitric acid in the pores which is not 

 properly washed out." This percentage cor- 

 responds to the pentanitrocellulose, and the 

 statement is probably based on Ecler's re- 

 searches in 1879 ; but Vicille, in 1882, found 

 that thoroughly nitrated cellulose yielded 

 44.27 °f , corresponding to eleven atoms of 

 NO 2 in the molecule. Other examples might 

 be pointed out. 



The above criticisms apply principally to the 

 first third of the book. In parts ii. and Hi., 

 which are devoted to the mode of use and ap- 

 plications of the high explosives, the author 

 appears more at home with his subject, which 

 he presents in a clearer manner, and with 

 greater precision of statement ; and he has 

 gathered material which must be of interest 

 and use to the engineer and contractor. The 

 perusal of this portion will also interest the 

 general reader ; as few realize to how great an 

 extent, and for what a variet} T of purposes, .ex- 

 plosive substances are used at the present 

 day. Here he will learn that advantage is 

 taken of the enormous potential energy of 

 these bodies in the quarrying of stone ; the 

 mining of ores, coal, and oil ; the driving of 

 cuts and tunnels for roads ; the deepening 

 of our channels, and the removal of reefs and 

 rocks from our harbors ; the driving of piles ; 

 the clearing of fields for agriculture, and the 

 shaking-up of the soil to prepare it for vege- 

 tation ; the destruction of icy barriers, and the 

 breaking-up of large masses of metal to fit 

 them for the melting-furnace. The climax 

 seems to be reached in the statement, that, in 

 some of the hydraulic gold-mines of California, 

 it is an almost daily occurrence to fire blasts 

 in which twenty, thirty, or even fifty thousand 

 pounds of explosives are used in a single 

 charge, — an amount exceeding that used in 

 the blowing-up of Hell Gate. Compared with 

 this, the amount used for purely military pur- 

 poses sinks into insignificance. 



