Abstract
II. THAT the power possessed by different very highly explosive substances, of inducing the detonation of such bodies as gun-cotton and nitro-glycerine, is not solely ascribable to the operation of mechanical force very suddenly developed, is indicated not only by the singular inertness of gun-cotton to the influence of nitro-glycerine as a detonating agent, but also by a comparison of the behaviour of other detonating substances wich that of the mercuric fulminate, when applied to the detonation of gun-cotton. Thus the detonation of silver fulminate is very decidedly sharper than that of the mercury compound, yet it is in no way superior to the latter in its power as an initiative detonating agent; indeed, a somewhat larger amount of it appeared to be required than of the mercury salt to induce detonation of gun-cotton with certainty. Again, the iodide and chloride of nitrogen are far more susceptible of sudden detonation than the silver fulminate; yet while 5 grains of the latter, confined in a stout metal envelope, suffice to detonate gun-cotton, 50 grains of chloride of nitrogen confined by water, appeared to be the minimum amount with which the detonation of gun-cotton could be accomplished with certainty, while no success attended the employment of confined iodide of nitrogen in quantities ranging up to 100 grains.
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Recent Contributions to the History of Detonating Agents 1 . Nature 20, 42–45 (1879). https://doi.org/10.1038/020042a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/020042a0