HIGH EXPLOSIVES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 74, 20 December 1907, Page 7

HIGH EXPLOSIVES.

NAVAL TESTS. ; i ■ 4 : ■■ , TO BE AIADE OIHv'MTTLESHIt. BI TELEQRArH—rKESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT , London, December'lß.Tho Admiralty has decided to conduct; aboard the battleship Colossus tests in connootioh with explosions in moderii magaz'inos on battloships. ' After the. explosion which, wrecked tho' French bnttlcship Jena, while in dock at Tou-; lon, tho British Admiralty convened a special committee of \experts ~to consider the supplyand investigate ' the 'libnditfeli. 'of the vanouß high explosives supplied: to British' warships. The evidence was tyken . of' experts like Sir Andrew Nobel; and samples of explosives,particularly cordite, wert'-"t!alled' for from many of the warships and.;depots, with a view to elaborate tests. ' " , , ' The- explosives used in the British Navy as ammunition for the gilns are two—cordite and cordite MD. (modified).■' ' Cdrdito' wis in-; traduced in 1801, aiid .consists, of rSB per .cent, of nitro-glycerine, 37 per cout. of guii-cottoh, and 5 per, cent, of vaseline. derives its name from the; fact that f hiw mixtureis pressed into sticks or cords.Cordite .MD. is slightly different in compositiOiV/coiitaiiiirip! more guii-' cotton and loss nitro-glyccrjne.-a.rid. ,w,as introduced because one- or 'Mfo chscs'-Of 'spontaneous combustion had .bccnrjed r with-.eorditc.' iAs a high explosive in heavy shells,'lyddite is employed.. This is practically, the-same, as the f renchexplosive melinite', 'and is' the/subStance known" to chemistry as picric-ncid. » 1 -