HIGH EXPLOSIVES AT A LECTURE

Evening Star, Issue 17087, 4 July 1919, Page 6

HIGH EXPLOSIVES AT A LECTURE

AN" ALAPvMEP AUDIENCE. A series of explosions occurred at Burlington House, Piccadilly, recently. The occasion was a lecture and demonstration on modern explosives to the Society of Engineers liv -Professor J. Youncr, of the Boval Military Academy, Woolwich. Professor Young kept" his listsners in a constant state of apprehension. Ho stood surrounded by coils of instantaneous fu;.e, detonators of tremendous disruptive force, and specimens o' high explosives of varying shattering power. He touched off guncottan and dynamite, and with a hammer and anvil experimented with blasting gelatine, which he described as being at the head of all explosives in disruptive force, until the building echoed with a series of deafening reports. Explosives, explained Professor Young. were'a form of concentrated energy, avid they were all right as long as they were not ill-treated. Some folks had brainwaves, and wond-ered why this concentrated eirergy could not 1» used to drivo an aeroplane engine. As a matter of fact, a pint of petrol liberated about four times as much enercy as a pint of nitroglycerin©, which, was'the highest explosive known. The onlv difference was that petrol liberated it's energy slowly, while nitro-glyoerine did it in tho fraction o f a second. A modern gun was nothing but an inefficient sas engine, which made only one stroke .at" a time, and the shell was merely the piston. Fulminate of mercury was the last word in the war of detonators. "It is verv dangerous to handle," said Professor Young, and promptly proceeded'to hammer some-on the-anvii and created a deafening uproar. __________».